Ebola: Jonathan summons govs to Aso Rock

•Wants burial ceremonies stopped •Says 60% of Ebola spread comes from burials President Goodluck Jonathan says he will tomorrow meet with the 36 state governors and their commissioners for health to discuss how to contain the spread of Ebola virus in the country. The president said this in Abuja today at the ‎interfaith conference convened […]

•Wants burial ceremonies stopped
•Says 60% of Ebola spread comes from burials

President Goodluck Jonathan says he will tomorrow meet with the 36 state governors and their commissioners for health to discuss how to contain the spread of Ebola virus in the country.

The president said this in Abuja today at the ‎interfaith conference convened by the Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III and John Cardinal Onaiyekan‎.

The theme of the conference was “The Imperative of Interfaith Understanding and Cooperation for Responsible Politics”.

The president assured that the Federal Government would do everything possible to contain Ebola virus, especially by assisting states that lack the capacity to contain the deadly disease.

“As a government, we promise we’ll do everything possible to contain Ebola. We’re doing our best. On Wednesday, I’m going to meet with all the governors of the states, they’ll come with their commissioners for health, and we must make sure that every state is prepared. Where they (states) lack, the federal government will support the states to make sure that they have what it takes to contain Ebola virus”, he said.

The president pleaded that for now, burial ceremonies should be stopped in the country for now, saying anybody who died should be buried where he/she died.

He said he recently learnt from the Director General of the World Health Organisation, Mrs Marget Chan, that 60 percent of the spread of Ebola virus comes from burial.

Jonathan, who cautioned against reckless sharing of food and drinks and unnecessary body contacts, also appealed to spiritual healing homes to manage their activities professionally.

“My conversation with the Director General of the World Health Organisation, Mrs Marget Chan, was quite instructive. She said that the spread of ebola from analysis so far, 60 percent of spread is during burials. That is, you’d recall that in our announcement, we pleaded that we must be mindful of burials.

“We’re 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, the government will provide the medical examiner that will help you exhume the body for you to go and bury the way you want.

“I’m saying so because I’ve a 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. 

“So, when the Director General of WHO told me 60 per cent of the spread of ebola was though burial‎s, we must advise our people not to over celebrate burials now. The dead should be allowed to bury the dead. Sawyer that brought this Ebola to Nigeria also contracted it because his sister died of Ebola and he went for the burial and he participated in a way that he became a suspect. And the country asked him not to leave the country so that he would be observed, but the crazy man decided to smuggle himself out and now we’re suffering because of it.

“So we are pleading with religious leaders that most of the religious things we do, the traditional things we do, sharing of food and sharing of drinks, unnecessary body contacts and so on and so forth, spiritual healing homes within this period let us manage it professionally. Let us listen to the suggestions by professional health workers so save our people, If we manage it well, we can get over it in two months and we will return to our normal lives. Immediately people stop dying, we can go back to our normal lives.

“Now if a Nigerian is travelling out of this country and you have ordinary fever, you will be quarantined. The first thing they do is to check the temperature in your eye, and immediately the temperature is high, they’ll suspect and quarantine you and test you for Ebola before they can release you to join normal people. 

“So, we must work together. We have to sacrifice certain privileges so that we can get out of the Ebola problem as early as possible. Even some of these social media send out all kinds of instructions for people that they should drink salt. Please, don’t drink salt. Taking excess salt is extremely dangerous. ‎If you bath with it, it might not hurt you much that is why you can bath with salt water in the ocean, but drinking it is extremely dangerous”, he said.

The president also urged religious leaders in the country to educate their adherents on Ebola virus.

“It’s unfortunate that one mad man brought Ebola to us, but we have to contain it. But this is a good forum we’ll use to also plead with our religious leaders‎ because people listen to you more than they listen to politicians. So, in our various preaching in the mosques in the church, we should communicate clearly. I’ve been having discussions with people outside and within the country since this incident happened”, he said.