President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan has said that for Nigeria to provide ‘herd immunity’ for its over two hundred million population, efforts must be made by the Federal Government to collaborate with international bodies to develop and produce a vaccine.
According to him, the project to develop a vaccine must deploy resources specifically meant to provide the needed environment for Nigerian scientists resident abroad to come up with a vaccine that would serve not only Nigeria’s population but that of other developing countries. Speaking in Abuja during the Public Presentation of a Research Work on the Legislative Efforts and Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic by the Young Parliamentarians Forum in collaboration with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Lawan recalled the efforts by the National Assembly and State Assemblies in coming up with legislative interventions such as the economic stimulus package to help cushion the effect of the lockdown caused by the pandemic. The President of the Senate who noted that such legislative interventions have subsequently extended to long-term legislative proposals that would address the inadequate number of health facilities across the country, said, “The legislature was also forthcoming in supporting the executive arm, in formulating policies to cushion the effect of the contagion, particularly because of lockdowns, and the attendant adverse effect on personal and public incomes.
“Talking of public incomes, we know what the National Assembly did, particularly to support the Executive arm of government in passing the economic stimulus package, which we graciously did and, I’m sure the legislatures at the state level did the same in their states. “The relief package was essential to support the vulnerable in our country – those at the lower ladder of our economic pyramid. “The Research work that is being presented today is obviously a study of the multiple dimensions of legislative interventions, consistent with the role of the institution as a coordinate arm of government. “The work deserves commendation for not just documenting the legislative actions and responses to the pandemic, but for preparing us for projections on what to do, faced with a similar crisis next time. “I’ll consider that to be the short-term support because this pandemic has revealed so many things, and some of these challenges cannot be addressed immediately. Take, for example, the revelation that our health facilities are so inadequate, and even those that are available are in a deplorable state. “It will require some time for the National Assembly and, indeed, the government to provide for what will be ‘adequate’ health facilities across the country. And, in fact, that means it will be a long-term goal of legislative intervention, but we are determined to go ahead and do that.” On how to successfully vaccinate Nigeria’s over two hundred million population in record time, the President of the Senate called on the Federal Government to explore the option of collaborating with international bodies and Nigerian scientists abroad for the development of its own vaccine. Lawan who bemoaned the difficulty posed by the refusal of the European Union and countries such as the United States of America and India to sell vaccines to developing countries said that Nigeria has the Human Resources to mass-produce the number of vaccines needed to achieve ‘herd immunity’ for the country’s population and that of other developing countries in need of the vaccine. He said: “Let’s also for example consider the vaccine production that today is becoming a necessity for almost every country. “Today, the United States of America (USA) is trying to ensure that no vaccine leaves its shores until it is able to vaccinate its citizens to provide herd immunity. “The European Union is doing the same thing, India which produces quite a lot of vaccines with over one billion population is also controlling and stopping exports. Where does that leave us? “Nigeria has the capacity in terms of the Human Resources to some extent, even though we have lost many of our good ones to the developed world. But some of them are still patriotic, they still want us to have our own vaccine developed. “This means we have to provide resources for setting up the environment for our scientists to collaborate with international agencies as well as citizens who are now either holding dual citizenships in other countries or are simply our citizens who have gone to other countries for greener pastures for us to have our own vaccines.

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