Yari Denies Comment on Meningitis as Emir, Others Kick

Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari has denied saying that God is punishing Nigerians with Meningitis outbreak.

The governor was on Tuesday quoted as saying the outbreak of Type C Cerebrospinal Meningitis in some parts of the country was God’s way of showing his anger against Nigerians for turning their back on Him.

He reportedly made the remark while speaking with State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammdu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Though Yari yesterday explained that he did not say “God is punishing Nigerians with the outbreak”, Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi described the governor as part of conservative northern leaders, who discouraged attitudes and activities that would have developed the region.

The Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also criticised the governor.

Minister of State for Health Osagie Ehanire disagreed with the claims that those who died and the living patients of meningitis are sinners.

But Yari, who made clarifications on the comment through his Special Adviser on Media and Public Enlightenment, Mr. Ibrahim Magaji Dosara, said he never said Meningitis was a divine punishment from God for fornication.

He said he only lamented the paucity of appropriate vaccines to confront the outbreak of meningitis in his state.

The governor said he merely asked Nigerians to move closer to God and plead for His mercy to avert further infectious diseases and other health crisis in the state and Nigeria.

The statement said: “No doubt, as a God-fearing man and a Muslim, the governor believes in the powers of Allah to inflict whatever punishment He decides on the human race. However, the governor who spoke in Hausa had a particular audience in mind when he spoke to the BBC Hausa reporter.

“The governor added, for example, that fornication “should not spread so much in society, that it becomes common place and if that happens, Allah promises to inflict, on its perpetrators (people) a sickness that would have no cure.”

“Let it be known too that the governor still insists that all diseases come from Allah and that at no point in his interaction with the reporters did he insinuate that Allah was punishing Nigerians, but instead drew from the teachings of great Islamic traditions to buttress the point he was trying to convey.”

The emir, who spoke while delivering a keynote speech at KADINVEST 2.0, an event organised by the Kaduna Sate to encourage investments, said:  “Don’t give these kinds of explanation. That is not an Islamically correct statement to make.

“(If) you don’t have vaccines, you don’t have vaccines; Go and get vaccines.”

Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting, Ehanire said the outbreak of the disease was not a punishment from God.

He said: “The Federal Government does not have views of that nature and I am not sure the state government can really continue to make that statement. When things happen, yes you can begin to look this way and that way for the cause of it, but like I said, nature played us unfortunate stroke. But that is not to say we committed sin or anything. It does happen that things occur out of the blues.”

A statement issued by the spokesman of the PDP Caretaker Committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, described the governor’s statement as shameful and unfortunate.

The statement said: “Governor Yari should not blame God for his failures but that of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to avoid incurring God’s anger on their crass ineptitude in governance.

“However, we wish to advise him to resign immediately for making such statement as a state Governor and the chairman of Governors’ Forum who is supposed to bring hope to the people and not despair.”