Nigeria should be optimistic that an end to polio is in sight, the District Governor of Rotary International District 9125, Rtn. Sagab Ahmed Sani, has assured.
Ahmed said Rotary International aims to see a polio-free world with the efforts that began in the early 1980s with 200 endemic countries.
The District consists of all Clubs in 23 states and the FCT.
According to him, with Rotary’s Polio Eradication Initiative’s house-to-house campaign, a lot of ground has been covered in the endemic countries, except two.
He said only Afghanistan and Pakistan are still experiencing wild polio virus infection in the world.
He said; “A lot has really been achieved, we are saying now that 99.99 percent of polio has been eradicated around the world. Even in those two countries, we can see that polio is at the end.
“The government is heavily involved in the efforts. Governments of countries that have taken on the polio eradication initiative that Rotary initiated and the government of Nigeria particularly has been doing well because all the main relevant government agencies have identified with it and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) is doing all it can to ensure that polio is eradicated”, he said.
On the state of preparedness of the Rotary International District 9125 in tackling the vaccine-derived virus noticed in some parts of the country, he said it was a trend always observed towards the end of eradication of a virus, adding, “That is what we are seeing now and that is actually passing the message that we are in the very near future polio will be eradicated”.
The chairman, Nigerian National Polio Plus Committee, Rotary International, Joshua Hassan, said the eight-kilometre walk/roadshow was to celebrate the individuals, organisations, governments, health workers and professionals that contributed to the wiping of polio from the world.
He said the World Polio Day is a day set aside to celebrate those who worked tirelessly and have donated so much to make sure that we end polio in the world.
The President of the Rotary Club Abuja, Maitama, who is also the president of all the Rotary presidents in the FCT, Ijeoma Agwu, said the road walk was not intended for the people living in the city alone.
“The celebration began on the 24th of this month and we have been carrying out immunization since Wednesday in our various adopted communities, Rotary used to adopt communities, so, we’ve gone into the communities, deep in the rural communities of Abuja and the metropolis as well,” she added.
FCT Coordinator for Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee, Rtn. Anastecia Alkali urged Nigerians to embrace Polio immunization campaign of Rotary International to “End Polio Now.”
