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The National Hunters’ Association of Nigeria has lamented that the government is using the Ebola virus outbreak to harm its business.
The group said by informing people to stop consuming bush meat such as monkeys and bats, describing them as carriers of Ebola, the government was driving its members into unemployment.
The association made this statement on Tuesday while addressing journalists in Lagos.
The President of the group, Chief Ishola Olasehinde, maintained that the government’s directive was an attempt to deprive its members of their means of livelihood and a disservice to hunters who had helped in safeguarding the country’s borders against terrorist attacks.
“We want to use this medium to tell the government that our businesses have been affected since they have informed people to stop consuming bush meat to prevent Ebola. This is our only means of sustenance. Even if there is any virus in these animals, once they are boiled and fried, it gets killed. Government should include hunters in their research if they really want to prove that bush meat causes Ebola.
“We hunters are the ones who protect the country’s borders from being invaded by nomads from Mali and Lake Chad. If not for our activities in the forest, Boko Haram members would have taken control of many cities in the country. This is not the way the government should reward us,” he said.
The Secretary of the Ogun State branch of the association, Dickon Oso, blamed the government for the disease in the country, claiming that a test should have been administered on the late Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, when he arrived at the airport.
He said, “I learnt Sawyer was sick when he arrived the country. If Nigeria were to be a developed country, a test would have been run on him right from the airport.”
A representative from Oyo State chapter of the association, Mrs. Funmilayo Gbadamosi, appealed to the government to correct the negative attitude that most people now had of bush meat.
She added that those that had sexual intercourse with dogs abroad should be held responsible for spreading the virus rather than the meat.
“Since this issue started, we have been living below the usual standard. My children are in higher institutions and this is the business I rely on to sponsor them.
“Those that go abroad to have sex with dogs for commercial purpose are the ones to be blamed for spreading Ebola. We do a thorough cleaning on animals we bring from the bush before we start selling them. Government should please save us from hunger,” she said.
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