A ten-day Nigeria-India Rotary Corrective Surgery Project for four hundred polio victims took place at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital with the Federal Government restating its commitment to continue to battle polio head-on in every community resisting immunization efforts.
At the flag-off, the Minister of Health, Professor Christian Onyebuchi Chukwu said he was optimistic that “this effort and initiative of the Polio Corrective Surgeries would help end a strong message to the people and create an atmosphere of faith in efforts to eradicate Polio”. According to Professor Onyebuchi, the Nigeria-India Rotary Polio Corrective Surgery was to primarily reset the engine, energize commitments and redirect the global agenda towards the ultimate realization of the end Polio initiative of Rotary International and Global Polio Eradication Partners.
Professor Onyebuchi said with a reduction by ninety-nine percent between 2009 and 2010, the eradication of Polio was clearly in sight. In the words of the Minister: “the India-Nigeria Rotary Polio Corrective Surgeries is dedicated to combat polio, generate awareness and help the Polio-affected population through corrective surgeries”.