Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir, Bauchi State Governor, Deputy Governor, Sen. Baba Tela who is also the Chairman, Task Force on Coronavirus and other diseases, and the first lady, Hajiya Aisha Bala Mohammed on Saturday received the AstraZeneca covid-19 jab.
Governor Mohammed at the official flag off of the vaccine held at the Banquet Hall of the Government said the State will administer the Covid-19 Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine in ten days.
Other top Government officials who were vaccinated include; Chief of Staff; Ladan Salihu, Commissioner of Health; Aliyu Maigoro, Executive Chairman, State Primary Health Care Development Agency; Rilwanu Mohammed, religious and traditional leaders.
The Governor urged the citizens to step forward for the vaccine saying that “Our leader, the President, Muhammadu Buhari came out with the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo to be administered this vaccine, Nigerians believe him. Because is our leader and that’s why I came out. Even if I have any reservation, I must come out.
“There is no incident that this vaccine has given anybody problem since it started. I must appreciate our development partners –the World Health Organisation (WHO). Let me on behalf of Nigerians and sub-national say that this vaccination is not enough. We cannot play politics with vaccination and our health.
“Nigeria is rich enough to buy vaccines. We should not be a beggar nation. I’m urging the Federal Government to make sure that we look for resources.” He pleaded with the FG to provide more vaccines to cover about 8million population in the state.
Mohammed said that inability of the virus to cause more devastation “is a work of God.” He urged the people of the state to keep wearing masks, social distancing, and other protocols of the virus.
According to him, the state is prioritising vaccination of the frontline health workers, security agents, and airport workers. He thanked the traditional leaders for going out of possible cultural inhibition to embrace the jab
