But speaking to newsmen this weekend, Mr Awute said that he was so overwhelmed by fight the health ministry fought against Ebola that he had planned leaving the ministry. He said “I didn’t believe were free of Ebola. First I attempted to leave the ministry with the fear that Ebola might return and we will be put on another high jump. That didn’t work.” “Let me tell you something; when we talk about Ebola containment, people tend to limit it to the process that led to the holding of Patrick Sawyer, those that were affected by the disease, the process of contact tracing, laboratory and diagnosis, treatment and eventual certification by WHO as Ebola free.

“Do not forget that when we were certified free of Ebola, the ordinary thing would have been for Nigeria to go on to celebrate but we didn’t celebrate,” he told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY. According to Awute, Nigeria has not celebrated its Ebola free status since last year because the ministry believes that so long as Ebola harbours in any corner of the African region particularly in West Africa, then Nigeria was not free. “That was the decision we took and that decision was taken by the permanent secretary,” he said. Awute explained that he personally turned down any proposal for celebration even when there were ministers.

“We refused to celebrate because I refused to celebrate. When you bring a file with a proposal of how you want to celebrate your achievement and I said no because of certain reasons. It does not go to the minister anymore, it dies there,” he said. According to the permanent secretary, he refused to approve all proposals for celebration because of Nigeria’s population size and the possibility of Nigerians who are known for their global businesses and travels bringing back the disease were ever present. Given that kind of scenario, there was no reason for Nigeria to believe that it was over with Ebola in Nigeria.

Available data shows that the worst outbreak of Ebola on record has killed more than 11,000 people in Sierra Leone, Guinea and neighbouring Liberia since it began in December 2013. There was also the need to intensify surveillance at the nation’s land crossings, seas, airports and the unmanned borderlines. “Another thing is the number of Nigerians we have at Liberia and how are we sure they are not going to return with Ebola. What right do have to stop a Nigerian who wants to return and visit his family? We had to take all these into consideration and came up with the measures,” Awute noted.

He explained that Ebola containment did not commence with Patrick Sawyer landing the country, infecting many people- some died, other cured- and later declaration by WHO as Ebola free. He said “One good thing that we did was to take our medical contingent to Liberia to join others to stop and finish with Ebola in Liberia. At the time we ought to have been celebrating that we have contained Ebola, we were busy fighting it elsewhere. We had to make sure that any Nigeria returning home will be kept at a particular place where he had to be cleared of Ebola before coming home.”

“Do you know how many corpses that we repatriated while Nigeria was already Ebola free? Do you know how many people that we have arrested on our land crossing that we had to put at holding centres? Meanwhile, the generality of the population out there was celebrating that we have contained Ebola as if the ministry of health was free but that was even when our job began.” Awute said that even though Nigeria has made modest gains in health in recent times, it would be illusive to lose sight of the many challenges that the country faces such as infant and maternal mortality.

“I have always stated that health care can never be separated from economic development. The greatest resource in this country is not the oil but the human resource that we have,” he added.

Source:Leadership Online