Compulsory vaccine for governors, deputies: Onoja, Bello may differ

The Federal government’s plan to vaccinate governors and their deputies compulsorily has put Kogi State Deputy Governor, Edward Onoja at a crossroad, if what he wrote on his verified Twitter handle was anything to go by.

The Federal government of Nigeria has scheduled Wednesday, 10th March, 2021 for all the 36 State governors and their deputies to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a global pandemic that Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello didn’t believe, it exist.

On Saturday, President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and some frontline health workers have been vaccinated in Abuja.

President Buhari’s open vaccination at the Presidential Villa was expected to build confidence in Nigerians and isolate doubts of any ill motive as the likes of Yahaya Bello and some elements have made Nigerians to believe.

But Kogi State Deputy Governor, Chief Edward David Onoja reacting through a statement on his Twitter handle concerning plots by the Federal Government of Nigeria to vaccinate Governors and their Deputies across the 36 States of Nigeria by next week Wednesday, differed, in his reaction which he wrote describing himself “a reserved goal keeper.”

From the foregoing, the Deputy is seemingly not on the same page with his boss, Yahaya Bello, who has been very clear and consistent that COVID-19 doesn’t exist. On Friday, Bello, in an interview on Channels TV’s ‘Today Politics’, said President Muhammadu Buhari could take the vaccine, but that he would not. “Mr President is the leader of this country. I respect him so high; all of us respect him so much. We love him and he is leading by example.

“If he needs to take the vaccines and he takes it, it is a welcome development. “As far as I am concerned, I as a person, I don’t need to take vaccines. There is nothing wrong with me, I am hale and hearty. I am 100 per cent healthy. I won’t take any vaccine,” he said.

Bello insisted that if the Federal Government is gracious enough and give Kogi COVID-19 vaccines, his government would equally sensitise its people and that those who wished to come and take the vaccine could come and take it. “But I am not going to subject the people of Kogi State to vaccines or vaccination and I will not make them the guinea pigs,” he said.

All this while, Onoja hasn’t spoken his mind on the COVID-19 issue, until he has to open up now that it dawns on them to be vaccinated as he dangles between the Federal Government’s directive to governors and their deputies and the widely condemned position of his boss.

CAPITAL POST recalls that all State governors were unanimous in their resolve to be vaccinated against COVID-19 with their families. The decision was taken earlier in the year at a meeting presided by the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Dr. Kayode Fayemi in Abuja.