How UNICEF, Dep. gov spur immunization of my child – Ubale

By Maduabuchi Nmeribeh/Kano

Dan Jumai Ubale, a native of Kofar Yamma in Bunkure Local Government Area, Kano state, created a beautiful scene in capital of Bunkure on Saturday during the flagging off of the June 2025 National Immunization Plus Days (NIPDs) Campaign in the state.

The occasion which held simultaneously across the 44 Local Government Areas of Kano State was chaired by the state’s Deputy Governor, Comrade Aminu Abdulsalam Gwarzo, who is also the chairman of the State Task Force Committee on Immunization and Primary Healthcare.

The event was attended by development partners, including representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO), National Primary Healthcare Board and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Ubale, shortly after the programme, during the demonstration of the kick-off immunization campaign, rushed home and brought forward his two-year old daughter, Hafsat Musbahu for immediate immunization.

He was accompanied by his wife, Hajiya Sahura Balarabe.

Ubale told PMNEWS that he was motivated by the emotional and encouraging speeches of the Deputy Governor and that of the Chief of UNICEF Field Office, Kano, Mr. Rahama Rihood Mohammed Farah, during the programme.

Before now, Ubale and his wife belonged to those school of thoughts who believed polio vaccination was not only harmful, but a ploy designed by the western world to reduce the population of Africans.

But the Saturday programme at Bunkure changed his perception, and he became very much aware that the vaccine was actually made to protect children from the dangerous polio meningitis.

“Before now, I never subscribed to the fact that polio vaccine is good for our children. I had always thought that it was the white man’s ploy to reduce the population of we Africans.

“But now I know better, after listening to the UNICEF Chief and the Deputy Governor, I became aware that the polio vaccine is good for our children. I have to rush back home to bring my child to be immunized immediately, because I do not want her to die or be deformed.

“I want her to be protected from the polio virus because I have come to understand that polio virus can paralyse or even kill the child,” Ubale said.

In his remarks during the flagging off, the Deputy Governor who doubles as the chairman of State Taskforce on Immunization and Primary Healthcare noted that it surprised him when some people reject polio vaccination because it is brought from the Western world and they feel it is contaminated.

“Then I ask, the panadol and the paracetamol they freely take, where do they come from and who manufactured them? So, it is high time we had a rethink and begin to embrace polio vaccination which is not harmful from all indications.”

The Deputy Governor further stated that, “we are flagging off polio vaccination in the 44 Local Government Areas.”