Man is not the creature of circumstances,” bellowed Benjamin Disraeli. “Circumstances are the creatures of men.” Many observers of Nigeria’s etiolated development since achieving flag independence 54 years ago, have often wondered if the 19th century English statesman and novelist didn’t get things all mixed up. Not a few commentators have tended to ask whether the nation’s fate isn’t written in the stars. What with all the fumbling, wobbling and squandering of riches that have culminated in the coining of the highly vexatious moniker dubbed ‘the Nigerian factor’!
To proponents of the foregoing school of thought, Nigeria must have found herself in the same circumstances as did a region of Palestine in the times of Jesus Christ when one of His soon-to-be disciples cynically asked his recruiter: “Can any good come out of Nazareth?” Needless to say that considerable good did come out of Nazareth as evidenced by the undeniable impact the teachings of Jesus have made, and continue to make, on mankind.
It was panic stations in the country on July 20, 2014 when Patrick Sawyer, a dual United States-Liberian citizen and ECOWAS diplomat, flew into Lagos for the treatment of what later turned out to be the highly dreaded Ebola disease that was already ravishing most of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra-Leone. That was the beginning of a real nightmare for all Nigerians as well as governments and citizens of adjoining nations.
And now – wait for it – U.S. health experts and even CDC Director-General Dr. Thomas Frieden have appeared on CNN and major American television networks to cite Nigeria’s experience at containing the outbreak of the Ebola virus disease as a huge success story that should be emulated in the USA! Not only that, American medical experts have reportedly been sent to understudy how Nigeria tamed Ebola!
Citing Nigeria’s “quick and coordinated action,” international health experts waxed lyrical: “For those who say it (stopping the Ebola epidemic in its tracks) is hopeless, this (Nigeria) is an antidote; it can be controlled.” When was the last time Nigeria was given such a glowing reference by western democracies? Failure, it is said, is an orphan while success tends to have many fathers. Still, it cannot be denied that one man was squarely in-charge and his name is Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, the nation’s health minister.
Just as an aside, those who hypothesise that there’s nothing to a name (“A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet”), may have cause to reconsider their stance when they take the health minister’s name into consideration. The minister’s first name Onyebuchi literally means “Who’s the creator?” And as if going ahead to immediately provide an answer to the question, his surname (or last name) means “God.” So, in a nutshell, God is the creator of all the universe. How apt and fortuitous, because it had to take God’s intervention to rapidly make Nigeria Ebola-free and spare us horrendous spectacles.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), so far, the world’s worst Ebola epidemic has claimed 3,091 lives in five West African countries out of the 6,574 infected. WHO also disclosed that Nigeria accounted for eight of the dead and 20 of the confirmed cases. Truth be told, Nigeria and Nigerians have very few friends in Africa and the rest of the world. Some say we are too pushy and loud while others say we are too corrupt and ever ready to do anything for a fast buck. Imagine the ammunition a rampaging Ebola epidemic would have provided to those only ready to paint us black (no pun intended). A country like Congo even had the ‘animal boldness’ to protest to CAF to relocate their football match with our Super Eagles to another country so their players won’t contact Ebola!
Chukwu must be congratulated for taking quick actions to set up a national incident management centre for a coordinated response and ensuring that the various state governments set up isolation facilities. He oversaw efforts by various state health authorities to quickly track down all the primary and secondary contacts of the initial hosts. He equally provided regular, spin-free updates on the progress being made to control the outbreak of the dreaded disease and provided easy-to-follow schematic diagrams of how members of the public could protect themselves.
“There are no events so disastrous that adroit men do not draw some advantage from them,” averred 17th century French writer, Francois La Rochefoucauld, “nor any so fortunate that the imprudent cannot turn to their prejudice.” Chukwu chose not to be imprudent like the typical partisan Nigerian government official; on the contrary he adroitly raised the ante by refusing to play silly blame games. He worked most amiably and professionally with the Lagos State Government to bring full closure to the Patrick Sawyer saga not minding that the state was controlled by the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) – a state Abuja wants to ‘capture’ at all costs in 2015.
Putting political differences aside, Chukwu also deftly side-stepped concerted efforts by influence peddlers in the corridors of power to turn the reported outbreak of the disease in Port Harcourt into a blame-Amaechi game. Chukwu constitutes a breadth of fresh air in a federal cabinet dominated by ministers appointed largely for their envisaged roles in making President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid a reality. Chukwu is the type of leader this nation desires and truly deserves, For nipping a looming calamity in the bud in a most professional and bi-partisan manner.