Former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, has justified receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine despite being critical of the vaccine earlier.
Fani-Kayode, who received the vaccine on Tuesday, was lambasted across social media platforms for his alleged hypocrisy as he had once described the COVID-19 vaccine as ‘evil’.
But taking to his Twitter page on Wednesday, Fani-Kayode clarified why he received the vaccine.
He said it was not ‘Bill Gates Vaccine’ and that Nigerians were not being used as Guinea pigs.
His tweet read, “The COVID-19 vaccines we are taking in Nigeria are not Bill Gates’ vaccines and neither are we being used as Guinea pigs. These are tried and tested, have already been approved and have been administered successfully throughout the world. This is the Oxford Azrazeneca brand.
“There is a world of difference between what we are being given in Nigeria & the exploratory vaccines that @WHO had wanted to test Africans with which we spoke against and resisted last year. Most importantly Bill Gates and his foundation have no connection with Oxford Azrazeneca.
“I would not touch anything Bill Gates with a barge pole for obvious reasons. Mark it.”
Fani-Kayode had in April 2020 described the COVID-19 vaccine as an evil that would “result in millions of deaths”.
He wrote, “I’ve warned about the dangers of the vaccine that will be proposed as the answer to #COVID19. This will result in millions of deaths. Nigeria is trying to pass a law that will make it compulsory to take that vaccine as part of the world depopulation agenda. This is EVIL!#stopncdcbill.”
Similarly, in May 2020, while more vaccine options were being developed for the coronavirus, the former minister condemned the development in another post on his Twitter handle, adding that people were being turned into “guinea pigs”.
“WHO are set to begin Covid-19 vaccine trials in our country. EVIL! Not only have our people been turned into Guinea pigs to test Gates’ killer vaccine but our leaders are also passing a law that will make the use of that evil vaccine compulsory. What a mess! I weep for Nigeria,” he had written.
But on Tuesday, Fani-Kayode, while taking the shot, said he had to bow to sound logic and superior reasoning.
“Despite my initially strong reservations, I bowed to sound logic and superior reasoning and took my Covid-19 vaccine today. This is thanks to my sister, the distinguished Senator Grace Bent, who convinced me to take it and who emphasised that we must set an example to others,” he tweeted.
“I also give thanks to my sister, Hon. Patricia Etteh, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, who is the Chairman of the National Hospital & who not only let me eat all her lunch in her office before the exercise took place but who also gave us a warm reception and guided us through the whole exercise.
“Her whole team and staff at the hospital were simply wonderful & very efficient & supportive & consequently the whole exercise was very pleasant. This is a clear case of ‘never say never’.
“If anyone had told me that I would take this vaccine up until one month ago, I would have said ‘no way’. I am glad that I changed my mind & did so because it has brought comfort to many around me who insisted that I must stay healthy & safe at all costs.
“I recommend the vaccine to others and I assure you that National Hospital in Abuja is a great place to take it. Covid is real & has killed many people, including dozens that I knew & loved, over the last one year. Let us fulfil all righteousness, follow the protocols, sanitise regularly, maintain social distancing, stay healthy.”
The former minister added that if former US President Donald Trump could “take the vaccine even after criticising and questioning it, then so can I”.
Since Nigeria took delivery of the vaccine, prominent leaders, including President Muhammadu Buhari, have received shots of the vaccine in public.
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