Ujudud Shariff
20 April 2004
opinion
Listening to medical experts, Islamic scholars (Ulama), women, human rights and media representatives that spoke on the recent controversy surrounding the safety or otherwise of the polio vaccines last Saturday in Kaduna, one must have been puzzled as to what really brought the controversy in the first place. The interactive session of the stakeholders organized by the Arewa Media Forum was quite refreshing, intellectually stimulating, religiously informative, culturally enlightening and above all, for us in the mass communications trade, it was one big lesson on how government should not communicate with its people.
At the end of it all, almost everyone came out better educated on the genesis of the polio controversy, its implications and the lessons to be learnt now that the storm has subsided. The tone and direction of the session was set in no uncertain terms by the chairman of the occasion, His Highness, the Etsu of Tsonga, Dr. Halliru Ndanusa Yahaya. Every interest group was given the opportunity to state its position on the issue at the end of which a communiqué was read to the satisfaction of virtually all the participants. The secretary general of the Supreme Council of Sharia'a Implementation, Nafi'u Baba Ahmed spoke clearly on why his council opposed the current polio immunization on both the political and religious fronts. On the political front, he informed the gathering about the existence of some documents recently declassified by the Government of the United States that spelt out in black and white its plans to depopulate the world especially the developing countries which Nigeria is one. The declassified documents are a source of serious concern, as they believe United States Government would go to any extent to ensure the reduction of the world's population. And with the happenings in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine, very few Muslims would not believe that the depopulation of the Muslim world has not begun by the United States in collaboration with Britain. And with the perceived good relationship between Abuja and Washington, very few Muslims would also believe that Abuja is not in cahoots with the United States to depopulate the North that is largely Muslim and in the local politics, ANPP sympathizers, supporters or both. It is against this background that when a laboratory test conducted by Dr. Haruna Kaita, a pharmacist from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria on behalf of the Jama'atual Nasirul Islam (JNI) on a sample of the polio vaccine showed the existence of certain contaminants, they blew the whistle and cried foul. The question they kept asking and which nobody seemed to have answers to was what brought those contaminants into the vaccines?
Instead of answering a simple question through further investigations and tests by medical experts, the whole matter was fueled by emotions and taken over by non-experts and turned into a huge political controversy that now is seriously threatening immunization of other diseases like measles and meningitis especially in Northern Nigeria. The shock to me was the assertion by Baba-Ahmed that nobody in authority approached his council on its severally public stated rejection of the polio vaccines on the basis of its purity at least to get whatever evidence they had on the matter!
Next to speak was the man in the center of the storm that could be said to have lubricated if not midwifed the whole controversy: Dr. Haruna Kaita, of the Ahmadu University Zaria. To my mind, Dr.Kaita deserves a certificate of commendation by the JNI and the Northern Governors Forum for his discovery of those pollutants in the vaccines rather than being crucified.
If the Northern Governors were alive to their responsibilities, they should have taken over the whole initiatives from the JNI and constituted a committee of experts including Dr. Kaita and Dr. Lawal Alhassan Bichi of Bayero University Kano who chaired the experts committee set up by the Kano State Government that also found similar contamination in the polio vaccines. In fact, the history of this controversy began when His Highness, The Emir of Kazaure, Alhaji Najib Hussain Adamu drew the attention of the JNI in one of their meetings to a petition questioning the safety of the polio vaccines. With this, the JNI appointed Dr. Kaita to conduct tests to verify the claims. Dr. Kaita went to India to conduct several tests at the end of which he discovered some pollutants that have some relationship to anti-fertility substances. On his return and upon the presentation of his report, there was split of opinion as some experts supported his findings while others like Professor Umar Shehu rejected the findings. This set the tone of the controversy and unfortunately it was turned into a media war with them versus us. It was at this stage the Federal Government reluctantly came into the matter and sponsored a joint delegation with the JNI to South Africa, Indonesia and India.
Unfortunately in their rush and for whatever reason, they did not travel with the experts from Kano State and Dr. Kaita who in the first place discovered the pollutants including some anti-fertility agents. In this circumstance, tell me, how anybody can trust the findings of the joint-committee without these crucial experts?
To my mind, the whole matter was bungled right from its infancy and this should be the first lesson we should all learn. In the first place, the northern governors should have taken over from the JNI right from the beginning and establish a high powered all inclusive committee of stakeholders to conduct all the necessary tests to establish the safety or otherwise of the vaccines. If this has been done, probably the controversy would not have reached the level it did and the government should have uniformly taken a decision after the findings of their own appointed experts. On the other hand, the Federal Government should have been more sensitive to the feelings of the people that rightly or wrongly believed there was an international conspiracy to exterminate them. I believe the position of the United States Government on birth control and seeing to the reduction of the world population especially the developing countries is not a secret. The Federal Government should have played a more sympathetic role by first and foremost showing its concern by suspending the immunization and in consultation with the northern governors, Islamic and traditional leaders and experts from all the states to conduct fresh tests to determine the safety of these vaccines. But instead of this, they just sang the song like Washington insisting that the vaccines were safe even without conducting any fresh tests. In fact, even with the return of the haphazard joint-committee from the foreign trips, we were told of the existence of some contaminants in the vaccines without telling us how they got into there in the first place! They only told us that their percentage is very negligible and therefore would do no harm to children. But how they got into vaccines in the first place nobody to date has told the nation and Dr. Kaita is still asking the same question. In a nutshell therefore, the whole matter was not handled properly and from the discussions at the interactive session, the Federal Government and the National Programme on Immunization (NPI) should go back to the drawing board and re-strategise on their public enlightenment campaigns.
Secondly, the Islamic scholars at the session were unanimous that Islam supports immunization against all diseases including polio. Therefore all those that think the recent rejection is directly related to Islam got it wrong. Sheikh Yusuf Ali, an Islamic scholar of repute from Kano State spoke brilliantly with quotations from the Holy Qur'an and Hadith to support the position of Islam. The concern of the Islamic leaders is basically the safety of the vaccines and all they needed was concrete reassurance and not mere verbal assurances from Abuja. All they are saying is simply give us pure and unadulterated vaccines and you would see our children in their millions. But another worry is why all the emphasis is being given to polio eradication rather than the other deadly vaccinable diseases like miseales and meningitis? Why is so much money spent on polio than the other diseases? These are fundamental questions that need answers if the conspiracy theory of depopulation is to be eradicated bearing in mind that the polio immunization is free-of-charge and is being done house-to-house. Could there be smoke without fire?
Other medical experts that also made useful contributions included Professor Sadiq Wali, the immediate past head of the Mallam Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Dr, Bashir Mohammed, a private medical practitioner that was also a member of the FGN/JNI team, Dr, Magashi and Alhaji Mohammed Yaro Budah, the immediate past president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria. They all spoke on the efficacy of all immunization for children, as preventive health care is far cheaper and better than curative. They also all agreed on the need for better and sustained public enlightenment. Some representatives of women groups, human rights and the media also contributed immensely to the quality of the discussions. At the end of it all, participants all left well informed and the 13-point communiqué reflected the general consensus reached at the first ever dialogue on a monumental national issue. The dispassionate remarks by the Kaduna State
Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Yakubu Bityong, who represented his governor was certainly electrifying.
Finally, our hope in this matter is that all state governments should wake up to their responsibilities and take the immunization issues seriously. In the first place, they should assure the people of the safety and non-contamination of these vaccines. Where there are doubts, the batches of the vaccines with any iota of contamination should be rejected and new ones procured from where ever. The position and example of Kano State Government is very commendable and worthy of emulation by all the state governments. By rejecting the controversial vaccines and seeking to replace with new ones, this is the only responsible action that would reassure the people. Federal, state and local governments should not under estimate the level of skepticism and distrust by the people regarding a number of programmes. It is cheaper even in the short run if mass public awareness campaigns are undertaken to reach the people through their trusted leaders and not mere radio and television jingles. Another lesson to be learnt is that the masses know who their true leaders are and they listen to them far more than those that appear on paper as the "elected representatives of the people". The masses know whom they voted and not those imposed on them. Thirdly, the power of rumours in our society is beyond comprehension and it spreads wider and faster than can be imagined. Thus, if care is not taken, the whole immunization against deadly diseases would be jeopardized unless the federal government and other agencies dispassionately examine the whole exercise.
Let nobody be deceived to sweep away this matter and assume that everything is or will be all right. Let the president not be deceived by going to Zamfara and Jigawa states to relaunch the immunization programme. His action is synonymous with its acceptability by the people. In fact, the whole exercise can at best be described as a public relation gimmick for the western media, their governments and the United Nations. Let NPI not be deceived by the beautiful statistics they get at the end of each immunization exercise. I bet their representatives at the interactive session would report that some one had alleged that a number of those assigned to vaccinate the children bring back 'manufactured' results having thrown away the vaccines either because the people chase them away or because even they do not trust the vaccines. The time for responsible leadership is now to avert the looming catastrophe of boycotting the whole immunization programmes.
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