Ebola alert casts shadow over international travel to Nigeria

As a renewed public health alert ripples through Nigeria following confirmation of an imported Ebola case, international mobility and cross-border transit face an immediate cloud of uncertainty.

With health authorities ramping up port-of-entry surveillance, mandatory health declaration protocols, and rigorous contact tracing, travelers and airlines alike find themselves grappling with sudden friction.

This development has reignited familiar anxieties about global health security, prompting passengers to question upcoming itineraries and forcing a delicate balancing act between maintaining open international gateways and safeguarding public health.

Already, aviation stakeholders, experts, and passengers are questioning whether Nigerian airports can effectively execute rigorous biosecurity screening without causing severe passenger processing bottlenecks and flight disruptions.

A visit to Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos on Wednesday revealed that while health surveillance has resumed at international arrival wings, significant operational gaps remain across Lagos airport terminals.

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At the international arrival terminal of MMIA, airport officials were observed using handheld infrared thermometers to check the temperatures of arriving international passengers from a short distance.

Additionally, arriving passengers confirmed that they were required to complete digital health declaration forms detailing their recent travel origins, contact history, and potential viral exposure to allow for potential contact tracing.

However, these digital forms and health checks were completely absent at MMIA until today, resuming abruptly only after public health authorities confirmed the FCT Ebola case.

Furthermore, there is a notable absence of automated, camera-mounted infrared thermal scanners. These continuous thermal imaging systems, which are designed to scan large streams of passengers moving through concourses or security checkpoints simultaneously without causing physical congestion, remain uninstalled across major terminals.

While international arrivals face reactive monitoring, biosecurity screening remains entirely absent across domestic terminals.

At the Lagos local airport terminals, passengers move freely into and out of departure and arrival halls without any health checks, temperature readings, or travel history profiling.

“I’m travelling to Uyo now and I can’t see any screening instruments by FAAN for Ebola. It is business as usual,” Eno Bassey, an intending domestic passenger, told BusinessDay.

Bassey expressed disappointment that despite the elevated national Ebola alert, authorities have failed to beef up baseline health surveillance at domestic hubs.

On their part, domestic and international airlines operating within the country have yet to introduce independent health screening procedures onboard or at ground check-in counters.

However, the United Nations and global aviation bodies have urged aircraft operators to strictly observe established health guidelines and biosecurity protocols refined during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This current laxity mirrors findings from earlier BusinessDay investigations at MMIA and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) in Abuja, where departing international passengers passed through standard security channels without any health checks, even as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) previously rated the risk of Ebola importation as high.

Although a joint inspection by the Lagos State Ministry of Health and FAAN previously led to reassessments of emergency preparedness, on-the-ground execution continues to lag behind official pronouncements.

Reactions from travel practitioners and aviation security experts show systemic jurisdictional confusion, reactive policy execution, and operational risks for travellers.

Susan Akporaiye, former President of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) and Managing Director/CEO of Topaz Travels and Tours, told BusinessDay that Nigeria’s screening enforcement has historically fluctuated depending on regional news.

“When the incident started in Uganda, Nigeria started screening people coming into the country. When Uganda announced that the situation was under control and was within a small locality, the screening enforcement in Nigeria reduced.

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“Since this new case is recorded directly in Nigeria, the health authorities are looking into it. With the new Ebola scare in Nigeria, it would be advisable that passengers arrive at the airport well in time so that the procedures of screening for Ebola do not cause them to miss their flights,” Akporaiye said.

Addressing the persistent confusion over who bears primary responsibility for airport health checks, John Ojikutu, an aviation security expert and CEO of Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, clarified that primary biosecurity enforcement falls under the Federal Ministry of Health rather than airport landlords.

“This is not FAAN’s responsibility, but the Port Health Services of the Ministry of Health. Just as Customs, Immigration, the DSS, and the NDLEA have checkpoints at the international passenger arrival halls, so should Port Health be positioned. Ask them where they were before now and what their programme for working at the airports is. It is not FAAN’s responsibility, and if it is, blame FAAN for the neglect and not Port Health,” Ojikutu said.

In response to growing public anxiety, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) confirmed that it has placed major airports nationwide on heightened alert following the confirmed case in the FCT.

In an official statement issued by Henry Agbebire, Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at FAAN, the authority stated that it is actively collaborating with the NCDC, Port Health Services, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and other relevant stakeholders to support national containment measures.

“FAAN is maintaining heightened vigilance across airport operations and will continue to coordinate with public health authorities, align its response with further guidance, and support additional measures considered necessary to safeguard passengers, airport personnel, and the wider public,” Agbebire stated.

The authority emphasised that early case identification and contact tracing demonstrate the strength of integrated public health protocols. FAAN urged passengers, airlines, terminal workers, and airport users to remain calm, strictly follow health screening directives, rely exclusively on verified updates from official health bodies, and refrain from spreading unconfirmed reports.

Already companies are rethinking events and conference.

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Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPC) has postponed a two-day conference for its contractors and partners in Abuja after an Ebola case was confirmed in the capital, putting a precautionary brake on one of the state oil company’s main industry gatherings.

In a statement posted on its official X handle, the company said it was postponing the event “as a precaution” and gave no new date, saying only that one would be announced in due course.

The NNPC Limited Contractors and Partners CEO HSE Conference was initially scheduled for Oct. 21-22.

The company didn’t say how many people had registered, where the event was to be held in Abuja, or whether foreign delegates had already arrived. It also gave no details on the confirmed case, and it didn’t say whether health authorities had advised it to call off the event.

“The health, safety and wellbeing of all participants remain our priority,” NNPC said. It apologised for the inconvenience and thanked partners, contractors, speakers and participants for their understanding.

Public health analysts and aviation experts maintain that to effectively safeguard Nigeria’s air transport network from viral threats without crippling passenger movement, several structural improvements must be implemented immediately including replacing manual, handheld infrared thermometers with high-throughput, camera-mounted thermal scanners at all international and major domestic concourses; and mandating digital pre-boarding health declarations.