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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