Trade Union Congress (TUC) has asked the Federal Government and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to quickly return to the negotiation table in order to frontally address the challenge posed by the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease in the county.

TUC, in a press statement issued in Abuja yesterday, also called the Federal Government, doctors and other health practitioners to take proactive measures towards nipping the Ebola disease in the bud.

“Our view is that it would be suicidal to take a nonchalant attitude to the disease especially at this time when the country is facing serious security challenges which have claimed thousands of lives, occasioned the destruction of property worth billions of naira, increased the ranks of the unemployed, rendered thousands of people homeless and separated loved ones,” the congress stated in the statement signed by Bobboi Bala Kaigama and Musa Lawal, President and Secretary General of TUC respectively.

“The Congress is more particularly disturbed that the disease broke out again at a time when the health sector is beset by the ongoing doctors’ strike.

“Surely the Federal Government and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) need to return quickly to the negotiating table, resolve their differences and end the strike, if only for the sake of curbing the disease and saving multitudes of Nigerians from impending doom. God alone knows the extent of socio-economic damage and dislocation the disease might cause the nation if we permit it to linger.”

TUC added that “All hands must be on deck to wipe out the disease. The health and information ministries must do the needful to create sufficient awareness about the danger that the disease represents and the measures by which its spread can be halted. The hospitals and health centres must be well supplied with relevant facilities to quarantine and attend to Ebola patients. And there should be a network among them and other public and private stakeholder agencies to facilitate prompt information sharing and dissemination on the disease.

“Every Nigerian – male and female, old and young, city dweller and rural dweller – must be reached with the kick-out-Ebola campaign. The executive and legislative arms of government must take their places at the forefront, especially through the enactment of appropriate laws and generation of proactive policies.

“Indeed we implore them to use the same focus, commitment and strategies with which they canvassed for and won votes of the electorate to ensure that the war against the disease is won pronto.

“And they must do this as a united front irrespective of their divergent political leanings and interests. This is no time to play divisive and unfruitful politics or apportion blames to a particular political party at the expense of losing more lives to the deadly disease.”