Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has stirred another controversy on Covid-19 vaccine positing before his citizens that “they want to use the COVID-19 vaccines to introduce the disease that will kill you and us. God forbid.”

His cynicism is, however, not shared by other governors who are already in talks with the Federal Government on how to receive their consignments of the vaccine from the first batch of 100,000 doses billed to arrive Nigeria in a couple of weeks.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum has further advised the Governor that the pandemic is real and must be tackled. The Governors’ Forum have firmed up various strategies to counter the offensive launched against Covid-19 vaccines through intensive public enlightenment according to its Director-General.

De-marketing the vaccines, Kogi state governor in an address to his state indigenes said, “Vaccines are being produced in less than one year of COVID-19. There is no vaccine yet for HIV, malaria, cancer, headache and for several other diseases that are killing us. They want to use the COVID-19 vaccines to introduce the disease that will kill you and us. God forbid.”

But Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, while addressing journalists in Abuja after a meeting with President Buhari last week said he and his colleagues will take the Covid-19 vaccines on live television. “We too will like to demonstrate to our citizens that we believe that vaccines would work,” he said.

“Don’t forget, we have a lot of experience on this. Governors Forum managed the polio vaccines administration in the country and we have garnered a lot of experience,” said Dr Fayemi, the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum.

But Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State in a video widely circulating on Facebook could be seen discouraging a jeering crowd of supporters from taking the vaccines.

The governor hinged his criticism of the COVID-19 vaccines currently being rolled out in nearly 50 countries globally on the fast speed at which they were developed.

“These vaccines are being produced in less than one year of COVID-19. There is no vaccine yet for HIV, malaria, cancer and for several diseases that are killing us… We should draw our minds back to what happened in Kano during the polio vaccines that crippled and killed our children. We have learned our lessons.
“If they say they are taking the vaccines in the public allow them take their vaccines. Don’t say I said you should not take it but if you want to take it open your eyes before you take the vaccines,” he said.

From the onset Governor Yahaya Bello never believed there was anything called Coronavirus and had initially along with his Cross River State counterpart Professor Ben Ayade refused the officials of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) from conducting covid-19 tests in Kogi state. He described the Coronavirus disease as a hoax.

“Ninety per cent of the noise about COVID-19 is for political, economic, financial [or] material gain. The other 10 per cent [relates to] ordinary flu, like the common colds Nigerians generally suffer,” he said.

After soft pedaling his initial hard stance and despite glaring evidence of acute under testing for coronavirus in Kogi, the state governor, Yahaya Bello, claimed a widespread testing campaign was being undertaken in the state and nobody had been infected.

Those claims by the governor were false, as a couple of deaths were reported from the state including that of the State High Court Judge. The general fact-sheet on COVID-19 response by states did not support Alhaji Yahaya Bello’s assertion of no Covid-19 infection in the state.

The COVID-19 situation in Kogi state has been tainted in controversies, accusations and counter-accusations between state government and health authorities even before the index case was recorded.

When the index case was reported in Kogi on May 27, state officials said they will not accept any test result “conducted outside the state”, a position described as ‘unfortunate and condemnable’ by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).

Alhaji Bello has also questioned the need for Nigeria to procure COVID-19 vaccines. He buttressed his argument with a comparison of varying temperatures between Nigeria and other climes, saying that “what is applicable over there may not work in Nigeria” he submitted.

Countries in Europe and America use heaters in their cars and houses but here we use air conditioners. I am saying this against the backdrop of the fact that we saw a lot of antics of merchandise of these foreign products. We cannot be doing ‘copy and paste’. We should not apply same solution with them.

“We don’t need to participate in this marketing of COVID-19 vaccine. We should channel the money we want use to buy the vaccines to other things. The Presidential Task Force (PTF) should give the right advice to the president.”

He said about N50 billion that might be used to purchase the vaccines should be invested in building about 54 well equipped health centres across the country at the cost of N10 billion each.

The governor said “it is better to invest in tackling more deadly diseases that are killing people every day and not COVID-19 that has 99.9 per cent recovery rate.”

According to the NCDC records, more than 92, 000 of the over 114, 000 infected persons across Nigeria have recovered and discharged. But that does not mean the disease is not deadly. Nigeria had lost several persons with total number of death put at 1,478. Federal officials and health authorities believe the state officials are discouraging tests for people with symptoms of COVID-19.

When the index case was reported in Kogi on May 27, state officials said they will not accept any test result “conducted outside the state”, a position described as ‘unfortunate and condemnable’ by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).

Health experts believe the situation in Kogi does not just raise serious concerns but has also made it more difficult to have a synchronised national strategy.