Jonathan spoke during the inauguration of the Presidential Taskforce on Eradication of Polio at the State House, Abuja.
He said, “My commitment to the people of this country
is that between now and 2015 when my term of office is expected to end,
we will work day and night to make sure that we eradicate polio.
“For that reason, we have also increased the amount
of money we bring into polio eradication from $17m to $30m and if we
have challenges, we will look for more money.”
He regretted that Nigeria was still “a sanctuary of wild polio”.
The President said it would be wrong for anybody to
attribute the country’s inability to eradicate polio to its large
population, arguing that countries with larger population had succeeded
in eradicating the decease.
He said, “So, it takes the will of government from
federal through the states to the local governments and the traditional
institutions to educate the people to accept polio vaccination.
“In Australia, during the CHOGM, I pledged that
before I leave office, we must eradicate polio. Luckily for us, out of
the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, the disease is now
limited to about eight states.
“We cannot begin to say that the Nigerian population
is high or big and that is why we cannot eradicate polio – that is no
excuse because countries that have over one billion people have done
that. We are just about 170 million people so, we have no excuse.”
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