THE EBOLA CHALLENGE, AND HOW IT TESTS US ALL A friend of mine, whose loyalty I must have underestimated, asked me yesterday evening why I had not posted my usual commentary on the Ebola scourge. Of course, I have posted so many things on this subject in the past few days. But I believe this friend was hoping for me to use the Ebola outbreak as a basis to assess our government and how ready our society is for this kind of emergency. In other words, this young friend wanted the angle of a social critique. As weighed my options as to the best way to approach the subject without pretending to be either a medical doctor or an expert on public health, another friend called and reminded me of my next trip to Abuja. For want of a better reason for not liking to spend time in Abuja, I told this second friend about the fact that Abuja had lately been too exposed to Boko Haram attacks. Not buying such lame excuse, she reminded me that Lagos was exposed to Ebola infection, and she asked me to choose between Boko Haram and Ebola. What a devil’s alternatives – to choose between Ebola and Boko Haram! That was when it clicked for me. The two evils have something in common, after all; and that is how unprepared our government might be. Every society, ours inclusive, shall be tested once in a while by extraordinary adversity – be it war, pestilence, natural disasters or other devil’s alternatives. Each such event calls to question the ability, capability, competency, responsiveness, and overall effectiveness of government. Indeed, such challenge justifies, or otherwise, the need for government. These ultimate tests have been used to measure governments. And every government with any level of seriousness understands when it is being tested. It is from this angle that Boko Haram and Ebola begat the same resemblance. They both challenged Nigerian Government. While it may be too early to score the government on Ebola, it is not really difficult to project a performance scorecard on the handling of the Ebola outbreak. Regardless of the many huge controversy and vast theories as to the origin of Ebola and the ultimate course of that scourge, it is fair to acknowledge that Nigeria’s ability to deal with a full blown outbreak of Ebola will be abysmal. The basis for this assessment lies in the present state of public heath in Nigeria. Majority of the Nigerian people lacks environment that is conducive for health. They breathe polluted air. They drink contaminated or untreated water except for those who could afford the water sold by any of the various companies that sell water in sachet or bottles. They live in shacks and crowded, dusty, flooded and unsanitary neighborhoods. Every tiny rain leads to flooding and impassable streets and roads. The people are not prepared to resist any serious pestilence or natural disaster. Apart from the question of readiness of the masses, there is virtually no adequate infrastructure in place to mitigate or facilitate any meaningful emergency response to any such disaster. Public hospitals are grossly inadequate if not in pitiable state of dilapidation, abuse and abandonment. No clear or meaningful policy on public health emergency. The practice of the rich and the powerful of flying overseas for their medical needs has seen to it that nothing was put in place for the common man in need of healthcare. In the most populated parts of Nigeria such as Lagos, there are no streets for emergency health vehicles to pass if there was need. Every bit of what it takes for emergency public health service to exist is lacking in Nigeria. Given these conditions, one expects that unless we are lucky and escape a mass infection of Ebola, the world may witness an apocalyptic disaster in the thousands if not millions of lives to be lost to Ebola. Even the average individual Nigerian person has not been prepared to respond to such an outbreak. Many still believe in witchcraft, sorcery, prayer warriors, and all other mumbo-jumbo stuff that would make the stomach churn in disbelief. As Nigerians sit and wait for Ebola to pass over them, new information is emerging about this deadly virus, far more deadly that HIV-Aids. Ebola may have a cure in the largely untested secret serum known as MZapp. As we witness the feeble attempts to isolate and quarantine a whole country by the various flight restriction measures adopted by countries to avoid infected passengers arriving with the virus, questions are being asked as to what the west truly know about these things. Whichever way this round of crisis ends, it ought to be a wake-up call on our government and leaders. Now is the time to sit up and take governance seriously. Now is the time to understand that those who chose to live under a government have certain expectations of what the government ought to do to keep the people safe and well. The failures we have seen in the area of security cannot be repeated in the area of public health, if faced with a major crisis, the very type that Ebola outbreak threatens.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 02:32:40 +0000
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