Nigerians in China have called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the federal government to rescue them from the coronavirus outbreak which has claimed 426 lives, with over 20,000 persons presently infected globally.
Recall that Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, recently said Nigerians in Wuhan are yet to express their desire to come back home.
His words, “Even if we've Nigerians who are there, unless they indicate interest that they want to come home, we can’t force them,”
“I know we've Nigerians in Wuhan; our Embassy in China has confirmed that we've about 16 Nigerians in Wuhan and they are in touch with them.
“They have, however, not indicated their interest to come home. They will, however, contact our embassy if they like to come home.”
However, Nigerians staying in the nation have started speaking out and are yet to be contacted by their government.
A particular Nigerian student living in Wuhan had this to say recently, “We're about 50 students, some with their spouses and kids. So, maybe we're about 60 or thereabout in total.
“The situation is scary, especially with the daily increment in numbers of dead people and new infections. And the lock-down and lack of movement is not helping our mental health as well. So we're all scared and worried aside those with already dwindling resources.”
They haven’t said anything about evacuating us yet, only that they are abreast of the situation as seen in their various press statements.”
“Yes, we're ready to leave as soon as possible, my bags have been packed since the previous week as resumption in various schools have been postponed, indefinitely.
“I expected that by now, my government should have made concrete plans to evacuate those of us in Wuhan, at the epicenter of the crisis, seeing as most countries already did. For instance, the UK and South Korea are on their second trip already…”