As countries of the world frantically race towards securing allocations of COVID-19 vaccine doses as soon as they are available, the Federal Government on Thursday expressed confidence that Nigeria would secure a fair share.
It however, criticised the move by some countries to nationalise and politicise vaccine distribution and accessibility, terming it as a failure of global leadership.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, made this known during the Presidential Task Force briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja.
He said, โNigeria is also working with World Health Organization (WHO) to finalize enrolment with ACT Accelerator, a global mechanism tracking and sponsoring research Organisations working on COVID-19 vaccine development.
โWe are also interested in the COVAX facility, a GAVI supported global initiative to procure and assure equitable access to vaccines, as soon as they are available, especially for lower middle Income Countries (LMIC). This will prioritize Nigeria for allocation of a part of 2 billion vaccines doses that will be secured, in a special plan to protect the interests of poorer countries.
โThe changing dynamics of the virus and the disease make it necessary for us to continue to review our response strategies, ensure we train and update our health workers on the latest and most effective approach to treatment of the disease and tailor our procurement in the light of knowledge gained.
โThe Information session on COVID-19, conducted weekly by the World Health Organization (WHO) was held this morning. I had the opportunity of sharing our experience in Nigeria, as one of two countries invited to make presentations on our response strategies.
โA clear message from this briefing is that COVID-19 is a threat to mankind and there is need for all countries to work together for solutions that will allow equitable access. In the words of the Director General of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, โBy working together, we are protecting each other. In a global pandemic, none of us is safe until all of us are safe.โ
The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, in a television interview on Tuesday in Abuja, said, โWhat you see at the moment for a race to a vaccine is a failure of global leadership. Countries should not be fighting for vaccines like children fighting for a toy in a playground.
โWhen we had a multilateral world, where collaboration and cooperation was the norm, you wouldnโt have seen a fight like this. You would have seen countries come together and agree on an equitable way to access vaccines.
โWe must recognise that every manโs life matter and the life of someone living in one part of the world does not have more value than someone living in another parts of the world.
โI do not think Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, and South Africa should all be competing, rather we should come together as a bloc. We are also planning very early through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) for the distribution mechanism. And we are lucky in that aspect actually because we do have a fairly sophisticated distribution mechanism.
โIโm very confident that in the current politicisation of access to vaccine, we will end up in a place where most of the world will come together, even if a few countries insist on doing it alone. If they do it alone, they will pay a price somehow or the other because we live in a global world.โ
