It is almost beyond belief that today, 20th July, 2015, it is exactly a year since death came calling in the garb of Patrick Sawyer and his accomplice – EBOLA. Considering the tragedy and trauma that ensued, it is even more surprising that, apart from those who were directly affected, the monumental disaster has been consigned to fading memory.
Having slipped through the airport (Murtala Muhammed International, Ikeja), Sawyer headed for First Consultants Hospital, Obalende, and feigned malaria as the cause of his ailment. It was a wicked lie and decoy. He must have known that he was infected with something far more deadly – Ebola – while visiting his own country, Liberia. What ensued in the game of cat and mouse between the crazy patient and the doctors as well as nurses who were thoroughly conned and were caught off-guard belongs to the realm of pure disbelief and monumental calamity.
In the course of providing treatment for the patient, the doctor to whom the duty fell was by cruel irony none other than Ameyo Stella Adadevoh. Apparently, she was not even expected to be on duty but nevertheless volunteered her services – far beyond the call of duty. She had already built a solid reputation amongst whoever came across her path for being ever so caring. Her commitment to professional excellence and her uncompromising posture in putting public safety first would cost her dearly. Her deranged patient was no longer the purveyor of wicked subterfuge but had resorted to a blatant violent determination to infect as many people as possible. He deliberately chose to splash his poisonous fluids and contaminated blood everywhere even though he must have known that even the tiniest drop carried with it the death sentence.
Every now and again from the darkest depths of hell emerge devils in human form with only one mission – to inflict pain, misery, evil and death. Poor Adadevoh, she was not only a doctor, she was also the gatekeeper ever so determined to keep danger away from the rest of us. For her selfless sacrifice and fierce devotion to her profession, we must forever remain grateful. She was not alone. Others perished with her.
As for the chairman of First Consultants Hospital, Benjamin Ohaeri, he bore it all with calm dignity. What he was confronted with was the casualty list of his most senior lieutenants, with whom he had laboured for several decades to build a first-class institution. It took just one crackpot to almost ruin it all. However, but for the intervention of the Almighty, the devastation and horrors that would have befallen our nation would have been monumental. It was only because the doctors were on strike at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, which is much closer to MMIA than First Consultants Hospital, that Sawyer, with the active connivance of the chauffeur from the Liberian Embassy who picked him up and ferried him to First Consultants, proceeded to fill the admission card with patently false information regarding the cause of illness. Indeed, Sawyer denied having been in contact with any victim of Ebola in Liberia. It was a brazen lie. In any case, if the deception had been inflicted on the Lagos Teaching Hospital the disaster would have been far more deadly.
It turned out that Patrick Sawyer actually planned to attend a conference in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, where the then Governor Godswill Akpabio was waiting to shake hands while welcoming the delegates – both local and foreign. One touch and it would have been the kiss of death. It was also fortuitous that when the Ebola crisis exploded in Nigeria, the Control and Command Group of the World Health Organization was meeting in Dakar, Senegal. Right in the midst of their conference they stopped everything – just to focus on the calamity that had erupted and was threatening to engulf the whole of West Africa. They spared neither effort nor resources to come to the rescue of First Consultants Hospital.
We must be careful and ensure our mourning does not sacrifice dignity for wailing, weeping and grief, particularly when the havoc perpetrated by Sawyer could have become a volcano with the death toll running into hundreds.
Intercession is provided by William Arthur Ward: “The adventure of life is to learn. The purpose of life is to grow. The nature of life is to change. The challenge of life is to overcome. The essence of life is to care. The opportunity of life is to serve. The secret of life is to dare. The spice of life is to befriend. The beauty of life is to give. The joy of life is love.”
We have been provided with the compass for navigating life but what about death which invaded our territory via the immigration desk (passport control) and health check (yellow card)? The impunity and callousness of the invader conspired with the greed and incompetence of our own cavalier officials. Are these valid grounds for instituting civil or criminal charges against the government for failing to keep us safe from danger?
In any case, when Patrick Sawyer eventually gave up the ghost with his wicked mission only half-accomplished, the post-mortem confirmed the diagnosis of Ebola with a lethal warning. The infected corpse was the carrier of a “virus” which had acquired a far more deadly potency than when the carrier was still alive. Apparently, there was considerable resistance from the ambassador who chose to invoke “diplomatic immunity” and sought to impose bureaucracy between the death of Sawyer and the immediate disposal of the contaminated corpse. The chief medical officer of First Consultants had the officials of Lagos State government as well as the expert opinion of the WHO on his side. The corpse was consigned for rapid evacuation to the incinerator in Yaba, on the Mainland of Lagos. Over there residents were ready to protest against the danger of their territory being infected even if the corpse was for cremation. They were not ready to gamble with their lives. Anyway, the corpse was already in the incinerator with a first-class ticket to hell before they could set up their roadblocks and barricades. The rest is history, but what lessons have we learnt?
Exactly a year afterwards, our President Muhammadu Buhari is the guest of Barack Obama, the president of the United States of America. On a previous occasion when the then president of Nigeria showed up at the White House, he was caught off-guard by the press corps who demanded to know the purpose of his mission. He flunked his lines by impaling himself as well as his country. He bowled himself out by confessing, “I have come with an open mind.” That is not the way business is done in the White House.
On another occasion, the visiting head of state of Nigeria threatened his American hosts with an unprovoked attack: “We shall use our oil weapon to deal with America.” President Ronald Reagan promptly declared Nigeria a potential foe and ordered his troops (both military and civilian) to ensure that the USA proceeds full blast on being self-sufficient in oil and gas. That was 1982. America was then largest importer of oil (sweet crude) from Nigeria. This year the USA has not imported a single barrel of oil from Nigeria!
Hopefully, we have learnt our lesson. When “Uncle Sam” says bring me your “Wish List” in July (not at Christmas), we must be wary. What the president of America is expecting is the opposite of a “Wish List”. He wants credible proposals backed with seriousness of purpose. In addition, there must be evidence of a structured game plan anchored on candour and transparency.
J.K Randle
