Former member of the House of Representatives and medical practitioner, Dr Wale Okediran, has said insurgency in the North East has deprived children and infants of essential immunisation for more than five years.
He made the disclosure while speaking on Guest Platform, a monthly programme of the state-owned Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS).
Okediran said the development poses serious risks to the health of affected children and infants, warning that failure to address the situation could lead to higher child mortality rates and possible outbreaks of epidemics.
He also lamented that the Boko Haram insurgency has restricted the movement of people in some northern states, adding that the crisis has disrupted commercial activities and reduced their internally generated revenue (IGR).
He said, “The North of Nigeria has been a very difficult story. When we were young many of us loved going to the North. We have our railway system which at that time unified Nigeria. Many of our parents were railway workers.
“People like late Chief Bola Ige and his generation were all born in the North. If I may recall, Chief Ige told us that his first language was Hausa. Imfact, he came to the Southwest of Nigeria when he was about twelve years old. He couldn’t speak a word of Yoruba because his parents were railway workers who were working in the North.
“In those days, the railway system and many other things were good, you have many Yoruba extraction growing up in the North. They were even born there and the movement was peaceful.
“Unfortunately, in the last decade or so because of the onslaught of insurgency, the North has become a difficult place to visit.
“When I was working on my book, ‘Madagali’ I had the opportunity of working in Yola, Adamawa state. I used that opportunity to tour the areas of the North down to Borno state. I had first hand information of the devastation caused by the Boko Haram insurgency.
“I was totally depressed about what was happening couple with this out of school children. The insurgency has affected so many indices including health.
“Where I am bothered as health practitioner is that because of insurgency, we have not been able to immunize many children in the North for years.
“When you want to look at the indices of Nigeria when it comes to vaccination, the North’s record will always go down.
“Also the rate of out of school children is on increase while farming has also been affected. Many areas of human endeavour has been affected by the insurgency.
“I am hopeful that with this collaboration between Nigeria and some other foreign countries to stem insurgency, the North will be able to regain its glory pf previous years.”
On the military assistance being rendered by the United States government to stem insurgency, Okediran said, “the assertion that the genocide is against the Christians is wrong because we all know that when it comes to terrorism, there is no religious bias. Both Christians and Muslims are affected.
“Also, I know by hindsight that when a country needs external help to tackle some of its problems, there is nothing wrong in calling for help. We remember the ECOMOG military force that was drafted to Liberia and Sierra Leone when they had civil war. It was ECOMOG that helped these countries to clear their mess.
“My own feelings is that if Nigeria has needs for external helps either from the US or the NATO particularly in the area of the Military Intelligence or Technology, there is nothing wrong in asking for help.”
