Be careful, Africa! The clown who tousled Britain’s Covid response can now wreck a whole continent’s well being

The parachuting of former UK Well being Secretary Matt Hancock right into a United Nations function to help Africa’s post-Covid restoration defies perception. It’s a tone-deaf appointment that rewards incompetence and smacks of colonialism.

Hancock has been  appointed by the UN as its “Particular Consultant on Monetary Innovation and Local weather Change for the United Nations Financial Fee for Africa.” It’s a little bit of a mouthful, however one of many primary elements of his new function will likely be overseeing Africa’s financial restoration within the aftermath of the pandemic. 

When appointed to the function, Hancock was praised by the UN’s under-secretary basic, Vera Songwe, for his “international management, advocacy attain and in-depth understanding of presidency processes by way of… varied ministerial cupboard roles.” She additionally congratulated him on his “success” in tackling the virus.

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Hancock’s time as well being secretary was dropped at an abrupt finish in June, when a newspaper  printed images of him in a clinch with one in every of his advisors. The truth that he was clearly enjoying away from house wasn’t the issue; the truth that he was breaking his personal social distancing guidelines was, and he  needed to go.

Hancock will hope that this new appointment will quantity to a Lazarus-like resurrection of his political profession. To be sincere, it’s most likely for the very best that he’s packed off to Africa for some time, as a result of his fame within the UK is shot to items. Certainly, his personal native department of the Conservative Celebration needed rid of him, till he  wrote a grovelling “heartfelt apology.”

Now I don’t begrudge Hancock being given a second probability and the chance to redeem himself. In any case, all of us make errors, though his have been greater than most. However I query the logic within the UN giving him this function, as a result of it’s plainly apparent that he’s lower than the job.

Certainly, on the identical day that he was appointed, a parliamentary report was launched that criticised the federal government’s dealing with of the Covid disaster, significantly on the outset. The report  notes that “in 2020 the UK did considerably worse when it comes to Covid deaths than many international locations—particularly in comparison with these in East Asia, regardless that they have been a lot nearer geographically to the place the virus first appeared.”

The report additionally asserts that the failure to cease Covid spreading early within the pandemic was one of many nation’s worst public well being failures. To place this in perspective, in 2020 there have been  72,178 deaths from Covid in England. And whose watch was that on? That’s proper, Matt Hancock’s.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former advisor, Dominic Cummings,  claimed that he known as for Hancock to be sacked “nearly daily” attributable to alleged “legal” behaviour. Nonetheless, Cummings stated that Johnson was suggested to maintain Hancock as a result of “he’s the particular person you fireplace when an inquiry comes alongside.”

Furthermore, the PM seemingly didn’t maintain Hancock in excessive regard, writing in a leaked WhatsApp message that the then-health secretary was “completely f****** hopeless.” And that is the person who will now oversee Africa’s Covid restoration. You actually couldn’t make it up.    

It was stated that the UK would pack failed politicians off to the European Fee – suppose Neil Kinnock and Baroness Ashton. Now that avenue has closed, it appears the UN is the popular vacation spot.

Moreover Hancock’s failings through the pandemic, this appointment reeks of colonialism. I assumed the times when the white man was despatched out to repair Africa’s issues had rightly handed a very long time in the past, however within the case of Hancock, apparently not.

Why couldn’t the UN have chosen an African to supervise Africa’s Covid restoration? Certainly it will have made extra sense for somebody who truly is aware of the continent to be heading up such a programme? As an alternative, they’ve Hancock, pith helmet and umbrella on the prepared.

The appointment has unsurprisingly obtained criticism in Africa, with Dr Ayoade Alakija, co-chair of the African Union’s Africa Vaccine Supply Alliance for Covid-19 jabs,  saying, “that is so tone deaf, past smug that they suppose we in Africa want Matt Hancock to assist 1.three billion folks get better from the pandemic, when he couldn’t handle the one within the UK!”

That is so tone deaf, past smug that they suppose we in Africa want Matt Hancock to assist 1.three BN folks get better from the pandemic, when he couldn’t handle the one within the UK!! The definition of a colonial hangover. Decolonize support – no, right here’s Matty! I’m completely gobsmacked. pic.twitter.com/YEmn0oZDP8

— Dr. Ayoade Alakija (@yodifiji) October 13, 2021

Hancock’s appointment has the stench of the outdated boys’ membership, the place failed politicians from the UK’s established events miraculously fall into jobs on the drop of hat, no matter their efficiency of their earlier roles.

We see it on a regular basis with former ministers taking outstanding positions at multinational firms, like former deputy PM  Nick Clegg at Fb.

Now we’ve got it with Hancock on the UN, even when it have to be acknowledged that his function is unpaid (though I’m certain the perks and bills will make up for it). Certainly, it’s a must to say that Hancock’s potential to fail upwards is admirable, as it’s with so many of those institution politicians. 

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I hope for the sake of Africa that Hancock’s efficiency in his new function is best than his time as well being secretary, the place he oversaw the most important well being calamity that this nation has ever encountered. Nonetheless, I believe this can be a case of hope over expertise, as a result of a leopard like Hancock hardly ever modifications his spots.

Good luck, Africa. You’ll want it.

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