The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Dr. Jide Idris, has said the ₦10 billion Ebola emergency intervention fund approved by President Bola Tinubu is not exclusive to Ebola but is also meant to strengthen Nigeria’s preparedness and response to Lassa fever and other endemic diseases.
Speaking in an interview on national television on Monday, Idris said the funding was requested not solely for Ebola but to strengthen diagnostics, screening, surveillance, and monitoring at points of entry—capabilities that also apply to Lassa fever and other viral illnesses.
“Lassa fever and Ebola are the same class of viruses,” Idris said.
“Many of the surveillance measures are the same,” he added.
The NCDC has warned that Lassa fever cases typically rise between November and April and has urged states to fund preparedness before transmission intensifies.
President Bola Tinubu approved the ₦10 billion emergency allocation and established a Presidential Task Force on Ebola Virus Disease Preparedness and Emerging Public Health Threats in May, directing the immediate release of the funds.
The money has since drawn scrutiny as the allocation becomes entangled in political disputes.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has demanded a full public accounting, while the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) maintains that the fund remains untouched and that agencies have relied on other resources for surveillance and response work.
Idris rejected suggestions that the Ebola response was being deployed for political advantage.
“That is totally false,” he said, adding that health officials would not use disease as a political weapon and that any election-related decision would not be his to make.
Nigeria has not reported a confirmed Ebola case, but authorities have classified the importation risk as high amid regional outbreaks, international travel, and porous borders.
The government has expanded airport screening, activated referral and isolation centers, and directed states to submit preparedness plans, the director-general said.
The NCDC is also training health workers, assessing infection-control systems, and expanding laboratory and genomic-surveillance capacity, including at the National Reference Laboratory in Abuja and the Central Public Health Laboratory in Lagos.
For Idris, the dispute over the fund obscures a practical point: the same investments in early detection, laboratory capacity, and border screening that protect against Ebola are central to managing Nigeria’s recurring Lassa fever burden.
