BEVERLY HILLS, April 05, (THEWILL) – The Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II; the Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); and, the Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire have disagreed with the Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, who said that God visited the country with type C Meningitis because of sin.
Speaking in Kaduna on Wednesday, Sanusi said as a man who is well read in Islamic law, he knows that Yari’s statements are “Islamically incorrect”.
“I’m sorry about a current issue yesterday. 200 people died of meningitis in a state, the governor was asked and he said it is God’s curse on us for the sin of fornication, which apparently does not happen in America, which is why they don’t have meningitis,” he said.
“How have we reduced ourselves, what have we done as a people, that we have placed ourselves in a situation where simple things, a medical issue…you don’t have vaccines, say you don’t have vaccines.
“Treat those who have contracted it, don’t give these kinds of explanations. But this the mindset. I have a degree in Islamic law, and I can tell you that is not an Islamically correct statement to make.”
In its response, the PDP in a statement issued by the spokesman of the PDP Caretaker Committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, described the governor’s statement as shameful and unfortunate and mocked the APC, saying the ruling party has run out excuses in blaming the previous PDP administration for its failures.
“Governor Yari should not blame God for his failures but that of his party, the APC, to avoid incurring God’s anger on their crass ineptitude in governance,” the statement read.
“However, we wish to advise him to resign immediately for making such statement as a state Governor and the chairman of Governors’ Forum who is supposed to bring hope to the people and not despair.
“The news of the outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis in the country and the apathetic attitude of both the Zamfara State and Federal Government to curtail the scourge is disheartening and preposterous.
“This government wasted so much funds on the State House Clinic with no tangible result but neglected other health centres and clinics across the country that have capacities to manage the health challenges of other Nigerians.
“Finally, we call on the Federal Government of Nigeria to stop playing politics with this outbreak and do everything within its power to end the menace.
“As a party, our heart goes to the families of all those that lost their lives to the scourge within this period. We urge all Nigerians to drink more water, sleep in ventilated environment and report symptoms to the nearest health centre within their areas for quick medical attention.”
Also, Ehanire, briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesdayinsisted that the outbreak of the disease was not a punishment from God.
“The Federal Government does not have views of that nature and I am not sure the state government can really continue to make that statement,” he said.
“When things happen, yes you can begin to look this way and that way for the cause of it but like I said nature played us unfortunate stroke but that is not to say we committed sin or anything. It does happen that things occur out of the blues.
“What has caused this problem to be peculiar is that it is caused by a total different strand of the Meningitis germ. It is the Type C. This country before suffers Meningitis around this time of year when dry season is turning to raining season.
“In the area called the Meningitis belt that ranges all the way from Senegal down to Ethiopia, Eritra and the prevailing germ was the Meningecocus A and the mass vaccines that has taken place all these years has led to almost total elimination of Type A. Type C has been very rear and this year it is the Type C that appeared.
“Unfortunately there is no cross immunization, if you are immune to Type A doesn’t make you immune to Type C. And because Type C was very rear the availability of vaccines was been very meager relatively.
“We have mobilised vaccines come in from all corners, 500,000 units doses of vaccines are being distributed and they have started vaccination campaign already.
“Government is also getting 826,000 units which are being shipped from Europe to us within the next few days. The most affected states have been Zamfara, Sokoto and Katsina and together they have about 85 per cent of the cases.
“As of today, there have been 2,996 cases in 16 states and 54 local governments. There have been 336 fatalities of which 141 have been confirmed by laboratory tests.
“There is reactive vaccinations going on already, there is social mobilization going on, teams are working in various states affected particularly the most affected ones.
“There are two treatment centres being set up in every local government and lumber puncture kits have been distributed so that doctors can take samples to laboratory for testing. There are cases of field epidemiologists who are doing findings and contact tracing in other to interrupt the spread of this epidemic.
“So in other to allay the fear of Nigerians we want to make it clear that this is not a sign of the failing of the system, it is a fact that nature played a very different stroke this time that caught everybody off guard,” he stated.
