UPDATE - NGO Urges Nigeria To Address COVID-19 Misinformation As 1st Vaccines Land In Abuja

UPDATE - NGO Urges Nigeria to Address COVID-19 Misinformation as 1st Vaccines Land in Abuja

JOHANNESBURG (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2021) As the first 4 million coronavirus vaccine doses arrive in Nigeria, much work is ahead to combat disinformation related to the pandemic and convince people of the importance of getting inoculated, Hamzat Lawal, the founder of two Pan-African grassroots movements, told Sputnik.

On Tuesday, some 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine arrived from India at the airport of Abuja, making Nigeria the next West African country to benefit from the WHO-led COVAX global distribution facility after Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. The country gears up for the immunization campaign and reports that it is all set for "a very effective rollout," including trained staff and cold chain facilities.

Lawal, the founder of grassroots campaigns Connected Development and Follow The Money, however, warns that a public awareness campaign is needed for the vaccination to succeed.

According to the campaigner, the Nigerian government first needs to address the rampant misinformation surrounding the virus, as many people have yet to acknowledge the very existence of COVID-19 in Nigeria and across Africa. He further told Sputnik that the rules and regulations on wearing masks are non-existent in some countries.

"People in Nigeria and most African countries have carried on like there is no COVID-19. For the past three weeks I have traveled to Cameroon, Ethiopia, I have traveled to Malawi and I will be in Kenya and sometimes it is at the airports and government offices where they adhere. Citizens do no trust what government communicates to them," Lawal said.

Nigeria, the activist insists, is in a more complex situation than other African countries, including due to insufficient testing. The country has so far confirmed over 156,000 coronavirus cases, including 134,000 recoveries and some 1,900 deaths.

"There is still a lot of work that needs to be done to control the situation considering the lack of testing people. It is most likely that the number of COVID-19 cases would be highly recorded. In Africa we have not been able to test as much as we should have tested and Nigeria is one case study. I believe now is an opportunity for the government to ensure that they and the stakeholders leverage on platforms like religious and traditional to build trust so that people do not shun the vaccines," he continued.

Another matter of concern is that the government has not communicated clear plans on how it will distribute vaccines.

"It is important that they provide a visible plan. They must tell us about vaccine preservation so that it does not hamper the successful roll-out. The government in Nigeria has failed to manage COVID-19 adequately. The government failed to provide information of how it spent over 8.9 billion US Dollars on COVID-19 intervention to citizens and how it will handle their vaccination programme," Lawal argued.

The World Health Organization (WHO) meanwhile also urges Nigerians to continue taking action to contain the virus, as it will take at least a year before the vaccination bears fruit.

The country is set to vaccinate at least 70 percent of Nigerians aged over 18 in four phases within two years.