By Destiny Obinna
Members of the Lagos State Children’s Parliament have called on the state government to expand access to polio vaccines, particularly in underserved and riverine communities, warning that gaps in immunisation could undermine Nigeria’s gains in the fight against the disease.
The children, who made the call during a special parliamentary sitting ahead of World Polio Day, urged the government and relevant health agencies to intensify vaccination campaigns, strengthen public awareness and ensure that no child is left unprotected against vaccine-preventable diseases.
Speaking at the sitting, Speaker of the 7th Assembly of the Lagos State Children’s Parliament, Abdusalam Anjoluwa Abdusalam, said the lawmakers wanted the state government to move beyond existing achievements and ensure that immunisation services reached every community.
Although Nigeria was declared free of indigenous wild poliovirus in 2020, Abdusalam noted that sustaining the achievement required continued vigilance, particularly in communities where access to healthcare remained a challenge.
Master Abdusalam said: “We understand that Lagos State has been doing excellently well, but we want to intensify the efforts. We want to make sure that vaccines reach every nook and cranny of Lagos State.
“We want the Lagos State Government to make more vaccines available through public and private health facilities. We want to have a 100 per cent polio-free legacy.”
Abdusalam said the parliamentary sitting was convened to strengthen advocacy for polio eradication and encourage children to participate in decisions affecting their health and wellbeing.
He added that the parliament had resolved to take its message to relevant stakeholders, including government agencies, healthcare providers, development partners and community organisations, to ensure sustained action against polio.
The call came as health officials and development partners warned that Nigeria could not afford to relax its immunisation efforts while poliovirus continued to circulate in other parts of the world.
Representing the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Primary Health Care Board, Dr Ibrahim Akinwunmi Mustapha, the Director of Immunisation, Dr Odubumi Akinnade, said although wild poliovirus had been eliminated in Nigeria, surveillance and vaccination remained essential to prevent new infections.
He explained that the country continued to monitor vaccine-derived poliovirus through environmental surveillance, including the collection and testing of water samples.
According to him, when the virus is detected, health authorities conduct targeted vaccination campaigns in affected areas to prevent transmission and protect children.
Mustapha said: “The wild poliovirus in Nigeria has been eradicated since 2020. However, we still see sporadic cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus, and this means that we need to sustain our efforts in vaccinating children and making sure that every child in Nigeria is polio-free.”
He stressed that Nigeria must remain vigilant for as long as the virus persisted anywhere in the world.
“Until the world has eradicated polio completely, we cannot stop fighting against poliovirus,” he said, noting that Afghanistan and Pakistan remained the only countries where wild poliovirus was endemic.
The immunisation director also dismissed concerns about access to routine vaccines, saying they were available free of charge at public primary healthcare centres.
He said the government also supplied vaccines to private hospitals, while maintaining the cold chain required to preserve their potency and effectiveness.
Mustapha urged parents, caregivers, religious leaders, traditional rulers and other community stakeholders to ensure that children received recommended vaccines from birth.
“We would like to encourage caregivers to ensure that all their children are vaccinated so that they can become immunised against preventable diseases,” he said.
The last mile matters
Also speaking, Rotarian Adenike Abdul-Azeez who represented the Chairman of the Nigerian National PolioPlus Committee, Past District Governor Joshua Hassan, said the world was close to eliminating polio but warned that the final stage of the campaign required sustained commitment.
She recalled that the global eradication initiative, launched in 1988 by Rotary International and its partners, had helped drive down polio infections from hundreds of thousands of cases annually to a small number of cases of wild poliovirus in the remaining endemic countries.
According to her, the progress demonstrates what sustained international cooperation, immunisation and community engagement can achieve.
She, however, warned that any child left unimmunised could remain vulnerable and contribute to the continued circulation of the virus.
“Polio anywhere is polio everywhere. We must strive to ensure that the incidence of wild poliovirus is eradicated all over the world,” she said.
“The last mile matters. That last mile must give you the success for the race.”
Adenike urged the young parliamentarians to become advocates for immunisation by taking the message to their homes, schools, friends and communities.
She also called on government and healthcare stakeholders to sustain vaccination programmes and extend coverage to areas that remained underserved.
Children’s voices critical to polio fight
Earlier, Folake Taiwo of Save the Children International said children’s participation was essential to efforts to improve their health, education and protection.
She said the organisation, which works across the three areas of child survival, education and child protection, was supporting the Lagos State Children’s Parliament as part of its efforts to promote children’s rights and amplify their voices on public health issues.
Folake said Save the Children had been implementing its BOOST project since 2024, targeting the reduction of zero-dose and under-immunised children aged zero to five.
Zero-dose children are those who have not received any routine vaccine, leaving them particularly vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases.
She said the World Polio Day activities offered an opportunity for children to communicate the importance of immunisation to their peers and parents while pressing government to devote greater attention and funding to reaching children who had been missed by routine vaccination programmes.
“For us, the voice of children and their participation are critical to anything that has to do with their development and their lives,” she said.
Taiwo warned that polio could cause death or lifelong disability, including paralysis, with consequences for affected children, their families and communities.
She said the detection of poliovirus in Makoko in 2025 underscored the need for continued vigilance rather than complacency.
“We cannot lay back and say everything is alright with polio. If the virus is still circulating in the population, the process of elimination must continue,” she said.
Taiwo urged the Lagos State Government to sustain efforts to eliminate polio and ensure that no child was left behind in immunisation programmes.
The World Polio Day activities brought together the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development, the Lagos State Primary Health Care Board, Save the Children International, Rotary representatives and members of the Children’s Parliament.
The participants called for stronger collaboration among government agencies, healthcare providers, development partners, parents and communities to protect children and preserve Nigeria’s gains against polio.
