The Presidency has said Nigeria deserves to be selected to be among the countries approved to begin production of COVID-19 vaccine in Africa.
Recall that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had announced Nigeria was among six African countries to receive the technology for the production of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Other African countries selected by the WHO for the mRNA vaccine production include Egypt, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia.
Speaking on Tuesday during an interview on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Presidential Spokesman, Garba Shehu, said the health organisation would have been unfair if Nigeria was not selected among the countries to begin the production of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Shehu stated that Nigeria deserves to benefit from the mRNA vaccine production considering its influence in Africa and in the World.
He, however, appreciated President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehnaire, for the approval of the vaccine production by the WHO.
He said: “Before this time, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had made the choice of Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal as the only four countries to produce. We must give credit to the minister of health because there is a lot of hard work behind the scenes.
“The president made a deliberate choice to choose the committees to work on. He made a deliberate choice of choosing peace, security and good governance which of course are existential threats to our own country.
“He also chose the issue of health and vaccine production in the belief that with all of the efforts we have been making, a decision would be made to choose Nigeria, because if Nigeria is left out, it will be a lot of injustice.
“One out of every five Africans is a Nigerian and the people are here; the educated people and all of the skills. So, why leave us out? It’s a major achievement that we got this.”
