Dear
Decontee Sawyer,
I am moved
to write you this letter based on your recent open letter defending why your
husband decided to infest Nigeria with the fatal Ebola virus.
I had
refrained from penning my thoughts on how irresponsible your husband’s
behaviour was, mainly because he was a human being who had a right to life like
myself and also because he had left loved ones like you and his children behind
who miss him everyday.
However, your
recent letter has convinced me that you deserve no pity whatsoever and has
prompted me to enlighten you on what you seem to have so deliberately ignored.
You and your
husband are full-fledged citizens of the United States of America. Everybody
knows that the medical system in the United States is far more advanced than
that of Nigeria. So if your husband’s sole intention was to seek medical help,
why did he not contact the health authorities in the America?
Nigeria does
not have the best health care system in Africa and that is a fact. If you and
your husband were reading the news, you’d have known that a lot of Nigerians travel to South Africa, India and
the UK for medical attention. I’m stressing this fact for non-Nigerians who may
not understand how the system in my country works. No Nigerian would take your
callous excuse with a pinch of salt!Please continue after cut
You had the
nerve to apologise to your friends, Catherine and Josh for “contacting them so
early.” But you didn’t deem it fit to pay your condolences to the family of the
two nurses who died from caring for your sick husband? What about the ECOWAS
staff who died because he had primary contact with your husband while helping
him in Lagos? Did they also not “have a passion for life”? Do you think these
people wanted to take a chance with their lives when they knew their loved ones
also depended on them?
I heard
unconfirmed reports that Patrick Sawyer‘s late sister was engaged to be married
to a Nigerian who fled Liberia when he heard that she was infected with the
Ebola virus, leaving Patrick with no choice than to care for his sister. This
was why Patrick came to Nigeria on a vendetta mission to pass the virus. I also
heard he urinated on the nurses who cared for him; yelling in anger when he was
told that he had EVD.
I dismissed
these stories as unfounded rumours, until Nurse Justina Obi Ejelonu gave an eye
witness account of how irrationally your husband behaved while on admission in
a Lagos hospital-yanking off his IV infusion and squirting blood on the nurses
and janitors. Justina was a young, intelligent and ambitious lady who was full
of life. Your husband cut short her dreams and the dreams of many others by one
careless act of boarding a plane to Nigeria.
What’s going
on now in Nigeria? I’ll tell you! A nursing mother and her breast-feeding baby
were infected with EVD when they visited the hospital your husband died in.
Scores of Nigerians are being quarantined in Ebola isolation centres; their
work, businesses and daily hustles paralyzed. People are panicking all over the
country. At least two people have died from drinking concentrated salty water
because they were pranked into believing that salt and water were a cure for
Ebola. The Nigerian government has given out 1.9 billion naira (about
$11.8million) to fight the spread of Ebola in the country. This was not in the
initial national budget. The resumption date of schools in the country may be
postponed indefinitely until the virus can be contained. This means that
students preparing for external exams such as WAEC and SSCE may be adversely
affected; the whole school calendar will be affected. I’m surprised you didn’t
acknowledge the impact your husband’s deadly visit is having on the most
populous nation in Africa.
Instead, you
dismissed the efforts of the medical team who risked their lives to handle your
husband as “ironic.”
CCTV footage
showed your husband avoiding contact with people at Monrovia airport, some
reports even say he was rolling on the floor in pains at some point. Sebastian
Muah, who until recently was the Liberian Deputy Minister of Finance for Fiscal
Affairs, said in an email to PREMIUM TIMES that the late Mr. Sawyer deceived
the Liberian government into believing that he was “Ebola Free’’. He LIED to
the Liberian government that he had no contact with his younger sister who died
of the disease on July 8 and that he had voluntarily subjected himself for
testing which showed he was free of Ebola.
Nigeria was
free of Ebola until July 20 when Mr. Sawyer arrived. He became terribly ill on
his flight and was rushed to the First Consultant Hospital Obalende, Lagos,
where he died on July 24. Since then, a nation of over 160 million people are
being faced with a fast-killing disease they have no idea about how to handle.
We had no prior knowledge of how to combat this disease, so why would your
husband choose Nigeria of all places for “help”? If we were so ‘competent’ why
are we begging foreign countries to send us experimental drugs?
Decontee
Sawyer, you owe the government of Nigeria and its people an apology. You also
owe your Liberian president, Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf an apology because she
has not failed her country like you claim. Your letter has portrayed you as a
callous and selfish woman just like your husband. I leave you to your conscience.
I may not
join other Nigerians to say “may Patrick Sawyer rot in hell,” because I believe
I may not have the right to say that. But the name of Patrick Sawyer will
always resound as a man who brought death to the most populous nation in
Africa. A man who gifted Nigeria with no beneficial service, but a ZOMBIE
VIRUS. I will always remember Patrick Sawyer as a medical terrorist.
Yours truly,
Peace Ben
Williams
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