President Goodluck Jonathan has said no one single-handedly worked on
ridding Nigeria of Ebola and therefore no one can claim credt for wining
the war against the virus; neither he nor any governor in the country.
According to Jonathan, the war against Ebola was won by the Nigerian
masses who cooperated with the government, as it was their cooperation
that helped the government succeed in the fight. Rivers and Lagos are
the two Nigerian states hit by the Ebola outbreak, but they are now free
of the virus.
The President said this at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while launching the Elumelu Nigeria Empowerment Fund (ENEF) aimed at supporting victims of terrorism in the country’s North-east zone.
Jonathan expressed his appreciation to Nigerians for supporting the campaign against Ebola and adhering to safety instructions and healthcare guidelines, saying that no government could have performed magic to rid the county of the deadly virus without the peoples’ support.
“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.
“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.
The president’s comments appears to be in reaction to remark by the governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, who described as fallacy, Nigeria’s flaunted success in the fight against Ebola.
“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,” Amaechi said on Wednesday during the formal declaration of former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, to run for president in 2015.
He said his Lagos state colleague, Babatunde 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,”
The President said this at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while launching the Elumelu Nigeria Empowerment Fund (ENEF) aimed at supporting victims of terrorism in the country’s North-east zone.
Jonathan expressed his appreciation to Nigerians for supporting the campaign against Ebola and adhering to safety instructions and healthcare guidelines, saying that no government could have performed magic to rid the county of the deadly virus without the peoples’ support.
“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.
“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.
The president’s comments appears to be in reaction to remark by the governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, who described as fallacy, Nigeria’s flaunted success in the fight against Ebola.
“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,” Amaechi said on Wednesday during the formal declaration of former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, to run for president in 2015.
He said his Lagos state colleague, Babatunde 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,”
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