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Twelve years after Nigeria won international recognition for successfully containing one of the world’s deadliest disease outbreaks, the country is again preparing for a possible Ebola threat.
Following fresh Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda, President Bola Tinubu has ordered a nationwide preparedness campaign, approved emergency funding and established a Presidential Task Force to coordinate the country’s response.
Health authorities have expressed concern that increased travel, cross-border movement and porous borders could raise the risk of the virus entering Nigeria.
₦10bn Emergency Fund
President Tinubu approved the creation of a Presidential Task Force on Ebola Virus Disease Preparedness and Emerging Public Health Threats and authorised the immediate release of ₦10 billion to strengthen national preparedness.
According to the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the funding will enhance the operational capacity of the National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and support key emergency response measures.
Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila will chair the task force, which will include representatives from relevant ministries, agencies and state governments.
The government reached the decision after a high-level stakeholders’ meeting reviewed Nigeria’s readiness and developed strategies to prevent the virus from entering the country.
Airport and Border Surveillance
The Federal Government has introduced a range of preventive measures to strengthen screening and monitoring at entry points.
The measures include enhanced temperature checks and crowd-control procedures at international airports, closer monitoring of passengers arriving on high-risk routes, and the activation of referral and isolation centres at the international airports in Lagos and Abuja.
Authorities will also introduce mandatory QR code-based pre-arrival health declarations for travellers arriving from or transiting through designated high-risk countries.
Other measures include the disinfection of airport facilities, cargo handling zones and baggage areas. Government officials are also consulting aviation, diplomatic and security agencies on possible flight regulations involving affected countries.
States with international airports and major border corridors have been directed to submit preparedness plans and funding requirements for coordinated implementation.
NCDC Raises Alarm
The NCDC has classified the risk of Ebola entering Nigeria as high.
Speaking at a media briefing in Lagos, NCDC Director-General Dr. Jide Idris said authorities based the assessment on ongoing outbreaks in East Africa, rising international travel and the challenge of monitoring porous borders.
He noted that Nigeria has not recorded any confirmed Ebola case but said officials have intensified surveillance and preparedness efforts across the country.
Dr. Idris explained that detecting Ebola remains challenging because its symptoms often resemble those of common illnesses such as malaria and Lassa fever.
He urged state governments to activate emergency preparedness mechanisms and called on healthcare workers nationwide to remain alert.
“Since confirmation of the outbreak in the region, NCDC has intensified the preparedness activities nationwide to ensure that Nigeria remains ready to rapidly detect, investigate, contain, and respond to any potential outbreak of disease,” he said.
The agency added that it has already activated several response pillars, including risk communication, case management and coordination with health stakeholders.
Lessons From 2014
Many public health experts believe Nigeria’s strongest defence lies in the lessons learnt during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
The outbreak began when Liberian-American traveller Patrick Sawyer arrived in Lagos carrying the virus. The disease claimed several lives, including that of renowned physician Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, whose actions helped prevent a wider national crisis.
Experts believe Nigeria should revive the strategies that helped contain the outbreak more than a decade ago.
“It’s very important because, in 2014, community engagement really helped. Public health education via radio, one-on-one engagement, community leaders and religious leaders really helped to contain it,” Dr. Abdullahi Nasiru, a Consultant and Clinical Microbiologist at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, told Channels Television.
“I think we need to begin to look at those things that gave us that success story in 2014 and bring them back because we have to leverage the existing infrastructure and everything that was done then that was able to help us minimise the fatality rate associated with the disease,” he added.
Why the Threat Matters
Ebola remains one of the deadliest viral diseases in the world. The virus spreads through close contact and bodily fluids and has killed hundreds of people across Africa over the past five decades.
The latest outbreak in Central Africa has heightened concerns among health authorities. Health agencies have reported hundreds of confirmed cases and dozens of deaths in the DRC and Uganda.
The current outbreak marks the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC. A recent WHO overview showed that nearly 500 cases have been confirmed in the ongoing epidemic in Central Africa, raising concerns over its growing scale.
Nigeria now faces the challenge of ensuring that a disease it once successfully contained does not gain a foothold again.
The coming weeks will test the country’s preparedness, coordination and ability to respond quickly to one of the world’s most dangerous public health threats.
