…Obailukan raises concerns over Nigeria’s Ebola response, questioning the government’s focus on the 2027 elections
The Federal Government has confirmed it. A woman arrived from Uganda carrying the Ebola virus, walked through our so-called surveillance net, and spent days receiving treatment in a private hospital in the FCT before anyone knew what she was carrying. By the time the lab confirmed it, the damage was done. 44 close contacts are now being traced.
This is not a drill. This is not a remote outbreak in the forests of Congo. This is in the seat of power. In the capital of Africa’s most populous nation, under the watch of President Bola Tinubu.
And what is the government’s response? “The situation is contained. Remain calm.”
We have heard that script before. In 2014, Nigeria contained Ebola because leadership acted with urgency, transparency and competence. Today, we get press statements while the virus gets a head start.
Let us ask the questions Aso Rock is avoiding:
1. How did a traveler from Uganda, a country with a known Ebola outbreak, enter Nigeria without being flagged at the airport?
2. How did she spend days in a private hospital without our much-touted surveillance system picking up a suspected Viral Hemorrhagic Fever?
3. What happened to airport health screening, Port Health Services, and mandatory health declarations that were supposed to be our first line of defence?
The answer is simple: The system is weak because this government has not invested in it. Primary Healthcare Centres are empty shells. Teaching hospitals have no gloves. Laboratories have no reagents. NCDC is left to do heroics with peanuts while billions are budgeted for presidential jets, foreign trips, and political patronage.
While health workers scramble to trace 44 Nigerians, what is the Presidency scrambling to do? Count numbers for 2027. Who is defecting to APC? Which governor has endorsed Tinubu? Which coalition will secure a second term?
Nigerians are hungry. Inflation is choking families. The naira is in free fall. And now, a disease that bleeds its victims to death is in Abuja. Yet the energy of this administration is not on securing lives, but on securing power.
This is the true character of this government: Politics over people. Ambition over action. Propaganda over preparedness.
Monitoring 44 contacts is not an achievement to celebrate. It is the bare minimum a serious country does after it has already failed at prevention. The real failure happened days ago when that woman passed through our border unchecked.
A responsible President would have been at the NCDC Emergency Operations Centre by now, briefing the nation, ordering immediate reinforcement of border screening, releasing emergency funds for infection control, and putting every federal hospital on red alert. Instead, we have silence from the top and noise from political jobbers.
Ebola does not read your 2027 strategy document. It does not care about your party structure. It kills fast, and it spreads faster when leadership is absent.
Nigerians deserve more than “remain calm.” They deserve a government that is awake. They deserve a President whose first term is about saving lives, not just securing a second one.
For now, one thing is clear: Tinubu may be preparing for the next election, but he is not prepared to protect this nation.
And Nigerians are paying the price.
Signed: Comrade James Onifade
Media Executive for Hon Toyin Anibire Adams aka Obailukan
Founder/Convener, Obailukan Strategic Support Group for Atiku (OSSAT)
