By Innocent Onoh
The federal government in Nigeria has for decades been urging religious leaders and traditional rulers in the Northern states to cooperate with its officials in the campaign to kick polio out of the country. Recent reports show that the appeal is now catching on there. Kaduna state, for instance, says it has recorded a milestone in the fight to eradicate polio in the state.
The Executive Secretary of the State’s Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA), Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, said the state has not recorded any polio case since 2012.
During a rally to mark World Polio Day in Kaduna State, Dr. Balarabe said that, in spite of the feat, the agency has sustained polio immunization across all communities in the state. “Tremendous achievements were recorded from December 2012 to date. Nigeria recorded only four reported cases of wild Polio virus in Borno State in 2016 as against zero case over the same period in 2015. Kaduna state, in particular, did not record any case of wild polio virus since November, 2012.”
The executive secretary, represented by a deputy director in the agency, Hamza Ikara, stressed that the agency would not relax in administering the oral polio vaccine to children under-five until the virus was totally eliminated in the country.
Dr. Balarabe enjoined parents to ensure that their children were not left out in the exercise. The official said the celebration, which involved all development partners working in the state, was due to intensified efforts to ensure total eradication of polio in the state.
She said the event was an opportunity for all stakeholders to rub minds on the successes and challenges as well as to chart the way forward in making the state totally polio free. Polio has since been kicked out in the southern states of Nigeria.
