Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday said neither he nor
any governor in the country can claim the credit for winning the war
against Ebola. Rivers and Lagos are the two Nigerian states hit by the Ebola outbreak.
The federal government said the two states are now free of the deadly virus.
According
to Mr. Jonathan, the government could not have succeeded in ridding the
country of Ebola virus without the cooperation of the Nigerian masses.
The
President said these at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, during the
launch of Elumelu Nigeria Empowerment Fund, ENEF, to support victims of
terrorism in the country’s North-east zone.
He used the occasion to
thank Nigerians for buying into the Ebola campaign, saying that no
government could have performed magic to rid the county of the deadly
virus without the peoples’ support.
Mr. Jonathan, however, commended
Nigerians for following the health guidelines set out by government,
some of which was a departure from the norm.
He said, “When
government said we must be mindful of gatherings, of handshakes and that
we should not move corpse unnecessarily,” Nigerians heeded the advice.
He
noted that even churches that he thought would resist the directive by
still using a single cup to serve the Holy Communion to its members
suspended the practice during the Ebola war.
Continuing, he said, “Nigerians became mindful. Friends stopped embracing themselves saying until we get out of Ebola.
“So it (Ebola campaign) had the buy-in of the populace and that is why we succeeded so fast otherwise we couldn’t have.
“There
is no magic government could have used to solve that problem. No
President or state governor will claim any credit. The credit should go
to the ordinary Nigerians for the cooperation and their buy-in,” Mr.
Jonathan said.
By his comment, the President appears to be reacting
to remarks by top members of the All Progressives Congress, APC,
including Governors Babatunde Fasola of Lagos State and Rotimi Amaechi
of Rivers State, who have said the Federal Government did very little to
contend the deadly virus and should therefore not claim credit for
winning the war.
While speaking at the formal declaration of a former
Head of State, Muhamadu Buhari, for the APC’s presidential ticket at
the Eagle Square, Abuja, on Wednesday, Mr. Amaechi, said Nigeria’s
flaunted success in the fight against Ebola is a fallacy.
He insisted that the Rivers State Government spent a whopping N1.4billion to stop the outbreak of the disease.
He
faulted claims by Mr. Jonathan’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,
that the Federal Government successfully contained the outbreak.
He
said, “I hear PDP and Mr. President claiming the glory of having fought
Ebola. I asked one simple question: Rivers state government spent 1,406
billion to fight Ebola, the Federal Government brought N200m just last
week. If we were waiting for that N200m, Ebola would have spread round
Rivers State,” he said.
He said his colleague, Mr.Fashola, was also “fully in charge of the Ebola drive in his state”.
Further
deriding the Federal Government, Mr. Amaechi said “Apart from
announcing the number of patients, what did the Federal Government do
for us? So, why did they politicise Ebola.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Jonathan
said the Federal Government has made a donation of N250 million to the
ENEF, saying that the government will continue its sustained security
operations to eliminate insurgency and restore law and order in the
country.
Mr. Jonathan noted that the prolonged case of insurgency in
the zone has led to the displacement of the population, destruction of
infrastructure and the collapse of the economy in the area.
The
rehabilitation of communities affected by the crisis, the President
said, would require not only government’s intervention but also that of
the private sector.
“I have realized over time that government alone cannot solve human problems.
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