Traditional rulers in northern Nigeria have reinstated their commitment to the immunisation of every child in the region.
They made the commitment at the quarterly Northern Traditional Leaders Committee Meeting on Primary Healthcare Delivery, held in Abuja. The meeting was to assess the level of improvement recorded so far on vaccinations across the Northern region in Nigeria towards achieving good primary health care delivery in Nigerian communities.
The Chairman of the Committee and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, said that the traditional rulers are recording tremendous success now on vaccination especially in the rural areas where cases of polio, yellow fever and cholera is high. He said that the traditional rulers raised the level of engagement and ensured that every Child is vaccinated under their leadership.
While addressing the Northern Traditional lenders committee on Primary Healthcare delivery, Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire applauded the efforts of the rulers in achieving successful vaccination in the Northern region and urged them to do more enlightenment so that people will know the importance of vaccination especially in the rural areas.
“Looking back at our health indices in Northern Nigeria after this partnership we must say that we have made remarkable progress especially in polio eradication and routine immunization. We will remain eternally grateful to our eminence and all traditional leaders for this steady progress.
“We need to further strengthen our community engagement through our royal highnesses to ensure that our people, especially the most vulnerable are protected by being fully vaccinated against polio and Covid-19 and other childhood diseases. I want to use this opportunity to humbly remind you to continue to sensitise your communities about the benefits of immunization and other Primary Healthcare services. The risk of non-vaccination and in particular to continue to promote COVID-19 vaccination in your domains.”
The Executive Director Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaibu, said that there is the need to further strengthen the community engagement as the risk of polio is still very much in the Northern part of Nigeria.
“This reinforces the saying that as long as there is polio detected anywhere in the world, every child, everywhere is at risk, especially the African Nations.”
UNICEF, WHO among other stakeholders assured the traditional lenders of their readiness to continue giving maximum support in primary healthcare services, noting that primary healthcare is central in ensuring the survival.
