Steven Gukas Films, Bolanle Austen-Peters Productions, Michelangelo Productions, Native Filmworks Production, in association with Koga Studios, presents, Danny Glover (Dr. Benjamin Ohiaeri), Bimbo Akintola (Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh), Francis Onwochei (Dr. Amos Abaniwo), Somkele Idhalama (Dr. Ada Igonoh), The Ambassador (Sola Oyebade), Patrick Oliver Sawyer (Keppy Ekpenyong), Tina Mba (Yewande Adesina. Producer, Bolanle Austen-Peters; Director of Photography, Yinka Edwards. © 2016
After the Fajr prayer one morning, the Mallam of the madrasa I attended summoned the Muslims. He announced that a circular has arrived from Saudi Arabia (Mecca) that a believer in Mecca dreamt of an impending Fitna that will be descending upon the earth. He does not know when it will come; the circular did not state so but went on to assure humankind that such time is surely coming.
Such will be the time when a new deluge will afflict humankind: death will be a commonplace thing, the graveyards shall fill; there will be no place for the sick, hospitals shall turn away the sick; leaders will paralyze for lack of knowledge as to how to help their subjects; people shall run from the city until they reach the seashores and shall open their hands to heaven crying and wailing for mercy. There shall be unrest, chaos, and lack of security.
The Mallam cautioned, “Every believer should dip a finger in the blood of a lamb and smear the foreheads with the blood.” That was when I was a little boy, and it scared me. And, though, I kept the revelation in the deeper recesses of my mind, I never believed such a day would come when we shall run from the sick and mothers would abandon their children, a time when husbands shall disown their wives, and our streets would litter with corpses.
Then comes the year of our Lord, two thousand and eight, in Lagos city with a population of about 21 million people; comes the news of a breakout of a mysterious virus, nicknamed Ebola; a virus that causes severe bleeding, organ failure which leads to one’s death. The virus is ravaging Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. And that governments have no handle on the disease and it is spreading like wildfire. Doctors and nurses and every medical professional that ever gets in touch with the affected patients die. Families abandon their dead parents; brothers, sisters, and children. Already the dead overwhelmed the medical centers, and the common grave is commonplace in the cities. Both countries have appealed to the world community for help.
A diplomat from Liberia, on his way to Ecowas conference, gets sick on the plane, usual malaria, he presumes, and could not continue the trip. He gets rushed to First Consultant Hospital in Lagos. With a population of 21 million and a density of 1,171.28 residents per kilometer, no one detected that this patient from Liberia is an index patient of the contagious Ebola virus. Indeed, the fitna reaches the shores of Nigeria, and the country is not prepared to handle an outbreak of such magnitude. Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea have already lost 11,200 of its citizens; it could be a calamity of immeasurable proportion if Nigeria does not stand up to the disease promptly. With terror in his eyes, “It started.” Doctor Benjamin Ohiaeri discloses the news of the first affected nurse in Nigeria. “Who, Oga, who?” That is the alarm Dr. Ohiaeri rang to Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh (Bimbo Akintola); it is evident, the deluge taking place in neighboring countries has hit shores.
Scenes in the movie, The Happening (2008) enacted in Lagos in real-time: “There’s some event happening!” “It is some attack!” “The first stage is a loss of speech; the second stage is physical disorientation; the third stage is fatal.” “There appear to be happenings.” Why is this happening?” “Whatever is happening is happening.” “Whatever this is, we all gonna die here.” Such were the endless unanswered questions residents asked in the movie when the city got hit by an unknown disease that killed everyone in its path. When the Minister of Health officially breaks the news of the Ebola outbreak in Lagos, therefore Nigeria, to the press, you can sense consternations and fear in the eyes of the people. He appeals for calm; he assures them that the government is taking precautions and checks at border crossings have been reinforced.
That is how fearful the Ebola outbreak in Lagos was dreaded. The thing with the disease is that no one knew the gravity of public health risk. With the nurses and doctors inappropriately clad, without face masks and gloves in their contact with the index patient, every personnel was at stake. The world community, especially America at the forefront, spearheaded an aggressive policy towards the mitigation of the disease. The Department of Homeland Security Secretary formally addresses American officers:
“We cannot afford the Ebola outbreak in Lagos. Nigeria cannot afford it. We cannot afford it. The world cannot afford it. Lagos is a city of 21 million people and is the hub of air travel in Africa. An extensive outbreak in that city, well, it’s quite frankly the doomsday scenario that we all feared…by the time the CDC, WHO, Red Cross and MSF…we are projecting millions of deaths across the world. We need to prevail on WHO to act quickly.
At First Consultant Hospital, the doctors and nurses are worried about the result of the blood test for Mr. Sawyer.
“If this is Ebola, he is already symptomatic, infectious,” puts bluntly by Dr. Ameyo to Dr. Ohieari.
“Are we taking precautions?” he asks.
Dr. Ameyo looks down defeatedly. They had not been too careful. And you should have seen her face when the blood test result came in, that Mr. Sawyer has Ebola. The city of Lagos, the government, and First Consultant Hospital are locked in a fierce fight as to how to handle the disease in record time before it spreads out into the general population. The Yaba infectious disease hospital has no facility to deal with the outbreak, and the city is blaming everything on the politics of the country.
Dr. Ada Igonoh (Somkele Idhalama), as reported by Dr. Benjamin Ohiaeri to Dr. Ameyo, is the first among the hospital personnel to be quarantined. Then the ambulance came for Dr. Morris Ibeawuchi (Gideon Okeke). Next, nurse Justina Ejelonu. Then worst of all, Dr. Ameyo got hospitalized for Ebola. Except for Dr. Ada Igonoh and Morris Ibeawuchi, most other nurses and doctors, including patients, perished.
There is one instance in this story that dearly touches my heart when Dr. Ohieari is urging Dr. Ameyo to take the Ebola blood test. She had felt Sawyer’s IV on the eve of his death. However, Dr. Ameyo is confident she’s not asymptomatic and, therefore, could not take the test. Her family members, husband, and son are worried, and her son comes to Dr. Ohieari and complains about his mother’s loss of appetite and sleep. “If it will stop the men in my life from ganging up against me, I will take the test.” She finally tested. And a day later, when she can’t get herself out of bed, her son Bankole Cardoso (Charles Etubiebi Oke), suspicious and scared, calls the ambulance, and his mother got carried into quarantine. The scene when she is on the phone talking to Bankie outside her hospital window, and both of them are crying, and she urged that Bankie must have a cake for his birthday, is tear-jerking.
With the practicality of the world community, the excellent work of the local Nigerian government, and the sacrifice made by Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, though, never survived the virus, the Ebola virus got contained. Dr. Adadevoh perished, of course, but in ninety-three days, starting with Patrick Sawyer’s arrival on Nigerian soil, the Nigerian medical effort had the Ebola virus eradicated, losing eight lives and twelve survivors. The Ebola outbreak in parts of Africa is sure the beginning of the fitna about which my quranic teacher warned. Today as I write this review, the USA is logging in one thousand death a day from a mysterious Covit 19 virus that has already killed one hundred and eighty thousand in America alone. With all the resources America has, I recommend the Nigerian model in combating the Ebola virus: boldface attack, vigilance, and non-political.