- Parents’ reactions to military outreach show how a disease can be a metaphor for national distrust
It is regrettable that what ordinarily began as a noble humanitarian gesture by the Nigerian Army ended up in parents rushing to withdraw their children from schools in several states of the federation. The rumour spread like bush fire; from Anambra State through Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu, Edo, Rivers, Bayelsa and Ondo states. The effects in all the states were the same in the parents’ bid to prevent the rumoured ‘killer vaccine’ from being administered on their children. Some of the parents forcefully pulled down the schools’ locked gates, got in and picked their wards while those who could not gain entry had a shouting match with the security men at the gates. As a matter of fact, some parents scaled walls in order to withdraw their wards from classrooms. Appeals from principals were ignored.
Even press releases issued by the various state governments, the police and the military high command asking the people to disregard the wild rumour similarly fell on deaf ears. Ordinarily, the statement by the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army ought to have given enough assurance that there was no sinister motive in the military’s gesture. It states, inter alia: “The attention of the 82 Division Nigerian Army (NA), has been drawn to a silly and mischievous publication now trending on the social media alleging that the ongoing free medical services given to some communities in the South Eastern Region of Nigeria is with a sinister motive of depopulating the region through the so-called “monkey pox vaccination” purportedly being conducted by the NA in the region. The Division wishes to make it clear that the free medical outreach is not a vaccine intended to infect monkey pox or any major contemporary or emerging diseases in Nigeria to the people of South East or any part of the country”.
But no one was willing to take chances.
In a country where good medical care is elusive, especially for the poor, the military outreach should have been gladly embraced by those in need of it. That it turned out to be a bad example of an otherwise good idea is unfortunate. But there are consequences for the rejection of the medical care. We recall the anti-polio immunisation campaign in the north some years ago and the devastating effect it had on the fight against polio. The nation is yet to get over the effects of the reprehensible campaign.
It would appear though that the military authorities did not manage the medical outreach well. In the first place, coming so close to the dreaded “Operation Python Dance 1 and 2 in the south east region, and in the wake of the violent manner Nnamdi Kanu’s Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was suppressed and eventually proscribed; the military should have delayed the outreach at least in the region, to allow for old wounds to heal.
But this alone cannot explain the development. If we can excuse the panic in the southeast in view of the recent developments in the region, how come parents in Ondo State in the southwest reacted the same way as their counterparts in the southeast? Could this be a reflection of the distrust of the military by the people of the region too?
All said, going forward, much as we know that the medical outreach has become more or less routine with the military, it ought to do enough enlightenment mobilisation before moving in the syringe, especially in view of recent experiences involving soldiers and the civil populace.
We deplore what seems a huge distrust of soldiers by the civilians. Indeed, it is one reason we have always said that the police should be well equipped to minimise use of soldiers for internal security. This development is especially regrettable at a time of civil rule when we are trying to subordinate the military to civil authorities.
