ROTARY – The Polio Challenge in Nigeria

By Uche Ohia

July is a special month in the convivial world of Rotary International (RI), undoubtedly the world’s largest and most influential humanitarian organisation: the Rotary year runs from July 1 to June 30 annually. For “Rotarians” (as members of Rotary in thousands of Rotary clubs and districts across the globe are called), July marks the automatic transition from one RI President, District Governor or club president and set of officers to another. To end each year, RI organises an international convention in a designated city. The first RI Convention was held in Chicago in 1910 and the 2008 Convention recently ended in the city of Los Angeles, California. Remarkably, this latest gathering of service minded men and women witnessed the presence for the first time under one roof of four spearheading partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative: the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF, the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and The Rotary Foundation (TRF) - the fundraising and grant making arm of Rotary International.

Another remarkable thing that took place at the 2008 Rotary International convention was a resolutuion by Rotarians concerning the sum of US$100m bequeathed to their organisation by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to buoy the global onslaught against polio. With thunderous unanimity, the over 25,000 delegates affirmed a resolution to launch Rotary’s US$100m Challenge – a three–year fundraising commitment aimed at marching the colossal US$100m contributed to Rotary’s polio eradication war chest by Bill and Melinda with another hefty US$100m to be raised by RI. What this means is that every dollar given to the Rotary PolioPlus Initiative during the next three years will be dedicated to matching the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation dollar for dollar.

And guess where the bulk of this hard currency is going? It is coming to Nigeria because our country, unfortunately, is one of the remaing four countries of the world where polio has remained endemic. The other countries in that league are India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. By a curious coincidence, the man who will pilot the Polio Challenge is soft spoken Jonathan Majiyagbe, a Kano based lawyer who made history in 2003 by becoming the first African to serve as International President of RI and who presently serves as Chair of Rotary African Regional PolioPlus Committee and the Rotary International PolioPlus Committee.

Rotary which has become a global phenomenon today had the most humble beginnings. A lonely lawyer named Paul Harris who lived in Chicago in the state of Illinois invited three business associates – Silvester Schiele, Gustavus Loehr and Hiram Shorey – one evening in February 1905 to discuss his idea of a new club that would renact the jocularity and trustworthiness of their childhood days which was missing in the dog-eat-dog environment of the big city. From Chicago, Rotary clubs spread to other cities of the US, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. From friendship, service to the community increasingly became the focus of Rotary. In 2005 Rotary celebrated a century of service. The Centennial Convention to mark 100 years of Rotary was held at the monumental McCormick Place Convention Centre in downtown Chicago in June 2005. For Rotarians it was a historic homecoming to the city where Rotary began. Today, the hallmarks of Rotary clubs all over the world are high ethical standards, fellowship among members, and commitment to service to the community without counting cost or returns.  With a global membership exceeding 1.2m men and women who belong to over 32,000 clubs in more than 200 countries, Rotary boasts of a large pool of business and professional leaders in virtually every city where it exists who task themselves and their friends to build goodwill and peace across frontiers.

The story of Rotary and polio is a moving one. Poliomyelitis (polio) is an infectious, crippling and often fatal disease that attacks children especially those under the age of five. Since 1972 when Dr. Robert Hingson of the Rotary Club of Oakland, Pittsburgh gave a vocational talk on his invention called the “peace gun” which could be loaded with multiple doses of vaccine and used to immunize larger numbers of people faster than the traditional syringe method, the idea of a massive attack on worrisome health syndromes has been of concern to Rotary. Following a pilot vaccination programme in the Phillipines, Rotary envisioned a polio–free world and challenged the rest of the world to pursue that vision. The initial idea adopted by RI in 1982 was to immunize all of the world’s children against polio by the time of Rotary’s 100^th anniversary. This programme which was tagged ‘Polio 2005’ was later changed to ‘PolioPlus’ in recognition of Rotary’s support of a global initiative to combat vaccine-preventable childhood diseases. At the 1988 RI Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the WHO proposed changing the goal from ‘control’ of polio to ‘eradication’ by the year 2000. Indeed, it was Rotary’s vision that inspired the 1988 resolution by the World Health Assembly which committed governments to the eradication goal. The combined efforts of WHO, UNICEF, CDC, TRF and various governments reduced the reported incidence of polio by 99% from 350,000 in 1988 to 2000 cases in 2006.

The biggest obstacles to eradicating polio include underfunding of the global initiative and dubious political commitment from authorities in the remaining polio affected countries. In Nigeria, unfounded rumours that polio vaccines contained the AIDS virus and could induce strerility stultified the eradication effort in the north leading to resurgence that is yet to be brought under control. Still, Rotary is partnering with WHO, UNICEF, CDC and various governments of the world sustain the great global offensive against polio. Rotary alone has spent over US$700m to save the lives of millions of children around the world who would have been sent to an early grave or irreversibly deformed. The effort of Rotary has galvanized governments around the world to contribute up to US$4billion to the eradication effort. Britain, for instance, has contributed over $620m.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative rests on three strategies: mass immunization, surveillance and follow up. Rotary is the largest private sector contributor to these initiatives. For decades, Rotary’s PolioPlus programme has been one of the driving forces of the National Immunization Days (NIDs). Rotarians and Rotary Clubs are involved at every stage of NIDs by providing funds for vaccines, promoting immunization campaigns, distributing vaccines, serving as monitors and collaborating with local authorities to reach more children.

Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO who delivered the keynote address at the 2008 Rotary Convention gave a damning report of wild polio virus type 1 outbreak ravaging Nigeria’s northern region. She told the delegates that “of every ten children paralysed by type 1 polio virus this year, eight are in Nigeria. In some parts of the country, more than a quarter of the children have never been vaccinated”. It would seem that while Rotary has brought polio to the brink of extinction, Nigeria (where Rotary has four of its 532 districts worldwide) leads the countries that incubate and spread the disease. The Rotary districts in Nigeria are District 9110 (Lagos and Ogun States), District 9120 (Northern Nigeria), District 9130 (Middle Belt and South West Nigeria excluding Lagos and Ogun states) and District 9140 (South East and South-South zones).

Rotary International anchors it’s activities each year on a theme which is reviewed every year. For 2008/2009 the theme is “Make Dreams Real”. Incidentally, Rotary is not only making dreams real but is also making history in Nigeria this Rotary year with the emergence of Ogugua Elizabeth Nwankwu as the first female governor of a Rotary District in Nigeria. Her District 9140 covers the eleven states of the South East and South South geo-political zones. Nwankwu, a clinical pathologist, has served as a member of the Presidential PolioPlus Summit Committee. Other 2008/2009 RI District Governors in Nigeria include the amiable chartered accountant Richard Giwa – Osagie who is serving in District 9110 and Prof. King Akpofure Nelson Esievo of District 9120. Can they fulfil Rotary’s dream? Can they and Majiyagbe hasten the battle against polio which Rotary has taken as a challenge so that polio can, truly, be kicked out of Nigeria? That will be seen in the days to come. uchebush@yahoo.com; 0805 1090 050