Nigeria Content Online

Following the
warning from the ministry of health on a cholera outbreak across our
nation, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has blamed the epidemic on
the failure of governance at all levels to ensure the provision of
portable drinking water.

The party blamed
the outbreak on the lack of potable water, which it claimed “is the
major cause of the disease”. It noted that, had the various governments
lived up to their responsibility by ensuring that people have access to
potable water and good health care, many of those who have died from
the disease so far this year would have been alive.

Recent figures from
the Ministry of Health stated that 352 deaths and 6,437 cases have been
recorded. While the cases have so far been limited to 11 states in the
north, the ministry said the entire country is at risk.

“It is a shame that
cholera is killing our people like chickens in the 21st century,
despite the fact that it is cheap to treat, using oral rehydration
solution, a gauged mixture of sugar and salts to be mixed with water
and taken in large amounts. It is even more shameful that this is
happening in a resource-rich country like Nigeria,” the ACN said in a
statement on Sunday.

It further
condemned the government’s insensitivity on the epidemic, stating that
“the federal executive council is busy churning out – on a weekly basis
– billions of naira in contracts that barely touch on the lives of the
people, while the so-called representatives of the people are busy
sharing the spoils of office.”

Failed governance

The ACN also noted
that the failure of our nation to attain any of the eight Millennium
Development Goals (MDG) in the target year of 2015 is the biggest
indication yet that no governance is going on in most parts of our
country. “That is why we said the cholera epidemic points to failure of
governance,” the party said.

It further added
that measles has also killed 83 people this year and infected 5,073
others, also pointing out the needless deaths from malaria and other
diseases. “One begins to wonder whether we remain a part of humanity.

“The palliative
measures being embarked upon by our clueless state and federal
governments is nothing but a mere tokenism. Only a development-oriented
approach can rid our country of these diseases,” it said.

The ACN said the need to prevent such cheap deaths and ensure better
life for Nigerians should prod people to register en masse, vote
massively and defend their votes stridently during the 2011 general
elections, so that leaders who have the interest of the people at heart
can be voted into the various offices.