Nigeria, this week, marked one year without any reported case of Wild Polio Virus. As we commemorate this, we commend the efforts of the government and other stakeholders in the war against this disease. Organisations such as Rotary International, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Dangote Foundation deserve kudos for this achievement
Speaking at a brief event to mark this milestone in Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari promised that the Federal Government will mobilise and deploy all necessary resources to complete the task of eradicating polio from the country.
The elated president pointed out that he was looking forward to the formal declaration of Nigeria as a polio-free country in 2017. Nigeria has not recorded any polio case since July 25, 2014.
Strident efforts to eradicate Wild Polio Virus from Nigeria started in 1997 when the Federal Government established the National Programme on Immunisation (NPI). Not much success was recorded in the first decade of this programme, hence its reorganisation. After the reorganization in 2007, appreciable progress was recorded between 2009 and 2010, before a lull.
However, a great push to eradicate polio from our shores was launched in 2012 under the administration of the then President Goodluck Jonathan. He declared a national emergency on polio and set up the Presidential Task Force on Polio Eradication (PTFoPE). The national polio eradication initiatives were also complemented with expertise from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
We congratulate the government and people of Nigeria and our development agencies and partners on achieving one year without any recorded case of polio in the country. We also commend all the health agencies and donors that have worked tirelessly to achieve this noble objective.
The government and its polio eradication partners should step up the eradication effort through the National Immunisation Days (NIDs) and other routine immunisations. There should be no room for complacency to avoid a relapse of the disease. State and local government health authorities should complement the efforts of the Federal Government towards achieving the set goal of formal declaration of Nigeria as polio-free by the World Health Organisation in 2017. We say this because any complacency on their part may lead to a resurgence of the disease. Now that our country is free from the disease for one year, we should keep the good record.
The campaign against polio should be taken a step higher to ensure that every child in Nigeria is reached with the polio vaccine. In fact, no Nigerian child should be left unimmunised including those in hard-to-reach areas. Efforts should be made to ensure that all children entering the country through any of our borders are either immunised or have evidence of such immunisation, especially those coming from polio-endemic countries.
We enjoin parents to ensure that their children and wards are immunised against polio. Rejection of the vaccine should attract some sanctions. We plead with traditional rulers and religious leaders to prevail on their members to immunise their children. Let all hands be on deck to ensure that polio is kept off our shores.
We laud President Buhari for his resolve to step up the fight against polio to ensure that Nigeria is finally declared polio-free.
Let the nation’s health authorities keep up the polio fight. The template and strong resolve that were used to kick polio out of Nigeria should be deployed to tackle other child killer diseases in the country
