AVAILABLE  reports indicate that Nigeria has been successful in containing the Ebola virus disease following a serious threat from an infected Liberian-American that flew into Lagos airport from Liberia where the disease is rampant.

I hope that Nigerians will not go overboard in celebratingtheir country’ssuccess since the danger is not yet over, not with the disease still ravaging nearby countries in parts of West Africa.

Nevertheless,it will be unfortunate if we do not show our appreciation to the government for her efforts so far in preventing the Ebola disease from spreading in Nigeria.

With about 180 million Nigerians, the thought of the likely disastrous consequences of the Ebola virus not being contained in the country is mind-boggling.

So we of the Virtual University Without Walls of Nigeria say, thank you to the Nigerian Government, especially the Health Ministry; thank you tothe International Organisations that donated funds and priceless expertise, and thank you to the many faceless individuals that did the vital spadework in the fight against the spread of Ebola virus in Nigeria.We appreciate your contributions; we appreciate your help.

The Ebola epidemic should be a wake-up call to Nigeria.

Her success, so far, in the Ebola virus battle demonstrates, in part, that while we may be just a developing country, Nigeria has the manpower,and Nigerians have a latent will that can be mobilized to do whatever is necessary to build and address their needs.

However, in order to be able to harness this latent will efficiently and successfully,the government has to give Nigerians the tools they need to do the work necessary to advance the country.

Fighting Ebola virus is not feasible without the advances that developed nations have made over the years and continue to make in science and technology.

Accordingly, well-meaning Nigerians have been stressing the need to upgrade the state of science education in the country, apparently to deaf ears. T

he deplorable state of science in most Nigerian secondary schools after 54 years of political independence is not only a shame, it is also anti-development.

The Western world has known for a long time that science and technology are proven instruments of development. Consequently they’ve incorporated these enterprises into their culture; they avidly support them in any way possible, and they constantly usethe technological fall-outs from science to raise the standard of living of their people.

It is similarly imperative for Nigeria to also incorporate science and technology into her culture if she is really serious in her efforts to develop the country.

In order to uplift Nigeria from her present state of underdevelopment, for a start, it is incumbent on our governments and on Nigeria’s intelligentsia and elitesto do whatever is necessary to upgrade our secondary school science, which is the seed-corn of technology.

Dike Kalu is of the Virtual University Without Walls.