Ebola: Jonathan summons 36 state governors, commissioners

President Goodluck Jonathan will meet with governors of the 36 states of Nigeria and their health commissioners in Abuja on Wednesday as part of measures to curtail the spread of Ebola Virus Disease in the country.

Jonathan who disclosed this during a conference organised by the Interfaith Initiative for Peace themed: “The Imperative of Interfaith Understanding and Cooperation for Responsible Politics” said while government is doing everything possible to control the support of EVD in the country, the support of religious leaders will be needed for the overall success of the initiatives.

He assured that the federal government will assist states where necessary to put make sure that they are prepared to tackle the disease.

The President, however, lamented the action of the Liberian, Patrick Sawyer who imported EVD into the country. “It is unfortunate that one mad man brought the Ebola virus to us, but we have to contain it,” he saip.

He added there was the need for Nigerians to be careful about handling of dead bodies since it is during burials that most victims contracted the disease.

He added that reports showed that the American-Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, who imported the virus to Nigeria contracted the virus when he attended the burial of his sister.

The president who noted that information available to him indicated that about 60 per cent of the cases of the virus were transmitted during burials.

“Some people like burial ceremonies. This is not the time for burial ceremony. Somebody is dead, he is dead, leave him there. This is not the best time for those ceremonies.

“If he is dead, he is already dead, Sawyer that brought this Ebola to Nigeria; his sister died of Ebola. And he started acting somehow.

His country asked him not to leave the country. Let them observe him, but the crazy man decided to leave and found his way here,” Jonathan said, adding that, “It would not take the country more than two months to overcome the health challenge if everything is done to contain it.

On the 2015 elections, he promised that the prediction of doom for the country concerning the exercise will not come to pass. He asserted that the country will come out of the election stronger because the election would be
transparent, free and fair election as he had promised.

“Nigerians want to vote, they want their votes to count, they don’t want to be molested and they don’t want ballot boxes to be hijacked by criminals.

“If they are convinced that the process is free, fair and credible, they have no reason to be angry. Nobody can fight against ‘one man, one vote’, ‘one woman, one vote’, ‘one youth, one vote,” he said.

He added that government will make sure that Nigerians are not killed during and after elections by deploying adequate number of security men.

The President also chided those complaining about heavy deployment for recent elections, especially the opposition and some activist groups while recalling the killings and destruction that greeted the 2011 elections, including the killing of 10 youth corps members in Bauchi State.

He added that government will never allow such situation to re-occur. He added that the defeat of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in recent elections in the country attested to his commitment to free and fair polls in the country.

“I am from the PDP, the ruling party, but I don’t use that strength to make sure that wins by all means. PDP has lost elections in Edo state, we lost in Anambra, Ondo and of course only two days back, we lost in Osun. But we know and we are saying that this country must change.

“The kind of election we had in the 1960s that led to the crisis in the West that threatened the sovereignty of this country, cannot come up again.

“The kind of elections we had during the Second Republic where some people won elections as governors and ran away from their states cannot come up again.

“Nigerians must vote and our votes must count. If I was interested in manipulating elections, my party would not be losing all these governorship elections,” he said.