Recently, the federal government said between July and August 2022, it nabbed 422 persons intending to use fake COVID-19 vaccination cards to travel.
The 422 were discovered by the Port Health Services (PHS). They were apprehended while trying to pass through the clearance process at the airport
Director of Port Health Services, Dr Geoffrey Okatubo, revealed the figure in Abuja during a ministerial meeting on the update of COVID-19 response and development in the country’s health sector.
He said the PHS tracked passengers coming into the country and had continued to heighten surveillance for all infectious diseases in the country’s port, adding that its data showed that 96 per cent of passengers at the country airports are fully vaccinated.
With the discovery of the outbreak of the coronavirus virus in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, the disease spread all over the world, including Nigeria, causing millions of deaths and causing most nations to announce and enforce both partial and total lockdowns of their cities as a way of containing the spread.
Non-medical approaches were proposed as a way of escaping the deadly virus. To reduce the risk of contracting or spreading the virus, the populace was urged to observe social and physical distancing, to keep unwashed hands away from the face, to use face masks in public places and to continuously use alcohol-based hand sanitisers, among other such measures.
As health workers battled to rescue those they could, it became obvious that the most effective way to stop the COVID-19 pandemic was to find vaccines for it. Soon enough, efforts towards finding workable vaccines were fast-tracked. The World Health Organisation (WHO) certified some vaccines as efficient, to varying degrees, in offering protection from the severe effects of the disease. They included Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, Oxford-Astrazeneca, Novavax, and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines among others. Though the vaccines were very costly at the outset, through WHO-led international collaborations, hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccines were made available for general use across the world.
Happily, with the intervention of the vaccines, the coronavirus disease has been largely contained. Though the battle to defeat the virus has not been completely won, as there are still people coming down with infections and some cities still announcing lockdowns occasionally to contain the spread, however, due to vaccination, contacting the virus is no longer as deadly as before, as it gives sufferers greater chances of recovery.
It is now a rule that international travellers must be vaccinated against the virus as countries try to stop their populations from being re-infected.
Despite the availability of the vaccines, many people are still reluctant to take them, citing a lack of trust in the process of their production. Conspiracy theories and the discovery of shipments of expired vaccines and other propaganda did not help matters. The result is that many people have refused to take the vaccines. The most notable vaccine resistance was when the then world number one lawn tennis star, Novak Djokovic from Serbia, was refused participation in the Australian Tennis Championship last year for refusing to get vaccinated. He was also the defending champion.
With the discovery of 422 persons with fake vaccination certificates, what has come to light is that many Nigerians have taken to forgery in their desperate bid to procure COVID-19 vaccination cards without taking the vaccines. Forgery is a serious criminal offence in Nigeria’s legal system and elsewhere.
As a newspaper, we are not unmindful of the fact that the racketeering to obtain the fake COVID certification takes place through connivance between some corrupt government officials and desperate travel agencies.
Also, the fact that this figure was discovered within a short period of two months, between July and August this year, shows that the crime is widespread.
The federal government should make good its threat to prosecute those caught in the illegal act. With those discovered to have got the fake certification, the security agencies have enough lead to uncover all those who are trying to undermine the effort to restrain the spread of the virus across the world and bring them to justice.
Of late, awareness about the virus and the need to receive vaccination seem to have mellowed. This must be resuscitated so that instead of looking for fake vaccination certificates, such travellers would actually take the vaccination in their own best interest.
We urge the health authorities to intensify both preventive and curative measures against the virus. We make this recommendation in the light of reported cases of a resurgence of Covid-19 in even more deadlier strains. In our opinion, a fake Covid-19 certificate is to be likened to a suicide note. The bearer must be saved from him or herself in the interest of the public good.
