AU

By Uzair Adam Imam

The African Union (AU) has called on the discontent presidential candidates to maintain peace and order as they seek redress over the outcome of the election results in court.

The AU’s Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, made the call in a statement he issued to journalists on Friday.

Challenging the outcome of the election results that declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner, both Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) have vowed to drag INEC to the court over the results.

Mahamat said, “In this regard, the Chairperson urges all stakeholders to uphold peace and the rule of law and further urges that any post-election dispute or grievance be pursued through the judicial system, as provided for by the law.”

“The Chairperson expresses his deep gratitude to H.E Uhuru Kenyatta, former president of the Republic of Kenya, for his outstanding leadership as head of the African Union Election Mission to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The Chairperson also extends his appreciation to ECOWAS and other partners for their fruitful collaboration in support of a peaceful election process in Nigeria.

“The Chairperson renews the commitment of the African Union to support the sisterly Federal Republic of Nigeria in her journey to deepen democracy, good governance, sustainable development and consolidate peace, security, and stability in the country,” he added.

By Abdullahi Abdullateef

The Regional Director of the World Health Organisation, Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, called for an integrated response in a bid to end the spread of Coronavirus and other vaccine preventable diseases including polio and measles.

Dr. Moeti disclosed this at a press briefing held on Thursday, April 28,2022. She said: “The rise in outbreaks of other vaccine preventable diseases is a warning sign. As Africa works hard to defeat COVID-19, we must not forget other health threats diseases.”

Noting that vaccines are at the heart of a successful public health response and as countries restore services, routine immunisation must be at the core of revived and resilient health system.

Furthermore, she commended Nigerian government’s efforts with its recent integrated approach doubling routine immunisation and COVID-19 vaccination for mothers and their babies . The approach offered simultaneous vaccination of mother which otherwise known as whole family approach giving access to mother to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and other disease like polio, measles as well as getting the routine immunization for their children.

Adding that mass vaccination campaigns boosted COVID-19 uptake between January and April the percentage of Africans fully vaccinated against Coronavirus rose to 17.1% from 11.1%.

According to reports, the Africa Continent continued to witness a surge in outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases over the past years . Almost 17500 cases of measles were recorded in the Africa region between January and March 2022 representing a 400% in 2021. Twenty African countries reported measles outbreaks in the first quarter of this year, eight more than that in the first three months of 2021.

Speaking at the press conference, Dr. Benido Impowa stressed that routine immunisation had been a long practice in many African countries but stuck with the impact of COVID-19.

He maintained that WHO is working with African countries devise smart approaches so as to scale up both COVID-19 vaccination and ensure restoring and expansion of routine immunisation services.