By Joseph Erunke, Abuja
The Federal Government has intensified efforts to address Nigeria’s zero-dose child crisis by engaging traditional rulers across Northern Nigeria to help reach millions of children who have not received life-saving vaccines and other essential primary healthcare services.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, made the call on Wednesday at the Quarterly Review Meeting of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on Primary Health Care (NTLCC).
The meeting brought together government officials, traditional rulers, development partners and health experts to review progress in routine immunisation, polio eradication and primary healthcare delivery across the 19 northern states.
Pate said Nigeria’s major immunisation challenge was no longer vaccine availability but the difficulty of reaching children left behind due to vaccine hesitancy, insecurity, population movement and hard-to-reach communities.
He urged traditional rulers to intensify community mobilisation, identify missed settlements and encourage families to embrace routine immunisation.
According to him, the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee has remained a key platform for improving immunisation coverage, maternal and child health, nutrition and disease prevention since its establishment in 2009.
“I thank His Eminence for establishing this platform and I thank you for your leadership as members of the NTLCC. Millions of families have embraced immunisation because of the efforts you have put in.
Maternal and child health services have been demanded and received, nutrition and other life-saving interventions have reached our people, and millions of children have been saved because of the interventions you have championed,” Pate said.
While acknowledging Nigeria’s sustained wild polio-free status and improvements in routine immunisation, antenatal care and skilled birth attendance, the minister warned that the country must urgently address the resurgence of circulating variant poliovirus in some high-risk states.
“The remaining barriers are no longer purely operational. We have trained frontline workers and deployed resources, but the issues now stem from missed children, routine immunisation gaps, population mobility and insecurity. We rely on your influence to overcome these obstacles,” he told the traditional rulers.
Pate also disclosed that Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, had approved nearly $500 million to support Nigeria’s immunisation efforts between 2026 and 2030, with about $345 million earmarked for vaccine procurement, while additional funding would strengthen cold-chain infrastructure and primary healthcare systems.
He, however, stressed the need for increased domestic investment in healthcare to reduce dependence on external support.
“We cannot maintain true sovereignty while relying indefinitely on external funding. As a responsible nation, we must invest directly in our population’s health,” he said.
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Muyi Aina, said recent health survey findings showed improvements in routine immunisation coverage.
Aina disclosed that coverage for the second dose of the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV2) increased by 10.5 percentage points within one year, while coverage for the third dose of the pentavalent vaccine (Penta3) rose from about 53 per cent to 54.5 per cent.
“We are seeing areas of very significant progress. We are still not where we want to be, but this represents a major improvement within a short period,” he said.
He noted that while some states recorded improvements of between 15 and 20 percentage points, insecurity and inaccessible communities continued to affect progress in others.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr. Pavel Ursu, said 2.1 million Nigerian children remain zero-dose, while only 57 per cent of children aged 12 to 23 months are fully immunised nationwide.
He said the situation was more concerning in the North-West, where full vaccination coverage stands at 41.5 per cent, with 28 per cent of children receiving no routine vaccines.
According to him, most variant poliovirus cases recorded this year occurred among children who had never received routine vaccines.
“The challenge is no longer simply reaching communities but finding the specific children who continue to be missed,” Ursu said, urging traditional rulers to intensify efforts to identify underserved communities, address misinformation and improve vaccine acceptance.
The UNICEF Country Representative, Wafaa Saeed Abdelateef, commended Nigeria’s traditional and religious leaders for their role in helping the country achieve wild polio-free certification in 2020.
“You convinced families where others could not. You built trust where there was doubt. History will remember the decisive role played by Nigeria’s traditional and religious leaders,” she said.
She urged the leaders to focus future immunisation efforts on children in remote settlements, border communities, nomadic populations and insecure areas, particularly in Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states.
Representing the Sultan of Sokoto, Chairman of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee and Emir of Argungu, Alhaji Samaila Muhammadu Mera, reaffirmed the commitment of traditional institutions to sustaining gains in polio eradication and strengthening primary healthcare.
He described polio eradication as the committee’s “foremost, non-negotiable priority” and pledged continued mobilisation against vaccine refusal while supporting maternal and child health, nutrition, malaria control and disease surveillance.
“We have proven that when we combine government resources with community trust, we can overcome even the most daunting health challenges,” Mera said.
Representatives of the Gates Foundation and Rotary International also commended traditional rulers for their role in improving vaccine acceptance and urged sustained grassroots mobilisation to ensure every Nigerian child is protected against vaccine-preventable diseases.
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