APC, PDP In War Of Words Over Anti-Ebola Success

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), to stop taking credit for the country’s successful containment of the Ebola, saying it amounts to sheer dishonesty for the duo to turn what was a collective effort to a PDP campaign issue.
In a statement issued in London yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said President Jonathan and his party were wrong to have appropriated the credit for the successful containment of the Ebola virus disease without giving due credit to the real heroes of the successful battle: Dr. Stella Adadevoh and her colleagues at the First Consultant Hospital; officials of the ministries of health in Lagos and Rivers states and the patriotic Nigerian volunteers, among others.
It described as a cheap shot and a shameless venture the President’s decision to make the Ebola success story a campaign issue during a PDP rally in Benin, giving the impression that only the PDP deserves the credit for the successful containment of the disease.
APC said that while Health Minister, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu exhibited the kind of professionalism and purposefulness that are not common with the Jonathan administration during the battle against Ebola, it will be uncharitable for the PDP-led Federal Government to pretend as if the government of the two affected states did nothing.
The party reminded President Jonathan that the two states hit by Ebola, Lagos and Rivers, are APC states, and that the promptness, purposefulness, doggedness and determination shown by the governors of the states contributed largely to the successful containment of the virulent disease.
It said, “The cities of Lagos and Port Harcourt are perhaps the largest metropolis to have ever been hit by the Ebola since the first outbreak was recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo almost 40 years ago, and any mishandling of the disease could have spelt disaster not just for the cities but for the country as a whole.
“But the ever-dogged and determined Governors Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers States employed the same winning strategies that have stood their states out of the pack and quickly rose to the occasion, putting in place measures that ensured a quick curtailing of the Ebola spread.
“The measures include painstaking contact-tracing, unrelenting follow-up and creative treatment of infected patients even without access to the experimental drug Zmapp.
“There is no doubt that Nigeria is fortunate that the Ebola outbreaks were recorded in those two states. It is a measure of the high premium that the chief executives of both states placed on human life, a testimony to the strong health systems they are building and an indication of their purposeful approach to governance that they successfully contained the disease, thus earning Nigeria a rare accolade from the global community.
“Unlike the President and the PDP, we will also like to give credit to the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, for acting out of character with the do-nothing Jonathan Administration.
“We hope President Jonathan and his party will stop making the Ebola success story in which opposition states were the main actors a fulcrum of their campaign for the 2015 general elections. They cannot and should not take credit for the containment of Ebola in Nigeria.”
The party also advised President Jonathan not to use the Ebola containment effort as another tool to divide Nigerians along party lines.
“President Jonathan is the most divisive President in Nigeria’s history. He inherited a united Nigeria, but has divided the country along ethnic and religious lines on the altar of selfish personal ambition and short-term opportunism. It will amount to a monumental tragedy if the President will again use the Ebola success story, which has earned Nigeria a rare acclamation from the global community, as a tool to further divide Nigerians,” it said.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has lambasted the All Progressives Congress (APC) for what it described as yet another failed attempt to discredit the PDP-led Federal Government and relegate its efforts in the containment of the Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement in Abuja yesterday, said the APC was frustrated and unhappy because Nigerians are happy with the PDP-led Federal Government for “the speed and energy with which it tackled the scourge and brought it under control.”
“We know that the APC prefers that the Ebola scourge continued unabated in Nigeria so as to have what to blame the PDP-led government for. Now that it has been contained, the APC is frustrated because the people are happy with President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP-led Federal Government for the proactive manner with which the disease was confronted and overcame,” the party said.
The PDP insisted that the national success recorded on Ebola was because President Goodluck Jonathan refused to politicise the issue but took the bull by the horns through an aggressive multi-sectoral approach for treatment, awareness and control to the admiration of all Nigerians and the international community.
Metuh observed that it was public knowledge that immediately the disease surfaced in the country, the PDP-led Federal Government swung into action and co-ordinated intervention efforts with the Lagos State Government, Nigerian medical personnel and international health organizations to bring it under control.
He said, “The PDP makes bold to state that the multi-sectoral approach deployed by the Federal Government with the concerted collaboration of the federal ministries of health, aviation, information, education, transport and other relevant agencies such as the Nigerian Immigration Service for intensive screening, quarantine and treatment efforts as well as the massive awareness which ended the spread of the disease and resulted in its containment in our country.
“We are also amused by the contradictions in the APC’s statement in which it also commended the roles played by the Honorable Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu in the containment effort.
“We ask, is the minister not appointed and supervised by President Goodluck Jonathan? Is he not of the PDP? Or is the APC now trying to appropriate him?
“Apart from concerted collaborations using the Federal Ministry of Health, it is on record that President Jonathan released N200 million each to Lagos and Rivers states to help in fighting the disease, including improvement of health facilities and public enlightenment across board.
“At every point, the President recognized the efforts of all Nigerians especially the medical personnel including the brave and courageous Dr. Ameyo Stella Adedavoh and all the doctors and nurses who made sacrifices in containing the virus. It is also on record that at no time did the PDP or the President relegate the contributions of the Lagos state government on Ebola.”
Metuh added that the President acknowledged the Nigerian spirit which he said made the citizens to put their religious, political and ethnic differences aside in fighting this common enemy.

Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs Ibim Semenitari (left), with former Rivers State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Emmanuela Izunwa, during the recently-concluded Port Harcourt International Fashion Week in Port Harcourt. Photo: Egberi Sampson