INDEPENDENT
The Civil Society Coalition on Education Policy and Child Rights has called on state governments to stop its planned vaccination of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines on girls in order to save their future.
The group, during an advocacy programme tagged ‘Advocacy Response to Planned Vaccination in Lagos State Schools,’ organised to enlighten school owners, head of schools and parents in Lagos, advised parents to query the efficacy of the vaccine before allowing it to be administered on their young girls.
They said that the advocacy campaign was organised to sensitise the people who are overseeing young children in school that the Lagos State government and some other state governments in Nigeria are issuing a directive to mandate the vaccination of young girls from ages of 9 and 14 with the HPV vaccine.
They also advised parents to prevail on the government through its research scientific community to locally ascertain the long term safety and efficacy of the HPV vaccine before demanding or directing their mass roll out.
They pointed out that the promoters of the vaccines are telling the users that it would prevent cervical cancer in girls, but that there is no scientific based evidence that the vaccine would stop cervical cancer.
Qrisstuberg Amua, a Professor of Bio-Organic Chemistry and the Executive Director of Centre for Food Safety and Agricultural Research (CEFSAR), while speaking, said that the public needs to know that there are certain requirements that must be fulfilled before such could be mandated.
“We want to educate and sensitise the public especially the young girls themselves, their parents, teachers and school authority that there is overwhelming scientific evidence of injuries that come to the young girls who received those vaccines in other countries and these injuries are not something that we could take lightly because some of them border on the fertility of the girls.
“We have made research information from other countries that this vaccine has been administered, that it is not safe; that it causes injury.”
He pointed out that the people who are promoting the vaccine have failed in other countries and they have come to ride on the ignorance and on the underdevelopment of Nigerians to make money and to reduce our populations.
“The same people that are promoting these vaccines are the same people we have known in recent time campaigning and promoting population reduction for African countries and when they say African population is too much, Nigeria is the focus.
“We are also here to sensitise people that the government doesn’t have that responsibility to mandate or force vaccines on people when there is no health emergency.
“We are calling on the people of Lagos state and Nigerians to ask their governments that are giving this directive the right question. They should not just jump into taking those vaccines before they will regret it, especially considering what has become the fate of the COVID.”
Ambassador Chris Iyama, the Executive Director of Centre for Youth Participation Dialogue and Advocacy (CYPA Africa) and a member of the Civil Society Coalition on Education Policy and Child Rights said that there is a need to stir a conversation around the HPV vaccine.
“We still do not have scientific based evidence that vaccines should be administered on our children to stop cervical cancer. It amazes me when you say this thing is free, yet you force people to take it, it’s questionable. That’s the reason why we are telling the Lagos State government and other state governments that have gone ahead to implement a stop.
“According to the Child Right Acts, their parents must consent, the children themselves must have a say because at the end of the day, when we have adverse reactions to some of these things, it is not the government that will take responsibility. Oftentimes, it has shown that governments do not even take responsibility for this kind of action.
“Let me also trace you back to COVID. You took first, second and booster doses, is it not enough for us to begin to use our mind to think that something is wrong somewhere? Because this thing is about a product that people are selling. Africa is the market and in Africa, Nigeria is a big market and so they don’t want us to interrogate this.”
He said that the vaccine must be stopped, that there is a need for citizens’ public hearing on HPV vaccine.
“We must subject these vaccines to tests, we must ask questions. We have a right to ask questions, subject these things to public hearing,” he said.
Iyama also called on the Parents Teachers Association in their forums to address these issues and called for interrogation on the HPV vaccine.
Dr. Segun Adebayo, Deputy Director CEFSAR said that Nigerians must know that Nigeria does not currently have a database of vaccine injured people, so it cannot be ascertained that the vaccines are safe.
“We have seen a lot of vaccine-injured cases. How do we embrace vaccination in a system that does not even recognise vaccine injured people and also in a system that is currently bedeviled with a lot of information about the dangers of the COVID vaccine which the companies themselves have even retracted.
“AstraZeneca has retracted their vaccine, Modena too has retracted theirs, there are a lot of reports on people injured around the world and all over the internet. People are slumping and dying, sport men are collapsing because of vaccine injuries. So, how do we with good moral conscience sit down and hear that there is vaccine drive and we don’t begin to oppose it and ask the relevant questions.
“What has NAFDAC done, where is NAFDAC risk assessment for the short and long term on each of the vaccines that are coming into the country?” he queried.
Adebayo noted that some of the vaccine producers and promoters are facing lawsuits in other countries for giving girls the vaccines that have made them sterile.
“Why are you targeting children, why are you targeting girls, the future of this country is dependent on those girls, their wombs.
He added that the group will take the campaign to other states, while calling on all well-meaning Nigerians to join hands with them on the campaign.
