EVEN EBOLA HAS BEEN POLITICISED HMMM.... WHICH WAY NIGERIA?

OPPOSITION All Progressives Congress (APC) is kicking against the alleged appropriation of the glory of Nigeria’s successful containment of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) to President Goodluck Jonathan and his ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

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This came as the leadership of the PDP lambasted the APC, over its position on the efforts of the PDP-led Federal Government to curtail the spread of the dreaded EVD in Nigeria.
The APC said two of its governors, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State deserved as much credit as the Federal Government on the success story of Ebola containment.
It added that it would amount to sheer dishonesty for the duo to allegedly turn what was a collective effort to a PDP campaign issue.



Reacting, the PDP, in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja, on Sunday by its national publicity secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, declared that the position of the APC was another failed attempt to discredit the administration and relegate its efforts in the containment of making the country a home for all to the background.
PDP stated that the APC was frustrated and unhappy because Nigerians were happy with the PDP-led Federal Government for “the speed and energy with which it tackled the scourge and brought it under control.”
According to the PDP, “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 brought under control.”
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 approaches for treatment, awareness and control to the admiration of all Nigerians and the international community.
In a statement issued in London, also on Sunday by its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC, however, praised the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu for a yeo-man’s job and professionalism in the containment of the disease.
The party said Jonathan and his party were wrong to have allegedly appropriated the credit for the successful containment of the EVD without giving due credit to the real heroes of the successful battle like 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 the president’s alleged decision to make the Ebola success story a campaign issue during a PDP rally in Benin, allegedly giving the impression that only the PDP deserved the credit for the successful containment of the disease.
APC said while indeed, the Health Minister, Chukwu, exhibited a kind of professionalism and purposefulness not common with the Jonathan-led administration during the battle against Ebola, it would 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 were 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.