SUNDAY EJIKE takes a look at the arrangements put in place by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to ensure Ebola-free Annual General Conference in Owerri, the Imo state capital.
There is no doubt that the nation’s health sector and social relations are being threatened by the outbreak of the lethal Ebola virus disease imported into the country by the late Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, who was in the country for an ECOWAS conference in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
Sawyer could not attend the ECOWAS conference, for which he sneaked into the country, but ended up in a highbrow hospital in Lagos, where he transmitted the virus to many Nigerians before his eventual death.
Since the outbreak of the virus, which kills faster than HIV/AIDS, Nigerians have been living in palpable fear of contracting the disease, especially those living in Lagos. Though, there were reports of those treated and discharged, several others who had direct contact with the late Sawyer have died of the disease.
Concerned with this development, which many observers said constitutes serious threat to the health sector of the country, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which had, before the outbreak of the Virus, slated this year’s Annual General Conference to hold from August 24 to 29, in Owerri, Imo State, have put in place measures to ensure an Ebola-free conference.
President of the association, Okey Wali (SAN), told newsmen in Abuja that the annual conference would hold despite appeals to the body to postpone it, adding that arrangements for Ebola hitch free conference had been concluded in collaboration with Imo State Commissioner for Health, who has assured him of safety of the participants, by forwarding to NBA measures already put in place to avert any disease scare.
Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, had recently called on NBA to postpone its annual conference due to the outbreak of the virus in Nigeria. He said it will be ill-judged to continue with the conference in the circumstances of the present public health emergency prevailing in the country.
The NHRC chairman also advised the NBA in the interim to conduct a modest ceremony at its secretariat in Abuja, to inaugurate the new leadership of association.
“The NBA conference is usually a very large gathering. Its venues usually attract well in excess of 20,000 participants, traders and visitors. It’s an excellent market place for a virus in search of vectors.
“I am a scheduled speaker at the Owerri conference. I have also been a person under observation for Ebola because, as an out-patient, I was attended to on July 21 by one of the doctors in Lagos who managed the index case, that was the day after he was admitted.
“The NBA has no way of knowing this and has made no effort to elicit this kind of information from any of the participants. I have decided that I will not go to Owerri. As an act of responsible citizenship, I would also urge many intending participants to consider withdrawing from the Owerri conference,” Professor Odinkalu said.
Wali, while listing measures taken by NBA to ensure Ebola-free conference, at a press briefing in Abuja, however, said the association had purchased hand bacterial and viral sanitisers for every participant for use throughout the conference.
He also said Latex gloves and masks for conference service providers deployed to man registration, marshals, as well as non-contact laser guns for temperature monitoring and screening of participants, had been purchased.
Other measures in place, according to him, included non-contact hand sanitisers in selected public places, with refills. Dettol anti-bacterial hand wash for the various rest rooms and mobile toilets.
He said the association had also secured the collaboration and services of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Imo state chapter, to provide ambulances, equipment and personnel, while it had also partnered Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Aviation for airport screening and surveillance of candidates.
Wali said Imo was not one of the states flagged as Ebola infectious, while he urged participants to ignore argument that the large number of participants was a potential ground for the Ebola Virus.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, leading other directors and department heads, applauded NBA’s proactive and elaborate preventive measures taken to assure its members and participants coming to Owerri for the conference.
He further expressed the willingness of the Federal Ministry of Health to collaborate with the NBA in sensitising members at the conference as to the required measures and hygiene levels demanded of all.
A spokesperson for the health ministry, Dan Nwomeh, confirmed that the government was satisfied with measures put in place by the NBA, saying that “The association has made provisions for spraying the hall with family sanitiser, provided additional mobile toilets and had made arrangement for spacing of the sitting arrangement,” Mr Nwomeh said.
Nigeria has recorded five deaths so far since the outbreak of the disease in July.
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