The executive director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Ado Mohammed, has declared that Nigeria has made significant stride and would eradicate polio within two years despite the upsurge in wild polio this year.
Speaking at a monitoring and evaluation capacity strengthening workshop for zonal technical officers on Primary Health Care (PHC) activities in Kaduna, Dr Muhammed said the government would not relent until the desired result was achieved.
Represented by Dr. Emmanuel Udo, the executive director said? that everything was being done in compliance with President Goodluck Jonathan’s order that the upsurge of the virus was not only reversed but completely eradicated, saying “that can happen within two years in line with the president’s declaration.”
He pointed at the country’s size as a big challenge in the polio eradication effort, remarking that “this is a huge country and, in terms of population, it is about one-fifth of the entire African population; so it is like many countries put together in one place.”
He said the progress made by Nigeria was significant: “We had close to 400 cases of wild polio virus – children paralysed in the year 2009, but the number has come down substantially. I know that the figure was lower in 2010, and there is relative increase this year.”
Speaking on the objective of the workshop, Dr. Muhammad said it was designed to understand and be able to select indicators appropriate for a given country in the flow of data and information system.
The workshop was also aimed at building capacity of participants on how to disseminate and use monitoring and evaluation information strategically and to further develop and implement monitoring and evaluation plans among others.
The workshop was organized by the agency in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).