With the Federal Government’s flag-off of mass vaccination against the COVID-19 virus in Nigeria, the National Association for Nigerian Students (NANS) has begun nationwide sensitisation across universities in Nigeria.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday in Abuja, the NANS president, Comrade Dayo Asefon, pledged the support of the association for the government’s directive and to work with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) which is spearheading the exercise.
“Just as we postulated above, in our effort to ensure we maintain very low case record on our campuses, the NANS leadership – after wide consultation with its rank and file, including stakeholders and experts in the health sector, as well as following our independent survey and investigation of the vaccination of citizens – we wish to announce the safety of this vaccine for all Nigerians and Nigerian students particularly.
“To demonstrate acceptance and endorsement of this vaccine for all in line with this resolution, as national president, alongside the senate president, national executive council members and members of the National Secretariat of NANS shall be taking our first jab today. This is to lead by example, as it marks the kick-off of vaccination exercise for Nigerian students.
“To ensure proper dissemination of this information in form of awareness, NANS has set out action plans to ensure proper education and orientation of teeming Nigerian students on this vaccination exercise, its importance and its role in protecting us and our loved ones in this Yuletide period when we have many of our relatives coming from abroad in the spirit of celebration.
“This action plan commences with this press briefing. It will be followed by awareness campaign kick-off/rally and Senate meeting at the University of Abuja, then zonal congresses across the six geopolitical zones of the federation [and conclude with] campus-to-campus vaccination exercise by NPHCDA, in the company of NANS’ monitoring team,” he said.
Asefon reaffirmed the association’s continued solidarity, saying it is readily available with all its strength to support every pro-mass policy, programme and initiative of the government and its agencies, even as he prayed that Nigeria and other nations overcome the COVID-19 scourge.
