Ebola reappearance, will Africa ever learn?

Stephen Adewale

The recent recurrence of the deadly Ebola virus in Democratic Republic of Congo has brought to fore the ironical paradox of a continent called Africa. Since its outbreak, mass hysteria has gripped virtually every country of the world. Unlike the viruses that preceded it, Ebola proved to be the most severe of them all.

The world woke up to the disease’s potential global threat when, between 2014 and 2016, Ebola ravaged previously unaffected West African countries, leaving a huge death toll in its wake and paralyzing economies. Until then, Ebola was mostly restricted to East and Central Africa, with the number of reported cases at each outbreak never exceeding 500.

It was only two years later that the outbreak could end, thanks to the international community’s combined efforts. By the time it ended, nearly 30 000 cases had been reported while more than 11,000 lives had been lost.

Unfortunately, recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ebola virus found a new favourable environment. As it happened between 2014 and 2016, many African leaders and opinion writers are again calling on the United Nations to come to our rescue.

Here lies our concern. Must we always look up to the west or east each time there is crisis in Africa? When are we going to start looking for inward solution rather than outward? Will we Africans ever learn at all? Will we ever learn that we must not allow issue to degenerate before it is addressed?

In a sanity clime, Ebola would have been dealt with for a very long time. Ebola virus is not new in our environment as it has been with us since 1976! 1976 coincided with an era when a country such as Nigeria was experiencing its oil boom. It was in the decade when the oil money arrived so suddenly, and in such vast quantities, that government did not know what to do with it. It was a decade when Nigerian leaders ought to have taken the advantage of its resources to make Africa a better continent by devoting a chunk of its financial resources to the improvement of health care facilities in Africa through research and health development.

Instead of taking that route, Nigeria decided in that year to organize the FESTAC Festival that finally took place in 1977; a festival that gulped over $3 billion! To help the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe, we spent $8 million at the time allocating just $3 million to health research would have saved all of West Africa from this generational embarrassment and distress. The past is coming back to haunt us with great intensity, 33 years after a wasted opportunity.

The citizens are not also without its blame. We would not have found ourselves in this mess if we had used the same energy being expended on praising the inactive leaders to collectively demand our rights from government. We would not have been in this mess if we had pressurised the African governments to eradicate poverty, provide clean water supply and effective sanitation coverage. This would not have happened if some people among us had not actively celebrated or partially cheered the governments whenever they wasted money on frivolity instead of investing on health care facilities, education and other ingredients of sustainable development.

Africa would not have been in this mess if its leaders had lived by example in their handling of the country’s affair. We would not have been here if they had taken the lead by shunning flamboyant lifestyle and luxurious living. This would not have happened if they had realised that a continent that buys and never sells is sure to come to ruin sooner than it expects. This would have been averted if African leaders had not been appropriating a large chunk of the continental resources servicing political high junks than they spend on research and development of health care facilities. A continent which has the welfare of its people at heart could have devoted a large proportion of its revenue to programme that ensure durable and sustainable development.

A sad example is Nigeria that received some $300 billion in oil revenues between 1970s and 2010. Through foolish investments, graft and simple theft, this vast fortune was wholly squandered. In fact, because successive Nigerian governments borrowed billions against future oil revenues and wasted that money too, it is fair to say that Nigeria blew more than its entire oil windfall. Nigerians are, on average, poorer today than they were in 1976, despite the surge in the oil price.

Having pride itself as the leader of Africa, and having fully aware that it is a contagious virus that could easily spread to its shore, Nigeria ought to have done something to prevent the virus. Thirty-eight years after it first emerged, Nigeria had so much forgot the virus that by the time it spread to its coast in 2014, the country’s health sector was so poor that there was no single laboratory that could diagnose Ebola patients in the country!

Ebola, unlike HIV/AIDS, is proved to be curable. That African countries are yet to find permanent solution to the Ebola outbreak through investment on health care research and development of sound health care facilities and programme is the continent’s undoing.

Instead of going cap at hand to the foreigners each time the virus recurs, African leaders should take responsibility for the current happenings and learn from it. The re-emergence of Ebola virus in Congo presents the continent a unique opportunity to learn from the past and set things in order. It is too embarrassing for the leadership of the second most populous continent with endowed black nations on earth to always turn to the west or east each time there is a domestic crisis. Such attitude does not portray it as a serious continent that is ready to take up a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.

African leaders must learn from this sad episode and ensure that the recurrence of such is averted. There might be other specie out there carrying another virus that is probably deadlier than Ebola. The continent must deal with this and prepare adequately ahead before it loses the little respect it has left in the diplomatic world. It is high time we learnt our lesson. But will we ever learn?