President Muhammadu Buhari and members of his delegation to the United Kingdom (UK) have gone into isolation to prevent a possible spread of the Delta variant of Coronavirus after a two-week trip to London.
Buhari and his aides were said to have visited the Nigerian High Commission in London and interacted with staff before the Commission’s office was shut after two diplomats were reported to have tested positive for the virus in the country.
Members of the President’s delegation to the UK included the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba; Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ahmed Rufai Abubakar and the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Munguno (retired).
The commission has since been shut down and the officials have been mandated to observe the isolation protocol after they had contact with the affected officials during their stay abroad.
The President and his aides, like the Commission’s staff, have been mandated to observe mandatory isolation to ascertain if they have a strain of the COVID-19 virus in their blood vessels.
Confirming the development barely two days after Buhari’s return, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on Sunday, explained that the move was in accordance with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) guidelines for international travel.
It would be recalled that the President had last month travelled to London to participate in the Global Education Summit on Financing Global Partnership for Education (GPE) 2021-2025 and see his doctors.
At the summit, Buhari, after meeting other world leaders, pledged to increase the budget for the education sector by as much as 50 per cent over the next two years.
During the visit, the Nigerian leader also met and played host to various dignitaries including the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and met with the National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu.
The Prime Minister during the meeting assured Buhari that the UK government was available to assist Nigeria in its war against terrorism and other challenges that were affecting growth of the country.
