The Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, NSCIA says it will not force anyone in the country to take the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
The Sultan of Sokoto who is the President General of NSCIA, His Eminence Sa’ad Abubakar, said this at a meeting on Friday in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
He spoke at a meeting with the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; and the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib.
According to the Sultan, the NSCIA has endorsed the vaccine but it will not force anyone to take the jab.
As controversies over the effectiveness of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines continue, the Nigerian authorities decided to meet with Muslim scholars and imams led by the Sultan to seek their support.
In his remarks, Boss Mustapha who is also the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, announced that the task force was working to begin vaccination of religious and traditional leaders.
He said that this was aimed at boosting the confidence of the public and commended the Muslim scholars and imams for their support to the government in the management of the virus.
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According to him, the involvement of religious leaders is to speed up the administration of the vaccines, considering the impact of the disease on the Nigerian population.
For the NPHCDA boss, Dr Faisal Shuaib, the government decided to convene the meeting in order to clear the air on the lingering controversy and commence mass vaccination.
He noted that the European Union Medicines Council had also reversed its initial decision to stop the use of the vaccine and said that it was safe for use
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