Reuben Buhari
25 August 2008
Kaduna — A group, Journalist against Polio(JAP), has raised alarm over the need for the country to intesify its fight against polio, especially with Nigeria still having the highest incidence of polio worldwide.
JAP said Kaduna and Zamfara states recorded 44 and 68 cases of polio respectively since the beginning of this year, while Nigeria occupies the top of the ladder in the whole world, accounting for 88 per cent of the child killer disease. India, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the other three countries with high prevalence of polio in the world.
Speaking yesterday in Kaduna during a news conference, JAP Chairman, Mr Kunle Sanni, said polio poses a serious threat to Nigeria, and was, therefore, unacceptable.
He said governments at the council level should be held responsible for the situation, as they have continued to pay mere lip service to their constitutional role of provision of qualitative primary healthcare to people at the grassroots.
"The decision to address you was informed by the exceptional increase in the number of children infected by polio in our country.
"Of the four countries with endemic cases globally, Nigeria ranks the highest with a total number of 578 cases accounting for 88 per cent of cases in the whole world. Kaduna State has recorded 44 cases of polio this year, while Kano State has 200 cases. Recently, 68 children were crippled in Zamfara State, because of polio infection," he said.
According to him, this is totally unacceptable, in view of the threat this posses to our nation at this crucial moment of our national history. We must stop paying lip service to matters of health. It is disheartening to note that local government councils, whose constitutional role is provision of qualitative primary healthcare have failed in this regard.
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