Although the COVID-19 pandemic infection rate is quite on the increase in the country and some other countries in the world, it is arguably not the most devastating disease affecting Nigerians at the moment. Nigerians are daily afflicted by malaria disease, the most common cause of illness, hospital attendance, absence from work and schools and major cause of death; cholera, another major cause of death, cancer, hypertension, diabetes and diarrhoea. Not less than 2,035 Nigerians have died of cholera since this year. Nigeria has also recorded over 58, 698 cases of cholera in 25 states.
In a country where medical doctors are almost and always on strike and where annual budgetary allocation for health is most times below five percent of the national budget and where there is mass exodus of doctors to the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and Saudi Arabia, it is absurd that its government or governments would be contemplating forcing her deprived citizens to take the COVID-19 jabs, which are presently in short supply in the country.
All over the world, there are rules guiding vaccination, including COVID-19 jabs but force or compulsion is definitely not one of them. There is no doubt that the most potent tool against vaccine hesitancy or rejection is moral persuasion. Force, whether by law or intimidation is never the right tool to make people take the COVID-19 jabs. Instead, it will do the opposite, increase more vaccine hesitancy and rejection.
Taking vaccination is like taking any medical treatment; a patient can elect to take it or refuse to take it. It is within his human rights to take a jab or not. Remember that members of a religious sect, Jehovah’s Witness, don’t accept blood transfusion and no government had sanctioned them for doing so over the years. The government can elect to offer some juicy gifts like drinks, money and food and other things to encourage people to take the vaccination but force is outside it.
Deploying force to make people take the vaccination as Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, wants to do before he was stopped by the courts is nothing but abuse of power in a democratic dispensation. In the US and the UK and even France where some of the jabs are manufactured, their governments have not forced their citizens to take them.
In some states in the US, the governors have literally bribed people with gifts such as beer and money and even lottery for them to take the vaccination. In these countries, they have enough vaccines to go round but in our own case, we do not have enough. The vaccines are not even available in large quantities to warrant forcing Nigerians to take them. Even if eligible Nigerians troop out today to take the jabs, there won’t be enough to vaccinate all of them.
Forcing people to take the vaccination as Edo, Ondo and the federal governments intend to do will send wrong signals considering the conspiracy theories and myths surrounding COVID-19 pandemic. The ill-advised action of the government will make more people believe the falsehood being spread about the pandemic in some quarters. It is suspicious that a government that hoards COVID-19 palliatives in warehouses is forcing the same people to take COVID-19 jabs.
Since taking the jab is not a guarantee that the people will not be re-infected, what is the rationale of forcing vaccination on people? There are even reports of people who still die of COVID-19 complications after taken the full doses of the jabs. Some people who took the jabs, AstraZeneca in particular, have even died of blood clotting. It has been reported that Obaseki has threatened that any resident in Edo State who refused to take the jabs will be barred from entering worship centres, banks, markets and other public places in the state.
Although a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has restricted Governor Obaseki and Edo State government from enforcing the inimical order mandating the residents to take compulsory COVID-19 jabs, the governor has vowed to go ahead. A group, the Equity International Initiative (EII) has demonstrated against the Edo State government’s order to insist on presentation of evidence of COVID-19 vaccination before the person will be allowed into specified public places. I think that what Obaseki and others of his ilk must do is to enforce the observance of non-pharmaceutical COVID-19 protocols and not forceful vaccination.
The governor, who is in second term in office, should concentrate in delivering his election promises instead of dabbling into vaccine hesitancy issues. Obaseki should be thinking of the legacy he would leave behind in Edo State after eight years of tour of duty just like President Muhammadu Buhari and any other governor who would want to enforce vaccination on his people and not COVID-19 vaccination. Vaccine hesitancy is a human right of those concerned and must be respected.
I hope the medical community should call Obaseki to order. My candid advice to him is to concentrate on the delivery of democracy dividends to the people that stood for him during his reelection bid. Has he forgotten the role Edo people played in his returning to power the second time?
Vaccine hesitancy is not peculiar to Edo State and Nigeria. The right to take or refuse any jab is a human right that must be respected. Even in countries with higher infections of COVID-19 like the US and China, they don’t force people to take the jabs. Any law that forces people to take the jabs will not work as people will vehemently oppose it and will never obey it. Such a law has never worked anywhere in the world and it is not going to work in our shores.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic cases are reportedly rising the world over, Nigerians have other more pressing issues to contend with such as hunger, poverty, unemployment, killer herdsmen, bandits, terrorists, bad governance and nepotism. There are also other diseases that still kill more Nigerians than the COVID-19 pandemic that the government should pay more heed to. They include cancer, malaria, tuberculosis and many others.
Many Nigerians do not have access to potable water, steady electricity, education and decent toilets. While the Edo and indeed other governments may have good intention in calling on citizens to take the COVID-19 jabs, the enforcement methodology or strategy is faulty and not the way to go. The government must of necessity adopt persuasive strategy and even bribe the citizens to take the jabs. And should they refuse to take it, which is a legal choice, they should be allowed to be. Vaccination of whatever kind is never by force or compulsion.