On Polio Discourse, Dr Magashi"s Heroic Failure

By

My Adalat Yusuf

Polio Expert And Consultant,

Abuja, Nigeria

yuadalat@yahoo.com

A lot of respondents to my critiques of Dr Magashi"s selfish, bias and rabid consistent attack on some personalities and stakeholders of Global Polio Eradication both here in Nigeria and beyond thought that my comments are tilting towards enmity and declaration of war, that is far from my sincere intention to correct errors when ever I come across them. Contrary to all assertions, my rejoinders are not being sponsored by any body, but as a consultant and expert on the subject matter, I deem it fit to inform the reading public about what I believe, is a grand agenda to subvert our effort in ensuring Nigerian free of poliomyelitis .

As a young man, who has a lot of potentialities, Dr Magashi has already appointed himself the public health analyst not only on the pages of newspaper but in the internet as well. He writes with audacity and arrogant style reminiscent of Abacha Era of " I know of all the health problems in Nigeria and I equally know the solution, he dishes out prescription by intimidating, cajoling and witch-hunting the most respected world health body and its allies. What seasoned health and research experts put together over a long time, is exactly what single-handedly the young Dr is desperately trying to convince his readers that all is wrong with such polices. It is a classical example of a heroic failure. My aim today is to look at his two recent articles related to polio which were all published in his column in Daily Trust And Gamji Website " Health Interactive.

The first writing, The Task Before The Arewa Media Forum, one would have expected him to dwelled on such task he expected the NGO to undertake vis-`-vis the advocacy he prescribed. But on deeper analysis, that was not the intention of the article, the aim was to view WHO and the rest as people that are being used to victimised his state, kano, He said and I quote "When ever a selected case of onset of paralysis due to polio virus is discovered in some African countries, W.H.O is always ever ready and willing to point a one directional accusing finger to northern Nigeria, it has happened before when some cases were discovered in some previously polio free countries like Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote D 'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and now Botswana. It is glaringly obvious that one directional accusation certainly is not the best option and such portrays the respected body as being myopic and appears to be used and hijacked politically to cajole and intimidate northern states particularly Kano to accept polio immunisation despite the short comings in terms of advocacy and implementation in Nigeria.

One must not be an expert to know that some people are only trying desperately to douse the tension and what the state, kano has put itself in the global context, by being a paria state, I cant imagine some one to condemn the respected body as being myopic and being used to tarnish the image of kano, what has WHO got to gain by doing that, it is a body made up of repeated people who are committed to serving the world with out bias, sentiments and favour.

In his recent article published in Daily Trust of 23^rd, May, 04 and In Gamji website on 27^th May, 2004 entitled " Importation Of Polio Vaccine By Kano: Pros And Cons, he was not only trying to I inform the public, but it a self agenda to attract attention and trying to make a history by assuming to be influencing the trend of polio controversy in Nigeria and the perceived and myopic solution from his anaemic mind. At the end of his discourse, the sole aim of writing came out glaringly, initially, one would have being deceived that he was trying to make piece with the donors and National Programme Of Immunisation, but to me I know and convince that he is only a front of some face group of individuals in the state and other places bent on frustrating our sincere effort to rid the state of poliomyelitis. He said also and I quote 

"I will like to confidently say that, the genesis of the controversy is not the suspicion of contamination by HIV/AIDS or anti fertility agents, such suspicion is an EFFECT OF A CAUSE. The cause of the controversy is the apparent neglect of other immunisable and preventable childhood killer diseases by both States, Federal government and IDAs, while parent are witnessing how those disease are killing and ravaging and deforming their children with little effort by stakeholders to put a check on them, on another hand, and stakeholders are aggressively busy talking and programming house to house approach to chase polio out of the country. And the annoying part of the story is that when such polio immunization programme coincided with outbreak of say, measles, cholera or meningitis, these same lovers of children would turn their faces the other side as if all is well. It is this attitude that led people to begin to examine the polio vaccines and suspected foul play which has put the entire country in this preventable and avoidable mess."

I want to believe that it is only Dr Magashi that believe on his space journey and day dreaming about the genesis of polio controversy in Nigeria , the whole country believe the issue is to do with suspicion of contamination, even his State, The Supreme Council Of Sharia and JNI had agreed on that, by insinuating that the problem is to do with apparent neglect of other childhood immunisable diseases, he is only trying to create another controversy and who knows where that will lead us. For him to ridicule DONORS AS LOVERS OF CHILDREN ( emphasis mine ), is taking the issue to far, and that stand has present him to me and many other readers as shenanigans, rabid commentator embarking on a failure project. If the donors are not targeting other diseases while eradicating polio, is it their fault? Why are other people not raising same issue, what happen to the officials of ministry of health and other parastatal that always attend WHO and UNICEF meetings yearly, quarterly and even at times on monthly basis , since no body is raising such issues , so we assume all is well.

On a final note, I advice the young man and his supporters to note that, we will not be deterred, Dr Dere Awosika and her team and International Donor Committee are committed to ensure the country safer for the overall survival, protection, participation and development of children and no amount of features writings and analysis build on selfish interest and sentiments will stop us.