We must not pretend in Africa that we were caught unawares by the current outbreak of the Ebola epidemic because as the Igbo speaking nationality in Nigeria say, a pre-arranged war does not consume even a crippled man.
The leadership of a panic stricken African Union (AU) must therefore use this tragedy to accept some unpalatable home truths. Poignantly, ahead of this week’s summit with African leaders, United States President Barack Obama, himself of African descent, sensibly called on African nations to look inwards for solutions to their economic woes and not make “excuses” based on a history of dependence and colonization.
Obama was of course being diplomatic. For the latest debilitation categorically highlights the failure of the African post-colonial state. The African Union (AU) has had 40 years notice with which to prepare since the first outbreak of Ebola. In view of this, the state of (or lack of) preparedness bothers on criminal neglect. And we must not continue to live in destructive self- denial.
After the first outbreak around the Ebola River in the Congo, the precursor of the AU ought to have pulled resources to develop a vaccine with a leading pharmaceutical giant as well as to develop containment strategies in response to a possible outbreak. None of this was done. Instead, in the component states billions of dollars have gone down the drain due to corruption, waste, illegal capital transfers underpinned by the delusions of grandeur which has resulted in over blown recurrent expenditures used to build and sustain absurd white elephants such as, “befitting state houses and banquet halls” as well as “bridges to nowhere.”
Now that the chickens have come home to roost, the inadequacies have crystalised. And predictably the responses have been below par. In the United Kingdom for example, ministers quickly convened an emergency cobra (security) committee meeting chaired by the Foreign Secretary, Phillip Hammond. The crisis meeting is in response to the “very serious threat” posed by the world’s worst outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.
Instructive in this response are two issues. In the first place, there was a pronounced sense of fear leading to urgency. Second, the Ebola virus has been elevated to a threat to homeland security at a par with the counter-terrorism effort. None of this is being replicated in Africa. What we have on our hands is a potential disaster and has to be treated as a national emergency. For this reason, a sensibly worked out containment strategy has to be put in place.
As epidemic in a major metropolis in Nigeria will be cataclysmic, what has to be done includes a massive, hitherto unprecedented public health awareness campaign. Furthermore, wings of public hospitals must now be designated for treatment in case of an outbreak. In addition, there must be emergency training of paramedics and the immediate air-lifting of protective clothing for medical personnel. This should be stored in warehouses throughout the local governments. The fight against the Ebola virus must be placed at a par with the fight against the equally narcissist Boko Haram insurgents.
President Obama in his observation which we have earlier referred to was emphatic that there was not a “single country” in Africa that could not be doing better with the resources it had. This is of course stating the obvious. Concomitantly, there is certainly not a single African country which should not have a better approach to public health and environmental issues.
The outbreak of the Ebola virus has shown up the inadequacy as well as the technical incompetence of the African post-colonial state. It is a disgrace and inadvertently confirms the supremacist nonsense that “these people are not capable of governing themselves.”
As we mourn the dead and highlight the sacrifices made by the gallant public health officials who have made the ultimate sacrifice, Africa from AU level to local governments must make a new turn and say NEVER AGAIN!