Monkeypox injection: Sultan warns against politicising immunisation

THE Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Sa’ad Abubakar III, has warned Nigerian Politicians to desist from politicising immunisation of Nigerians to enable the country get rid of communicable diseases.

There have been rumors making the rounds recently in the South Eastern part of the country that the immunisation embarked upon by the Federal Government was meant to infect them with Monkeypox.

The Sultan sounded the warning at the Government House, Lafia, Nasarawa State on Tuesday, when he visited the state for the 3rd Quarter Meeting on Polio Eradication Routine Immunisation organized by Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on Primary HealthCare.

Abubakar said he was saddened by reports in some quarters that vaccines earmarked for immunisation have been contaminated to poison certain groups of people and followers of the certain religion in the country.

He described the report as false and warned those spreading the rumor to stop discouraging innocent Nigerians from participating in the immunisation that would protect them against polio and other communicable diseases.

“There are two things we must never politicise and they are health and security issues because they affect everybody irrespective of religious or tribal background. I am so saddened when we heard that the vaccines contain poison to eliminate certain races.

“We must never play politics with people’s lives. The vaccines are not meant to kill anybody but to protect Nigerians from these communicable diseases. We will never support anything that will hurt anybody. So I urge our politicians and others to stop playing politics with the lives of anybody,” He said.

The Sultan appealed traditional rulers, religious leaders and other well-meaning Nigerians to help enlighten other Nigerians on the importance of immunisation to end the endemic status of some communicable diseases in the country.

The royal father also explained that the essence of the committee set up eight years ago is to fight polio and other communicable diseases especially in Northern Nigeria and sensitize parents on the need to embrace immunisation.

In his remark, Governor Umaru Al-Makura of Nasarawa State thanked the Sultan and other members of the committee for choosing Nasarawa State to hold its 3rd quarter meeting to deliberate on ways of protecting Nigerians from communicable diseases.

He appealed to the committee and state governments in the North to take seriously the threat of Monkeypox so as to prevent it from spreading across the country.