By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
Religious leaders in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, have called on world leaders to pledge $100 billion to secure sufficient doses to vaccinate the entire world.
The religious leaders made this known on Wednesday in Abuja, during a programme to address Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy and global vaccine inequity.
The programme was organised by AIDS Healthcare Foundation and NENERELA.
They said the G20 and global
financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and
World Bank must Vaccinate Our World (VOW) to step up their contributions immediately.
Speaking, Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Nassarawa West, Rev. Bulus Joshua said, even with current vaccine production ramped up to maximum levels, vaccine manufacturers are still unable to meet the demandf or lifesaving COVID-19 doses.
“If the world is to fight this andf uture pandemics, vaccine production must be increased acrosse very continent. A handful of pharmaceutical companies simplyc annot be relied upon for vaccinating the entire world.”
He called on the leaders to waive or suspend all COVID-19 vaccine patents during the global public health emergency.
“COVID-19 vaccines are primarily funded by taxpayers – not pharmaceutical companies. We must call for all vaccine
manufacturers to openly share their technology and intellectual
property-and for governments to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are declared a public good. We can look at past examples, such as the AIDS epidemic and save the world we did with antiretroviral medicines for HIV.
Also speaking, Health Committee Member of the Federation of Muslim Women’s Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN), Habiba Umar, called for elimination of all restrictions on the sharing of information and data- epidemic, and save the world.
She said 100% transparency is needed to achieve the set goals.
“We must advocate for an enforceable mandate to ensure transparency and accountability organizations when it comes to global public health. The bulk of vaccine procurements have been accomplished through closed-door deals between individual governments and
drug companies where little information is released on the details of the agreements, which drives up vaccine costs. During this and any pandemic, all vaccine agreements should be made public to
encourage increased cooperation and to ensure all countries are
able to access affordable medicines and vaccines for all countries.
“There is need to promote international cooperation, not politics, as the driving force for ending the pandemic.
“Many nations, including Canada, the U.S., U.K. and European
Union have purchased enough vaccines to vaccinate their populations multiple times over. With a worldwide shortage, these
countries must be compelled to share their surplus vaccine stockpiles. At a time when the majority of the world has little
access to vaccines, nations should establish a framework to
ensure the rest of the world can also be protected. If one country
isn’t safe from COVID-19-none of us are safe.”
Speaking earlier, Director of Advocacy, Policy and Marketing, Africa Bureau, AHF Ms. Oluwakemi Gbadamosi, said the voice of religious leaders is necessary in because of their position in the society.
“The other important reason for this gathering is to request that, as religious leaders, you add your important voice to compel wond leaders to act on the obvious inequities in global Covid-19 distribution.
“Current Covid-19 Vaccination Data indicated that
65.1% of the world population has received at least 1 dose of a covid-19 vaccine. 11.53 billion doses have been administered globally, and 11.27 million are now administered each day.
Only 15. 2% of people in low income countries like Nigeria have received at
least one dose.
33.3million are fully vaccinated in Nigeria, representing 6.5% of the population.”
