A cleric, Rev. Fr. Godfrey Udeh, has advised Nigerians to get immunised against the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic when the vaccine is made available in the country.
According to him, this will help to avoid further health crisis and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Udeh, who is the Catholic Parish Priest of Saints Peter and Paul Church, Tedi Ojo, Lagos State, gave the advice in his sermon during a Sunday Mass at the church.
He spoke against the backdrop of some views on the acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country.
He assured Nigerians that the Federal Government would not administer harmful vaccine to the populace.
According to him the stereotype views of people against the vaccine that make some people to habour misgivings over the vaccine is unfounded and should be discarded.
“I have heard some people saying they are not going to take the vaccine when it is made available to them for fear of being harmed or rendered sterile.
“Those stances are flukes and will further encourage the devastating scourge of the virus on society thereby jeopardising the effort of the whole world at stopping the pandemic,’’ he said.
The Catholic cleric cited a portion in the scriptures where God advised people to obey the civil authority in order for sanity to be maintained in the society, saying that one of the obligations of the state is also to protect lives of its citizenry.
He advised people not to be a clog in the wheel for government to provide such cardinal obligations to the society through unsubstantiated believes and unpatriotic position that retards growth and development of society.
The cleric charged people to be COVID-19 compliant by obeying all the non-pharmaceutical protocols while waiting for the imminent arrival of the vaccine.
He said that adherence to authority’s directives on prevention was essential to combating the scourge.