Nigeria’s COVID-19 Goal

Two Friends

Greg and Reggie were two new friends I met on Sunday night. They were Greg Greenway and Reggie Harris. They presented their message and songs to us. “Deeper Than the Skin” was the program’s name. It was an amazing program!

I wish I had taken notes when they were speaking about their schools!

Reggie spoke first about his school. It was all Black in the early days. I recall his saying that he asked the teacher about the new school. “Is it better than tleyhis one?”

“Yes,” the teacher told him, “It is better than this one!” So he attended the new school that was mixed. And it was better but not for the reasons we would think. It was better because the white teachers had more resources at their hands and knew how to use them to motivate young people.

Greg told us about his school, which was all white. He hardly saw a Black child or young person in his earlier years. But it did leave an impression on him. It made him feel like he was somehow entitled to the resources that were made available to him. It was later that he began to evaluate those resources.

I’ll tell you more if I hear back from these new friends. (I emailed each of them to ask for their comments on their own first and later schools.)

Nigeria and COVID-19

Nigeria’s COVID Vaccine Drive Gets a Boost as African Leaders Push 70% Vaccination Target is the header for a recent article in Nigeria’s Health Watch, a regular newsletter I get from Africa.

Will they get there?

Nigeria is in the early days of getting enough vaccines to push the level to 70% for the number of people vaccinated. It has set this goal as possible, even probable, by end of June 2022.

Just a year ago the first flight carrying the COVID-19 vaccines arrived at Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana. Today the Assistant Administrator of USAID, Atul Gawande, has said their agency is part of the drive for getting enough vaccines to Nigeria in particular. They are allocating another $33.3 million to help ensure COVID-19 vaccines are able to reach people who need them.

Seth Berkley, head of the global vaccine alliance, Gavi, said that Wednesday (24 February) marked the first anniversary of the first COVAX delivery on African soil. But since then, COVAX has delivered about 440 million doses now to 51 countries on the continent. Of these, 60 million had been delivered to Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, with 30 million more allocated to the country.

“The challenge is to make sure that the absorption capacity of countries is such that those doses can be used quickly and get to the people that them,” said Berkley.

Echoing Berkley’s call, Dr. Ayoade Alakija, the convenor of the “Ports to Arms” conference, stressed that Africa would not accept anything less than the 70% vaccination rate.

Gawande said that people are willing to accept the vaccines. There is little vaccine resistance among Nigerians. The vaccines just need to reach the people who want and need them.

Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), described Nigeria’s rush to get to this reasonable target. He said this is a game-changing technology that will allow these countries to “leapfrog” over the barriers that do exist.

Like him and others, I too share the goal of Nigeria’s getting enough vaccine to reach 70% by the end of June.