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Polio Virus Looms in Kano

Nigeria Polio

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

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