The President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has described the continued occurrence of cases of polio in the country as an embarrassment each time it comes up.
Jonathan, who said Nigeria is still a sanctuary of wild polio, spoke today at the inauguration of a Task Force on the Eradication of Polio in the country.
He said: “I believe Nigerians that are here are as embarrassed as myself whenever issues of polio are mentioned in the papers. That Nigeria is still a sanctuary of a wild polio and we are becoming a threat to other countries.
“It is quite embarrassing, especially considering the fact that polio is a disease that we can conveniently eradicate.
“It could have been done some years back. We don’t need rocket science to eradicate polio. It is simple vaccination.
“So, it takes the will of government from federal through the state to the local governments and the traditional institution to educate the people to accept the vaccination.”
Jonathan, who named the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Ali Patte, as the chairman of the Task Force, said further: “In Australia during the CHOGM, I pledged that before I leave office in this country, we must eradicate polio. Luckily for us, out of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, the disease is now limited to about eight states.
“We cannot begin to say that the Nigeria population is high or big that is why we cannot eradicate polio.
“That is no excuse because countries that have over one billion people have done that.
“We are just about 170 million people so we have no excuse.”
Jonathan expressed gratitude to Nigeria’s development partners in the bid to eradicate polio.
He specially thanked the Governments of Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany as well as Rotary International and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
He added: “My commitment to the people of this country is that between now and 2015 when my term of office is expected to end, we will work day and night to make sure that we eradicate polio.
“For that reason, we have also increased the amount of money we bring into polio eradication from $17 million to $30 million and if we have challenges, we will look for more money.”
Jonathan listed the terms of reference of the Task Force to include:
* Setting and enforcing national target for eradication within the next 24 months.
* Reporting directly to me to monthly on progress, challenges and corrective actions being taken to stop polio in Nigeria.
* Focussing on the most vulnerable highest risk wards, local governments and states and monitoring their progress monthly through the LG and states accountability framework.
* Leading monthly reviews polio eradication.
* Mobilising specific states, LG, partners, traditional and religious leaders, civil societies, the media and the general public to ensure high quality funded polio eradication activities.
Patte promised that members of the Task Force “will not disappoint the people.”
He said that in 2010, the country was celebrated for taking giant strides towards the interruption of polio transmission “as we recorded the lowest annual number of cases (21) that year compared to 388 cases in 2009. This represented a huge 95 per cent reduction.”
He said that of the four need endemic countries – Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Nigeria – “our dear country was then considered at the global level as the first with mostly potential to interrupt and thereby exist from this group.
“Sadly, Mr. President, as a result of some challenges and barriers, 2011 saw an upsurge in polio cases (62) that necessitated a stronger wake-up call to ensure we achieve this important historical milestones in our health care agenda.”
States affected by polio are Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Borno and Yobe.