When Nigeria confirmed an Ebola case in Abuja, I felt what you felt: fear. And the fear is fair, because this is not a rumour. A woman arriving from Uganda tested positive, and officials say it is the same strain driving the Congo outbreak, which has killed more than 4,000 people. Nobody invents numbers like that. Not even Nigerian politicians, and they are creative people.
The woman did not appear from thin air either. Uganda says she only passed through, and where she caught it is still being investigated. Meanwhile, forty-four contacts are being traced, which is a lot of people to find in a city of about two million. Our health workers have a hard job, and I want them to have everything they need.
I will be honest: I used to be the person who forwarded every “breaking” message without checking. Fast news, fast money, fast opinions. What changed me was a simple habit: before I believe or share anything, I ask who benefits and who is accountable.
So when my second thought arrived, the very Nigerian one, it was this: election season is coming.The 2027 polls are only a few months away, and outbreaks bring emergency money. Africa CDC has already begged the world for cash, supplies and health workers. I am not accusing anyone of stealing. I am saying “no time for procurement” is the oldest excuse in the book, and fast money is the easiest money to hide.
Here is the part that worries me most. If we shout that Ebola is fake, people stop washing their hands, hide symptoms and avoid hospitals, and that is how a contained case becomes a crisis. Doubting the spending is healthy. Doubting the disease is dangerous. We can do the first without the second.
We have seen this film before. Remember the COVID-19 relief arguments? Some palliatives never found the people they were meant for, and everyone suddenly became a detective online. I would rather ask the questions early than write the angry thread later.
So I stopped asking, “Is it real?” and started asking, “Where will the money go?” Here is what I want to see:
- How much was released, and who approved it
- Open, published contracts for isolation centres, protective gear and logistics
- Donor reports ordinary Nigerians can read
- Zero party-coloured photo-ops
Sanitizer is fine. Sanitizer with a candidate’s face on the bottle is a campaign.
You do not need to be a politician to help. Follow updates from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, ask your representatives what the response is costing, and support journalists and civil society groups who track public spending. Share verified information only. One good question from a thousand citizens is louder than one angry rant from a single person.
None of this is against our health workers. Nigeria beat Ebola in 2014, when it recorded 20 cases, and that victory belongs to the doctors and nurses who showed up when it was scary. The ones in Abuja today are risking their lives again. That is exactly why the money behind them must be clean, because when funds vanish, the frontline pays first.
Panic is a bad adviser, and so is cynicism. The better answer is to take the virus seriously, take the spending even more seriously, and keep asking questions loudly. When this outbreak ends, and it will, I want Nigeria left with a safer country, not just a longer list of unanswered questions.
