Between Jonathan’s Ebola fever and Buhari’s Lassa fever

At the time of writing this essay, Nigeria has lost 44 citizens to the dreaded Lassa fever which like the equally dreaded Ebola Virus Disease is a haemorrhagic fever that spreads easily from one person to another. The two diseases need a comprehensive action plan involving the people and relevant agencies, local and international, and mobilised by government who deploys all resources necessary, to tackle the menace headlong. The Ebola virus which caused a worldwide stir in 2014 and claimed about 11, 000 lives in West Africa alone, can be considered to be more fearsome because of the number of casualties per occurrence and its rapid spread to even Europe and the US.

However, with all its threats and spread; with all its fame for defying medicine, thethen Jonathan administration rose to the occasion with total commitment and vigour, mobilising agencies, personnel and other resources; sensitising schools, offices, churches/mosques etc while equipping hospitals and other public places with anti Ebola kits and N200million each to Lagos and Rivers States which had reported cases of the disease. The disease could not do much damage to Nigeria contrary to genuine fears and worry expressed then. Although outbreak of the disease was reported in West Africa, precisely Guinea, in March 2014, it did not give the world much concern until it was brought into Nigeria by a Liberian diplomat, Patrick Sawyer.

However, with Jonathan’s commitment, drive and approach to the fight the disease, Nigeria still lost only seven citizens, while Europe lost three and the US, 4. However, Liberia lost 4,809, Guinea, 2,536 and Sierra Leone 3,955. Even the World Health Organisation (WHO) commended “…the Nigerian Government’s strong leadership and effective coordination that included the rapid establishment of an Emergency Operations Centre… strong public awareness campaigns, teamed with early engagement of traditional, religious and community leaders, also played a key role in successful containment of this outbreak”, hence, Nigeria was declared Ebola-free on October 20, 2014, only three months after the first reported case.

Thereafter, Nigeria had the luxury of even sending health workers to assist other sister African nations affected by the disease. Furthermore, the WHO Country Director in Abuja, Dr. Rui Gama Vaz, described Nigeria’s exemplary handling of the outbreak as a “spectacular success story.” In spite of all these achievements and accolades for this rare feat, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the major opposition party, tried severally to politicise the issue and distract the Jonathan administration, an issue which resulted in the PDP chiding the APC for politicising what would have been a national disaster irrespective of party affiliation, ethnic background or religious leaning.

Then to 2016, and with the outbreak of the Lassa fever which was officially declared by the federal government in January 2016, despite the Minister of Health saying it has been with us for 6 weeks (as at 8th of January, 2016), yet, Lassa fever has killed 44 Nigerians as at January 18, and distracted by the so-called corruption cases deliberately churned up by the authorities as decoy to parry the attention of Nigerians from other urgent national matters. With the death toll of Lassa fever reaching 44 and the possibility of climbing higher, one can only thank God that Buhari and his party, APC, were not in power when Nigeria and indeed West Africa suffered the Ebola outbreak. It would have been a monumental disaster.

It is sickening, smacks of gross incompetence and a display of high level of crass irresponsibility on the part of the present administration to be talking of setting up a National Action Committee to tackle the Lassa fever outbreak nearly three weeks after its emergence. The Action Committee would be inaugurated at an Emergency National Council on Health meeting.

Question is what is “emergency” about calling a council meeting over a disease that has been allowed to ravage citizens for so long? Why did it take the intervention of the Senate via its committee on health for the Buhari administration to be talking of a council meeting to tackle Lassa fever? Why did we have to wait for 44 citizens to die before taking action? Why did we wait for Lassa fever to spread to 10 states before waking up from slumber? Surely, there is a lax attitude from government towards the wellbeing of the citizens be it in health, employment, economy, education, social welfare, infrastructure etc.

When compared to the progress made under the Jonathan administration against the Ebola disease, one would have thought that Nigeria should only improve on that in tackling any disease of similar trait. But with the Lassa fever saga, it has become obvious; that the “Change” promised during the campaigns is nothing but a charade.



source: Daily Times