Politics
Victory over polio, credit goes to GEJ —PDP
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the credit for the delisting of Nigeria as a polio-free country by the World Health Organization (WHO) goes to President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
It noted that the administration was the one that put in concerted efforts to eradicate the virus, setting a three-year target in 2011 which it met in 2014, when the last case was recorded.
The WHO delisted Nigeria days ago following the fact that there has been no single reported case of wild polio virus attack since July 2014.
Read also: Nigeria now free from polio, says WHO
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said in a statement on Tuesday that the feat did not come by chance but through concerted efforts of the administration with the support of the Nigerian people and non-governmental agencies.
He explained that former President Jonathan had promised at the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Australia that his administration would end the polio challenge in three years’ time.
As a result, he said the administration in 2012 declared polio a national health emergency and established a Presidential Task Force on Polio Eradication (PTFoPE), which effectively coordinated strategic efforts at all levels of health administrations through special Emergency Operations Centres (EOCs) across the country.
While thanking all the stakeholders and organisations that contributed in fighting the disease, the PDP urged the Federal Government and all relevant health institutions in the country to ensure the effective utilization of policies and programmes mechanisms already in existence to ensure that the polio virus does not resurface in the country.
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