Welcome William Bill Gates and bye bye! – Part 2

However, as we say, it is not Gates fault, at all, but ours. That Nigeria was producing vaccine locally in the 1990s and is now downgraded to the global consumer of foreign produced vaccines, has nothing to do with any external barrier. We are the barrier gates to our perilous predicament of failure to produce vaccines locally. And yet it is not for not trying, but it is because we turned a 100-meter local vaccine production dash into an endless obstacle marathon race.

After Professor Ransme-Kuti left office as the Federal Minister of Health in 1992, human vaccine production at the Yaba facility hit a roadblock with a change of government by coup bullet and went into hibernation. It was not until 2005, when plans were put in place to revive local vaccine production. The Biovaccine Nigeria Limited (BVNL) was set up as a joint venture company, with two shareholders: FGN (49 per cent equity) and the May & Baker Company (51 per cent equity).

The renewed steps taken to resuscitate local vaccine production was again truncated within two years with the change of government in 2007, this time through the ballot box. The new government, the minority shareholder ‘shredded” progress when the BVNL Board was dissolved and “executed” by the new government and minority shareholder.

It was not until 2017, ten years later (with two Presidents and three Federal Ministers completing their tenure) that the BVNL Board was reconstituted and implementation action for local vaccine production commenced. Since then, it has been an obstacle race where entrenched self interest laboured viciously to subsume and bury national interest. Our failure to accord local vaccine production the deserved national priority has created the opportunity for Mr. Bill Gates and others to advise us to de-prioritise local vaccine production.
As I said earlier on, it is not the fault of Mr. Gates.

This is not the first time our “friends” will visit us and tell us how best to run our country. And it will not be the last time. A chronic borrower has no control over his resources. I remember during the time of Professor Osinbajo as VP, one of our benefactors came visiting, and spoke out of protocol.

The VP in his closing remarks had asserted that Nigeria was fully committed to local vaccine production. As he turned to leave the room, our international benefactor and unsolicited adviser, blurted out, in the same words that Bill spoke, but more emphatically. He said, “Local vaccine production is not Nigeria’s priority” Trust my VP, without breaking a stride, he left the room, as if the benefactor and do-good adviser had not spoken.

Many “lovers” of Nigeria, some with direct access to Aso Rock, have come to peddle “smooth lizard skin oil” vaccine projects to our government. They say they will establish local vaccine production plants, provided Nigeria signs a Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) agreement with their company. Wait for what their PPP stands for – Permanent Priority Procurement agreement to procure and supply vaccines to Nigeria, from their foreign production plant. It is not their fault.

Since we will not use our money to solve our problem, we worship the donors, even when they bring aid money that is equivalent to the annual newspaper allowance for a first-time unranked   legislator. We are tagged with names that do not truly fit us, and we accept with gratitude. They say we are ‘resource-limited” and “resource-constrained.” And we smile and say, “Asante Bwana.” Are we really ‘resource-limited” or we are resource-looting and wasting? Are we truly “resource-constrained” or we are corruption-constrained? Until we know our true problem and situation, other people will continue to tell us what our priority should be, and we will be applying cold medicine to treat our cancer.

Let me end on an encouraging note. Despite the obstacles paving the local vaccine production highway in Nigeria, some progress has been made. A site has been acquired for the construction of the manufacturing plant and facilities, engineering and design plans have been assigned, technical partners have been identified and are already engaged in collaborative activities, the FGN announced the provision of    some funds (which is still hanging unreleased somewhere in the unreachable vaults of governance).    Most important, PP- Professor Pate- the current Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, and the Mainasara of Bauchi, has prioritised local vaccine production and set in motion action with BVNL and other agencies of the government (MOFI, NPHCDA etc), to ensure that local vaccine production commence, hopefully, within the next 30 to 36 months.

The Mainasara of Bauchi has mounted the horse to lead the journey to the destination of local vaccine production in Nigeria. When next time Bill comes visiting, a horse will be waiting for him to ride along with Professor Pate, for now, it is bye bye to him.

Concluded.

Tomori is a virologist and declares a conflict of interest as the Chair, Board of BVNL.