Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Jide Idris, has said the 2027 elections might be postponed if the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria spreads widely.
Glonat Newsonline reports Idris to have, however, said there was currently no need to postpone the elections over the outbreak.
He made this known on Monday while appearing on Politics Today, a programme on Channels Television.
Recall Nigeria declared Ebola outbreak on October 20. While the only Ebola patient had been medically evacuated to Switzerland, the World Health Organisation (WHO) insists Nigeria is yet to be declared Ebola-free.
Asked whether the elections could be postponed because of Ebola, the NCDC chief said the decision was not his to make but acknowledged that a wider spread of the disease could prompt such a consideration.
“That’s not my decision. We hope not. Because if the thing gets wide enough, that might be considered. As of now, there is no need for that,” he said.
Idris also dismissed suggestions that the Federal Government could use the outbreak as a political weapon, insisting that public health emergencies should not be politicised.
“We in the health sector, we don’t use disease issues as a political weapon,” he said.
He added: “No government will use Ebola as a political weapon.”
The NCDC director-general explained that Nigerian health authorities had been monitoring the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for months before the disease was reported in Nigeria.
According to him, authorities had anticipated the possibility of the virus spreading to Nigeria and had been tracking developments.
“But again, you know, this Ebola started in DRC a couple of months ago, and we were tracking. And they said for it to track again, there’s a possibility for many reasons that it can get here,” Idris said.
He cautioned that Nigeria might not yet be completely out of danger, stressing the need for continued vigilance.
“So, when it came, when it came, it came. And we’re not even sure whether we are out of the woods yet,” he added.
Idris maintained that there was no current justification for postponing the elections because of the outbreak, while noting that a significant spread of the disease could lead to further consideration of the matter.
Nigeria may declare Ebola outbreak over Dec. 7, says Minister
Earlier, Prof. Muhammad Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, had disclosed that Nigeria may declare the end of its imported Bundibugyo Ebola Virus Disease case on Dec. 7, provided no further cases are recorded and health authorities validate the date.
Glonat Newsonline reports the Minister disclosed this on his official X handle on Monday, following the medical evacuation of the index patient to Switzerland.
Pate said the proposed date was provisional and depended on the NCDC and the WHO validating the 42-day countdown.
“Any further case would require a fresh countdown in accordance with those criteria,” he said.
He said the immediate priorities remained monitoring identified contacts, investigating alerts promptly and strengthening preparedness across health facilities.
The minister added that response teams, working with the Federal Capital Territory Administration, state health authorities and development partners, remained focused on containing the virus and preventing community transmission.
Pate urged Nigerians to remain calm, cooperate with contact-tracing teams and follow regular updates from the NCDC and the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
Pate earlier announced that the index patient was evacuated from Nigeria to Switzerland on Monday following significant clinical improvement.
The minister said the patient was stable, conscious and communicating, with laboratory results approaching baseline levels.
He, however, cautioned that the improvement did not necessarily mean the patient was no longer infectious.
“The patient was accompanied by her spouse, who had remained asymptomatic,” he said.
Nigeria confirmed its first imported case of the virus disease on Oct. 20 after a woman with recent travel history to Uganda tested positive.
The NCDC identified 53 contacts linked to the case, including healthcare workers, domestic staff and the patient’s spouse.
The agency said the contacts were being monitored, with none testing positive at the time of the report.
On Oct. 23, Pate said genomic analysis showed that the virus isolated from the Nigerian patient was closely related to the strain in the index case in Kenya.
He cautioned, however, that the genetic relationship did not establish a direct transmission link between the two cases.
The Federal Government has also intensified surveillance at points of entry, strengthened infection prevention and control in health facilities, and urged healthcare workers to promptly report suspected cases.
The government has urged Nigerians to observe basic preventive measures, cooperate with public health officials and avoid spreading unverified information about the disease.
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