Nigeria: Ebola and Resumption of Schools

17 September 2014

THE insistence by the Federal Government on a resumption date of September 22 after having initially chosen a more realistic distant October 13, smacks of insensitivity to the health of the nation's children in the face of the prospect of the outbreak of a pandemic.

It is just as well, therefore, that the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), has vowed not to resume work for now. The teachers' position that more time should be given to the Ebola scourge to be contained before schools resume is reasonable. When the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) spread to Nigeria through the Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, the country rose to the occasion, worked tirelessly at its full containment. The remarkable ingenuity of management of the disease earned the country instant credit. For example, the World Health Organisation (WHO) commended the way Nigeria handled the EVD and passed it as model for other affected countries to follow. In the same vein, the United Nations Secretary General Special Envoy, David Navarro praised the country for demonstrating leadership in the containment of the EVD. Indeed, this newspaper also acknowledged that the country whose leadership is noted for mediocrity got it right for the first time in the manner it handled the EVD outbreak. These commendations would seem misplaced if a decision is not taken to err on the side of caution and, instead, the insistence on resumption of schools holds.

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