With less than two years to certify Nigeria polio-free, the Dangote Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and northern governors have intensified efforts on routine immunisation against the scourge. Martins Ifijeh writes
Since the last 17 months, Nigeria has remained delisted from polio endemic nations as no new cases of the virus has been found within the country’s territory, leaving behind Afghanistan and Pakistan as the only countries in the world still termed polio endemic nations; a feat needing uninterrupted sustenance for three straight years before the country can be regarded as a polio-free nation.
However, experts believe a major assurance that new cases will not be discovered within the three years window, which started in June 2014, is when every child in the country, especially under age five, access vaccines to prevent poliomyelitis and other related diseases, as well as maintain proper hygiene and other positive lifestyle changes.
But despite progress made on routine immunisation across the country, apathy still mar some areas, with a large percentage of children still not undergoing the programme, which is chiefly due to ignorance on the benefits of the routine immunisation or lack of accessibility to vaccines, as well as other limitations, including logistics and lack of effective state and community-based leadership in that regard. It is in addressing these issues that the Dangote Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Governors of Kaduna, Sokoto, Yobe, Borno, Bauchi and Kano States launched an ambitious new partnership through a memorandum of understanding to commit political and financial resources to strengthen and sustain routine immunisation programmes that will save more lives and keep Nigeria free from polio and other related diseases.
The MoU, will among other things, help in bringing vaccines to every city, town, villages and hard-to-reach areas in the North, as well as help in operationalising Primary Health Care (PHC) under one roof, aid in achieving 80 per cent coverage of routine immunisation in all wards, help maintain consistent high level of monitoring of efforts and results, amongst other.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Kaduna State, the President of Dangote Foundation, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, expressed commitment to see that child-killer diseases, including polio and other related diseases were stemmed out of the country, while the lives of millions of children were saved.
Dangote, who urged Kaduna Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai and other governors to visit a health centre every month for supportive supervision, called on the federal government to continue to work closely with the states to provide routine and new vaccines and other health commodities.
According to Dangote, Bill Gate’s commitment to polio eradication was clear, “but he also talked to me about how immunisation is life saving, cost effective and is a cornerstone of every primary healthcare system. “Leadership and guidance of federal government and the commitment of the governors are critical to success. For me, bringing healthcare to the community is something I care about deeply, so it is very important that communities trust that health services are there for them,” he noted.
The Dangote Foundation has over the years provided leadership in areas of health, education and empowerment in the country, while also acting swiftly to humanitarian emergencies in the country, especially in providing succour to Boko Haram victims.
Mr. Bill Gates, who spoke briefly, said his foundation was determined to eradicate polio and other related diseases in Nigeria, Africa and the world in general through partnership with various states and countries, adding that the MoU signed with the Northern governors would go a long way in reducing child deaths in the country.
He commended the various state governments for allocating a substantial sum of their annual budget to the health sector.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the area of health and agriculture, has yielded concrete results in the country. The Foundation’s influence in the area of polio has provided invaluable guidance and constant oversight as Nigeria pushes to rid the land of the disease.
Under the agreement, the two Foundations will offer both technical and financial assistance in support of the exercise in the respective states
Lending his voice, the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, said the signing of the MoU demonstrates the willingness and commitment of Nigeria’s government and organisations to tackle the challenges. Adding that the US government tirelessly seek opportunities to partner with Nigeria in tackling challenges to the country’s development.
“Each year, we provide more than $600 million in programmes to address serious health issues such as child mortality, maternal and newborn health, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis,” noting that, US government’s ultimate goal was to end preventable child and maternal deaths and to achieve an AIDS free generation.
He believed the MoU would offer model platform to capitalise on the prospects of evidence-based approaches, which would translate into stronger systems for immunisation, equal access to routine immunisation services and building capacity for Nigerian states like Sokoto to lead in developing solutions for its people. “This agreement, maybe even more importantly, serves as a model on which to build future partnerships between developing partners and the government of Nigeria,” Entwistle noted.
The host Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, thanked his guests for visiting Kaduna and gave assurance that all agreements reached in the MoU would be implemented.
According to him, despite the fact that immunising a child should be simple and routine, it has unfortunately not been so across Nigeria, adding that, the health system must be invested with the capacity to consistently provide even routine services at a high standard.
He said it was for that reason that the partnership was established to address it. “As state Governors, it is evident from the contributions of my colleagues that our key strategy is to ensure that a reliable supply of vaccines is delivered in the right quantities at the right time, with sustained potency to our health facilities. And if we can do that for vaccines, we can deploy same for every other health commodity our people need.
“It is essential that we earn the trust of our communities by delivering predictable, reliable health services if we want our citizens to come to the health facilities,” he said, adding that, “by getting immunisation right, we can ensure that families access other critical treatments against malaria, diarrhea and other common ailments,” said El-rufai.
Also present in Kaduna at the signing of the MoU were the governors of Kano, Abdullahi
Ganduje; Borno, Kashim Shettima; Bauchi, Mohammed Abubakar; Sokoto, Aminu Tambuwal;
and Yobe, Ibrahim Geidam. Others were the Sultan of Sokoto, Emir of Kano, the Shehu of Borno, among other dignitaries.
Meanwhile, in an updated Abuja commitment on polio eradication with state governors at the
Presidential Villa Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari said, under the new deal, all the 36 state governors would be co-opted as members of task force on polio in view of their strategic positions as leaders of their respective states.
Buhari described the recent successful de-listing of Nigeria as a polio endemic country as an enormous achievement for the country that should not be underestimated.
With the MoUs, the governors would be committed to effective governance, leadership and financial accountability to reduce child illness and death from diseases such as polio, measles, pertussis, and hepatitis through increased routine immunisation in their respective states.
The other partners would be expected to bring the financial and technical support needed to operate the programme. Meanwhile, all signatories pledged to improve routine immunisation coverage in northern Nigeria systematically and sustainably, especially where vaccine coverage rates were low.
Source: This Day News
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