FG launches Ebola preparedness task force, confirms no case in Nigeria while strengthening surveillance at borders and airports nationwide.
In a deft move to prevent the outbreak of Ebola in the country, the Federal Government
on Thursday inaugurated a Presidential Task Force on Ebola Virus Disease Preparedness, stressing that Nigeria would not wait for an outbreak before taking action.
It also vowed to prevent a repeat of the 2014 Ebola scare in the country.
Chairman of the Task Force and Chief of Staff to the President, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, said the task force was set up as a proactive measure to ensure Nigeria is fully prepared against any possible outbreak of the deadly disease, just as NCDC confirmed that no case of Ebola has been reported in Nigeria.
Speaking with newsmen after inaugurating the task force at the State House, Abuja, the CoS said the government’s focus is on prevention rather than response, stressing that authorities were determined not to be caught unprepared.
He said: “We did the inauguration today on the preparedness of Nigeria for the Ebola virus disease. We’ve covered a lot of grounds. Right now, there’s no case reported, and that’s good news, and that’s why all hands have to be on deck to make sure that the measures we are taking are preventive and not curative.
“We don’t want to be in the situation we were last time, where we had a carrier in the country and we’re all running helter-skelter”.
He disclosed that the task force had established several subcommittees to coordinate critical areas of preparedness, including surveillance, border control, immigration management and emergency response.
The Task Force Chairman stressed that one of the key lessons from the 2014 outbreak is the need for stronger coordination among all stakeholders, particularly between the Federal Government and subnationals with international points of entry.
Gbajabiamila noted that governors and representatives of states hosting international airports, including Lagos, Rivers, Enugu and the Federal Capital Territory, participated in the meeting, describing the collaboration as essential to preventing the virus from entering the country.
According to him, special attention was also being given to Nigeria’s extensive land borders, warning that disease transmission through informal migration routes posed a significant risk.
“Normally when people talk about emergency preparedness and cross-border diseases such as this, they think about airports. But now we’re covering not just the airports; we’re putting a lot of emphasis on land borders.
“We have a lot of cross-migration through the land borders, and the Border Control Development Agency is involved, immigration is involved, and a lot of the border communities are involved”, he said.
Gbajabiamila said government had drawn valuable lessons from the country’s successful containment of the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and was building stronger structures to eliminate gaps in preparedness.
“What we want is a zero case, as we have now. We want to maintain a zero case”, he added.
Also speaking, Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Dr. Jide Idris, said surveillance systems had already been strengthened at major points of entry across the country, particularly airports.
He confirmed that Nigeria currently has no recorded case of Ebola but stressed that preparedness remained critical given recent developments in parts of Africa.
His words: “The focus is to be prepared. We don’t have any Ebola case here now, but we need to be prepared. We need to ensure that we don’t get that Ebola virus here.
“However, just in case one slips in, we want to be prepared nationally to identify and deal with the case”.
Idris explained that existing disease surveillance and emergency response structures were being upgraded and adapted specifically to address Ebola-related threats.
He said the preparedness framework brings together multiple government institutions, including the ministries of health, interior and education, as well as immigration, border control agencies and state governments.
According to him, emergency preparedness requires a coordinated national response built on teamwork, clearly defined responsibilities and an effective command-and-control structure.
“The bottom line is that the objective is that we do not allow Ebola to come in. If it does come in, we are prepared to rapidly identify and manage the case nationally”, the NCDC boss said.
Idris added that state governments across the federation had already been mobilised as part of the preparedness strategy, with efforts focused on surveillance, early detection, rapid response and public health coordination.