The Federal Government has inaugurated a Presidential Task Force on Ebola Virus Disease Preparedness, signalling its intention to act before any outbreak occurs rather than scramble to contain one.
Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, who inaugurated the task force at the State House in Abuja on Thursday, said the government’s goal was straightforward: keep Nigeria at zero cases.
“We don’t want to be in the situation we were last time, where we had a carrier in the country and we’re all running helter-skelter,” Gbajabiamila told State House correspondents, referencing the 2014 Ebola crisis that forced Nigeria into emergency containment mode.
He confirmed that no Ebola case has been recorded in the country but stressed that the absence of an outbreak was precisely the right moment to act. “The measures we are taking are preventive, not curative,” he said.
The task force has been structured into subcommittees covering surveillance, border control, immigration management and emergency response. Governors and representatives from Lagos, Rivers, Enugu and the Federal Capital Territory participated in the inaugural meeting — a deliberate choice given those states’ proximity to major entry points.
Notably, Gbajabiamila said attention would extend well beyond airports. “We’re placing greater emphasis on land borders. We have a lot of cross-migration through the land borders, and the Border Control Development Agency is involved, immigration is involved, and a lot of the border communities are involved,” he said.
The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Jide Idris, said surveillance systems at major points of entry have been strengthened and existing emergency response infrastructure is being upgraded to address Ebola-specific threats. The preparedness framework draws in the ministries of health, interior and education, as well as immigration and border control agencies.
“The bottom line is that we do not allow Ebola to come in. If it does come in, we are prepared to rapidly identify and manage the case nationally,” Idris said.
The inauguration comes as parts of Africa face renewed Ebola vigilance.
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