Misrepresentation of my position in polio controversy (II)

However, Aliyu had conveniently ignored the fact that THE PUNCH Newspaper of February 27, 2004, confirmed that even though the government team had gone ahead to declare OPV safe for use, they did not in any way certify their own samples free of contaminants because in the same report they were quoted as saying “The […]

However, Aliyu had conveniently ignored the fact that THE PUNCH Newspaper of February 27, 2004, confirmed that even though the government team had gone ahead to declare OPV safe for use, they did not in any way certify their own samples free of contaminants because in the same report they were quoted as saying “The equipment showed that 6 samples had trace levels of Estradiol above Minimum Quantifiable Level”. I wonder if that has any meaning to Aliyu.
Meanwhile, the corollary of media campaigns on the viability and efficacy of OPV in the bid to eradicate Polio epidemic trudged up with the enlistment of a high calibre write up by non-other than Monsieur Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and now a world class philanthropist par excellence. On Thursday, February 21, 2013, Daily Trust ran a two page article in which Bill Gates stressed the importance of the fight against Polio in especially Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, countries where massive resistance to the administration of OPV on children is encountered.
Then on Saturday, February 23, 2013, Weekly Trust carried an article by the Honorable Minister of State for Health who coincidentally extended Aliyu Bala Aliyu’s attack on the so called Polio conspiracy theorists, but this time around the minister’s wordings were more combative and caustic. The minister charged that “the anti-polio campaign pursued by a group of inadequately informed (some say, pseudo-intellectuals) based in one or two of our universities. They claim polio vaccination contains birth control agents, based on flawed science”. 
Elsewhere in his article the minister also connected the Kano tragedy to the foreboding resistance of OPV in northern Nigeria. To wit, the “recent killings of innocent female health workers in Kano, Yobe, Borno is directly linked to the warped ideas concocted by these pseudo-intellectuals allied with a very narrow strand of our respected Ulama”. This is most unsavory because there is no nexus between the scientific issues raised in my report and the horrendous and despicable killings in Kano.
To crown the myriad onslaughts on those considered to be in opposition to OPV in Nigeria, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, chose to throw his weight on the side of my traducers. Mr. President in his own wisdom chose the occasion of Town Hall Meeting in Maiduguri with Borno Elders, a meeting purposely organized to tackle the grievous state of insecurity in the North, to berate the Professor alleged to be campaigning against OPV. The Weekly Trust of Saturday, March 9, 2013, has indeed reported President Jonathan’s displeasure with “one professor that is busy telling people not to avail their children for polio immunization; that the vaccine will cause infertility in children … if there is a way of withdrawing professorship, I think it will not be wrong if his is withdrawn”. First, when I heard the comment I wondered who Mr. President was referring to because he did not mention any name. Secondly, I am not aware of any professor that said OPV is causing infertility in children. 
After these systematic media onslaughts on the so called anti-OPV camp, agents of State Security Service (SSS) paid a number of visits to my residence looking for me. Similarly, a letter inviting me to see Kaduna State Commissioner of Police and to visit Police Headquarters in Abuja was sent through Ahmadu Bello University Zaria Vice Chancellor. As a law abiding citizen, I paid the visits to the Police in both Kaduna and Abuja where I was asked series of questions.
Earlier, on Monday, December 31, 2012, I received a disturbing SMS from the Honourable Minister of State for Health which suggested, among other issues, I was involved in a disturbing campaign against OPV on Facebook. And the Facebook page is said to belong to Professor Haruna Kaita (Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department, A.B.U Zaria). Promptly, I replied the Honourable Minister with a disclaimer that I do not operate a Facebook account at all even though I happened to be one of the very first persons to have e-mail account and Internet connectivity in Zaria. In this light, I am also not unaware of similar campaigns of misrepresentation through massive circulation of some doctored video CDs where my position was quoted out of context.
On the basis of the insinuations and misrepresentations above, I wish to clarify my position on the raging OPV controversy in which I consistently articulated before groups, organizations and institutions that extended invitations to me for discussion. For the avoidance of doubts, I have always reechoed the recommendations below in my lectures and presentations:
• Despite the claims that in the production of Polio Vaccines employs molecular technologies and African countries cannot produce the vaccines because of stringent procedures involved, I still believe that Nigeria has the wherewithal to produce good vaccines if the vaccine production units at Yaba in Lagos and the National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom, are upgraded.
• ALL vaccines coming in to the country should be screened appropriately. The Federal Government should, as a matter of urgency, make funds available to NAFDAC and subsequently tertiary institutions where routine research and professional analyses of vaccines can be made. Indeed it does not speak well on the integrity of Nigeria that all the laboratory analyses of vaccines used in the attempts to arbitrate the controversy surrounding OPV were carried out in Third World countries like South Africa, Indonesia and India.
• The Federal Government should involve all stakeholders in exploring ways and means of averting suspicion on the alleged repercussions of polio vaccination through appropriate and well-structured eradication measures, mobilization, confidence building and trust. This can be achieved on the basis of honesty, openness, transparency and mutual respect between all stakeholders.
• Safe agents and secure conditions should be provided during vaccination exercises. These measures are necessary in order to overcome suspicion and improve confidence and compliance.
• Proper documentation and good record keeping of children vaccinated would also help the processes of monitoring and evaluation. If there are possible anomalies to the vaccines administered on children, for instance, that can easily be detected. This is the standard practice in countries like India, Mexico and Brazil.
I sincerely hope that the rundown of my role in the OPV controversy will help clear the air. It is my ardent prayers that this impasse will be resolved based on scientific understanding, mutual trust and respect between stakeholders.
Concluded
Professor Haruna Kaita is of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria