•‘Bury victims where they die’
… Blasts late Liberian for importing virus into Nigeria
President Goodluck Jonathan will tomorrow meet governors, state and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) health commissioners to ensure they are properly equipped to tackle Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)
This is even as the President expressed his anger over the attitude of the late American Liberian, Patrick Sawyer for allegedly defying an order not to leave his country over his Ebola status.
Quoting World Health Organisation (WHO) analysis which states that 60 per cent spread of Ebola virus is through elaborate burial rites, Jonathan has urged Nigerians to stop the ceremony for now.
He assured those whose relatives died far from home to bury them without fanfare, promising government’s assistance in future when the Ebola crisis is over.
President Jonathan made the call  in Abuja yesterday at interfaith conference with the theme:  “The imperative of interfaith understanding and cooperation for responsible politics,” organised by both‎ the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, ‎and the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, to foster peaceful cooperation ahead of the 2015 elections. The President who commended the children who did a short play to portray Nigeria’s diversity and need to foster peace, said his administration was determined to contain the spread of Ebola, but needs the cooperation of Nigerians.
The President who was angry, said the late Sawyer defied medical advice and smuggled himself into the country thereby putting Nigeria on the list of countries battling the Ebola virus.
He said, “it is unfortunate that one man brought the Ebola to us, but we have to contain it. But this is a good forum that we will use to also plead with our religious leaders because people listen to you more than they listen to politicians. So in our various preachings in the mosques in the church, we should communicate clearly.
“I have been having discussions with people outside and within the country since this incident happened. My conversation with the Director-General of WHO, Mrs. Margaret Chan, was quite instructive.
“She said that the spread of Ebola from analysis so far, 60 per cent of spread is during burials. That’s why you will recall that in our announcement we pleaded that we must be mindful of burials. We are pleading that our people who believe in some kind of ceremonies and so on, this is not the best period for those ceremonies.
“If somebody dies now that person should be buried where he died, when we get over this, you can exhume the body if you want, government will provide the medical examiner that will help you exhume the body for you to go and bury the way you want.
“I am saying so because I have personal experience. In 1971, I was still in secondary then when cholera broke out in my mother’s community, and of course, those of us from Southern Nigeria celebrate death, and the person who died of cholera happened to be an elderly man. So they started celebrating him, for days, lying in state and all and of course, the whole village was almost wiped out,” Jonathan said.