Ebola: Jonathan condemns stigmatisation of Nigerians

President Goodluck  Jonathan has
condemned in strong terms,
the stigmatization of Nigerians by
some countries over recent cases
of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in
the country.

President Jonaathan said there
was no justification for such
stigmatization of Nigerians since
the disease had been effectively
contained in the country and
never attained epidemic level, he
called for the cessation of
discriminatory actions against
Nigerians over the virus and urged
the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban
Ki Moon to support the call.

In an audience  with a Special
Envoy of the United Nations
Secretary-General, Mr. David
Navarro,  Jonathan particularly
denounced discriminatory actions such as that which forced Nigeria’s team to the Youth Olympics in China to abandon its participation.

Responding to the Secretary
General’s commendation of
Nigeria’s management of the threat of Ebola, the President  praised the Federal Ministry of Health, the Lagos State
Government and all Nigerians for
the success achieved so far in con­
taining the virus and avoiding a
national epidemic.

   “All hands have been on deck to
    contain the virus here. I
    commend my team and the
    Lagos State Government. We
    have been able to set politics
    aside and work in unison to deal
    with a national threat."

   “All other Nigerians have played a
    part too by complying with the
    directives and advice we have
    issued to stop the virus from
    spreading any further. The
    success we have had is a
    testimony to what we can
    achieve as people if we set aside
    our differences and work
    together,” he said.

   “We will continue to monitor the
    situation and we will also    
    support other affected African
    countries as much as we can
    because we cannot be
    completely safe from the virus
    as long as it continues to ravage
    some countries in our sub-
    region and continent. We will
    continue to work with the
    international community to curb
    the outbreak in other countries,”
    Jonathan pledged.

The envoy, in his response, said;

The Secretary-General asked me
to come here too, not because
you have an Ebola problem, but
because you have tackled it in an
exemplary fashion.

Your personal leadership on the
matter has been key. There may
still be some work to be done
before the virus is completely
cleared out from here, but other
countries can learn from your fine example,” he said.

Sunonline