 WAFG has made the COVID-19 vaccination compulsory for every resident of the state. Charles Aniogol, the state commissioner for information, made this public shortly after the execution of the Executive Council meeting at Government House in Asaba. According to the commissioner the coronavirus and its effect on the state and country at large were the major topic for discussion at the meeting. Felly, ond yw'r ddwylliant, maen nhw ymddi'r gweithio peth o'r ddaf yn ddwych sy'n sefydliad i'r ddweud â'i ddweud o'r defnyddio. Felly, mae'n dweud bellwch yn ffrindio yma sy'n drweud i'r ddweudio Lleith. Rhaid bryd ar gyfer, môlmer, fynd i fynd i'n ddweudio'n ddweudio'n ddweudio'n ddweudio? Rhaid bryd i'n ddweudio'n ddweudio'n ddweudio'n ddweudio'n ddweudio. Gweithio here that the vaccination has been made compulsory by the Delta State Government, is that not one way or the other in contradiction to the rights of the average person in your state? Thank you very much for that question. I'd like to begin by thanking His Excellency Senator Dr Ifayant Okor, the Governor of Delta State for creating an enabling environment for the fight against COVID-19 in Delta States and to also thank the entire COVID-19 team for a job well done and talking about making it mandatory for all residents of the state to be vaccinated is not in any way a violation of their human rights etc. You'll agree with me that as far as COVID-19 is concerned, it is important for us to understand that no one has a right to infect others with COVID-19 and no one is safe until everyone is safe. Now if you look at activities that led credence to the fight against COVID-19 right from the first wave and the second wave that was before the vaccines were developed we were focusing more on the non-pharmaceutical intervention against the control of the spread of COVID-19 and down to the moment that the vaccines were developed it now became imperative for everyone to get vaccinated so as to be able to guarantee protection against COVID-19. Now if you look at the global scale and of course the situation with the COVID-19 you will come to the residual conclusion that the vaccination program is jamming to ending the COVID-19 pandemic. Now we are seeing a situation whereby different variants, new variants of the virus are currently rampaging among the unvaccinated population and also making it to become a real problem, a huge problem even for the vaccinated population. I totally understand that but let me just come in there. I totally understand it is a serious thing. The virus is coming up with different strains but are there no better ways that the state government can get people to be more open to vaccinations than altering them because of course when the people don't forget that there are people with all kinds of conspiracy theories out there how do you convince them that there is no no killer vaccine out there if you are not coming at them with a sledgehammer could there not be better ways of encouraging people to take the vaccination instead of making it outrightly compulsory and making it seem forceful. You see the approach that we're adopting is a holistic approach. Before now, we have been carrying out this advocacy and sensitisation program on the need for the people to understand the essence of the vaccination program and of course get vaccinated but you'll also agree with me that we have been faced with this challenge of hesitance on the part of the people to you know taking this vaccine because of these conspiracy theories here and there you know if you like but again it is actually militating against the vaccination program and so it became a priority for the government order to adopt a more strategic measure to be able to encourage members of the public to get vaccinated. Yes we are aware that some will say that it is employed to inject microchip into the body so as to be able to monitor the human race etc. You know we are faced with all of these conspiracy theories but you see how long can we continue to allow a window for these conspiracy theories to triumph and therefore undermine the vaccination program and therefore creating a safe environment for the people. You see now that the vaccines are out I think it is a very important window for the people to be able to avail themselves of the opportunity to be vaccinated that's why a message is very clear to the people. Now whilst the COVID-19 vaccination team are working across the 25 local government areas I would reveal to ensuring that they are valuable and of course the vaccines are valuable for the people to get vaccinated we have equally encouraged the local immunization officers and the entire team across the local government areas to move from one community to the other. In other words they are now taking the vaccines to the people so as to be able to encourage people to get vaccinated but it's still not enough you see during the first and the second wave sorry during the first phase of the vaccination program wherein we didn't have enough vaccines etc then it became you know pretty difficult to really convince the people but not during the second wave more vaccines are now available and since the vaccines are available then it is important for the people you know to you know take these vaccines if you look at you know the number of persons that have been vaccinated in Africa you realize there is a far crime from what is expected Africa has a population of about 1.3 billion people and just about 3% of this population have been vaccinated that is a far crime from what is expected now if you just oppose this with what is happening at the global you know stage you will agree with me that for instance the United States have recorded about 53% of vaccination of its adult population then the United Kingdom have achieved about 80% you know of you know vaccination of its adult population Israel has a thin head in military etc but the game is also a huge concern it's not enough for the west or western countries to adopt measures to be able to protect themselves from COVID-19 where you have a station way back in Africa just about 3% of its population have been vaccinated the implication is this if more vaccines are not made available in Africa and if Africans are not encouraged to take the vaccine the indication is that more variants of this virus you know will be on rampage and come back to even hunt you know the western countries etc so you actually made me do my last question and you helped me answer it because I was going to ask about you know what we're doing to speed up the process apart from trying to convince people but then we also know that the AstraZeneca vaccination I'm sure you know this has this an expiry date on this which is September 2021 is that what you have or do you have the Moderna which still has more time? The Moderna yes yes the Moderna see when we become the second phase of the vaccination program precisely on the 26th of August in 2021 we didn't only receive the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines but also receive the Moderna vaccines and as I speak to you because of the tremendous progress that we're recording in data with respect to this vaccination program we've achieved a record of about 60 000 doses you know of both the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines and of course the Moderna vaccines in the second wave of the vaccination program this figure represents a much more better you know vaccination record compared to what we experienced during the first phase of the vaccination program which is an indication that you know more vaccines are not available and from the assurances that we're getting of course from the west wearing the professional vaccines have been escalated with a view to ensuring that more population of the world get these vaccines there are indications that in no time of course more vaccines will be shipped you know to Africa from the records that we're tracking western countries are beginning to produce more vaccines and we understand that by October November there about about two billion vaccines will be made available so why stop piling these vaccines where you have a station whereby some of you know the regions of the world particularly the African region have not achieved more than 3% of a vaccination of its population too well that's a conversation that we will have another day of course of the politics around you know the vaccination but I want to say thank you very much Dr Mike and Walker for speaking with us we appreciate it thank you so much and thank you for your efforts you're making towards helping us to drive this vaccination program let us get vaccinated and together we can stop community thank you for having me thank you channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates