It’s very rare to find something positive to write about the present government these days, so when the opportunity arises, I believe one should take it just to be fair. Nigeria’s response to Ebola has been largely commendable and noticed by the world, in particular the United States (not that their approval is any star measure). So far the government has put in place measures to prevent the spread of the deadly disease, starting previously with calling off the doctors’ strike that was on prior to the outbreak to the recent postponing of school resumption dates till October.
The
government’s response to the Ebola outbreak has been the most efficient this
administration has been to a crisis and let’s not forget the individual efforts
of doctors such as Dr. Stella Adadevoh. The response to the crisis not only
shows we can get things right, but that there’s still some hope for the present
government. While scores have died across the West African region in nations
such as Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Africa’s most populous nation has
managed to keep its death toll from the diseases to a minimum. While such
efficiency demonstrated by both the private and public sector will be welcome
across the board, this is Nigeria we are talking about, where one good deed is
often followed by five bad ones.
While
the government has set out to protect the public, it hasn’t seen the need to extend
this to its political campaigning, for as the government warns of unnecessary
gathering it continues to set out dates for the ruling party’s political
campaign. Apparently, even Ebola doesn’t pose a threat to the almighty PDP. This
high-handed tactic of the PDP government was recently used to turn the Bring
Back Our Girls campaign into a Bring Back Goodluck Jonathan campaign. While
there’s no denying that President Jonathan might return to power, it certainly
won’t be because people overwhelmingly wished for it, certainly not in the
droves they seek to make it look like.
So while I commend the government on its steps to prevent the outbreak- and let's not forget the paranoia of a sizeable population (saltwater, anyone?) -it pains me to see that business as usual is the order of the day for the ruling party. The lengths at which this government will go to proves how desperate they are to stay in power. At least for this one crisis, I can say we got an adequate response, now let's see if they can extend to other areas of worry while still trying to be the ruling party!
