So, as we continue to groan and moan about the late Patrick Sawyer’s lack of good judgment in deciding to travel to Nigeria despite his infection and the Liberian government’s ‘worthlessness’ of letting a man who had been known to have contact with a victim of Ebola travel out, Nigeria’s lack of full-proof preventative measure is now posing, to other countries, the same threat Liberia posed to us.
The arrival of Ebola in Nigeria should be of great concern to every nation in the world. No country deserves the curse of Ebola, but the one country in Africa that Ebola does not need to find a base is Nigeria. With a population of approximately 170 million people, with a community so overcrowded and clustered, with an environment so overwhelmed with pollution, with borders so porous that insurgents navigate it at will, with hundreds of International flights leaving the country weekly, Nigeria would be a most dangerous hub for Ebola to fester.
The Nigerian authorities must understand that, with such an epidemic, the domestic and global situation cannot be kept separate because any lapse we have domestically can have dire global implications. Nigeria must appreciate the weight of the world to ensure the complete eradication of Ebola from within its borders that is presently resting on its shoulders.
The very nature of Nigerian communities and family structures, the overcrowding, lack of access to health care and our over imaginative superstition, all provide a viral breading ground for a disease like Ebola. Nigeria has a duty to its citizenry, the same duty Guinea failed its people, the same duty Liberia failed its people, and the same duty Sierra Leone failed its people, by shutting its borders, not only to protect our country from Ebola-prone countries but also to protect other countries from us, until the epidemic can be controlled.
Failure to carry out this preemptive and decisive action would further render the world vulnerable and susceptible to a global pandemic. It must be said that the Lagos government has done an extra ordinary job in trying to contain the virus. The rapid response of the authorities in Lagos, in setting up quarantine centers, creating awareness, providing the required equipment and constantly updating the public with information has been remarkable.
If such a heavy burden and responsibility had to be imposed on any of our governments within the country, it is somewhat of a relief that it lay on the most organised and competent authority in Nigeria. However, even with that, as the ground zero of Ebola in Nigeria, Lagos State should also consider shutting its borders for the duration of the stipulated incubation period while continuing with the awareness campaigns enlightening the populace of the effects of the Ebola virus and the importance of reporting any suspected case within the period that lives can be saved.
This should also apply to any state where a case of Ebola is found. Once people understand that the only way to stop the virus is to prevent it and the only way to save the life of an infected person is to treat the symptoms early after infection, one would believe that people would cooperate and come forward when symptoms occur.
If the virus is not contained and eradicated within Lagos and is allowed to get out of the state, the consequence would be extremely colossal for a population of 170- million people and, by extension, for the world. For the future, African countries have got to try and improve the capacity of its various hygiene and medical systems to respond to all these health emergencies, whether it is Ebola, Lassa fever, Marbug, Cholera or any other disease.
However, for now, sanitary gloves, disinfectants, sanitizers and face-masks (the likes of which I am displaying) should be made available to people in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria in sensitive environments such as hospitals and laboratories to further help in curbing the spread of the virus.
The basic protective gear, such as masks and gloves, will primarily benefit those in high-risk environments but it’s not necessary for every day or domestic use. Also, decisive action has got to be taken on some very worrying and emerging elements of this disease.
Since news of Ebola broke, government authorities and medical experts have been battling misinformation and folktales with the capacity to worsen the situation. In one such incident a prank about ‘salt’ having the ability to kill Ebola was started by an attention seeking young woman who later sent a ‘salty’ confession to the media, if only to reinforce that desperation for attention. (Her gloating confession can be read on the following link: http://ynaija.com/site/this-lady-says-she-started-the-salt-andwater- ebola-joke-read/).
‘But-for’ the fact her antics allegedly lead to the death of, at least two people and 20 others being hospitalized for consuming an excessive quantity of salt in order to protect themselves from the virus, she could have been known as a trifling-little-fool.
But now, she is something much worse. And one would hope that she understands the high price that has been paid and the shocking tragedy that has come from her quest for her five-minutes of fame. Government must clamp down on those promoting false theories on, not just salt, but bitter kola as well.
Equally, authorities must vehemently warn Muslim and Christian clerics and traditionalists from utterances that suggest an alternative to conventional medicine. Faith and spirituality is, no doubt, the most important component of any struggle and challenge, but we must ensure that it is channelled in a way that will help our communities follow the instructions of medical experts to contain and eradicate the disease as opposed to hindering efforts to try and get it under control.
All religious leaders and herbalists must be given the explicit order not to make public statements on Ebola that may have dire results. Another necessary target group for the authorities to clamp down on are the people who continue to insist on hunting and eating bush meat, despite the stern warning of the danger it may carry.
Handling uncooked bat with the virus strain and eating bush meat are some of the ways experts suspect that the Ebola virus has been transmitted from the animal world to the human one, after which human-to-human contact then becomes possible. Since the outbreak of the disease, several countries have banned the hunting or trading of bush meat.
But unfortunately in most of those countries, many have ignored the ban and continued to expose themselves and the larger community to the risk of contracting the virus through their ingestion of bushmeat. In an Al Jazeera news interview (which can be seen on the following link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZohUJXRECQ *recommended to watch*), the chairman of the Nigerian National Association of Hunters, Olasehinde Afolabi, insists that he will continue eating bush meat. In the clip, when the reporter interviews him, Mr. Afolabi lividly declares,
“It’s a lie… It’s a beyond lie! If they don’t want bush meat, they should not eat it, but we the hunters… they cannot say we should not eat it and they cannot tell the public not to be eating it.’ …Now, wait, wait, what? Did Mr. Afolabi just allude to the fact that he will continue hunting and eating bush meat, no matter the threat posed? Wow!
One is inclined to think that this reprehensible attitude that Mr. Afolabi is displaying may somehow constitute a weak link in the national effort to contain and overcome Ebola! Maybe if he could, just for a minute, put his seemingly insatiable avarice for, ‘poached monkey’s brain pepper soup,’ ‘smoked bat and armadillo orishirishi’ or anything even remotely edible aside, he would understand that the struggle to protect and save the world population is much more important than satisfying his over-active taste buds and filling his belly! Here we are, in a race against time, trying to get under control a ginormous threat to humanity and there is the chairman of the Nigerian National Association of Hunters, risking the lives of every single one of us just so that he and his hunters can enjoy a piece of unidentifiable animal part.
At this point the Nigerian authorities should take the threat that is posed by the actions of every gluttonous, carnivorous, bush-meat-eating biped very seriously and completely ban the hunting, trade and congestion of bush meat, until further notice.
And in the mean time, the burly-men in the black suits and black ray bans from the official ‘relevant authorities’ might just consider paying a little visit to this overzealous meat eater and having a wee word with the ravenous Mr. Olasehinde Afolabi! Maybe if he saw the images of the pain and suffering of Ebola victims or heard the tears of the families of those who have died, he would know how serious this issue is and how reckless his actions are.
It is advisable for us to be cautious. We have already partaken in the blunder of the century by allowing Ebola to come into Nigeria. Back in March and April, as soon as it was widely publicized that there was an Ebola virus outbreak in the West African region and it had begun spreading to other countries other than Guinea, where it originated from, the Nigerian government should have closed all air and land borders from affected countries or, at the very least, screened all the people coming into Nigeria from those locations. And the blame does not only lie on the government. Nigerian citizens have also failed to spread awareness and learn about this disease till now.
I have followed this Ebola story religiously since May of this year and I often speak about the disease on my social media pages. Some weeks ago, when I learnt that there was a suspected case of Ebola in Ghana, I wrote a full op-ed on it.
The feedback that I received from readers on my e-mail and social media pages were very negative and disappointing to me. A lot of readers suggested that I had ‘misplaced priority’ by writing and speaking out extensively about the Ebola virus and the Gaza situation, which were not problems that Nigerians were dealing with.
They suggested that I should have concentrated all my efforts ‘solely’ on writing about the return of our Chibok girls because that was the domestic issue that was plaguing us. I was quite appalled with the response and although I could understand where they were coming from, I could honestly not appreciate their rationale.
