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President Goodluck Jonathan has given reasons
why nursery, primary and secondary schools should
resume on September 22, while also begging the
Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) not to embark on
strike over the resumption date.
Addressing the State House correspondents at the
Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday, September 16,
Jonathan said the country had successfully
managed the outbreak of Ebola and there is
presently no case to keep school children at home
unnecessarily, Punch reports.
The president explained that the continued stay of
school children at home would send the wrong
signals to the international community about the
Ebola situation in Nigeria. Jonathan said:
“Our athletes were segregated in China, they had to
returned to the country. A place like China asked
Ministers of the Federal Republic to show prove of
Ebola free certificate, very discouraging. And what
people don’t know is that as long as you close your
institutions because of Ebola, the ambassadors that
are here with us and the high commissioners send
what you call dispatches to their home states about
what is happening in our country monthly.
“As long as we Nigerians close all our public
institutions because of Ebola, the dispatch that goes
to the whole world is that Ebola is a problem in
Nigeria. And as long as we declare that Ebola is a
problem in Nigeria, any Nigerian that travels out
will be treated as someone that has Ebola.
“We have been able to manage Ebola and the whole
world is happy with us and we must tell the whole
world that we have managed Ebola and no
Nigerian should be segregated because of Ebola. If
we still have Ebola definitely we will not open any
of our institutions but we don’t have Ebola.”
He said rather than embark on strike, the NUT
should commend government on its handling of the
outbreak of the Ebola disease.
President Jonathan gave the assurance that
measures had been put in place to avert the
importation of the disease into the country as in the
case of the late Patrick Sawyer (the index case) who
brought from Liberia into Nigeria.
It would be recalled that the Federal government’s
directive for nursery, primary and secondary schools
to resume on September 22, 2014 had sparked
controversy in various quarters.
Nigerian doctors were opposed to the resumption
date, saying all schools should not resume until all
those who are under surveillance for the Ebola Virus
Disease (EVD) in the country had been certified free.
The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) even directed
its members to ignore the September 22, resumption
date as directed by the Federal government.
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