Ebola virus and NBA AGC

The trending Ebola virus has been one of great concern to lawyers who initially planned to attend the NBA 54th annual conference in Imo State, the ‘eastern heartland’. Some have pulled out from attending the conference and some would still attend despite the Ebola.  Since Patrick Sawyer found his way through our porous borders, handshakes, […]

The trending Ebola virus has been one of great concern to lawyers who initially planned to attend the NBA 54th annual conference in Imo State, the ‘eastern heartland’. Some have pulled out from attending the conference and some would still attend despite the Ebola.  Since Patrick Sawyer found his way through our porous borders, handshakes, hugs and body contact of any from are gradually becoming a taboo all in a bid not to catch Ebola. The fear of the virus is so strong that majority of Nigerians were forced to wake up around 3a.m. or so to bath and drink salt.  If only our citizens can vigorously take this approach to government policies and its representatives, this country would wake up.
The National Human Rights Commission has been calling for the conference to be suspended and postponed till the death of this plague is certain to avoid any further spread. While I agree that a place going to host almost 10,000 lawyers from different jurisdictions, including Lagos that has recorded some deaths, is prone to the virus and it can easily spread without control. The call for the suspension came very late, if at all the conference ought to be suspended, NHRC should have made the call for the suspension over 21 days ago when Patrick Sawyer first stepped into Nigeria.
The Federal Ministry of Health has cleared the conference to go on, the outgoing president of NBA, Okey Wali(SAN), has assured all lawyers that preventive measures have been put in place to avoid any spread of the virus. He promised that hand sanitisers and towels would be included in conference materials and advised that body contact should be minimised.
 The challenge is this, not all lawyers who attend the conference pay the conference fee, as such they are not entitled to conference materials; so what preventive measures are in place for such lawyers? Because, whether we like it or not, the Ebola is not interested in who paid or who did not pay for the conference.
It would be better if screening centres are provided to check all conferees and tap outlets where conferees can wash their hands at all times close to the venue of any activity.
The appropriate behaviour for young lawyers at the conference, no matter how difficult is to minimise body contact with colleagues from other jurisdictions that we haven’t seen in a while, at best the ‘Ebola handshake’ will suffice. Truth be said, body contact in a place like that would be difficult to curtail, young wigs are advised to wash their hands at all times, sanitisers kill only 99.9% of the germs and leave .1% in the hand, in essence, the sure bet is the constant washing of hands as the sanitiser cannot kill all the germs.
My fun time in the conference has always been ‘the young lawyers party’ and no matter how one may try, it is quite impossible to be in a place like that and avoid body contact, even if you are determined in your mind not to touch anybody, somebody must touch you; not to forget the sweat flying around the dance floor, ‘abi you want go party no dance?’
Be that as it may, the World Health Organisation has said that the virus is only contagious when a patient has started showing symptoms like coughing blood or pores in the skin et al, so watch out for symptoms in colleagues and if you suspect any, please don’t hesitate to report same.
Young wigs, before attending the conference or while at the conference, should strive to read everything they can lay their hands on about the virus, ‘ask google’. It is the duty of a lawyer to be well informed, so read tips on how to avoid contracting the virus, the early symptoms that can be found in patients with the virus and so on and so forth.
God is the protector of man but heaven helps those who help themselves; the time to be careless is not now, cleanliness they say is next to Godliness. Wish everyone an ‘Ebola free’ conference.
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