Former Nigerian president, Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo, on Saturday, August 30, 2014 lampooned Liberian officials, for allegedly conniving with the late Liberian national, Patrick Sawyer who became Nigeria’s index Ebola case during a visit to the country.
Obasanjo made the statement while answering questions from guest in a programme tagged ‘An afternoon with Obasanjo’ organised by Oluwaseyi Adegoke-Adeyemo, the publisher of Inside Watch Africa magazine which held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta.
Obasanjo further stated that that one misadventure has started to affect manpower and the economy of Nigeria and the West African sub-region a s a whole.
Punch reports:
He said, “It is devilish enough that Patrick Sawyer had to spread this, and indeed spread it to Nigeria in connivance with some authorities from his country. They knew he had it before he came to Nigeria.
“The EVD has started to take its toll on the country and the West African sub region. The toll is not only on the number of those that are ill or dead but on the economies of communities, country, region and sub-region.”
Obasanjo, said he had a meeting with the Ghanaian President, Mr. John Mahama, who’s also the chairman of the Economic Community of West African Countries, some weeks ago, and they discussed how to contain the spread of the deadly virus within the sub-region.
But he explained that while Mahama wanted the meeting of ministers of health, he observed there was a limit the ministers could go and that a summit of the presidents in the sub-region would be better.
The former president noted that EVD was not only a regional or sub-regional threat but a global one. He called for a summit of where a national policy on the disease would be formulated.
Obasanjo also advocated the need to encourage the world pharmaceutical companies to carry on research on the virus and coming up with the needed vaccine to eliminate it.
He said, “Pharmaceutical companies in the country should be encourage to carry out research on the EVD and come up with vaccines to treat the deadly disease.
“Also, we have to be aggressive in taking precautionary measures. When you see your neighbour or someone who has unique symptoms not just of ordinary cold or fever, take him to the doctor, whether it is symptomatic of Ebola or ordinary malaria.”
