Senate urges the Federal Government to provide Nigerians with COVID-19 vaccines

The Senate urged the Federal Government to make appropriate funds available for Nigerians to acquire and administer COVID-19 vaccines.

Despite the fact that many nations have done so internationally, it described as unfortunate the inability of the government to create a strategy for the procurement, delivery, and administration of the therapy.

Adopting a motion supported by Senator Oloriegbe Ibrahim during the plenary session chaired by Senate President Ahmad Lawan in Abuja on Thursday, 3 December, the Upper Legislative Chamber directed its Health and Primary Health Care Committee to convene the Ministries of Health and Finance, as well as the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 and other related agencies.

The legislators regretted that the only plan on the COVID-19 vaccine for Nigeria is the pledge by Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative (GAVI) to support 20 percent of the country’s requirement.

According to them, this assistance will cover only the cost of the treatment without taking care of the delivery and administration logistics.

“Despite the change in the epidemiology trends of the disease, the financial plan developed by the country and World Bank in April 2020 to fund the response to the pandemic is still being implemented without taking due cognizance of the changes by re-allocating the funds to vaccine procurement.” the legislature added.

It noted that failure to administer vaccines in the nation would result in Nigeria’s inability to contain further infections and a possible ban on Nigerians by countries across the world.