Renown risk management expert,
Joachim Adenusi has called on leaders of the industry, government, and
advocacy organizations to raise the awareness of the deadly coronavirus, as the
virus spread over the week and has sparked concern worldwide.
Joachim, a partner at Conrad
Clark, a 16-year-old Risk Management outfit, spoke on the need to take
preventive measure at this point, to avoid the Ebola experience that almost
ravaged the country due to our porous immigration process, and what the country
should be doing, as a matter of urgency.
He wrote:
“PREVENTION is better than cure”
‘Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large
family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more
severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)…’ World Health Organization
Like Ebola…
The deadly Ebola virus found its
way onto Nigerian soil on by airplane after a Liberian man infected by the
virus had flown into Lagos from Monrovia.
As at the time, Ebola was an
epidemic disease ravaging our west African neighbors, we at individually,
communally or government level never had a plan in place to check the outbreak
from getting to our shores. We were exposed to a very high level of human
capital risk that cost us lives.
Here is another deadly virus on
the rampage. Cases of this disease have been reported in countries like UK,
USA, UAE, Malaysia, Australia, France, Japan, and Korea. All cases were traced
to people who have in recent times be in the Wahun regions of China.
Why should Nigeria care?
The bilateral trade relationship
between Nigeria and China reached $8.6bn from January to June 2019 with 20.7
percent year-on-year growth. China now is still Nigeria’s largest source of
imports and second-largest trading partner.
With the aforementioned, the
movement to and fro China and Nigeria route is a matter of necessity for
economic and other reasons. Considering the state of things, even travel
restriction has been put in place in China. The fear of having another Patrick
Sawyer should make our system and institutions be on red alert.
Also, while we are watching our
backs, it is important that we also put structures in place to manage this kind
of human capital risk.
What we should start doing now in
Nigerian?
Restrictions on flights from East
Asia
Quarantine service across all
ports and borders (air, sea, land)
Increase public awareness
Hospitals in high alert
Staff awareness for businesses
There are no vaccines for human
coronavirus infections yet. Prevention should be highly embraced.
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