The traditional institution in Bauchi State has reiterated its readiness to support processes that will make the state a healthier one by ensuring that women and children receive the required medical attention, particularly immunisation and vaccinations.
The assertion was made by the Emir of Dass, Alhaji Usman Bilyaminu Othman, who is also the Chairman of the Bauchi State Emirate Councils Committee on Health (BASECCOH), while receiving a team led by the Chief of Field Office (CFO), Bauchi Field Office (BFO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Dr Nuzhat Rafique, at his palace in Dass on Friday.
The traditional ruler stressed that, in order to achieve these objectives, the traditional institution in the state had initiated a renewed strategy for sensitisation on polio.
According to him, the traditional rulers agreed to pay visits to health facilities to ascertain the progress of the immunisation exercise and have also made it a duty for every district head to visit a health facility within his domain regularly.
He stated, “On the part of the emirates, we are going to embark on supervision. We will choose some of the areas to visit across the state.”
Usman Bilyaminu Othman stressed, “As you said that you are always available to be part of the supervision, we are going to arrange and as well share the itinerary with you so that during the implementation, we will be able to visit all the zones in the state.”
“I promise you that we are going to do our best to make sure that we see changes in terms of polio eradication in Bauchi State,” he assured.
Consequently, UNICEF has engaged the traditional rulers in the state to ensure maximum compliance of the people with polio vaccine uptake.
Speaking during the courtesy visit to the Emir, Nuzhat Rafique of UNICEF said that the role traditional institutions play in ensuring that people embrace the vaccine could not be overemphasised.
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While appreciating the Emir of Dass for his commitment and concern for the children in the state and Nigeria at large, the UNICEF representative urged him to lead other traditional and community leaders, as well as district heads across the state, to ensure that all children were reached and immunised.
According to her, “This is a very impressive local government, and I congratulate you for the leadership and for being the father of this LGA, where we don’t have any zero-dose children and where it is open defecation-free.”
Nuzhat Rafique stated, “I would like to highlight the need for your leadership and help for all the local governments in Bauchi State because, unfortunately, Bauchi is showing one of the lowest indicators in terms of all these achievements that Dass LGA already has, like open defecation-free status and zero-dose children.”
She stressed, “As you know, the polio campaign is starting from the 24th to the 30th of this month, and this is very important for Nigeria as this is the last opportunity for the country to eradicate polio.”
According to her, “I’m available to go with you or to wherever you ask me to go, especially to non-compliant or resistant households, because we really need change.”
“We have to make all the households compliant. We have to give them advice to bring out their children and have them receive polio drops,” she said.
Nuzhat Rafique added that every child must receive a polio drop this time around, and no child should be left behind, even in the most deprived areas.
She concluded, “This would be possible if all the traditional, community, and religious leaders in the state worked closely with UNICEF.”
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