Dear Executive Director / CEO of NPHCDA,

Warm greetings to you and your team.

It was reported in THE NATION NEWSPAPER online on January 24, 2023 that Nigeria will now require inbound travellers to Nigeria to present a certificate of COVID vaccination before they could be admitted into Nigeria. This, ostensibly, is part of the government's survellance machinery to prevent the importation of various variants of the SARS-COV-2 virus into our beloved country.

While the good intentions of government, policy makers and their science advisers are well appreciated in this regard, yet, I personally have my doubts if this policy can actually achieve the goal for which it was instituted and implemented. The reason I say this is because every scientist, the world over, is now very clear of one thing: THAT THE COVID VACCINES DO NOT PREVENT TRANSMISSION of the virus. This is an incontrovertible scientific fact. The implication is that if a person is vaccinated, he or she can still be infected with the virus and can still transmit the virus to others even if he or she is asymptomatic.

So, you will agree with me sir that simply asking travelers to show their certificate of COVID vaccination in order to be admitted into the country does not achieve the objective of preventing the importation of the virus from foreign lands into our beloved country, since a vaccinated person can still be a carrier of the virus even if he or she is aymptomatic. Meanwhile, the policy currently in force prevents unvaccinated travelers from coming to Nigeria even if they they test negative to COVID-19!!!

The question on my mind is: WHO POSES A PUBLIC HEALTH RISK TO NIGERIA BETWEEN THESE TWO: a vaccinated person that is a carrier of the virus or an unvaccinated person who has tested negative to the virus? The answer is obvious.

If our real goal is to prevent the importation of the COVID virus into Nigeria, then the scientifically plausible and logical thing to do is to demand a COVID-19 NEGATIVE TEST result from every traveler entering into Ngeria rather than a COVID VACCINATION CERTIFICATE.

I therefore strongly appeal that you and other relevant agencies of government, such as the NCDC, should rethink this policy to keep Nigeria safe.

Meanwhile, even the USA that still implements the policy of vaccination certificate still allows unvaccinated USA citizens coming back home to their country to still enter the country without being forcefully vaccinated at the port of entry. That is the beauty of democarcy.

Sincerely,

Tony Akinyemi

Lagos

February 8, 2023