The 44th Annual Conference of Soil Science Society of Nigeria (SSSN) scheduled to hold between March 16 and March 20 in Enugu has suffered a setback as the President of the International Union of Soil Science(IUSS), Prof. Takashi Kosaki, has sent a notice of non-participation.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Kosaki, a Japanese, hinged his decision on the advice of his home government and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) which issued travel advisories on the raging coronavirus disease.
NAN learnt that Kosaki’s participation had held high hopes for the SSSN which had recently expressed its interest to bid for the hosting of the 24th World Congress of Soil Science in Abuja, 66 years after it was last held on the African continent.
NAN also learnt that all arrangements had been made to receive Kosaki who had given his commitment to be in Nigeria to deliver a goodwill message and watch proceedings at the 2020 edition of the Enugu conference.
The conference had as theme: “Climate-Smart Soil Management, Soil Health/quality and land Management: Synergies for Sustainable Ecosystem Services.”
Apart from the Nigerian members, 20 participants from 11 countries had also registered to participate at the event.
Confirming the cancellation of Kosaki’s participation at the conference, the President of SSSN, Prof. Bashiru Raji, said on Friday that it was “due to travel restriction in Japan as well as in Nigeria under the current situation regarding the coronavirus disease.”
” The government of Japan has been advising her citizens, particularly government employees and equivalents including university staff members, to minimise overseas travel.
” The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control updated its advisory on Feb. 29 requesting travellers from countries with ongoing local transmission, including Japan, but who show no symptoms on arrival to self-isolate at home for 14 days after arrival.
“What this suggests is that Prof. Kosaki would not even be able to travel to the conference venue if he was in Nigeria because he must stay at the hotel for a designated period.
” Although the Society received the letter of the cancellation with sad feelings as it was looking forward to receiving him with great enthusiasm, one cannot take the issue of COVID-19 lightly,” he said.
He, however, said “there is a silver lining to the situation.”
” Though governments across the world have been advising their citizens on precautionary measures on COVID-19 outbreak, no country would fail to see Nigeria’s expertise in medical field given our response to the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Nigeria on the 27th of February, 2020.
” This is also how Nigeria gave her all during the infamous Ebola case. Both situations are instructive,” he said.(NAN)