The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan has on Monday expressed a lack of confidence in the preparedness of the Federal Government to implement the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the country.
Though the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire assured that the government is ready for successful COVID-19 vaccination and is targeting about N400 billion to get 70 percent Nigerians vaccinated.
This is as he explained that the government of Nigeria is in talks with multinational manufacturers and has trained staff as well as put the right cooling infrastructure in place to store the vaccines when they are acquired.
Talking about the financial implication of the exercise, the minister said his Ministry, would need N156 billion in 2021 and N200 billion in 2022 to vaccinate 70% of about 211 million Nigerian population.
These revelations were unveiled at a meeting between the health minister and the Senate President when Ehanire paid a courtesy call on Lawan at the National Assembly on Monday.
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While promising the full support of the National Assembly to appropriate for the funding demand, he held strong doubts with the presentations of the officials from the Ministry of Health.
He said “I have not been convinced with your presentation that we are ready. You have to do much more to convince me that we are ready. This is a matter of life and death.”
Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege also expressed doubt and strong worry that the government so far has made preparations for only four cold chains for the vaccines, in Abuja, Kano, Enugu and Lagos and asked why the entire South-South region is not including in the plan.
Omo-Agege became worried that vaccines may lose efficacy on transit to the South-South, charged NAFDAC to be sure citizens especially from the zone, do not end up being inoculated with bad vaccines that may do more harm than good.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye said the agency as the regulator of drugs consumed by citizens insist that NAFDAC would make sure vaccines acquired by the government are safe.
The National Assembly had earlier while passing the 2021 budget expressed its readiness to welcome a supplementary budget proposal in January 2021, to cover the cost for COVID-19 vaccination.
