Although there is no single case of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country and not a single contact still under surveillance, by the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) protocol, the health authorities can only epidemiologically declare the outbreak of the virus over in Nigeria on October 20, 2014.

Ruling party, opposition trade words over success at containing virus

Responding to the findings we made, sunday following the confusion over the exact date Nigeria can be declared free of Ebola, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said the date is calculated as 42 days (that is, 21 days multiplied by 2) after the last case of EVD was discharged from the hospital.

It is for this reason the international media and WHO usually say the disease is “nearly contained” in Nigeria, he explained.

Onyebuchi, however, cautioned that though there is a WHO protocol for declaring a country Ebola-free, he termed it theoretical.

Explaining, he said: “Like I said in my speech two weeks ago at the UN General Assembly, as long as there is a single case of Ebola in any part of the world, every country is at risk.

“So this is really theoretical and countries would still have to take the necessary precautionary measures to guard against the outbreak of the virus in their territories.

“As you can see what happened in Texas, where we have a Liberian who flew in with the disease, although he was not symptomatic at the time he arrived the US.

“We also have a large Nigerian community in Texas, so we could still be at risk if a Nigerian contracts it from that place and comes home with it undetected. It is a risk that every country faces as long as other countries continue to combat Ebola outbreaks.”

Since the outbreak of the virus in Nigeria, the country has recorded 19 confirmed cases and seven deaths.

The country has also been praised by WHO and the international community for its rapid response and deployment of health care workers in the containment of the virus.

However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were at each other’s throats yesterday, following the opposition’s statement asking President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP to stop taking credit for the country's successful containment of the Ebola virus.

APC said if anyone should be given credit for the containment of the disease, it should be the late Dr. Stella Adadevoh and her colleagues at the First Consultants Medical Centre, officials of the Ministries of Health in Lagos and Rivers States and the patriotic Nigerian volunteers.

It also gave credit to the Minister of Health for his outstanding performance in dealing with the virus.

In a statement issued yesterday by APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it amounts to sheer dishonesty for the duo to turn what was a collective effort to a PDP campaign issue.

According to APC, the president and his party were wrong to have appropriated the credit for the successful containment of the EVD without giving due credit to the real heroes of the successful battle: Adadevoh and her colleagues at the First Consultants; officials of the Ministries of Health in Lagos and Rivers States and the patriotic Nigerian volunteers, among others.

It described as a cheap shot and a shameless venture the president's decision to make the Ebola success story a campaign issue during a PDP rally in Benin, giving the impression that only the PDP deserves the credit for the successful containment of the disease.

APC said while “indeed Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu exhibited the kind of professionalism and purposefulness that is not common with the Jonathan administration during the battle against Ebola, it will be uncharitable for the PDP-led federal government to pretend as if the government of the two affected states did nothing”.

The party reminded the president that the two states hit by Ebola, Lagos and Rivers, are APC states, and that the promptness, purposefulness, doggedness and determination shown by the governors of the states contributed largely to the successful containment of the virulent disease.

“The cities of Lagos and Port Harcourt are perhaps the largest metropolis to have ever been hit by the EVD since the first outbreak was recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo almost 40 years ago, and any mishandling of the disease could have spelt disaster not just for the cities but for the country as a whole.

“But the ever-dogged and determined Governors Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State employed the same winning strategies that have stood their states out of the pack and quickly rose to the occasion, putting in place measures that ensured a quick curtailing of the EVD spread.

“The measures included painstaking contact-tracing, unrelenting follow ups and creative treatment of infected patients even without access to the experimental drug Zmapp.

“There is no doubt that Nigeria is fortunate that the EVD outbreaks were recorded in those two states. It is a measure of the high premium that the chief executives of the states place on human lives, a testimony to the strong health systems they are building and an indication of their purposeful approach to governance that they successfully contained the disease, thus earning Nigeria rare accolades from the global community.

“Unlike the president and the PDP, we will also like to give credit to the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, for acting out of character with the do-nothing Jonathan administration.

“We hope President Jonathan and his party will stop making the Ebola success story in which opposition states were the main actors a fulcrum of their campaign for the 2015 general election. They cannot and should not take credit for the containment of Ebola in Nigeria,'' APC said.

The party also advised Jonathan not to use the Ebola containment effort as another tool to divide Nigerians along party lines.

“President Jonathan is the most divisive president in Nigeria's history. He inherited a united Nigeria, but has divided the country along ethnic and religious lines on the altar of selfish personal ambition and short-term opportunism.

“It will amount to a monumental tragedy if the president were again to use the Ebola success story, which has earned Nigeria rare acclamations from the global community as a tool to further divide Nigerians,” it said.

In its response, however, PDP accused the main opposition party of attempting to discredit the PDP-led federal government and relegate its efforts in the containment of the disease in Nigeria.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement yesterday said APC was frustrated and unhappy because Nigerians are happy with the PDP-led federal government for “the speed and energy with which it tackled the scourge and brought it under control”.

“We know that the APC prefers that the Ebola scourge continued unabated in Nigeria so as to have what to blame the PDP-led government for. Now that it has been contained, the APC is frustrated because the people are happy with President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP-led federal government for the proactive manner with which the disease was confronted and overcame,” the party said.

The PDP insisted that the national success recorded on Ebola was because the president refused to politicise the issue but took the bull by the horn through an aggressive multi-sectoral approach for treatment, awareness and control to the admiration of all Nigerians and the international community.

The ruling party said it was public knowledge that immediately the disease surfaced in the country, the PDP-led federal government swung into action and coordinated intervention efforts with the Lagos State Government, Nigerian medical personnel and international health organisations to bring it under control.

“The PDP makes bold to state that the multi-sectoral approach deployed by the federal government with the concerted collaboration of the Federal Ministries of Health, Aviation, Information, Education, Transport and other relevant agencies such as the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) for intensive screening, quarantine and treatment efforts as well as the massive awareness which ended the spread of the disease and resulted in its containment in our country.

“We are also amused by the contradictions in the APC’s statement in which it also commended the roles played by the Honourable Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, in the containment effort. We ask, is the minister not appointed and supervised by President Goodluck Jonathan? Is he not of the PDP? Or is the APC now trying to appropriate him?

“Apart from concerted collaborations using the Federal Ministry of Health, it is on record that President Jonathan released N200 million each to Lagos and Rivers States to help in fighting the disease, including improvement of health facilities and public enlightenment across board.

“At every point, the president recognised the efforts of all Nigerians especially the medical personnel including the brave and courageous Dr. Ameyo Stella Adedavoh and all the doctors and nurses who made sacrifices in containing the virus.

“It is also on record that at no time did the PDP or the president relegate the contributions of the Lagos State Government on Ebola.

“The president acknowledged the Nigerian spirit which made the citizens put their religious, political and ethnic differences aside in fighting this common enemy.

“This includes PDP national officers who personally and collectively engaged in various activities in containing the scourge including creating awareness through the #EBOLAIceBucketChallenge and personal financial donations while the APC was busy seeking political capital out of the unfortunate situation.

“However, what the APC must understand is that Nigerians and indeed the international community are happy with the President Goodluck Jonathan-led PDP administration on the rapid response and eventual containment of the Ebola Virus Disease, and no amount of propaganda and blackmail will take this away,” the PDP said.

Calling on Nigerians to be wary of the APC propaganda mill, the PDP recalled how the opposition party attempted to gain political capital out of the unfortunate abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls, which happened because the APC state government refused to heed the advice of the Federal Ministry of Education against using the Chibok school as the WAEC examination centre.

It insisted that the success in containing the Ebola virus was made possible because the federal government swung into action, not allowing any room for Nigerians to be misled by anybody.

PDP advised the APC “to learn to keep quiet if it has nothing to offer and desist from always trying to divide Nigerians by politicising serious national issues for selfish and unpatriotic reasons”.

“Finally, we must continue to give the credit of the Ebola victory to the Nigerian spirit; the spirit that unites and binds us together through all our challenges as a people. Indeed, if we overcame Ebola, then we can overcome all our present challenges no matter how insurmountable they may appear.

“We should therefore resist attempts to divide us and weaken the Nigerian spirit, the spirit that makes us different; the resilience that lies deep in our hearts, that reflects in our faces and for which we are respected by the entire world,” the PDP added.