By Okhide Em’ya David
Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo has called on African leaders to begin harnessing their local resources to solve the problems facing their respective countries.
Chief Obasanjo made the call on Monday during the launch of the Independent Task Team for the development of African Vaccines and equitable and universal access to vaccines and vaccination in Africa by Igbinedion University Okada (IUO), in collaboration with Coalition for Dialogue on Africa, CoDA.
Obasanjo who was represented by a renowned Professor of History from Senegal, Prof. Abdoulaye Bathily noted that Nigeria and Africa’s problem is not lack of funds or Resources, but the inability to harness them.
“I have always believed that Africa main challenge is not lack of funds or resources. Our main challenge is the inability to harness available resources to provide customized home-grown solutions leading to address the challenges we see across the continent.”
His words: “We need to begin to take actions to harness our local resources to solve our local problems. Through initiatives like this one, Africa will be able to encourage and retain its talent and support them in finding solutions to its age-long health challenges.”
The President and Chairman, Board of Trustees AFREXIMBANK and Chairman Board of Trustees for the African Union, Covid-19 response team who is a partner of the Task Team, Prof Benedict Oramah said the spread of the Covid-19 with the discovery of new variants, Africa cares for less than zero point one percent of vaccines production thereby relying on the goodwill of international donors.
He said the benevolence of international support may not be sustainable, hence the need to develop African vaccines.
The Deputy Chairperson, African Union Commission, Prof Monique Nsanzabaganwa, thanked the Esama of Benin, Sir Chief Dr. Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion and Igbinedion University Okada, for hosting the event.
She said the recent outbreak of Covid-19 has spurred world leaders to address issues of vaccines.
He said what Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital has Embarked upon is a wake-up call for other private institutions to be involved in addressing the root cause of African Health Challenges.
The Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki emphasized the need for a home-grown solution to address equitable access to vaccines to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic and protect people from other vaccine-preventable diseases.
Mr. Obaseki said his administration was currently implementing a wide range healthcare reforms geared towards achieving functional and universal health care services for the Edo People.
He said he has personally chaired the state’s COVID-19 response team, since March 2020, saying: “We have over 62 vaccinations, teams, working in all our 18 Local Government Areas of the state. We have vaccinated over 38,000 of our citizens out of our target of 47,944.”
Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who spoke via Zoom, called for the support of all stakeholders towards ensuring the local production of the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a keynote address, the Deputy Chancellor, Igbinedion University Okada and former two-time Governor of Edo State, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, said that Africa has the best scientists in the world, noting that some of them have been involved in the production of COVID-19 vaccine.
Chief Lucky Nosakhare Igbinedion said there have been outbreaks of different diseases which sent signals that Africa must take definite action and take charge of its public health response.
He said Africa Manufactures a fraction of Vaccines with only one percent with about 1.3billion people saying that all hope is not lost as there are opportunities to salvage the situation.
