By Tom Odemwingie
A few days ago on AIT, I disagreed with the US’ open criticism of WHO’s handling of China’s management of information on the Corona virus outbreak. It would then go without saying that I would seriously object to the fund suspension by the Americans to an agency that is already coping with underfunding.
And there is massive global opposition to Trump’s decision. Africans are not happy about the attempt to discredit one of their own at the helm at WHO and are rallying Third World countries to defend the agency.
What.is the way out? This is where I’ll shock you.
I concede that this opinion is as nauseating as Donald Trump’s decision to suspend US 400 million funding to WHO.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Ethiopian Director General of WHO, should step down to appease the US government.
WHO cannot afford to be denied such huge funding when it needs more funds to deal with COVID-19 and many other pandemics ravaging humanity.
Stepping down is a price that Tedros must pay to save the many lives that will be lost through the withdrawal of 400 million dollars from WHO’s funding. This is not necessarily an admission of guilt.
-Tom Odemwingie, journalist and social critic, writes from Lagos
View Comments (1)
Sounds like a quick fix to me. Trump has no business here because of his transnational behavior. Experts depend on data and trend, Trump throughout this presidency has always played to his political base and electoral politics. WHO funding can always come from other countries, moreover it is not up to Trump to deny WHO, it is the Congress of the USA.