Wednesday, January 20, 2021 / 7:21PM / OpEd By Tope Fasua / HeaderImage Credit: Tope Fasua

Having been out of the UAE for a clear one year, mybusiness registration there, and the visa that came with it was nigh expired.The Economic Zone in which I registered Global Analytics Consulting advisedthat I need to get into the country before full expiry otherwise the visa andbusiness registration may be cancelled in the system. That got me into a flaptrying to organize tickets and everything else that goes with traveling thesedays. Traveling anywhere these days feels bizarre, given the depression beingmarketed at home.

Anyhow, I had moved my company from the UK to UAEeffectively in 2012, after 6 tough years in the UK. The expenses and the taxes,the multiple layers of regulation, and the fact that no matter how hard youtried, you may not get a single business from within the UK made us flee. Icouldn't even totally extricate from the UK until 2014. Depressing place to dobusiness. I had been hearing about Dubai, UAE and one day I asked my UK staff,Syed to get us cheap tickets to see what it was like. What I saw was not the 'Onitsha market' that some Nigerians said Dubai was. I reckon many get to AlSabhka in Deira to buy cheap articles and believe that is the end of the UAE.The real country is however limitlessly inspiring.

The authorities had given us registered businesspeople some forbearance from the normal 6 months visit requirement. They arevery welcoming to business people and even though it's your money you willspend, this is one place that makes life and living relatively cheap andensures you get value for your spend. I tell people that Europe, and to alesser extent the USA had altogether become tired of us Africans at some point,and the opening up of the UAE is a saving grace to many Africans who had beentraumatized and defrauded in many an European and American embassy who believeeverybody is trying to run away in their country.

I know of a situation where about 5 Vice Chancellorsof Nigerian universities traveling into London were detained for about 2 daysbecause some silly immigration guy thought they will not run home if allowed toenter London! Imagine the cockiness. So without places like the UAE manyAfricans may never have seen the possibilities of human achievements. We hopethat some of our children will one day seize the initiative to replicate theideas that are almost freely available in places like the UAE, on ourcontinent; a continent which is basically an open canvass presently. If theChinese are at least helping out with some infrastructure construction, the UAEoffers travel and tourism opportunities, ideas for architects and builders andtown planners, and for us businessmen, a very efficient base that places you inthe centre of global markets, away from the snobbery of places like London,Paris and New York.

Ticket booked, I had to run around to get the COVID-19test two days to travel. My forever-helpful and highly informed travelconsultant wife gave me the names of approved centres and I ended up at EHAclinics at Lifecamp. N39,500 paid I drove in the next day to have thatirritating stick poked deep into my nostrils and about 9 hours later they hadmailed me the result. NEGATIVE. I also had to do a travel insurance and printout an authority to travel to the UAE from a website before I could leaveNigeria. Abuja airport remains glistening even though I will advise that theyunderstand that it is constant cleaning that helps maintain any facility. I seethat in many of Nigeria's installations they don't care about cleaningsuspended stuff, like Chandeliers or decorations.

Those things must be reached otherwise in time theygather dirt and give us away. Traveling out of Nigeria was stress-free.Everybody kept their masks on during the flight but when dinner was servedeverybody took it off at the same time. I wondered whether eating will stopaerosolized breath from traveling around. There are a thousand ways this viruscould spread even with the masks on, but that is story for another day. I justfelt sad that somehow the world had been had and the media frenzy behind thedisease is a pointer to the not-so-kosher beginnings of it and the intent it ismeant to achieve.

We were forewarned to have our covid results out whenwe arrived Dubai seven hours later, and I thought I heard that some people maybe required to take the covid test if their temperatures were high. What I didnot expect was that EVERYBODY getting into Dubai will have to be tested FORFREE. That was the first queue we entered. The entire hall was full. Dubai isstill in business. A battery of nurses were available to interview travelersand issue test kits. Another army of nurses were there to insert the stick - again - in your nostrils and 3 hours later you get a text on your phone as towhether your result was negative or positive. Everyone is allowed to go totheir places of abode.

Dubai is testing millions of visitors absolutely free.The UAE is focused on the future, while some countries are stuck in the past. Ibelieve that if someone has a positive result, you will also have medics at yourhotel to whisk you away within 3 hours. A friend who lives here, Tony, tells meof the 5-star treatment given to anyone who catches the Covid disease here. InNigeria, we use everything to show class. A friend railed recently againstthose who think Covid is a scam but also said he was treated in VVIP ward. Thatmeans very very important personality ward! Important personality is notenough. Very important is not enough. But very very. Ok. Nigeria is notinvesting anything to get out of this problem except by trying to lock peopledown, asking struggling people to stay at home and I see that some elitist,miseducated people are even pressurizing government to keep public schoolsclosed while their own overfed children get lectured through zoom - so that wecan create millions more of illiterates and get thousands of SS1-3 girlspregnant and truncate their education right?

Nigeria is not working with data that is why. Becauseour NCDC and perhaps entire government is sponsored by Bill Gates (havingsquandered monies meant for taking care of the people) they have to just dowhat is called 'cut-and-paste' and get with the program.

Our press are also in cahoots with this program and Isuspect there is a fund somewhere that keeps them oiled for barraging the peoplewith bad news at this point. You hear that they are keeping students home inEurope and because you don't know yourself in Nigeria you forget you hugeeducational disadvantage or the fact that Covid-19 is not particularly an issuefor children - and even for Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole - and you askchildren to sit at home where you have no plans for them. You hear that somestates are shutting down businesses in America and so you shut down your ownbuying-and-selling businesses where people are trying to survive over here. Youforget that your economy produces nothing and cannot afford unnecessarylockdowns.

Settling into my hotel (you can't believe how cheapthey are here. If you knew, you will curse all the overrated hotels located inexpensive slums in Nigeria that rip people off), I see intermittent ads thatone could go to the Department of Health website to book an appointment for theCovid-19 vaccine. As at then 1.7million out of the odd 10million population hadalready received the first shot of the vaccine by then. I tried to book onlineand it wouldn't work so I made a note to visit the World Trade Centre where anew vaccine centre had just been opened just to find out what was happening. Ialso needed to make a booking for a meeting room for an upcoming event sometimein April. I was a bit apprehensive of it all as I walked the long halls of theWTC. But I shouldn't have worried. These guys are professional and friendly.

The first security guy I asked told me there is noneed for an appointment. I should just sit there and they will call me in.There were more than a thousand people around, male and female. It seemed thatas I was already there there was no escaping. They were so nice, so firm, so cooperative,so helpful. So, I took position. 30 minutes later I had the first shot. Free.Second shot in 21 days.

There were people from every race there; Caucasians,Arabs, Indians Africans?óÔé¼?ª the works! I have never thought they could want tokill people with the vaccines. How many will they kill? Sterilize? Maybe. But Iam no longer in the baby-producing department lol. The UAE is a place of hope,and Dubai especially is ahead of them all. Sheikh Muhammad Bin Rashid AlMakhtoum understands the value of investment in people. Dubai is the mostpositive and futuristic of nations. On the Morning Show on Dubai One TV Channelthey reported that many Indian businessmen were recently moving their officesto Dubai as a result of this positivism.

I must say that I have been spared of the envelopinggloom that has become of Nigeria these days, where all we hear are the deaths ofusually big and famous rich people. I have had to block some sites that onlyreport corona death and invincibility. Let us give hope and life to our people,not to kill them in a thousand ways before their deaths.

So, I think we can see that contrary to earlier story,Alhaji Atiku did not spend N8m to get his vaccine. He is a Dubai resident andlike every Indian or Bangladeshi worker, he will stay in the queue and get hisshots. If Nigerian leadership, past and present, had not been army of locusts,we would have been able to start giving then jabs by now. We hear they want tobuy 100,000 shots but they will prioritize 'strategic leaders' in governmentand health workers. Health workers I understand but who is a strategic leader?What has the strategic leader done for us lately? This means it will be anotherman-knows-man matter as the 'strategic leaders' first protect their own familyand then long-leg ensues.

We should be putting the government under pressure toget the vaccines and urgently return Nigeria to business. We should be usingthis to position for advantage at the now operational AfCFTA. This is what Isuggested right at the beginning when we didn't even have this benefit ofone-year experience with Covid-19. Seems even with one year gone, we don't wantto learn anything. A nation like the UAE knows that it cannot fight the powersthat be.

Many people I have spoken to here believe this is aman-made disease, but a disease all the same. Now, let us get the vaccine andkeep moving, not crawl into a corner, lose hope, and die. Well, for me, Isuffered no effect. The jab happened so quickly anyway, and when I removed theplaster later, there wasn't even a hint of blood. I hope it was not a sleightof hand. Who knows? Who cares? The mystery around covid remains, but a peoplecan choose whether to get swept away with misery from the mystery, or activelypick themselves up and keep moving.

Dubai has chosen to move on, and I wager that thiscountry UAE will reap big time after this is all over, barring any unforeseencatastrophe from anywhere else. The UAE keeps expanding. I hear there is anEXPO city being built afresh near Jabal Ali. Makhtoum is mad! China has alsomoved on. A country where the first occurrence was reported, has not declaredmore than 4,000 plus infections out of her 1.4billion to date. China remains aclosed state, but productivity has since been going on even as it strategicallytakes positions in other countries with its savings (e.g rail sector inNigeria). Most of Europe is toying with its future, especially the UK. The USAunder Biden will also almost likely shut down again. Winners and losers areemerging.

Recent Articles From The Author

1. Africa and The Entrepreneurship Hype - Tope Fasua - Jan 15, 2020
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4. As for South Africa, So For Jigawa: Understanding The Missing Point - Fasua - Sept 20, 2019
5. Why Nigerians Will Never Leave South Africa - Fasua - Sept 18, 2019
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7. Open Letter: Propaganda Will Not Improve The Nigerian Economy
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10. Fears For The Nigerian Economy In The Years Ahead - Fasua
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12. Nigeria's Infrastructure Racket - Frauds, Corruption and Shallowness
13. To Rescue Nigeria: We Must Go Into A War Mode
14. Shaking Tables - Poverty Coding And Feminism On Steroids
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