The successes recorded in the eradication of the polio virus in Nigeria under the leadership of Dr. Ado Muhammed, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA),was a welcome development for the new Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Nigerians were happy as the news was broken that their beloved country has been delisted from the polio endemic nation leaving Pakistan and Afghanistan behind.
It is however surprising to note that the much celebrated success is being threatened unless urgent action is taken to avert the reverse of the endemic virus in the country.
Kolawole Omoniyi, in Kano, paints a scary picture of the boycott of the monthly routine immunization exercise.
After being delisted from the list of polio endemic nations in August 2015, Nigeria’s next tasks is to be certified polio free in July 2017, in addition to maintaining its zero case status, strengthening its surveillance system, improving routine immunization and maintaining its high quality campaigns against the wild polio virus.
But from all indications, stakeholders have expressed fear that Kano, being the state where the last polio case was recorded, might again be a major barrier to the quest of meeting up with the set target of eradicating polio in the country..
Some residents of rural communities had protested against the Polio Immunization Plus Days (IPDs), insisting that the state government must resolve their peculiar problems bordering on land disputes, provision of social amenities and power tussle for traditional titles.
Rogo LGA Rejects Vaccine for 9 Consecutive Months
For over nine months since the last five rounds of house-to-house polio immunization exercise in June last year, the exercise did not take place in Karshi Village (Zoza ward), one of the settlements in Rogo Local Government Area of Kano following the calls by the residents on the state government to dethrone their embattled village head before any immunization exercise could be held in their area.
According to the Health Educator of the LGA, Bashir Lawan Kiru, the residents accused the Village Head, Alhaji Ado Muhammad Lawal of governing the village from Lagos as he had never stayed for a while in the area.
He was also accused of denying his blood brother, Ibrahim Muhammed Lawal, the chance of being turbaned as the right choice of the villagers and contributing nothing to the social economic development of the area.
A source in the State Ministry of Health told members of Journalists Against Polio in the state that the situation is “worrisome.”
The source expressed the fear that the virus might be imported from other neighbouring States to Kano if the ongoing IPDs could not be sustained across the 44 LGAs.
“We are much concerned about the situation in Rogo LGA, the State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje , set up an eight -man fact finding committee to dialogue and rectify the crisis but the people refused to listen to us. They insist that their village head must be dethroned.
“ After our attempt was turned down, the governor ordered the enforcement agencies led by a Divisional Police Officer in the area to guide the immunization team and ensure that no child was left unimmunized in the LGA, but surprisingly, the team was also attacked by the angry youths who started stoning us until the police fired tear gas to disperse them. The situation also hindered our second attempt to immunize the children in the area,’’ he added.
Land Dispute Mars Immunization in Bunkure LGA
Similarly, the just concluded IPDs was thwarted for two consecutive days in Bunkure LGA due to a lingering land dispute between the people of the community and one Hajiya Binta Sariki Muktar, an indigene of Kano, who claimed to have purchased the land with evidence of payment at Kukutawa village. Unfortunately, the middle of the land remains the only major road linking other villages in the council area.
Apparently disturbed by the level of encroachment after the residents converted her land to the major road plied by motorcyclists and motorists, Muktar reportedly blocked the entire road and several efforts to compel her to remove the blockage was rebuffed, leaving the residents with the option of trekking in and out of the community as disclosed by the Health Educator of the LGA, Hassan Muazu.
The residents patiently waited for government intervention on the matter. During the just concluded IPDs, they insisted that the blockage must be removed if the exercise was to hold in the entire settlement. Worried over the development, Gov Ganduje again set up a committee to dialogue with both parties.
Following the governor’s intervention, the District Head of Bunkure, Muhammadu Isah Ummaru and the elders of Kukutawa Village agreed to support the IPDs exercise while awaiting prompt action from the concerned authorities to find a lasting solution to the lingering dispute.
Schools Reject Polio Vaccines for Lack of Prior Notifications
Also, for lack of prior notifications and other flimsy excuses despite series of enlightenment campaigns on the significance of the immunization exercise in the media, some schools in Kano declined participation.
They included Golden Link Nursery and Primary School in Tarauni LGA, Government Science Secondary School in Dawakin Tofa and some selected schools at Marriri and Tudun Maliki in Kumbotso LGA.
They were eventually compelled to do so by the taskforce towards the end of the just concluded round.
In the same vein, at ‘Yan Tagwaye, a settlement in Kiru Local Government Area, JAP discovered that a child had not been immunized against polio virus in the last two years as confirmed by her parents despite claims by the council officials that all the target population were adequately captured in each round of the exercise.
Reacting to the level of awareness of the exercise across the state, the source from the health ministry also lamented that while government is spending millions of naira on mobilization apart from the international donors, the efforts were being sabotaged by some bad eggs who were saddled with the responsibility of implementation in each round of the exercise.
“Let me tell you, to be able to capture children on the street, the stakeholders adopt a strategy called ‘Directly Observed Polio Vaccination’ and an average of N150, 000 apart from other mobilization funds is being given to the health educator in each of the 44 LGAs, still the jobs were not well done as expected in each round of the exercise,’’ he disclosed.
Also, in some of the documents made available to JAP members in Tarauni Local Government Area, it was discovered that 30 children were missing.
However, the State government may have had its way to immunize the children in some of the controversial areas this time around, but the worry of the stakeholders was that the scenarios may play out again.
The state government however has the responsibility of matching its words with action by providing basic amenities to the citizenry, timely response to their communal crisis as well as engaging more persuasive approaches towards enlightening the people to be more informed rather than using force.
Kolawole Omoniyi is the chairman, Journalists Against Polio in Kano