By Samuel Oyejola
President Muhammadu Buhari had sent a clear message to Nigeria and the world that the final onslaught against poliomyelitis was a fight to finish when he immunized his granddaughter in the Presidential Villa. The message was clear and unmistaken for the discerning that the end was near for the epidemic that had ravaged the country for decades.
Immunizing little Zuleiha on 25th of July himself , Buhari had committed himself to the task that every Nigerian child must be free of this dreaded disease.
The wild polio virus has for over 30 years ravaged the country but various efforts by the government through National Programme on Immunization (NPI), Expended Programme on Immunization failed to clear the nightmare of having Nigerian children crippled. The establishment of National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) in 1992 brightened the hope. With the new agency, the hope of getting rid of the disease soared although the polio virus proved elusive.
As at 2013, about 123 cases were recorded across the country. When the former governor of Niger state, Aliyu Babangida, described the appointment of Dr. Ado Mohammed as the Executive Director/CEO of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency in 2011 as “a square peg in a square hole” some may have viewed it as a political statement necessary to appreciate Goodluck Jonathan for offering the Niger-born public health doctor an opportunity to serve the Nigerian people.
Almost five years after his appointment he showed to the world that he is truly a square peg. Interrupting polio transmission in the country was neither a tea party nor a mere walk in the park. It was the sheer willpower, tenacity and purposeful leadership deployed by Ado which has ushered in this landmark exit from the polio club of nations.
Now that the country has been able to demystify polio, the nation is looking towards the final lap of his task – the final certification by the World Health Organisation that the country is finally polio free in 2017.
A time tested marathoner, Ado is determined to outrun his polio foe. As he told Time Nigeria, his agency is not distracted by the accolades but would continue to ensure routine immunization of every child below five years in every nook and cranny of the country.
“ We will continue to provide facility based services so that when parents take their children to the facilities, those children and wards are really immunized with oral polio vaccine amongst other antigens that that will be administered in those facilities,” Ado said.
To be sure, the last lap would be energy sapping. He would prove to the world that is OON award in 2014 based on his outstanding efforts to drive the process of providing primary healthcare to Nigeria’s poor and most vulnerable citizens was not a fluke, neither were the Public Administrator of the year award conferred on him by the Centre for Public Development and Political Studies in Lagos, the highly revered Kwame Nkrumah Leadership Award as well as the Africa Leadership ICON 2014.