A drop of Polio Vaccine and a mother’s sigh of relief.
Every drop of vaccine brings hope, protection, and peace of mind to mothers everywhere.
KATSINA, 18 June 2025 – Fourteen-month-old Abdulraheem Usman Lawal just received his first dose of the polio vaccine during a recent vaccination campaign and his mother Lu’ubatu Usman Lawal, is a very relieved and happy mother, today.
Lu’ubatu has experienced the pain only a mother can live through, knowing that her child is not vaccinated.
Her trauma comes from the lingering and everlasting loss, when one of her children nearly lost his life to measles, and this mother will never forget those nights spent in fear.
“We almost lost Abdullahi to measles,” shared Lu’ubatu, explaining how her 12-year-old son nearly died after he contracted the disease. “He had serious complications because he was not vaccinated and had no immunity to protect him,” added the mother of six.
Even though this helpless mother strongly believes in the immunization programme, she comes from a village where her husband’s permission is mandatory for such life-saving decisions.
“I’m thankful the vaccination team convinced him this time around, and now one of our children is vaccinated. As a mother, I feel relieved that Abduraheem has got his first dose of the polio vaccine. I will be diligent to ensure he doesn’t miss any dose until he gets full protection, now I’m going to take all my children for vaccination”
In this part of Nigeria where Lu’ubatu lives, parents have often shut their doors against vaccination teams because of a perceived failure by authorities to provide adequate services. This notion thrives among locals, despite the campaigners practically begging them with repeated messages to accept polio vaccination for their children.
Lu’ubatu’s husband held similar convictions until he was won over by the vaccination team.
Asmau Auwal, a member of the Katsina Local Government Area (LGA) Non-Compliance Resolution Team, explains how Lu’ubatu’s husband was won over this time.
“I appealed to him, he must weigh the irreversible consequences of paralysis if his son came down with the polio virus or even the possibility of death! I’m excited we succeeded in persuading him”, beams Asmau.
“In this LGA, thanks to the work being done by the Non-Compliance Committee vaccination rejection is a thing of the past,” boasts Mohammed Haliru, Katsina LGA Health Educator, upbeat by the success recorded this time. Aliyu Kabir Rumah, leader of one of the Non-compliance Resolution Committees in the LGA, affirmed, “In my community, we have no case of zero dose or unvaccinated children. When we get a hint of any case of rejection, we go there quickly and resolve it.”
A quick sample of children playing on the streets to ascertain if they have been vaccinated validates this testimony – all five checked were vaccinated. Nigeria is currently responding to alarming fresh outbreaks of Polio virus in some states, five years after the country was certificated as a polio free country by the World Health Organisation.
There are genuine concerns that if the transmission of the circulating polio virus is not halted, the country could relapse into the era when disease was rampant in Africa’s most populous nation.
To deal with the situation, the Government with the support of UNICEF and Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners, has set a target to arrest such polio virus transmissions before the end of 2025.
If the modest achievement of the team in Katsina LGA is anything to go by, the target may well be attained before this trend becomes irreversible for Nigeria.
