By Ayo Kehinde
It was a visibly worried President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan that went personal in his reaction to a Covid-19 cum vaccination briefing by the Ministry of Health and the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, NCDC, at the Senate on Monday.
Lawan expressed doubt that the Federal Ministry of Health has the “infrastructure “ to effectively store and distribute the COVID-19 vaccines when they arrive the country.
He said he was not confident in the preparedness of the Federal Government to manage the COVID-19 vaccination in the country.
The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, alongside Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed had appeared before the Senate to present a budget of N400 billion that would be required for the importation of COVID-19 vaccines into the country. Ehanire stated that the vaccination will cost $8 per person.
Thumbing his chest to show how disturbed he was about the issue, Lawan said: “I have not been convinced with your presentation that we are ready to bring in the vaccines.
“You have to do much more to convince me that we are ready. Convince me first
“This is a matter of life and death. We don’t want you to bring in vaccines that would be contaminated and kill Nigerians
“I am not only a doubting Thomas, I am also doubting Ahmad.”
Lawan insisted that the Health Minister should provide the list and location of all infrastructure for storage for inspection.
Lawan had hardly finished when senators joined in expressing their doubts.
The Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, expressed strong worry that the government so far had made preparations for only four cold chains for the vaccines in Abuja, Kano, Enugu and Lagos, and wondered why the entire South South region was not included in the plan.
The DSP also expressed worry that the vaccines may lose its efficacy on transit to the South South if no facility was provided in the region.
Other senators also expressed strong doubts over the presentations of the officials from the Ministry of Health on the facilities that had been put in place to ensure adequate storage protection for the vaccines.
Ehanire explained that the N400 billion would cater for 70 per cent of Nigeria’s 211 million population, adding that N156 billion would be needed in 2021, while N200 billion will be required in 2022.
The Minister said the country, which has successfully fought polio, would use the same storage facilities (cold chains) to store the COVID-19 vaccines.
He told the lawmakers that the government of Nigeria was in talks with big manufacturers and had trained staff as well as put the right cooling infrastructure in place to store the vaccines when they are acquired.
