President Goodluck Jonathan has summoned all the 36 state governors and their commissioners for health to an urgent meeting in continuation of Federal Government’s efforts aimed at containing the spread of the dreaded Ebola virus.
The meeting will hold at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.
Jonathan disclosed this during a conference organised by the Interfaith Initiative For Peace in Abuja while responding to some children who had during their presentation asked the government and religious leaders to help them end insurgency and the spread of the virus.
He promised that his administration would do everything humanly possible to contain the emergency health situation in the country.
He said, “As a government, we promise we will do everything possible to contain Ebola.
“We are doing our best, on Wednesday I am going to meet with all the governors of the states, they will come with their commissioners on health.
“We must make sure that every state is prepared, where they lack, Federal Government will support the states to make sure that they have what it takes to contain Ebola virus.
“It is unfortunate that one mad man brought the Ebola virus to us, but we have to contain it. But this is a good forum that we will use to also plead with our religious leaders because people listen to you more than they listen to politicians.”
Beware of burial ceremonies, says President.
The President said based on the information available to him that about 60 per cent of the cases of the virus were transmitted during burials, there was the need for Nigerians to be mindful of burials.
He said available reports showed that the American-Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, who imported the virus to Nigeria contacted the virus during the burial of his sister which he attended.
He said rather than wait behind to be quarantined, Sawyer forced his way into Nigeria and infected others.
He said it was imperative that people are allowed to be buried wherever they die rather than corpses being moved from one part of the country to the other.
He said those who derive pleasure in celebrating deaths could wait until a more auspicious time when the challenge would have been overcome and then go ahead to exhume the corpses of their loved ones and re-burry them.
The President expressed the belief that if the situation is managed well, it would not take the country more than two months to overcome the health challenge.
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