Nigerians expressed mixed feelings on Tuesday when the news of the arrival of nearly four million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country broke.
The vaccines were shipped in via the COVAX Facility, a partnership between CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO.
It was learnt that COVAX shipped 3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, arrived from Mumbai to Abuja
Yes, it can be said that the arrival of the vaccines marked a historic step towards the goal to ensure equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally.
As expected, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency has announced that it would commence the vaccination of Nigerians in priority groups, starting with frontline healthcare workers.
This naturally is supposed to be the protocol because if the frontline health workers are taken care of first, the other members of the society are sure that there are professionals who will back them up.
However, many Nigerians are (rightly) apprehensive with many loudly saying it that they should be excused from those willing to be vaccinated.
The thrust of their mistrust is that the deep corruptive tendencies of Nigerian government officials will pollute whatever protocols put in place to guide the process of vaccinating the first batch of Nigerians.
Many also feared that there would not be proper preservation. A few wildly pessimistic countrymen even whispered that they needed to confirm the dates of ‘expiry’ of the newly imported vaccines.
President Muhammadu Buhari and his team need to do more than a Yeoman’s job to allay the fears of Nigerians.
Well directed and articulated media campaign should be embarked upon so that as many will benefit and thus reduce the rate of spread of the deadly COVID-19.
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
