Kwara State Government, in collaboration with the Sultan Foundation for Peace and Development, has tasked traditional rulers to ensure community acceptance of polio vaccination drives as part of efforts to eradicate the disease across all Local Government Areas (LGAs).

The call was made during a one-day awareness and dissemination workshop in Ilorin on Monday, attended by traditional leaders and primary healthcare personnel. Dr. Haliru Yahaya, Emir of Shonga and Chairman of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee in Kwara, warned that 2025 marks the deadline for donor partner funding for Nigeria's polio vaccination programme, underscoring the urgency of intensified efforts.

Speaking to participants, Dr. Yahaya urged traditional leaders to take full ownership of the campaign and mobilise their communities to participate. He emphasized the need for dedicated, trustworthy volunteer teams to ensure effective implementation of vaccination drives.

The workshop aimed to strengthen partnerships between traditional institutions and healthcare workers to address lingering challenges in achieving universal polio immunisation coverage.

According to him, strategies that were employed earlier, have been unsuccessful as investigation revealed that some volunteer-team threw away the vaccines and then filled in the tally-sheets of the immunization.

The Emir, who condemned such actions, said that there is need to use every strategy to save lives of Nigerian children through effective polio vaccinations.

Also speaking, Dr. Abimbola Folorunsho, the focal person for the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee for Kwara state, said that the programme aimed to sensitize traditional rulers to be more committed in polio eradication.

The expert said that the polio vaccination campaign will commence between June 28th and July 1, 2025, adding that the community leaders must ensure that any candidate they nominated must be indigene of their community, while such nominee is expected to show commitment and undergo pre-test and post test for the job.

"We are now running out of time because the partners that are giving us grants for the programme will no longer send funds for polio again.

"We have to do all that is required to ensure no child is missed this time around", she said.

Folorunsho identified some of the challenges to include lack of cooperation from some volunteer-teams, while observing that the community leaders will be able to provide better teams who will be more committed to the polio eradication campaign.

She also observed that language barrier is another critical challenge, especially, in communicating with herders in their settlement.

The Administrative Consultant, Traditional Leaders Engagement, Sultan Foundation, Mrs Hyelhirra Mshelia, observed the need to eradicate the Circulating Variant Polio virus in the country.

She pointed out that with wide coverage of the vaccination, herd immunity can be achieved to protect the lives of the Nigerian children and others outside the country.

Also speaking, the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) representative in Kwara state, Mr. Gidado Ridwan, lamented that people are still largely ignorant of the importance of the polio vaccination.

He noted that people demand monetary compensation or food donations before they allow their children to get vaccinated.

Ridwan warned that there is already donor fatigue by partners, while he enjoined the traditional leaders to take ownership of the life-saving campaign.

Speaking on behalf of the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Muhammad Nuhu, the Balogun Afin of Ilorin, pledged the resolutions of the traditional rulers in showing more commitment on polio eradication.

He stated that any parent or family, who refused to present their children for immunization will be required to leave the community.