Hurrah to Nigeria!

In its September 30, 2014 edition, The New York Times echoed earlier news reports that the West African country of Nigeria has contained the outbreak of Ebola within its territory. For details, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/health/ebola-outbreak-in-nigeria-appears-to-be-over.html?_r=0. I salute Nigeria’s governmental authorities, Nigeria’s medical and scientific communities, Nigeria’s civic society and related international organizations and pertinent members of the international community for coming together and waging what appears like a successful war against the much-dreaded Ebola. Nigeria’s experience has thus become a model for the global community as it strives to deal effectively with Ebola’s threat to humanity as we know it.

Given what we have read about the havoc that this terrible disease has wrought in Nigeria’s fellow West African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, Nigeria deserves accolades for moving with what I have chosen to describe as military dispatch to arrest the Ebola monster. An update on the website of the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that Nigeria had twenty confirmed cases of Ebola and eight deaths. See the table 1 below.

Country	Case definition	Cases	Deaths
Nigeria	Confirmed	19	7
	Probable	1	1
	Suspected	0	0
	All	20	8
Senegal	Confirmed	1	0
	Probable	0	0
	Suspected	0	0
	All	1	0
	Total	21	8

Table 1: Courtesy of the World Health Organization (WHO) (http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/135600/1/roadmapsitrep_1Oct2014_eng.pdf?ua=1)

That same WHO update reports that “the number of patients with Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone [has] surpassed 6500 with more than 3000 deaths" (http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/en/). See table 2 below.

Country	Case Definition	Cases	Cases in past 21 days	Cases in past 21 days/total cases	Deaths
Guinea	Confirmed	950	230	24%	535
	Probable	170	14	8%	170
	Suspected	37	23	62%	5
	All	1157	270	23%	710
Liberia	Confirmed	927	280	30%	890
	Probable	1656	687	42%	664
	Suspected	1113	672	60%	444
	All	3696	1639	44%	1998
Sierra Leone	Confirmed	2076	788	38%	574
	Probable	37	0	0%	37
	Suspected	191	106	56%	11
	All	2304	894	39%	622
Total		7157	2800	39%	3330

Table 2: courtesy of the World Health Organization (WHO) (http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/135600/1/roadmapsitrep_1Oct2014_eng.pdf?ua=1)

One must caution, however, that for Nigeria, this time period--that is, this international recognition that it has contained Ebola though magnificently praise-worthy--does not call for premature euphoria. Nigerian authorities, Nigerian medical and scientific communities should not lower their guards. Yesterday’s report that the United States has recorded its first domestically-diagnosed case of Ebola (ttp://preview.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cdc-confirms-first-ebola-case-diagnosed-in-the-united-states/ar-BB6EA9s) should serve as a warning that there is no safe haven from this nightmarish phenomenon though, ironically, it may serve to speed up an urgently-needed vaccine for it. For Nigeria, strict vigilance, preventive and curative preparedness must still be maintained now and in the coming weeks and months until a vaccine is ready for this latest international plague. 

This is no time for unguarded business as usual or for a relaxation of any preventive and curative programs and processes that have been put in place. Research, within Nigeria and in collaboration with pertinent international and national organizations, needs to continue and even stepped up until a mass produce able cure and vaccine for Ebola are developed. Nigeria should see itself as capable of generating what the world is yearning for—a permanent cure and vaccine for Ebola.

As a social critic, I have, more often than not, produced essays that bemoaned Nigeria’s lapses in various spheres of life. I must confess that this occasion is one of rare moments in that nation's history, when I found it necessary, not to criticize, but to praise and salute Nigeria for a job well done. 

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, and Federal Health Minister, Dr. Onyebuchi Chukwu deserve to be especially commended for mobilizing and leading both the nation and the populous state of Lagos out of an existential threat that befell the Nigerian nation rather suddenly. Their success attests to what Nigeria, as a nation acting collectively, is capable of achieving in various spheres of human endeavor.

Yes, in an earlier piece, I had opined that given Nigeria’s membership in the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS), the attendant heavy cross-border human traffic that this regional economic group necessarily entails, and the emergent Ebola-infestation of three fellow ECOWAS nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Nigeria should have foreseen a Patrick Sawyer (American-Liberian) index occurrence and prepared accordingly. The September 15, 2014 testimonial by Ebola survivor, Dr. Ada Igonoh (http://www.bellanaija.com/2014/09/15/must-read-through-the-valley-of-the-shadow-of-death-dr-ada-igonoh-survived-ebola-this-is-her-story/) showed that the reverse was the case but that Nigerian authorities gradually and eventually came to grips with this grave national challenge.

All available evidence demonstrates that defeating Ebola (and it must be defeated across the globe) calls for transparency from all parties—the unfortunate victims, the health monitors, the healers, and the post-healing evaluators and facilitatory national and international bodies. President Barack Obama could not have said it better when he cried out recently that Ebola represents “a potential threat to global security” (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/16/remarks-president-ebola-outbreak).

Obama announced that the U.S. planned to send 3,000 U.S. troops “to a new command center in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, to help with the transportation of supplies and other personnel.” Those solders would “construct 17 health care facilities of 100 beds each to isolate and treat victims. The plan included the setting up of a US facility “to train 500 health care workers per week” (http://www.voanews.com/content/us-sending-troops-to-liberia-expanded-ebola-effort/2451118.html).

The United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO), America’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and pertinent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have also been energetic in their contributions to global humanity’s ongoing response to the monster.
As Nigeria celebrates the 54^th anniversary of her achievement of political independence from British colonialism on October 1,  1960, for at least once, I found a concrete reason to say “hearty congratulations” to the ruling elite of Nigeria for its victorious war against Ebola although it’s understandable that the battle is far from over. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!