Media executive, Paul Ejime, has called on African governments to develop inward solutions to COVID-19.

He said a joint effort would curb spread of the virus on the continent.

Ejime spoke on Thursday in Abuja at a workshop on “COVID-19 vaccines: Ensuring fair and equitable distribution”, organised by Diplomats extra magazine.

The call came as the continent is yet to develop its vaccine, with the virus entering third wave and Africa suffering shortage of vaccines.

He said: “In spite of repeated pledges by leaders of the developed nations, much of the vaccines remain in the advanced countries, while low-income countries, including Africa, continue to suffer inadequate supplies and rising caseloads of the virus.

“The uneven vaccine distribution has given rise to the unhealthy practice of ‘vaccine nationalism’, or ‘our citizens-first,’ syndrome, similar to former President Donald Trump’s ‘America-first’ policy.

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“There is no better illustration of this unfair practice than Canada, which has an estimated population of 40 million people, but ordered about 200 million vaccines, when a maximum of two doses are required per person!

“The World Health Organisation (WHO) and other stakeholders in the health community are doing their best to procure more vaccines for Africa, but the hypocrisy of the advanced world is not lost on analysts following the COVID-19 politics.

“But one major lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic politics is that Africa must look inwards for solutions to its problems.

“Two years after outbreak of the pandemic, South Africa and Egypt are about the two countries that have demonstrated the capacity to produce the vaccine, which are still under trial.

“If India can produce COVID-19 vaccine, why can’t many African countries? The bitter truth is that Africa and the other low-income countries will continue to struggle, hoping that the pandemic does not get any worse,” Ejime said.

Prof. Sheriff Ibrahim, director of Institute for Legislative Studies and Contemporary China-Africa Research at University of Abuja hailed countries that have developed vaccines which have now save lives.

Ibrahim said the Chinese initiative in the Belt and Road partnership on COVID-19 vaccine cooperation was an instrument to strengthen multilateralism and international cooperation in building a great wall against the virus.

Ibrahim noted that the Belt and Road Initiative has about 140 countries as signatories and Sub-Saharan Africa has about 40 countries whereby more than 100 countries have accepted the Chinese vaccine.

He called on the Federal Government to join the comity of nations to begin the emergency use of the Chinese COVID-19 vaccines.

Diplomats Extra magazine Publisher Raphael Oni said world economies have also suffered devastating blows since the outbreak of the Pandemic in 2019.

He said that while some individuals speculated the origin of the virus to be Wuhan, China, the workshop sought to also trace the origin of the pandemic using scientific method of tracing.

He said that the workshop seeks to create a platform for engagement on how best to curb the spread of the virus through adequate vaccine distribution and for Nigeria to partner with other countries like China to develop vaccines.