EDITORIAL The forefathers of Africa’s liberation must be turning in their graves today because their predecessors have sold out on the revolution and embraced the very attitude against which brutal wars were fought.They fought to lay a foundation from which preceding generations must fight on for the total emancipation of the motherland. But those generations, once they gained access to the continent’s riches, slipped into slumber land and are snoring on the emotions of those they are supposed to serve.
The cruel jest right now is how the Covid-19 vaccines remain out of reach for Africa, with all its resources. And this is because leaders have failed to invest in the science and technology required to innovate medication and other basic necessities.
We are now witnessing ‘vaccine nationalism’ by richer western nations who are buying up Covid-19 vaccines to the detriment of poorer nations in Africa and elsewhere.
For example, Canada bought nearly four times the doses required to vaccinate its citizens. Namibia has paid millions of dollars to access medicine through the so-called Covax facility, but to date, not a single dose has arrived in the country via that scheme.
This is because Namibia is not on a priority list of distributors, even after paying.
The first dossier of vaccines, which arrived in the country on Tuesday, is a donation from China. Unless we invest in ourselves, this situation will manifest itself elsewhere in African lives.