Former Everton and Nigeria star Yakubu Ayegbeni has labelled the French doctors in the African racism row as “ignorant”.
Professors Camille Locht and Jean-Paul Mira have been heavily criticised for their disparaging remarks which suggested vaccines against COVID-19 should first be tested in Africa.
Echoing the sentiments of Samuel Eto’o, Didier Drogba and Joseph Yobo, ex-Liverpool player Mohamed Sissoko labelled the doctors’ comments as “a scandal” while calling for action to be taken against the Frenchmen.
For ‘the Yak’, severe action should be taken against the duo while emphasising education as a panacea to curbing such racist remarks in the future.
“The doctors are just being stupid and very ignorant thinking the test should be conducted in Africa,” Ayegbeni told Goal.
“We are trying to kick away discrimination but it’s still there. What can we do? It is getting worse every day.
“Some people pretend they like black people while some are another way around. I just hope this kind of thing ends very soon but I doubt.
“This is not just only in France or Italy, it is everywhere but we will try and speak about it all the time and lecture the young kids so that hopefully, one day there will be no room for it.
“It is sad that year after year, we keep talking about this issue and that is not good for the game and sports in general.
“Suing the doctors to court wouldn’t yield any result because there are some people who do crazier things than this quietly and they are not seen.
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“Taking them to jail will be good but that doesn’t stop them from doing it, but I believe harder measures should be taken on this issue to send a signal to others.”
Meanwhile, director-general of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Ghebreyesus, also expressed his discontent with the remarks.
“To be honest, I was so appalled. And it was a time when I said when we needed solidarity – this kind of racist remarks actually would not help, it goes against the solidarity,” Tedros said during a WHO media briefing.
The BCG tuberculosis vaccine, seen as a probable treatment for the pandemic, is undergoing clinical trials for that purpose in the Netherlands and Australia.
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