We Can’t Play Politics with Ebola, FG Tells Opposition

The federal government on Thursday in Abuja urged the opposition party to desist from politicising the fight against the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country.

The call came on the heels of an earlier statement by the opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), describing as ‘uncharitable’  the government’s move to “pretend as if governments of the two affected states (Lagos and Rivers) did nothing” in containing the Ebola virus.

Speaking at a high level experts meeting on Ebola virus in Abuja, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said there is no need to play politics with efforts to completely rid Nigeria of the disease.

Chukwu told journalists that he was “not going to speak for the PDP because the party had its own official spokesperson. You said it is an opposition party; so they will talk at their level.

“But, I have said as Minister of Health, I am not playing politics. And, Mr. President who is leading this fight has taken personal leadership, he is one of the greatest leaders Nigeria has ever had” the minister maintained.

He explained that given the collective efforts of all the stakeholders, there should be no room for politics, and that sentiments should be set aside.

“I will say it any day because it is evidence-based. It is not politics, certainly, we have tried to avoid politics. Some people, I don’t know where they are coming from, have tried to draw us into politics. 

We cannot be in this matter and play politics." Chukwu told journalists.