Ebola in Nigeria: Medicine after death

As I watched the news a fortnight ago on terrestrial TV stations on the outbreak of Ebola in Nigeria, its emergence and origin, I couldn’t help but remember the maxim ‘A stitch in time saves nine’ I felt depressed and aggrieved in my spirit as to why adequate measures were not instituted by our government to prevent this deadly virus from finding its way into our shores despite having hit some of our fellow West African neighbours such as Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since March.

What was the health ministry doing when they knew EVD was in the neighbourhood? What proactive measure did government put in place with the hindsight of the free movement within ECOWAS? If the current measure at the airport was in place, Mr. Sawyer would have probably been ‘quarantined’ right at the airport. Why is our government always lax and believing that problems elsewhere just cannot get to Nigeria even when they know that the world is now a global village? Is it not the same assumption before the financial crises hit Nigeria?

Of a truth this quagmire we found ourselves in would have been avoided, if the appropriate health officials in collaboration with aviation authorities were proactive and vibrant enough to take the necessary steps in ensuring only Ebola-free passengers were granted access into our nation.

Every time I look around and see my loved ones, the wonderful people I have come to know, everywhere and everything that is connected to me in one way or the other, I can’t help but feel worried about the unbecoming state of our beloved Nigeria.

What a government? What a nation? No doubt, our founding fathers will be disappointed in their graves of what Nigeria has become. The primary essence of governance -protection of lives and property is fading away.

When the first victim, the Liberian national Patrick Sawyer was about to enter the borders through the Lagos airport, where were the health authorities that could have been there to screen him had it been that the country was well informed about this dreadful diseases beforehand? Now, he is being blamed and referred to as a mad man for coming to attend an ECOWAS conference in Nigeria with the dreaded Ebola virus.

Whether he (Patrick sawyer) escaped quarantine from his country or not, Nigeria would have nipped this problem in the bud if there were adequate facilities at the airport to detect passengers coming into the country but sadly, the government was waiting for us to have the first Ebola case before instituting the necessary measures to prevent it at the borders. Talk about medicine after death!!!  The same mistake we keep making in all facet of our life! Until there is a disaster, government will never do anything! Potholes all over the roads and even on bridges, but nothing will be done until probably a ghastly accident involving a ‘big man’ occurs. If Mr. Sawyer was a common man that strolled in from the Seme border to a local hospital, one can imagine the number of lives that would have been lost before our government will come up with their emergency measures.

Some people might argue that putting up such preventive measures at the airport at a time when the disease had not been reported in our nation was some sort of extreme measure, but we must realize that for a disease that is so contagious and has no cure at the moment, there is nothing done that is too much to save lives.

For instance, Kenya, an east African country face a lesser risk of having the disease infiltrating its borders compared to Nigeria but the country had already set in motion couple of preventive measure several months ago.

The government of Kenya is dead serious in protecting the lives of their citizens by making sure that any foreigner coming into the country especially through the Ebola risk zone were excruciatingly screened.

But ours is a country where people in leadership positions are not held answerable for their abdication of duty or failure to act in the expected manner.

Surely it is not hard for one to realize that it is impunity that breeds corruption. When one public officer sees that another corrupt officer goes scot free after committing an offence, that public officer is emboldened to commit even more and bigger crimes.  In that way, the system gets worse by the day because, leaders who are supposed to be custodians of our national patrimony keep allowing it to disintegrate without any form of accountability.

Had the health ministry done the needful by availing medical expert at borders, seaports and airports to control the inflow of people into the country we would certainly not be in this mess. But the supposed authorities failed to provide a comprehensive plan in other to avoid this disease from coming into the country and now that Patrick Sawyer is dead, we are finally serious to put all hands on deck. Billions of naira will have to be disbursed because we have emergency in our hands right now.

It is time we realized that so many things have gone wrong in our approach to governance, hence, the need for a collective effort to repair the parts that have been torn and really practice what our national anthem and pledge says in truth and in sincerity, then we can boldly and finally say, so help me God.

CONCILIA .A ONUOHA