Obika's wife stays put

FORMER opposition senator Taharqa Obika said his wife and children have opted to stay in Africa for the while, due to the great uncertainty in flights to and within the Caribbean.

Having lobbied long and hard for his family to get a visa and an exemption to enter TT under a covid19 border closure, Obika on Friday told Newsday their travel plans had been scuppered by fallout from the eruption of St Vincent's La Soufriere volcano.

Initially Mrs Obika and her two children were to fly from Ghana to the UK on Thursday, land at Heathrow Airport at midday on Friday, and then race on a British Airways (BA) flight to Barbados for a CAL repatriation flight originally due to head to TT later on Friday but which was since postponed.

Obika said, "She didn't go on the flight because today the (Barbados) airport was closed. BA actually sent persons to Antigua. That would have been a next set of bacchanal as we say. She would have to quarantine in Antigua, until the volcanic ash clears up. So let her stay where she is in the home of family members in Ghana.

"We can't do anything about it. It's an act of God as they say."

Newsday asked about Obika's Facebook post on Thursday where he had offered to sell his Kia Sorento SUV for the knock-down price of $160,000 with the tag line, "We do what we have to."

Obika replied, "That's no longer needed. It was a precautionary measure but is no longer needed. This thing (that is, repatriation of wife and children) has already cost $70,000, so I just wanted to have some extra cash in the event of... But it was no longer required. I eventually had enough resources.

"How these things work is that in one day you could cover everything and then you have an additional bill of $30,000 or $10,000 that you must find otherwise you would be in a difficult situation.

"Had she gone to Antigua, probably selling the car would have been necessary. When they quarantine you, you'd probably be at a hotel and it could be for seven days if you have a negative PCR test but it could be extended. You still have to get onto a flight to come here."

Obika said an extended stay in Antigua could cost $1,000 a day. "These things could escalate very quickly. That's one of the main reasons that a lot of people did not take up the offer of the repatriation flight.

"You have to find yourself in another country amid the uncertainty of you catching the connecting flight. You could go from financially comfortable to severe financial discomfort. You always have to manage that before you make a move."

He said this was not like times before the pandemic where you simply booked your flight and everything took care of itself. "So now we just have to wait," Obika concluded.