Editorial
Polio-Free Africa
A milestone in a journey to achieve global polio eradication was recorded in Nigeria and, indeed, the whole of Africa, on August 24, this year, when the World Health Organisation (WHO) certified the country and the entire region free from the deadly virus.
With this historic milestone, five of the WHO regions, representing over 90 percent of the world’s population, are now free of the wild poliovirus.
Nigeria, in particular, attained polio-free status on June 18, this year, for the first time, after four consecutive years of not recording any outbreak of the endemic. The country last recorded a case of wild poliovirus in 2016.
The certification of Africa, two weeks ago, is therefore, an important public health milestone for Nigeria and the entire African region. The landmark also brings the world one major step closer to achieving global polio eradication, notwithstanding that the disease is still endemic in Eastern Mediterranean countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Polio is a viral disease that is transmitted from person to person, mainly through a faecal-oral route or, less frequently, through contaminated water or food, and multiplies inside the intestines.
While there is no known cure yet for polio, the disease can be prevented through administration of a simple and effective vaccine. That is why efforts are made across every country to rapidly boost immunity levels in children and protect them from polio paralysis.
We recall that as recently as 2012, Nigeria accounted for more than half of all polio cases worldwide, according to WHO. At the time, more than 350,000 children were paralysed every year, in more than 125 endemic countries.
With the efforts by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), UNICEF, Rotary International, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and other volunteers, the incidence of polio was reduced by more than 99 percent globally. In Nigeria, more than 200,000 volunteers across the country repeatedly immunized more than 45 million children under the age of five, to ensure that no child would suffer from this paralysing disease. Today, only two countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan remain in the endemic list of poliovirus.
The Tide acknowledges the milestone recorded by Nigeria and indeed, the entire Africa, in the fight against polio, but also wants to emphasise the need for vigilance, “one which we must delicately manage with cautious euphoria”, as the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, once put it.
We note that this historic achievement in global health would certainly not have been possible without the novel strategies adopted in the consistent fight against polio and other vaccine preventable diseases. We commend the strong domestic and global financing and the commitment of governments at all levels towards achieving this feat.
The Tide congratulates the governments of the 47 countries in the WHO African region for this incredible feat. We also commend health workers, community volunteers, traditional and religious leaders and parents across the region for their efforts and collaboration in kicking wild polio out of Africa.
Despite this milestone, we urge African governments at all levels not to rest on their oars. We urge that the innovation, partnership, resolve and commitments that underpin this feat should continue. Continued commitment and resolve to reach every last child in the continent with the polio vaccine, as well as strengthening surveillance and routine immunization across the region will be key to keeping wild polio at bay, protecting the gains achieved and tackling the spread of Type 2 circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV2) which is present in 16 countries in the region.
We also call on all governments of the WHO regions and donors to remain vigilant against all forms of polio. This is because, until every strain of polio is eradicated worldwide, the progress made against the paralysing pathogen will be in jeopardy. Therefore, immunization and surveillance activities must continue to rapidly detect a potential re-introduction or re-emergence of the virus.
The outstanding commitment and efforts that got Africa off the endemic list must continue, to keep the world polio-free. Efforts should also be made towards getting Pakistan and Afghanistan off the hook of the deadly disease in order to achieve a polio-free world.
The certification of African region as wild poliovirus free is a sign of hope that progress can be achieved through collaboration and perseverance. This milestone in the fight against polio indeed bears eloquent testimony to the fact that when governments, leaders, partners, health workers and communities come together, we can triumph over the most difficult health challenges.
As the African continent and indeed, the world, grapple with the scourge of COVID-19, we recommend this collective, regional consciousness and efforts in other areas of public health, especially malaria that has continued to defile total eradication across the globe.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
