It will surprise you that many of our Youths out there who have passed through the academia do somethings that you will continue to beg your reasoning if they ever stepped into a tertiary institution. As we have it in the younger settings, so also in the older settings. Many of those who even impact these knowledge(Educators) still find it very difficult to apply them at most of the needing periods and you may bear me witness that whenever you try to find out from them why these things are like that, several excuses abound ranging from the kind of non-working environment they find themselves to several other unfavourable conditions.
It is now over two weeks that Nigeria recorded her first mortality courtesy of the deadly Ebola Disease that crept into our territory unaware or probably due to our negligence, not longer we had the first citizen death which was that of one of the Nurses that attended to Late Patrick Sawyer, the initial dead. Now, according to the Minister for Heath in his latest press statement, we already have 10 suspected cases of infected persons and no fewer than 100 Nigerians who have directly or indirectly associated with Sawyer during his short-lived visit to Nigeria are on the watch list of his Ministry. These ones are carefully monitored fearing the probability of them not to have contracted the disease.
Without much ado, Ebola is no longer a joke and the fact is that this disease is not something that should be handled with carefree attitude or negligence both by our leaders or we citizens ourselves. Fortunately unfortunately, Ebola is not the disease of the Poor so to say. Any infected rich that is not lucky enough may not last longer than 21 days the most before kicking the bucket. Kudos to some State Governments and even the Federal Government who have reasonably shown concern not only by words but by putting necessary infrastructures in place to avoid the further spread of Ebola.
I neither live in Lagos nor see myself visiting Lagos anytime soon but I am a card carrying and authentic student of the Nigeria's best tertiary institution, Obafemi Awolowo University where fruit Bats live with us and interact with us in various ways. This ranging from dropping their faeces on passerby to making melodious sounds that can cool the brain in any hot afternoon. I am not trying to create any tension here but the earlier we understand and accept facts about our zone, the better for us. The perculiarity of our University campus is something that tells the deaf and obvious to the blind that we are not fully fortified against this so much publicized disease.
In response to the above reality, the university management commendably sometimes last week released a statement on the Ebola virus. We really appreciate the school authority for its prompt and needed response but the question is this, beyond ordinary statement, are there precautionary measures already put in place to check and arrest this issue peradventure we have any reported cases? I am happy that the University may be re-opened in less than three weeks from now but the fear of Ebola is something that continues to rigmarole in my mind and bang my brain hard.
I am not a medical student but I can read, hear and see what the Lagos State Government is doing in terms of effective measures been put in place to prevent and contain the Ebola outbreak. Even though I doubt if the number of the entire fruit bats in Lagos than surpass what we have on our campus. Isolation centres are been built, Emergency lines are given to the public, aggressive media sensitization on how to prevent any eventuality, all these among many others. Is this thesame in our own case? Lagos is a State Government but OAU is a school. Yes, we understand that but let us not forget there are little things the increased school fees of the students can do to save the precious lifes of the university community occupants from this disease. Recently, the President declared a National State of Emergency and doled out a whooping sum of N1.9bn to fight the spread of Ebola, OAU is definitely a susceptible zone and I believe our management should try and present their case before the Federal Government so as to be financed in the war against Ebola on OAU campus.
I will not like to dwell much on this Call To Action for now because I believe we have learned and right thinking minds in our University government but if at the end of it all, we still suffer from what we know, understand and could prevent, then the outside world will laugh at us and deservedly call us the Educated Illiterates!
