Not Africa again!

E. Ablorh-Odjidja

April 21, 2020

It appears that Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of The WHO, has noticed that Africa is the next hothouse of the China Virus also known as COVID-19.  And, he is very worried.

He has said in a press conference, ““In the past week, there has been a 51 percent increase in the number of reported cases in my own continent, Africa, and a 60 percent increase in the number of reported deaths," as reported by VOA on April 17, 2020.

Dr. Ghebreyesus has somehow personalized the issue, with a phrase like “my own continent, Africa” in his description of the next virus hotspot.  He is an important African in our eyes.  But in the affairs of the WHO, he is only a nominator.

The WHO, a world organization, has a mission “to improve health, particularly among disadvantaged populations,” a membership of 194 nation states worldwide and support from donors from the society of the affluent.

The US is The WHO top donor, providing 10 times more funding than China, the next significant donor.  Politics at the WHO’ was neutral, until the China Virus happened. 

President Trump, unhappy with The WHO handling of the outbreak from China, withdrew America's funding for The WHO until further notice.  In a statement, he accused The WHO for being “China-centric” and China for shielding transparency to the world at the virus outbreak.

Soon after, Dr. Ghebreyesus responded, adamantly accusing Trump of politicizing the pandemic and then warned about a possible worst outbreak of the virus in Africa.

Why this distress call for Africa now?

For answer, the prudent African must first consider if Dr. Ghebreyesus declared premonition was based on principle or convenience.  

But we must also accept that The WHO has known long ago how pandemics behave.  And the same should go for Dr. Ghebreyesus.  He should have spotted the threat to Africa long before the virus left China.

Dr. Ghebreyesus' attention on something else now is “like fretting about something else while wearing a Lady Gaga raw meat outfit into a lion’s cage,” to borrow a quote from Forbes Magazine. 

But was the warning on Africa prompted by the fund withholding threat by Trump?  Who knows, the sum withheld might end up as a windfall for Africa.

The US Embassy in Ghana just announced “$1.6 million in health assistance to address the outbreak. This new assistance builds upon $3.8 billion in total U.S. assistance to Ghana over the last 20 years, including nearly $914 million in health assistance,” said the US Embassy in Ghana.

Dr. Ghebreyesus must know or have missed the cue from the adage, that “He who pays the piper calls the tune.”  It could also be that his growing confidence in China soon being the biggest donor for The Who.

The US, several amounts the largest donor than China, was not told the truth about the virus at its inception in China in December of 2019. 

"The US and the UK have also cast doubt on China's figures and the speed with which it responded or alerted others.” said BBC, April 17, 2020.

Early in January 2020 The WHO had advised, “against the application of any travel or trade restrictions on China based on the current information available on this event.”  Conclusion, the virus was not the serious pandemic it became in the eyes of The WHO. 

And the world later noticed how forthrightly protective The WHO was in its call on China.  

Dr. Ghebreyesus, therefore, became the face that was perceived as providing the cover-up.  The Washington Examiner quickly described him as “a cheer leader for communist China….And that he won the Director General seat in the 2017 election with China’s backing.” 

China, apparently, had transparency problem with the outbreak, but never one for controlling narratives on the virus’ origin and factors for the spread.

“Labeling China as a ‘disease incubator is unscientific and racist,” wrote The Global Times, a newspaper with the backing of the Chinese Communist Party's People. 

Indeed, The WHO itself had ruled in 2015 that naming a virus outbreak by the region from which it came was not appropriate.  

Yet, in 2018 the CDC in the US, in a web publication on viruses, listed “Zaire ebolavirus” as an ongoing specie.  And strangely, the Chinese Virus from Wuhan in 2020 became COVID-19, just like The WHO had advised.

The Wuhan region, the ground zero of the China Virus epidemic, has a population of some 59 million. And the city itself some 19 million, almost two-third of the population of Ghana.

Travel by flight was key to the spread of the virus. But Wuhan, to a large extent, was left open.  External flights went out while internal domestic flights from the region were closed.  In so far as travel restrictions were concerned, some argued, China was within the WTO guidelines

Missing in the narrative was, that "South Africa’s first coronavirus cases had gone to northern Italy ....Nigeria’s first experience with coronavirus was an Italian business traveler,” wrote The Intercept, March 02, 2020.  

The underlying fact was that China's Wuhan region, at the break of the virus, was heavily connected to Italy, just as China is heavily connected to Africa today.

 “(You) could say that any big project in Africa … higher than three floors or roads that are longer than three kilometers are most likely being built by the Chinese’” said Daan Roggeveen, the founder of MORE Architecture.

China has over 10,000 businesses, averaging more than $2 trillion total value, currently operating in countries in Africa, according to McKinsey.

And African nations are carrying huge Chinese loans, with debts that are skyrocketing. 

"Eighty percent of Nigeria’s bilateral debt is owed to China. About 60 percent of foreign direct investments to Ethiopia came from China in 2019,” wrote Foreign Policy.com, March 15, 2020.

There is no gainsaying the fact that China has Africa in its back pocket.  Considering that The WHO, with probably 56 nations from Africa as members, it must become necessary to ask whether China’s influence was not heavily felt on The WHO’s decisions on the virus.

Dr. Ghebreyesus, an African as he described himself and the first non-medical officer to assume the post of Director General of The WHO, therefore, can easily be considered a suspect under the circumstances of China's strong influence peddling on narratives on the virus case.

Dr. Ghebreyesus should have had Africa in mind as soon as the virus first broke in China and issued his belated warning then and not wait for the “hotspot” risks to increase or pause for Trump's attack on The WHO.

The WHO should have recommended travel restriction from China early or supported Trump when he did.
 
Travel from China to points connecting to Africa should have been priority number one because Dr. Ghebreyesus already knew about the vulnerabilities. He should not have waited until support payments for The WHO was threatened.
 
So now, is the Africa in his lamentation being used again, this time to recruit empathy for The WHO or China?
 

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, April 21, 2020.

Permission to publish: Please feel free to publish or reproduce, with credits, unedited. If posted at a website, email a copy of the web page to publisher@ghanadot.com. Or don't publish.