Herbalists can’t cure polio, Governors’ Forum cautions women

Posted by admin Governors, Headlines, Women Politics Sunday, November 13th, 2011

By George Onah

Port Harcourt- Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, has called on rural dwellers, women groups in local government areas in Rivers State not to patronise herbalists in the fight against polio because they lack the cure for the ailment.

Chairman of the forum and Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, who was at Ubima, Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state, weekend, told the women that polio was preventable if tackled from infancy as encouraged by qualified health workers.

Flagging off the second national quarterly campaign against polio, an initiative of NGF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he said government was poised to eradicate the disease from the land.

Amaechi explained in a special broadcast that the campaign, tagged Women Against Polio, was the second of the planned four phases aimed at creating the needed awareness on polio among Nigerians with a view to eliminating same from the nation.

He said: “The first phase focused on men and was tagged Men Against Polio.”

Having relatively made progress in the area of men, this second phase is targeted at our women, which we aptly call Women Against Polio.

“This phase is very important as women and children are the most vulnerable groups. Again, women are very close to the children and are wonderful caregivers and mobilisers.

“Local council chairmen are hereby directed to take charge of this campaign in their respective domain and ensure that our women and mothers are adequately mobilised to reap the gain of polio eradication and other childhood immunisation.”

-Vanguardwp_posts