‘Nigeria not where it should be on immunisation agenda 2030’

Experts and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have said that Nigeria is currently not where it should be on the Immunisation Agenda 2030 (IA2030).

They stated this in Abuja during a high level symposium organised by the West African Institute of Public Health (WAIPH) with the support of PACFaH at Scale and in collaboration with other partners to mark the annual African Vaccination Week.

The Director General of the West African Institute of Public Health, Dr Francis Ohanyido, and the Programme Advisor, Centre for Accountability and Inclusive Development, Jonathan, who spoke on behalf of the others, said the agenda had also not been activated in-country.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the IA2030 envisions a world where everyone, everywhere, at every age fully benefits from vaccines to improve health and well-being.

It also aims to maintain hard-won gains in immunisation, recover from the disruptions caused by COVID-19 and achieve even more by leaving no one behind in any situation or at any stage of life.

The experts and CSOs at the symposium said the necessary political will was required to drive the process, adding that it should not be government alone, but all stakeholders like CSOs, politicians, community people, implementing partners and donors.

They further said Nigeria should have a research and innovation agenda at country and subnational levels.

Speaking on the theme: “Equitable Vaccine Access, Resilient Communities”, Professor Oyewale Tomori, a virologist and past President of the Nigerian Academy of Science, said Africa’s overdependence on foreign countries for vaccines was dangerous for the health of everyone on the continent.

He said CSOs had a crucial role to play in holding government accountable for what it was supposed to do concerning vaccines.