Two days ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) in a statement announced that the Ebola outbreak was “pretty much contained” in Nigeria. To a certain extent we already knew this. The Lagos State Government had previously announced that the last suspected case of the Ebola Virus Disease in the state had been cleared having tested negative after surveillance. The Minister of Health had also disclosed in an interview that the remaining 25 contacts in Port-harcourt are due to be released on Tuesday, 23rd September.
I have 3 questions- Firstly: How did Nigeria, a country with its potential seriously limited by corruption and inept leadership get it right? My take on this is that we were able to succeed, because no one was immune! Not the President, Governors, Ministers or Senators. Absolutely no one (except of course those who had survived the disease). So in essence they were protecting themselves. I am not sure it was motivated by their love for us or patriotic zeal. If they truly loved us, we would have light in our homes and water in our taps by now. Maybe they would have ‘brought back’ our girls. Ebola is no respecter of position or power; this may be a pointer to why all hands were on deck to quickly extinguish this raging fire that was willing to consume anybody in its path.
My second question: How can we translate or transfer the relative success we had in curtailing the spread of Ebola to other sectors or areas such as power, transportation and security? People are dying virtually every day because of bad roads. Accidents are happening because goods (petrol, machinery, granite etc) and human beings compete for the use of the road in a disproportionate measure. In more developed countries, majority of goods are transported through other routes: rail, sea, air, pipelines.
My third question: Is it possible to take the learning points from this experience and use it in the management of our resources? The receipt of the 200 million naira released to Lagos State was acknowledged within days. It did not get ‘lost’ in the Abuja bureaucratic process. Someone in the Federal ministry of health or finance did not corner or make the money disappear.
To all these, I have my own suggestion. Rather than fine someone who has stolen money meant for roads, hospitals or pension; why not sentence them to one (1) month in present day Liberia?
Finally, I pay tribute to everyone who unfortunately paid the supreme price in the fight against Ebola. The role played by Dr Ameyo Adadevoh will never be forgotten.