Sawyer's Ebola Victims Should be Paid Five Million Dollars – Presley Akhigbe

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(This is an opinion article. Opinion articles express the views of the author and are in no way reflective of the philosophy of Nigerian Bulletin.)

The Ebola virus imported into Nigeria by the Liberian Patrick Sawyer has caused death to four people, a doctor, two nurses who attended to him at the First Consultants hospital in Lagos and an employee of ECOWAS. Then there is the immeasurable loss of potential financial gains by the hospital resulting from the closure and decontamination of the hospital premises/services, the emotional trauma by the number of people under surveillance/quarantine for possible infection in Lagos and Enugu States for 21 days, duration of a period where everything in their lives would have been placed on a standstill resulting in unquantifiable loss of physical, social and psychological accruable. Indeed it will be arduous to describe the loss most of these categories of people would have experienced or are experiencing as a result of one man- the Liberian PATRICK SAWYER.

Now that Sawyer has brought ebola to Nigeria, the noble thing at this juncture is for the Liberian government to compensate all the victims of the infection from Sawyer and further compensate the Nigeria government. Those who lost their lives could be breadwinners or butter winners in their families and their source of joy, livelihood have been dashed. They deserve compensation and support in monetary and other terms.

Thus this is a call to the Nigerian government, well-meaning individuals, organizations, media outlets and even the now reliable force of bloggers to orchestrate the message that the Liberian government should as a matter of today commence a compensation package to all victims (the dead and quarantined) of the Sawyer-Ebola. Without mincing words, it will be fair to request that the sum of five million American Dollars to be given to the families of the late nurses of the First Consultants hospital, the sum of ten million American Dollars to be given to the management of First Consultants Hospital and all those that have been traumatized through the quarantine/monitor programmes should be compensated with the sum of one million American dollars each.

The crux of the matter is not trading blames of why and how Sawyer was able to spread Ebola to Nigeria but to sorting out the mess brought by Patrick Sawyer and prominently parts of the sorting process is payment of compensation to SAWYER-EBOLA victims. The compensation is not bringing back the dead because no amount can suffice for one life not to talk of lives. The lives lost are painful irreplaceable ones and we must establish that. Some might argue that the nurses who died were in the line of duty and the calamity that befell them were part of the hazards of their jobs. That argument would be very stupid and devilish but could possible hold water if the victims were fully aware they were treating a deadly incurable case. If Patrick Sawyer would have been responsible enough to mention to the hospital on arrival that he was a likely victim of Ebola and the nurses/doctors proceed to treat him and were infected afterwards. On the contrary, he (criminally) lied to them and was consequently attended to and he got them infected and not due to their carelessness or lack of caution but through the deception of Patrick Sawyer. In fact the tale of one of the late nurses on Facebook, Ms Justina claimed Patrick Sawyer behaved so irresponsible when he was under admission, spilling his blood everywhere, an act similar to a report that he had done such while on admission in his home town of Liberia where he spilled his urine everywhere in the ward. What a character this Sawyer, definitely not loving. It is obvious then that the nurses/doctors who contacted ebola were deceived and such cannot be claimed as hazard of duty. As a matter of fact, the nurses and staff of First Consultants Hospital need to be commended for their handling of the Patrick Sawyer case; it would have been a disaster now in Nigeria if Sawyer had gone to a public hospital here in Nigeria. (No offence intended, it is just the truth.)

Because of Sawyer, a lot of traditions and things have changed now in Nigeria. Lots of businesses have suffered; lots of people have lost their source of livelihood. Imagine the litany of people who trade on bush meat, grilled beef, barbeque and the likes; hunters, food sellers and lots more. Lots of people have totally suspended beef/meat eating until further notice. The religious houses and social outfits have been hit hard too.

- Presley Akhigbe (@presleydonEji)
 

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