A former member of the House of Representatives, Wale Okediran, on Thursday submitted that insurgency as reported in the North part of Nigeria has denied both the children and infants access to medically required immunisation to combat diseases in the past five years.
He disclosed this while featuring on the monthly programme of the Oyo State-owned Broadcasting Corporation, “Guest Platform,” in Ibadan, the state capital.
The PUNCH reports that gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram invaded Woro and Nuku communities in the Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara State on Tuesday evening and launched a violent assault, leaving scores dead and several houses in ashes.
The hoodlums, suspected to be operating from the Borgu National Park forest in neighbouring Niger State, invaded the settlements at approximately 6:00 pm, shooting sporadically and sending residents into a panic.
Okediran said if the situation is not checked, it may result in the rising death rate of children and infants, as well as outbreaks of epidemics.
He said, “Boko Haram’s onslaught has restricted the movement of the people to some states in the Northern part of the country. This development has affected commerce in the affected states, which has led to a drop in their Internally Generated Revenue.
“The North of Nigeria has been a very difficult story. When we were young, many of us loved going to the North. We have our railway system, which at that time unified Nigeria. Many of our parents were railway workers.”
Okediran further said, “People like late Chief Bola Ige and his generation were all born in the North. If I may recall, Chief Ige told us that his first language was Hausa. In fact, he came to the South-West of Nigeria when he was about twelve years old. He couldn’t speak a word of Yoruba because his parents were railway workers who were working in the North.
“In those days, the railway system and many other things, you had many Yoruba extraction growing up in the North. They were even born there and the movement was peaceful.”
Okediran, who is the Secretary General of Pan African Writers Association, lamented that the North has become a difficult place to visit in the last decade or so because of the onslaught of insurgency.
He said, “When I was working on my book, ‘Madagali,’ I had the opportunity of working in Yola, Adamawa State. I used that opportunity to tour the areas of the North down to Borno State. I had firsthand information about the devastation caused by the Boko Haram insurgency.
“I was totally depressed about what was happening couple with this out of school children. The insurgency has affected so many indices, including the health indices.”
The ex-lawmaker said, “Where I am bothered by as a health practitioner is that because of insurgency, we have not been able to immunise many children in the North for years. When you want to look at the indices of Nigeria when it comes to vaccination, the North’s record will always go down.
“Also, the rate of out-of-school children is on the increase, while farming has also been affected. Many areas of human endeavour have been affected by the insurgency. I am hopeful that with this collaboration between Nigeria and some other foreign countries to stem insurgency, the North will be able to regain its glory of previous years,” he stated.
