By Sule Ya'u SuIe
The renewed onslaught against the child killer disease
poliomyelitis in Nigeria that began with the symbolic flag-off of the
Synchronised National lmmunisafion Days (NlDs) in Kano on October 2nd, will
capture public imagination as a triumph of reason over puff.
By the end of the first phase of vaccination, beginning 6
October, millions of children in Kano and elsewhere in Nigeria (and indeed
Africa) would have been administered with the life-saving Oral Polio Vaccine
(OPV). The importance of this medication to our long-term national
healthcare aims cannot be questioned. History will be The best judge
however, whether our children are befter oft infused with verified and
certified vaccines against the wish of the uncritical mass, which saw
heroism in unquestioning compliance with whatever gospel is preached by
donor agencies even when we are not too sure if they got it figured out.
At the colourful ceremony held at The Kofar Mata Stadium
in Kano, President Olusegun Obasanjo who was accompanied by the former
Malian leader and current African Union Commission Chairman, Mr Alpha Konare,
representatives of other African governments, state governors, traditional,
religious and civil society leaders could not hide his enthusiasm at
striking the deadliest blow against the disease that threatens the future
happiness of the continent's children.
But it was MalIam lbrahim Shekarau, host governor and
chief celebrant who clearly defined the essence of the day's event the
triumph of truth over suspicion and sickly falsehood. As the governor
rightly noted, the day's event, signalled the end of the polio immunisation
controversy on these shores. While it raged, the polio controversy was
raised to an unparalleled decibel din.
A philosopher once described fanaticism as doubling one's
efforts after forgetting the initial subject matter, (or words to that
eftect). and I think this applies fittingly to the chorus of the army of
protagonists, which ignored the scientific arguments thrown up by
antagonists but chose to attack individuals based on religion.
Mallam Shekarau defended the action of government in
suspending polio vaccination in Kano state until the vaccines had been
subjected to popular, rigorous scientific tests, adding that the 11-month
stunt had afforded stakeholders a chance to take in all the shades of facfs
on the issue.
Defending the action of government, Mallam Shekarau said,
"We are now certain that our people would not be subjected to any danger.
The whole world should therefore know that we did not base our arguments on
religious, political or personal sentiments. Our actions were informed by
the desire to use the mandate of the people to examine the polio vaccine
scientifically in order to allay fears that the people nursed over the
years.
"It is there on record that all stakeholders on the issue
are now more informed and enlightened. The polio controversy in Kano was
therefore the only battle in which all parties emerged victorious".
Kano should therefore be singled out for praise for
raising interest and national, even international, consciousness on the
quality and credibility of the polio vaccines. Doubts about the safety of
the vaccines predated the Shekarau administration. In the past, rumours
subsisted in the absence of tangible facts teading to confused parents and
health workers secretly destroying the vaccines while presenting concocted
figures claiming massive progress in children immunisation.
But Mallam Shekarau would not toe the path of deceit for
cheap popularity but would insist on a rigorous scientific check on the
vaccines. Tests by a multi-partisan scientific team commissioned by
government ascertained that a percentage of the vaccines sent to Kano were
contaminated with traces of the reproductive hormone oestrogen
believed to engender infertility in young women.
Later arguments suggested that the traces were too minor
to make substantial impact and that one needed to ingest several million
doses for potency. Maybe, but nobody adduced any scientific excuse why the
traces were there in the first instance as the governor and several
stakeholders demanded.
Instead, the Western media and a section of their
domestic counterparts preferred to feed the public stories of religious
fundamentalists in the Muslim North who un-reasonably reject the anti polio
vaccine on the suspicion that it contained anti fertility agents introduced
by the United States which is hell-bent on depopulating the Muslim world.
For insisting on the supremacy of science over spin,
Mallam Shekarau took the anti- polio discourse away from the experts to the
level where the man on the street could make a contribution on a matter as
critical as medication to this vulnerable child, the effect of which may not
even manifest until today's actors and their cheerleaders have left the
stoge.
But should a matter that affects the lives of our
children be left to final and unchallenged determination by donor agencies
and their local beneficiaries? Are these people not aware that in 1999 in
the United States a decision was taken by the Advisory Committee for
Immunisation Practices (ACIP) to switch to a schedule using the Inactivated
Poliovirus Vaccine (IPV) in order to eliminate the incidence of vaccine
associated paralytic poliomyelitis? Doesn't that show that the debate
on the accuracy of OPV is not conclusive but ongoing? Can anyone deny that
whole populations have been endangered (in Africa and Asia) by being
injected with vaccines which seemed clean at the time of administration but
which turned out contaminated later, and if so, why would conspiracy
theorists go to work because on elected governor demanded verification
before vaccines are administered on his subjects.
Multinational companies have used Kano citizens as
guinea- pigs for unethical medical experimentation in the past without
sympathetic advocacy by international health agencies.
In 1996 Pfizer embarked on an unwholesome and
unauthorised test of its drug. Trovan (Trovafloxacin). the oral
antibiotic it hoped would fight bacterial meningitis, on hapless.
unsuspecting Kano patients. (mind you never in Europe or US) and which
resulted in the death of more than a dozen people.
Several years later rumours had it that meningitis
vaccines are laced with infertility and HIV agents were never addressed in a
scientific and convincing manner beyond dismissing doubters as religious
fanatics and medical illiterates. Once bitten, twice shy, they say.
As an educationist humanist and a democratically elected
governor dedicated to safeguarding the lives and health of the people,
MaIlam Shekarau commissioned a scientific team of leading medical experts to
countries like Indonesia and South Africa to verify the transparency of the
vaccines. After vigorous tests, the team came up with a comprehensive report
that attested to the safety of the vaccines. It was only after they
confirmed to the Kano state government and stakeholders that the Oral Polio
Vaccine is indeed safe for consumption and after the federal ministry of
health had accepted responsibility for and retrieved the contaminated
vaccines from the shelves of Kano, that the government and people of the
state embraced the campaign wholeheartedly and unreservedly.
In his address, Mallam Shekarau reminded the President
and the nation that Kano people have alwoys been objective and
progressive-minded, and should always be counted among development partners
in any development project in Nigeria.
"However they need patiently-listening ears to say what
they know best would solve their problems,". he said.
The governor while clarifying the state of things as the
controversy raged, revealed that despite the suspension of immunisotion,
tremendous success was recorded during the first and second rounds of the
just concluded sub-national immunisation days in July and September in which
2.1 million and 2.5 million children respectively were immunised. Clearly a
lot has been achieved but it was not the satisfactory result Kano state
wanted hence it dug dip to unravel the truth from peddled buzz.
It couldn't be otherwise, considering the sophisticated
nature of Kano people who prefer explanation to doubt and knowledge to
superstition.
In the words of the governor: As true representatives of
the people, government had little choice than to listen to the outcries and
bring the oral polio vaccine under scientific scrutiny. That is why
government spent a fortune to sponsor the scientific teams because it would
not compromise on the truth. A convinced people are easier to mobilise". The
mammoth crowd that witnessed the flag-off of the SNIDs at the stadium
attests to the fact that the cloud of doubt had cleared. The people now
believe the vaccines safe. In the future if contaminated vaccines are sent
to Kano by omission or commission, tests would fish them out and another
stand-off would ensue.
To avoid this, only genuine and certified vaccines should
be sent to Kano. The people know their rights, would demand for and insist
on these until justice is done. Those who infer fanaticism to popular demand
for scientific verification have little value for human life or the
integrity of science. Be rest assured the people of Kano would massively
mobilise for the vaccination exercise having watched their trusted governor
offer his dear daughter to be immunised by the President. The figures would
not be manipulated. This is the beginning of a real immunisation campaign
against poliomyelitis in Kano and by implication, Northern Nigeria.
Malam Sule Ya'u Sule is Director of Press & PR to the Executive Governor
of Kano state.
