8 hours Ago By Suzan Edeh
Bashir Musa Baba Danmallam, a 25-year-old father of two in Darazo local government area of Bauchi state, has expressed his misgivings concerning vaccinating his children in the ongoing polio immunization campaign exercise in the state, saying that he will not forgive his wife if she allows his children to be immunized. Bashir, who has been married to 20-year-old Najaatu for the past five years, has never allowed the two children to be vaccinated making them be counted amongst the thousands of vaccination zero dose children in Bauchi State. When the vaccination team in the ongoing national campaign for polio visited his household in the Anguwan Mallam Sabo, Darazo, the 20-year-old mother of two children denied access to the children and resisted the vaccination against polio.
She said that she was only obeying the instruction of her husband who unequivocally told her not to allow the children to be vaccinated or immunized for whatever reason. “My husband has directed that none of his children should be vaccinated or immunized. He strongly warned and said that he will not forgive me if I go behind him to allow the children to be vaccinated,” Najaatu said.
Corroborating what the wife said, Bashir Musa said that he told his wife not to allow the children to be vaccinated or immunized, not even in the hospital facilities. When asked what his reason is, he simply said, “No reason, I just don’t want my children immunized nor vaccinated. I have not heard anything bad about the vaccines, but I don’t want it for my children.
” “It is personal, while growing up, I did not see my parents allowing the children to be vaccinated and immunized, so, I don’t see the reason to veer off that stance.” Reminded of the negative impact of his stance, he said that, “Are you wishing that something bad should happen to my children? In sha Allah, nothing bad will happen to any of them and if anything happens, it is the will of Allah.” Pressed further, he said that he will have to consult with his Mallam before he will allow the children to be vaccinated because according to him,”He is a spiritual father and he will not allow any injurious thing to happen to any of us.
” At that point, the Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, Dr Nuzhat Rafique led other personnel including Fathers for Good Health, Village Community Mobilizers, Health Educators and others to intervene to resolve the issue. Nuzhat Rafique educated the young man on the need to allow his children to be immunized and vaccinated to save the lives of the children, stressing that non-compliant children can be a catastrophic situation in the community. Though he reluctantly allowed the two children, aged Three and One to be vaccinated, following the directives of his Mallam, he said that he was not sure if it will continue because according to him, “I don’t just want it.
” In another household, in the same area, the UNICEF CFO led the team to resolve another issue of non-compliant with two of the children finally vaccinated in the absence of the father, who though allowed Three of the four children to be vaccinated and immunized with the exception of One who was discovered to be zero dose..
