2017 polio eradication target: Would Kano be a barrier?

Polio virus looms in Kano if….

After being delisted from the list of polio endemic nations in August 2015, Nigeria’s next tasks before it could be certified polio free in July 2017 include 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, the State where the last Nigeria’s polio case was recorded in Sumaila local government, might again be a major barrier to the quest of meeting up with the set target of eradicating polio in the country if urgent action is not taken to avert resurgence of the virus in the State.

The problem of rejecting polio vaccine is alarming in some remote areas of the State as the dwellers were now leveraging on the significance of the vaccine to the government and other stakeholders by protesting against the Polio Immunization Plus Days IPDs in their communities, insisting that the State government must resolve their peculiar problems bordering on land dispute, provision of social amenities and power tussle for traditional title among other others issues before endorsing the immunization exercise.

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 Village’s residents on the State government to dethrone their embattled village head before any immunization could be held in their area.

According to the Health Educator of the LGA, Bashir Lawan Kiru, the residents accused the Village Head, Alh Ado Muhammad Lawal of alleged governing the village from Lagos as he had never stayed for a while in the area, denying the chances of his blood brother, Ibrahim Muhammed Lawal from being turbaned as the right choice of the villagers and contributing nothing to the social economic development of the area, hence the reason for the call of his dethronement and the rejection of polio vaccine.

A source from the State Ministry of Health who preferred anonymity, while speaking with members of Journalists Against Polio JAP in the state, described the situation as “worrisome” with a 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 of the State.

“We are much concerned about the situation in Rogo LGA, the State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje set up an 8-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.”

He explained further that “after our attempt was turned down, the governor ordered the enforcement agencies led by a Divisional Police Officer DPO 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.

According to him, the State government had resolved to conduct a flag off of the forthcoming Immunization Plus Days slated to hold between 19th and 22 March in the Local Government, adding that all the stakeholders will be mobilized to the LGA, hoping that the approach could help in finding a lasting solution to the dispute.

Land dispute mars immunization in Bunkure LGA

Similarly, the just concluded IPDs was thwarted for two consecutive days in Bunkure LGA despite the fact that the flag off exercise was conducted in the area due 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 but unfortunately, the middle of the land remain the only major road linking other villages in the LGA.

Apparently disturbed by the level of encroachment after the residents converted her land to the major road plying by motorcyclists and motorists to enhance socio-economy activities in the area, Hajiya Binta reportedly blocked the entire road and several efforts to compel her to remove the blockage was denounced, leaving the residents with an option of trekking in and out of the community as disclosed by the Health Educator of the LGA, Hassan Muazu.

As usual business, the residents patiently waited for the trending approach of getting the attention of the State government to address their plights. During the just concluded IPDs, they insisted that the blockage must be removed if the exercise would hold in the entire settlement. Having worried over the impending setbacks that their action may cost the ongoing efforts to eradicate polio in the State, Gov Ganduje again set up a committee to dialogue with both parties.

Following the State governor’s intervention, the District Head of Bunkure, Muhammadu Isah Ummaru and the Elders of Kukutawa Village on behalf of the entire LGA however agreed to support the IPDs exercise, while awaiting prompt action from the concerned authorities to find a lasting solution to the lingering land 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 significant of the immunization exercise on the media and other forms of communication, some private and public schools in Kano including Golden Link Nursery School 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 rejected the vaccines for their pupils before they were eventually compelled by the taskforce teams 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 has 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 State ministry of health also lamented that the State Government is spending millions of naira on mobilization apart from the international donors’ funds but its unrelenting 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 health educator in each of the 44LGAs, 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 missed on the list of the absent children which their households were meant to be revisited. JAP’s inquisitiveness on the reason for blank spaces on the list prompted the officials to hunt for another copy from their colleague far away from the LGA. Truly, there was no blank space on the new copy later claimed to be the original, but the names of the particular missing children were filled up with a faddish ink of a separate ball point making it looking suspicious.

However, the State government may had 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 seeming dead aforementioned issues buried in a shallow grave might resurface in the next rounds of the exercise if the trending notion of rejection of polio vaccine is not adequately addressed through convincing communication approaches to let the people know that the looming risks of rejecting the vaccine overweight their endless demands from the State government.

The State government also has the responsibility of merging its words with action by providing basic amenities to the citizenry, timely response to their communal crisis and as well as engaging more persuasive approaches towards enlightening the people to be more informed, rather than using force approach to impose the vaccine on them.