By Hassan Zaggi
The Federal Government has been advised to budget 50 billion naira annually for a period of five years for local vaccine production in Nigeria.
This is order to ensure vaccine independence and resolve once and for all the nagging issue of local vaccine production in the country.
The Chairman, National Advocate for Health (NA4H), Hon. Muhammad Usman, gave the advice at a 2-day strategic and advocacy retreat on COVID-19 and health security organised by the Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN) in Abuja.
The retreat is a follow-up to the National COVID-19 Summit which was organised by the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 in Abuja in December last year.
It would be recalled that Nigeria currently imports almost all its human vaccines from other countries of the world. This, experts said, is not healthy for the country.
Hon. Usman who is a former law maker at the House of Representative, insisted that for Nigeria to achieve sustainable independence in local vaccine production, the federal government must make concerted efforts and sacrifices.
He regretted that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the many weakness of Nigeria’s health system, hence, the need for the governments at all levels and other critical stakeholders to show commitment and take advantage of the pandemic and resolve the gaps, especially, local vaccine production in the country.
According to Hon. Usman: “We still need more resources in the health sector because there are certain aspects that are yet to be prioritized. For example, the local vaccine production.
“The COVID pandemic has shown the world that number one priority apart from security is health. The lack of adequate resources has hindered vaccine production in the country. I know in year 2020, 10 billion naira was earmarked for vaccine production.
“To me, that 10 billion naira is very paltry. I am suggesting that in an annual basis, we need to continue to allocate 50 billion naira for a period of five years for vaccine production in the country.
“Nigeria will not lose anything if it does that. This is because we must show commitment as a nation. It is not enough for the government to say they want to do something, there is need to show commitment.
“Considering Nigeria’s estimated population of over 200 million, we should use this COVID-19 pandemic to produce vaccine locally and even export. It will be unfortunate if another pandemic comes and meet us without having the capacity to produce vaccine locally.”
While calling for intensified advocacy for the right things to be done in the country, Hon. Usman applauded the Coordinator of AHBN, Dr. Aminu Magashi, for the great role he is playing in trying to bring the government and the partners together to improve the health sector in the country.
“Two months after the National COVID-19 Summit, we are here again to look at the key issues and decisions reached at the summit. This is commendable because this is the area that is lacking in our national life. We don’t have sustainability culture. The desired progress cannot be made unless we take action and follow-up we cannot translate decision into fruition,” he stressed.
Speaking while declaring the retreat open, the Technical Lead of the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19, Dr. Muhammad Muktar, called on the participants at the retreat to come up with strategies and itemise all the key issues in all critical areas of Nigeria’s health sector that need advocacy.
He said that the PSC was in support of the initiative because, according to him, “we know that it will help to push some of the laudable recommendations of the National COVID-19 Summit.
Dr. Muktar who was represented by the Dr. Ogbonna Amanze, applauded the Coordinator of the AHBN, Dr. Aminu Magashi, whose doggedness, patriotism, hardwork, he said, led to the success of the National COVID-19 Summit last year.
“We need to move forward. It is not only about having a communique after the summit, how do we move forward. How do we ensure that the key resolutions of that communique are put to action towards strengthening biosecurity in our country. This is because if nothing is done, these laudable recommendations will just end up in the archive.
“I want to commend the visionary people that are here who know and understand the role of advocacy towards actuallising every important cause,” he stressed.
Earlier, in his welcome address, the Coordinator AHBN, Dr. Aminu Magashi, said that the retreat was aimed at discussing some of the key resolutions and recommendations of the National COVID-19 Summit in order to identify key advocacy areas.
“During this 2-day retreat, participants will review key recommendations from many of the papers presented at The National COVID-19 Summit.
”They will also brainstorm on advocacy priorities needed to address some of the gaps at national and sub-national levels to galvanise actions in the areas of accountability strengthening, equitable recovery and building back better. “Others are sustainable financing to address COVID-19 and health security, ramping up vaccination, testing and treatment, local vaccine production and border health/security,” he said.
