Ebola is a national security test, not a distraction

Perhaps understandably, Nigeria’s attention is consumed by the politics of 2027, personal safety, economic issues and the daily grind of survival. Yet precisely because the country is under pressure on so many fronts, it must not treat the widening Ebola crisis as a distant Central African problem or an inconvenient public health distraction. Ebola is a national security issue.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Nigeria currently has no confirmed case, and the NCDC has activated emergency preparedness and heightened surveillance. This is welcome, but we pray it is only the beginning. Ebola’s average case fatality rate is around 50 percent, with past outbreaks ranging from 25 to 90 percent. It spreads through direct contact with blood, body fluids, secretions, organs and contaminated materials. It is not a disease to be managed by hope.

Nigeria sits in Africa’s trigger, the strategic and extremely vulnerable borderline between West Africa and Central Africa. It is a trans-continental crossroads. People, goods, informal traders, displaced persons, students, business travellers, pilgrims and security threats move across its borders every day. A public health threat in Central Africa can become a West African emergency quite rapidly if surveillance, information-sharing and border health controls are weak.

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This is why Ebola must now be placed squarely within Nigeria’s national security architecture and dealt with accordingly. National security is not only about guns, borders, insurgency, intelligence and military deployments. It is also about protecting the population from biological threats capable of disrupting society, overwhelming hospitals, weakening commerce, frightening communities and further damaging confidence in State capacity. A country that cannot detect, contain and communicate risk from a deadly communicable disease is not secure in any serious sense of the word.

The political season must not blind us to this. Indeed, political seasons are dangerous periods for epidemic preparedness. They generate rallies, mass travel, crowding, misinformation, denialism and institutional distraction. Now more than ever, when the State should be more alert, public officials may be tempted to treat disease surveillance as secondary to political mobilisation. That would be a grave mistake.

Nigeria has already learned this lesson. The 2014 Ebola episode demonstrated that disciplined surveillance, contact tracing, public communication, professional courage and coordinated Federal-State action can stop a deadly outbreak. It also showed how quickly one imported case can trigger a national emergency. That memory should not be allowed to fade into complacency.

Airport health security protocols must be heightened immediately. This does not mean panic, theatrical screening or unnecessary harassment of travellers. It means serious risk-based health security: updated travel history protocols, trained port health personnel, functioning isolation procedures, clear referral pathways, protective equipment, real-time coordination with airlines, immigration, customs, airport authorities and State health teams. Land borders and informal crossings require equal attention. Nigeria’s vulnerability is not limited to international airports.

Read also: WHO raises DRC Ebola outbreak risk assessment to very high  

We hope that the Office of the Special Adviser on Homeland Security will pull together and coordinate with the Ministry of Health, NCDC, Port Health Services, Immigration, Customs, State governments and airport authorities to ensure that national Ebola protocols are activated, tested and understood. Coordination cannot be left to circulars. It must be operational. Who does what? Who reports to whom? Which isolation centres are ready? Which laboratories can test? Which States are most exposed? Which transport corridors require enhanced surveillance? Which communities need immediate risk communication?

Federal and State governments must also communicate clearly. Silence breeds rumour. Rumour breeds fear. Fear breeds concealment. Citizens should be told, calmly and repeatedly, what Ebola is, how it spreads, what symptoms require urgent reporting, what numbers to call, and what behaviours are unsafe. Communities must be told that vigilance is not stigma. Reporting illness is not betrayal. Protecting neighbours is patriotism.

Religious leaders, traditional rulers, market associations, transport unions, schools, hospitals, hotels and airlines all have roles to play. Public health protection works best when citizens understand that the State is not merely issuing instructions from Abuja, but is helping them protect their families and communities.

There must also be special protection for health workers. Ebola outbreaks are particularly dangerous when clinicians, nurses, ambulance teams and laboratory personnel are unprepared or poorly equipped. With the heroic sacrifice of Dr Ameyo Adadevoh still fresh in our memory, we must ensure that our first line of defence does not become our first line of casualties. Training, protective gear, infection prevention protocols and rapid reporting systems are not administrative luxuries; they are life-saving national infrastructure.

Read also: Concerns over Nigeria’s preparedness as Ebola, hantavirus threat grow

This Newspaper is not being alarmist. The right posture is vigilance without panic. Nigeria should not close itself to the world, stigmatise countries facing outbreaks, or spread fear. But neither should it pretend that geography, mobility and weak systems do not matter. Ebola rewards delay, exploits denial and severely punishes institutional indiscipline.

Therefore, the test before Nigeria is simple. The authorities must act early, coordinate intelligently, communicate honestly and protect its people before danger arrives at scale. They must see public health as homeland security and remember that the national defence includes the defence of the citizens against deadly pathogens.

Ebola is not a distraction. It is a warning. It must be kept at bay by vigilance, science, coordination, public trust and disciplined government action. In this Ebola matter, prevention is not merely better than a cure. Prevention is national security.