COVID-19: Educate us more to help you, traditional rulers tell FG

AKOR SYLVESTER-Abuja

Northern Traditional Leaders have urged federal government to educate them more on COVID-19 vaccine, even as they said they have made fruitful effort in convincing the people to take the vaccine..

Emir of Argungu, His Royal Highness, Alhaji Samaila Muhammed Mera who stated this  at the Fourth Quarter Northern Traditional Leaders Committee (NTLC) review meeting held in Abuja said the traditional leaders who are the custodians of custom and tradition of the people need more education on the COVID-19 vaccine in order to inform and convince the people to take the vaccine.

He recalled that traditional leaders in the country were instrumental to the eradication of wild polio virus from the country. explaining that there had not been proper education on the COVID-19 vaccine.

The traditional leader said for instance, they have not held any other meeting since the last quarter meeting in September.

Maintaining that they were instrumental in eradicating the wild polio virus, the Royal father said they could do the same for covid-19.

He said they lacked adequate information on covid-19 vaccination, thus, could not effectively educate and mobilise their loyals to take it.

The traditional leader further informed his audience that the NTLC would continue to be a dependable ally for as long as the development partners were prepared to work with them and also called on the government to ensure timely funding for the NPHCDA in order to eradicate public health threats from the county.

Meanwhile, Executive Director NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib stated that the number of people who received the covid-19 vaccination had increased astronomically since the commencement of mass vaccination.

He said: “In relation to the COVID-19 Vaccination, we have so far vaccinated over 8 million eligible Nigerians against COVID-19.

“Although this figure is still far from our target of vaccinating 112 million eligible persons for Nigeria to attain herd immunity, we have seen a significant improvement on our figures since the implementation of mass vaccination campaign.

“We do not need to start a fresh war against OMICRON. It is just a variant of the COVID virus that can be handled if we all comply and take all recommended doses of the vaccines, while continuing to observe protective measure such as wearing of face mask, regular washing of our hand and social distancing to protect ourselves”, he said.