As state governors in the country mark their quarterly sensitisation campaign on the eradication of poliomyelitis across the country, the Lagos state governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, yesterday, urged his counterparts in other states to give priority to the eradication of polio, to remove the country’s name from the list of nations with a prevalent polio rate.
Fashola, who addressed a Town Hall meeting on polio eradication in Osho-Isolo area of the state, lamented that it was a national shame that the country was still grouped among countries like Afghanistan , Pakistan, and India who had high rate of polio cases.
The governor said the same exercise was taking place in other parts of the country in accordance with decision reached at the Governor’s forum, and added that it was because of the need to solve the problem that the state deployed its resources and medical personnel to get children in the state massively immunised.
Fashola pointed out that the state is now 100 per cent free from polio and appealed to parents and guardians to avail their wards the opportunity to be immunised, during immunisation days in the state .
“If polio is only eradicated in Lagos without corresponding eradication in all other states, we may not be successful in the campaign. The success we have achieved in making Lagos polio-free is a relative one, in the sense that Lagos remains the melting pot of Nigeria and therefore continues to attract people from within, outside the country and in the sub-region .
“Therefore, we can never stop and assume that the job is done. New babies are being born and immunisation must continue to ensure that all children between the ages of zero and five get immunised. We cannot afford to have one unimmunised child become vulnerable to polio. This is the reason why we must continue.
“Nigeria and three other countries in the world, Pakistan, Afghanistan and india are the four countries in the world that have incidence of polio. When you look at it easily, those countries have things is common. Pakistan was created out of India and they are close to Afghanistan. I wonder what we are doing with them, because we are very far away from these countries.”
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