Despite a few dissenting voices, Nigerian politicians continue to promote vaccination against Covid-19, and religious authorities have an important role to play in reassuring the Nigerian population, who are very religious.
An awareness meeting was notably organized last Friday in Abuja, between the Ministry of Health and Muslim imams and academics.
During this meeting, the Sultan of Sokoto, the highest Muslim dignitary in the country, asked political and religious leaders to "lead by example ". " We urge you to take this vaccine, as we did during the campaign against polio, which made it possible to eradicate it, " said the Sultan of Sokoto.
But part of the Nigerian population remains reluctant to be vaccinated. In the north of the country in particular, where the Pfizer laboratory was blamed for having carried out an illegal clinical trial in 1996 during an epidemic of meningitis and measles resulting in the death of at least 11 children in the city of Kano.
The trauma of the Trovan affair is still very much in people's minds, and those responsible for the Covid-19 vaccination campaign are well aware of it.