Nigeria’s ₦10bn Ebola Readiness Test

Twelve years after Nigeria earned global praise for containing one of the world’s deadliest disease outbreaks, the country is once again preparing for a potential Ebola threat.

With fresh outbreaks reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda, President Bola Tinubu has ordered an aggressive nationwide preparedness campaign, approved emergency funding, and established a Presidential Task Force to coordinate the country’s response.

The move reflects growing concern among health authorities that increased travel, regional population movements, and porous borders could heighten the risk of importing the virus into Nigeria.

President Tinubu approved the establishment of a Presidential Task Force on Ebola Virus Disease Preparedness and Emerging Public Health Threats and directed the immediate release of ₦10 billion to strengthen national readiness.

According to the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the funding will bolster the operational capacity of the National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and support critical emergency response activities.

The task force will be chaired by Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila and will include representatives of key ministries, agencies and state governments.

The decision followed a high-level stakeholder meeting convened to assess Nigeria’s preparedness and develop strategies to prevent the virus from entering the country.

Airports, Borders Surveillance

The government has unveiled a series of preventive measures designed to strengthen screening and monitoring at points of entry.

Among the actions approved are enhanced temperature screening and crowd-control protocols at international airports, closer monitoring of passengers arriving on routes considered high-risk, and the activation of referral and isolation centres at Lagos and Abuja international airports.

Authorities will also introduce mandatory QR code-based pre-arrival health declarations for travellers arriving from or transiting through designated high-risk countries.

Additional precautions include the disinfection of airport facilities, cargo handling areas and baggage sections, while consultations are ongoing with aviation, diplomatic and security agencies regarding possible flight regulations involving affected countries.

States hosting international airports and border corridors have also been directed to submit preparedness plans and funding requirements for coordinated implementation.

Nigeria’s disease control agency has classified the risk of Ebola entering the country as high.

Speaking during a media briefing in Lagos, NCDC Director-General Dr. Jide Idris said the assessment was based on ongoing outbreaks in East Africa, growing international travel and the challenge of monitoring porous borders.

He noted that although Nigeria has not recorded any confirmed case, authorities are intensifying surveillance and preparedness efforts nationwide.

Dr. Idris highlighted the difficulty of detecting Ebola because its symptoms often resemble those of common diseases such as malaria and Lassa fever.

He urged state governments to activate emergency preparedness mechanisms and called on healthcare workers across the country to remain vigilant.

“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 said it has already activated multiple response pillars, including risk communication, case management and coordination with health stakeholders.

For many public health experts, Nigeria’s strongest defence may lie in the lessons learnt during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

That outbreak began when Liberian-American traveller Patrick Sawyer arrived in Lagos carrying the virus. The disease claimed several lives, including renowned physician Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, whose professionalism helped prevent a wider national catastrophe.

Public health specialists believe the same strategies that helped contain the outbreak more than a decade ago should be revived.

“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.

Ebola remains one of the deadliest viral diseases known to humanity. Transmitted through close contact and bodily fluids, it has killed hundreds of people across Africa over the past five decades.

The latest outbreak in Central Africa has raised fresh concerns among health authorities. According to figures cited by health agencies, hundreds of confirmed cases and dozens of deaths have already been recorded in the DRC and Uganda.

The current outbreak is the 17th to hit the DRC, and nearly 500 Ebola cases have now been confirmed in the deadly outbreak raging in central Africa, a WHO overview showed Saturday, amid mounting concern over the swelling scale of the epidemic.

For Nigeria, the challenge now is clear: ensure that a disease once successfully contained never gains a foothold again.

The coming weeks will test the country’s preparedness, coordination and ability to respond swiftly to one of the world’s most dangerous public health threats.