Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, the Dean of Academic Affairs, Ghana Armed
Forces Command and Staff College, has urged African leaders to have
faith in African researchers to find a cure and effective treatment for
Covid-19.
He said COVID-19 was a reality and that the Continent needed research that was science tailored to combat it.
Dr
Antwi-Danso made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency
in Accra on the occasion of the African Union (AU) Day celebration on
the theme “Silencing The Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for
Africa’s Development”.
According to the World Health Organisation
(WHO), the COVID-19 pandemic had reached a milestone in Africa, with
more than 100,000 confirmed cases.
The virus has now reached
every country on the continent since the first case was confirmed in the
Africa region on 14 February in Egypt.
Dr Antwi-Danso noted that
COVID-19 was a reality and that there were all kinds of theories
surrounding it, but where it comes from does not matter, and that how to
mitigate its effect was what mattered.
He urged African leaders
to stop worrying about the cause and where COVID-19 came from, and that
they should stop the non-scientific way of looking at the disease.
In
Africa, traditionally, some herbal medicine had been used to treat some
viral diseases such as common cold, he noted adding that Coronavirus
had being in existence since time immemorial, however, COVID-19 (novel
coronavirus) was a new strand.
With regards to efforts by
countries to develop COVID-19 vaccines, Dr Antwi-Danso forecasted that
when the vaccine had been successfully developed, one would be asked to
have COVID-19 vaccine card, before he would be issued with a visa to
travel to other countries, just like the “Yellow Fever Vaccine card”.
Concerning
the AU Day, Dr Antwi-Danso said there must be programmes on that Day or
towards that Day, which would make people to understand the essence of
Union.
He said such an occasion must imbibe in the people the
spirit of loving that Day. “The AU must work towards African unity, we
have no choice. Africa is the only continent that has no choice not to
integrate. We need to integrate and unfortunately we are hiccupping very
badly because of pockets of instability. We must kick instability away
from our shores,” the Dean said.
He urged the AU to resist
certain western values that were useless such as gayism and lesbianism,
which were being forced on the Continent.
Africa Day (formerly
African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day) is the annual
commemoration of the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity on
25 May 1963.
It is celebrated in various countries on the African continent, as well as around the world.
The
organisation was transformed into the AU on 9 July 2002 in Durban,
South Africa, but the holiday continues to be celebrated on 25 May.
Source: GNA
