• Gbajabiamila: we mustn’t be caught off guard
•NCDC declares no Ebola case recorded, sensitises states and border agencies
Deji Elumoye in Abuja
In a move to prevent the outbreak of Ebola in Nigeria, the federal government on Thursday inaugurated a Presidential Task Force on Ebola Virus Disease Preparedness, stressing that Nigeria would not wait for an outbreak before taking action.
It vowed to prevent a repeat of the 2014 Ebola scare in the country.
Chairman of the task force and Chief of Staff to the President, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, said the task force was set up as a proactive measure to ensure Nigeria was prepared against any possible outbreak of the deadly disease.
NCDC confirmed that no case of Ebola had been reported in Nigeria.
Speaking with newsmen after inaugurating the task force at State House, Abuja, Gbajabiamila said the government’s focus was on prevention rather than response, stressing that authorities are determined not to be caught unprepared.
He said, “We did the inauguration today on the preparedness of Nigeria for the Ebola virus disease. We’ve covered a lot of grounds. Right now, there’s no case reported, and that’s good news, and that’s why all hands have to be on deck to make sure that the measures we are taking are preventive and not curative.
“We don’t want to be in the situation we were last time, where we had a carrier in the country and we’re all running helter-skelter.”
The chief of staff disclosed that the task force had established several subcommittees to coordinate critical areas of preparedness, including surveillance, border control, immigration management, and emergency response.
The task force chairman stressed that one of the key lessons from the 2014 outbreak was the need for stronger coordination among all stakeholders, particularly between the federal government and sub-nationals, with regard to international points of entry.
Gbajabiamila stated that governors and representatives of states hosting international airports, including Lagos, Rivers, Enugu, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), participated in the meeting, describing the collaboration as essential to preventing the virus from entering the country.
He said special attention was also being given to Nigeria’s extensive land borders, warning that disease transmission through informal migration routes poses a significant risk.
Gbajabiamila stated, “Normally when people talk about emergency preparedness and cross-border diseases such as this, they think about airports.
“But now we’re covering not just the airports; we’re putting a lot of emphasis on land borders.
“We have a lot of cross-migration through the land borders, and the Border Control Development Agency is involved, immigration is involved, and a lot of the border communities are involved.”
Gbajabiamila said government had drawn valuable lessons from the country’s successful containment of the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and was building stronger structures to eliminate gaps in preparedness.
“What we want is a zero case, as we have now. We want to maintain a zero case,” he added.
Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Dr. Jide Idris, said surveillance systems had already been strengthened at major points of entry across the country, particularly airports.
Idris confirmed that Nigeria currently had no recorded case of Ebola but stressed that preparedness remained critical given recent developments in parts of Africa.
He stated, “The focus is to be prepared. We don’t have any Ebola case here now, but we need to be prepared. We need to ensure that we don’t get that Ebola virus here.
“However, just in case one slips in, we want to be prepared nationally to identify and deal with the case.”
Idris explained that existing disease surveillance and emergency response structures were being upgraded and adapted specifically to address Ebola-related threats.
He said the preparedness framework brought together multiple government institutions, including the ministries of health, interior and education, as well as immigration, border control agencies and state governments.
According to him, emergency preparedness requires a coordinated national response built on teamwork, clearly defined responsibilities, and an effective command-and-control structure.
“The bottom line is that the objective is we do not allow Ebola to come in. If it does come in, we are prepared to rapidly identify and manage the case nationally,” the NCDC boss said.
Idris added that state governments across the federation had already been mobilised as part of the preparedness strategy, with efforts focused on surveillance, early detection, rapid response and public health coordination.
