NIGERIA PERSPECTIVE

Abuja responds as an African giant that knows it is on the front line and refuses to relive 2014. President Bola Tinubu has ordered the immediate release of 10 billion naira and created a presidential Ebola task force, chaired by his chief of staff Femi Gbajabiamila, with orders for states hosting international airports to submit screening plans. Premium Times, Legit.ng and the rest of the Lagos press relay the mobilization without triumphalism: the memory of the 2013-2016 West African epidemic, which killed more than 11,000, shapes coverage where preparedness trumps panic. The Nigerian framing differs sharply from the American on a decisive point: where Washington demands border closures, Nigeria relays the appeal of WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus, urging Uganda to reverse the closure of its border with the DRC, on the grounds that 'blanket travel restrictions are generally ineffective in containing Ebola.' The Nigerian press also gives the WHO figures — 515 confirmed cases and 91 deaths in DRC, 19 cases and two deaths in Uganda — and stresses the continental dimension: it is Africa that must organize, without waiting for or submitting to health diktats from Washington.