Chairman of the Expert Review Committee (ERC), Onyewale Tomori, has said the only solution to eradicate polio in the country “is to get rid of Boko Haram.”
Tomori, who stated this at the 35th Expert Review Committee meeting on polio eradication and routine immunisation in Nigeria, yesterday in Abuja, said insurgency had made access to some states difficult.
He said: “If the same magic the federal government used to rescue the Dapchi girls can be applied to getting access to these children, then polio will be eradicated. The challenges of polio eradication we are facing are because there are some parts of the country we don’t have access to.
“If we get rid of Boko Haram, we will get access to children. In six months this country will be free of Polio, and whatever the government needs to get done, they should forget politics and get this thing out of our country.”
Also speaking, the Executive Director of National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, said the “only reason Nigeria is still categorised as a polio endemic country is because we do not have access to some local government areas of Borno state.”
He said: “We still have access problem in Abada, Marte, some areas of Bama, Damboa and Malam Fatori. These are the LGAs that have a larger population of over 160,000 under-five children that we are trying to reach with life saving vaccines.
“Unless we are able to reach these kids, then we cannot guarantee that polio transmission is not occurring in Nigeria, and there is always that threat that we may have a resurgence of the Wild Polio Virus.
“It is only until we have access to these local government areas and other smaller wards in Borno state, then it is difficult for us to say categorically that polio has been eradicated.”