The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate in the 2019 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in a personally signed statement made available to journalists yesterday called on the federal government to learn from the strategy adopted to combat Ebola a few years ago.

The statement read: “We must call upon our experience with the wild Ebola virus, of which we were the first nation in the world to defeat that scourge in 2014. How did Nigeria do it?

“We achieved it by showing unprecedented unity. The federal government of the day worked closely with the Lagos and Rivers state governments. There was complete unity, solidarity and oneness of purpose, which created the atmosphere that defeated that deadly infestation.

“I strongly counsel that any tendency to blame and point fingers must be temporary, if not permanently, suspended. If fingers must be pointed, it must be to solutions, Atiku said.

“Nigeria needs firm and decisive actions to prevent an escalation of the scourge. Recently, we closed our borders as an act against economic sabotage. Perhaps now is the time to temporarily halt flights to and from any nation with a prevalence of this scourge. It is more important to secure human lives than to secure an economy. We also need to invest in early detection facilities at our airports.

“But above all, Nigeria must not panic, whether at government or individual levels. We have defeated Ebola before and we can defeat this present predicament, Atiku stated.

“This crisis is an opportunity to show that we are first and foremost Nigerians and that we have no other country but our own dear fatherland, which we must work together to keep healthy and secure.” Atiku concluded.