Polio: Intimidation can only boomerang

Today, in several European countries, Holocaust denial is punishable by law. But it does not stop the ranks of the deniers from swelling as more and more people peep into the six-million-Jews-Hitler’s-gas-chamber theory and see less and less. In other words the more they investigate the less they see of concrete evidence that Adolf Hitler […]

Today, in several European countries, Holocaust denial is punishable by law. But it does not stop the ranks of the deniers from swelling as more and more people peep into the six-million-Jews-Hitler’s-gas-chamber theory and see less and less. In other words the more they investigate the less they see of concrete evidence that Adolf Hitler had gassed millions of Jews to death during the Third Reich. Like one American writer put it “If the Holocaust had happened {General Dwight) Eisenhower would have mentioned it.” Former American president Eisenhower was apparently the chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Second World War and he became a US president about seven years after.
It was therefore unthinkable that such a monumental tragedy could happen before his very eyes without him having a word to say about it. He was expected to react to such a crime against humanity, if only because of the role the US played in ending the war. However the lesson here is not that Zionists had tampered with historical records and succeeded in forcing a sense of guilt on the rest of humanity for an event that might never have happened no, the lesson is that despite their apparent success, their expert use of media machinery to drum this into our heads, more people are getting wise to the fact that the Holocaust was just a hoax. Thanks to their sheer intimidation prowess.
The recent harassment of so-called ‘anti-polio Professor’ dean of Ahmadu Bello University’s faculty of Pharmaceutical sciences, Professor Haruna Kaita, by security agencies is a case in point. And it brings to mind how an enormous level of intimidation by the government led to the resignation of three journalists and the eventual closure of a whole radio station in Kano, all in the cause of polio vaccination.
Those of us who have followed the polio controversy from day one, know that no right-thinking individual could fault Professor Kaita’s role in it. We all recall that he was invited by the Jama’atun Nasril Islam as a trained and reputable scientist to investigate the claims in some quarters then, that the Oral Polio Vaccine was contaminated by anti-fertility agents. This JNI move was commendable in the sense that as traditional and religious rulers with great influence over the hearts and minds of Nigerian Muslims, they could easily have issued statements saying that all Muslims should abstain from the vaccination campaign but they didn’t. Instead they invited a professor of pharmaceutical sciences and asked him to do a scientific, clinical analysis of the vaccine to determine whether those claims were true.
To fulfil the mission Professor Kaita engaged the services of a pharmaceutical laboratory in India were some batches of the Polio vaccine were indeed found to be contaminated. He came back and wrote a 200-page report to the government, giving a detailed, scientific breakdown of the findings of the Indian lab. This was way back in 2003. Further investigation showed that those particular batches of the vaccine were actually not screened by the sole body charged with the responsibility of screening and verifying the safety of all drugs and foods imported into or manufactured in Nigeria, NAFDAC. The former Director-general of NAFDAC Professor Dora Akunyili was actually quoted as having admitted that there was a time when her agency was not allowed to screen polio vaccines by the then head of the National Programme on Immunisation (NPI) Dr Dere Awosika.
Now, ten years later, an unfortunate incident occurred in Kano. A bunch of daredevil murderers waylaid and killed 10 polio workers in the ancient city. The shocking tragedy once again raised the issue of opposition to Polio vaccine. Some commentators actually wanted us to believe that ordinary parents had taken up arms against vaccine officials due to the extent of their opposition to the OPV. But those of us observing the issue more clearly know that ordinary folk aren’t capable of the kind of expert drive-by shooting that killed those innocent immunisation workers. And the killers vanished in thin air.
In the search for scape-goats, government came down hard on the presenters of a popular radio programme because they had aired the story of one of them who was manhandled in the course of covering a polio immunisation exercise. The three journalists were accused of instigating the anti-polio killing. The harassment and intimidation that followed led them to resign their appointment.  The radio station itself Wazobia FM had its license withdrawn by the Nigerian Broadcasting commission over the tragedy. Meanwhile no real killer one had been arrested, only instigators.
Still with no words about the hunt for killers, government cast its net wider for more ‘instigators’ in the form of Islamic scholars and university professors. That was when its security agencies beamed their searchlight on Professor Haruna Kaita. After a visit to his residence by State Security personnel, he was invited to meet the Kaduna state police commissioner. Having duly travelled from Zaria to Kaduna to honour that invitation, he was again invited a few days later to travel all the way to Abuja to meet the police top brass at the force headquarters. Each time, the university don was subjected to questioning on his role in the polio controversy. 
This level of intimidation is obviously uncalled for. Not only does it disrupt the professor’s normal routine of imparting knowledge and conducting researches, it is also unsettling to know that people are deliberately trying to link you up with a heinous crime. A responsible government would have called the professor for his views and arranged a forum whereby he could debate with other intellectuals, if they find his views disagreeable. Science is not subjective, the results arrived at during the 2003 test which proved those vaccine batches were contaminated could be arrived at by any scientist using the same scientific methods in an equipped lab. Why then should Professor Kaita be subjected to this high-profile intimidation when a simple academic course of action can make all the difference?
Today, Kaita does not only have to deal with this level of intimidation, he also has to endure insults and criticism from people least qualified to say anything about immunisation or pharmaceutical analysis. But the counter-effect of this harassment of a respected Northern intellectual is that the battle for hearts on the polio issue will be lost because the average Northerner can easily read in Professor Kaita’s predicament an attempt to suppress the truth. It is better for all concerned that the government puts a stop to this harassment of an accomplished pharmaceutical expert because some people have decided that polio immunisation is not open for debate. If there is really nothing questionable about the current polio campaign then all sceptics and those questioning the safety of certain batches should be allowed to air their views while the federal ministry of health and other government agencies should do all that is necessary to allay their fears. 
Any further attempt to intimidate people seen as being on the opposite side of polio debate will reinforce the belief that there is something sinister about the polio campaign and that is why people are being scared into silence. As someone who has been following Professor Haruna Kaita’s submission on the polio issue, I can summarise his stand on it as follows:
1.    That Nigerian laboratories should be upgraded and equipped to produce the vaccines here rather than continue to import possibly contaminated batches from abroad.
2.    That all polio vaccines should be screened properly and certified safe by NAFDAC.
3.    That government and other stakeholders must work hard to dispel suspicions on the OPV through appropriate eradication measures.
Whoever advocates the above as the way forward on polio eradication can obviously not be an anti-polio intellectual. His continued intimidation can only scare more people away from the vaccination exercise. In other words it will only boomerang.