Today the country will roll out its covid-19 vaccination programme with plans to inoculate frontline health workers first and then key political figures like President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice president Yemi Osinbajo, state governors and more after taking delivery of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines on Wednesday.
A year after the virus ravaged the Nigerian economy and that of other countries in the world, one would have thought that the advent of vaccines would be a welcome development due to the urge for all to return to some form of normalcy. I mean, it is only natural that one who is famished would jump at the first plate of jollof rice being offered to him or her as it is what one would easily tag “a commonsense reaction”.
However, the interesting and often frustrating thing about human expectation and the naked reality, is that both can fiercely oppose each other in ways that can suggest hopelessness for any form of compromise. This seems to be the case in several quaters across the country even amid the encouraging data being recorded for vaccination registration.
For some, the concern is about how fast the various available vaccines were created and if they would really work. People with this fear feel that the world still does not know enough about the virus especially with the new strains of Covid-19 being discovered in different parts of the world.
What these people have failed to understand is that with the availability of cutting-edge technology, it should not have been surprising to see a vaccine in record breaking time. The early arrival can also easily be traced to early research studies on the virus. However, how many have informed the public about this effectively ?
Another set of people who are worried are those who generally have trust issues with any and everything linked to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
While the distrust in government can be justified to a reasonable extent, how do we plan to convince these citizens that they can indeed take the word of our leaders that the vaccine would not harm them when many are yet to recover from the disbelief that in 2020 Covid-19 palliatives were stored in warehouses by some state governments or shared at parties as gifts by public office holders as parcels in an atmosphere of an overabundance of hunger. How do we hope to change the minds of such people?
Is it true that public vaccinations of the president and the vice president would boost public confidence and put such sentiments to bed? Time reveals all.
Finally, we have some who have been told by their religious leaders that the Covid-19 vaccine is evil and an indirect way to carry the mark of the devil. While all men are entitled to their beliefs and opinions, we wish the federal government well in changing the minds of these people.
It is true that it is indeed a great sign that millions have registered to get the Covid-19 vaccine jabs even with these many fears. However, we must look for meaningful ways to encourage everyone to get vaccinated when it becomes available for all. This is because building herd immunity in Nigeria would require all to get inoculated.
According to bestselling author J.K. Rowling, we are only as strong as we are united and as weak as we are divided. We cannot afford to politicize or give the Covid-19 issue a religious spin if we hope to achieve normalcy anytime soon.
We must unite in the fight against Covid-19.