Mrs Mette Edekobi is the Director, Special Duties and State Operations at the National Orientation Agency (NOA). In this interview with Gabriel Atumeyi, she speaks on what the agency is doing to counter misunderstandings, misinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19 and issues related to the Federal Government’s vaccination drive.
We know that there’s been lots of misinformation in the public space about the Coronavirus. Even before the second wave of the COVID-19 virus, there were sentiments that there is nothing like Coronavirus, that it is nothing but a scam, an international conspiracy to cash in big on public funds. What has your agency been doing in the public space to counter this sentiment?
I want to say long before COVID-19, we were already dealing with fake news and so that was a programme and activity we were already carrying out at the NOA before the COVID-19 issue came up. People had their preferences on what they think the COVID-19 is all about or still is all about, we were ready to respond because people are free to think for themselves, people are free to get information and as you know, the Nigeria that we have today, we have more young people and they are on the social media and so when you are talking about information, what will take you a day to get, in a second they have gotten, they have received and they know how to deal with that.
So, under such circumstances, it will be difficult for you to say people should not hear, see or think what they want to think. However, despite that entitlement to every person to do that, we still feel that something is ravaging the entire world whether you call it – COVID-19 or whether you want to call it another name.
Whatever name you choose to call it, something is fighting the entire world at the same time, shutting down the entire world at the same time and doing all kinds of things that we did not expect. For that reason alone, I believe strongly, not just as a staff of the NOA but as a Nigerian, that there is reason for us to sit down, if not for anything else, to uphold the protocols because they are not expensive. They are not costly, they are not demanding anything of you. Somebody says wash your hands. UNICEF was already working with Nigeria on handwashing, so it is not a new thing. Social distancing, who likes somebody talking to them and spewing saliva all over them or over their faces? Nobody likes that, so this things are natural phenomenon in our day to day lives that is being demanded of us.
Now, because we are being told to do it to protect ourselves, it looks like it is rocket science. I believe strongly that handwashing, wearing of face mask, social distancing are things that we should do naturally.
So every patriotic Nigerian is expected to reason in that direction and say let’s just wash our hands, let’s wear our masks, let’s keep a social distance just in case this is true even though I don’t believe. Even from that point of view, we would call on Nigerians to do it because it is in our best interest. It does not cost anything. These are things that we were taught from childhood and so why are we going to refuse it just because somebody is saying this time something is wrong?
We can see around the world that something is wrong, something is going down. It is not something that is within our power to control as individuals, therefore, whether you believe COVID-19 is real or not, what does it cost you to sanitise, what does it cost you to wear a mask when you are in a crowd and what does it cost you to keep a social distance because nobody wants another person’s sweat to touch him naturally and nobody wants another person’s saliva to drop on him when he is speaking. So, for those common sense reasons, I think it is not wrong.
Are Nigerians ready for the COVID – 19 vaccine?
Well, if we go back, retrace our steps to the past, then we will see that this is not the first time that Nigerians or the world is being confronted with a need for a vaccine. We will know that when something is wrong, people discover what can help, just as it was with the polio vaccine we give our children and all other vaccines. Do we know them, we don’t know them either but they said it would help and to a large extent, we saw that some helped. As a mother, I subjected my three children to the vaccination until they turned one and then every time they come they drop something in the mouth of your less than two year old children, are they not all part of the vaccination but I think the concern of people should be heard and people are discussing, because we are Nigerians and we come from families and homes. The concerns should be put in a format.
Even if it is a criticism, it should be put in a format so that those who are in leadership can go back and say, oh, this thing they are saying, they have a point here. But for you to say vaccine is not necessary, vaccine is not called for, we don’t need it, maybe we would just have to take a look at it. Safety, yes. Who does not want to be safe? You can take anti-malaria and something other than curing the malaria could happen. Those are in percentages and we pray that this is not what the vaccine is going to be and that the vaccine is going to be a cure and a stop or kick out this COVID completely.
There is this fear, that this COVID 19 vaccination is aimed at reducing the population of a certain country or countries, what is your take?
We have also heard that in the National Orientation Agency and our thought is would the Federal Government of Nigeria want a vaccine that would depopulate it citizens or a vaccine that would kill it citizens? Who are they going to govern? If we have that at the back of our minds, then we would be asking the question, are these leaders not Nigerians? They are not from another country that we would say when we were under colonial rule, that they were not black people like us, that we were suspicious of most of their moves. As National Orientation Agency, our thought is that the Federal Government has the best interest of its citizens at heart and no government will deliberately go and get vaccines that would kill it citizens or decimate or depopulate her citizens because, there is a saying that when you throw a stone in the market, you don’t know whether that is the day your relatives are in the market. So if that is the intention, would it be wise? We believe in the National Orientation Agency that the government has our best interest as Nigerians and so they are looking at the best options for its citizens.
Some Nigerians believe that the best option is to source the vaccine locally. What is your take?
That is a technical question. If something is wrong with the vaccine that they are already discussing, we have NAFDAC, we have the Standard Organisation of Nigeria and we have the National Primary Health Care Development Agency. These are the technical people to say this is good or something is wrong with this. And they have been doing that. So if we have our doubts, they will give us better answers on what you know. But it is important to ask the person asking the question and those of us who are given our permutations on whether it is good or bad, on what strength are we basing our questions? Is it that we have discovered that the way they are going about it is wrong and then have we produced any vaccine in Nigeria for such a thing? These are also questions that we would ask. But if we are asking the Federal Government which we belong to, I will say that it should be seeking the best interest of our citizens, nothing less than that.
What is the NOA doing in respect of mass vaccination? The Government is expected to acquire this vaccine, with the initial delivery of 100,000 doses. What is your agency doing to let Nigerians be ready when it comes?
Part of our job is to ensure that we mobilise Nigerian citizens effectively and by doing that, we give information to Nigerians. If you are lettered, we give you flyers, letters and then, there are going to be jingles in different languages explaining what the government is saying about the vaccination and then at the state level, the state directors would go on advocacy visits to traditional rulers, religious leaders, schools, and homes. There are different stakeholders that are involved in this conversation and this conversations will trickle down until every Nigerian understands the need or benefit of the vaccine. Our job is to ensure that when the information pertaining to the readiness of this vaccine comes, that the National Orientation Agency will tell the public and ensure that the last man will hear the benefit or the truth of the vaccination.
How effective has the agency’s public communication system being hitherto and do you think when the vaccine comes it would be effective in changing the adverse opinions and sentiments?
We believe that as Nigerians, we are human beings and if one speaks to the sensibilities of a person, he will listen. That is why people have debates. If I am able to convince you that this thing will better serve you based on confirmation that we have, based on proof by those who are the technical persons in Nigeria, based on Standard Organisation of Nigeria, NAFDAC and the rest, it would be a conviction. I do not think it would be a war or battle. After all, in a conversation, your intention is to put the fact on the table and if they are convincing, the party that needs to be convinced accepts.
How well has the PTF and the NCDC being carrying your agency along in the battle against COVID-19 and the adverse sentiment surrounding it and the vaccination?
Our Minister is on the taskforce. The Minister of Information and National Orientation is there. We also have our reports being sent to them and they have publicly saluted the efforts of the National Orientation Agency, which was well publicised last year and I know that when it comes to publicising information and matters of public interest, so to speak, it costs money and so it is never enough for publicity because until the last man says I have heard and I am doing what you said, you have not achieved it. Somebody could hear what you are saying and refuse to do it. And so because he is not doing it, it is a minus to what you have said.
So, if you have publicised the protocol for COVID-19 for almost one year and somebody is still insisting that he does not believe that there is COVID-19, it is not the absence of the fact that you have not spoken, it is just that he is an individual and he is entitled to his opinion. But that opinion happen to be personal to him and so it is affecting your count on how many people heard you, listened and believed. So we will just keep talking and so that is why we are not going to stop. So people will say why don’t you talk about something else, that there is nothing happening with COVID-19. But something is killing people and it is equally killing Nigerians, so if it is not vaccine and it is just protocol, why don’t we do it?
From you words, it seems your agency has not started putting the message out there about the vaccine because you are waiting for the vaccine to reach the country?
The funds that have been sent out includes the conversation on the vaccine. Our conversation is to let the people know that a vaccine has been developed and the government has approved that the vaccine is okay. It will pass through all the relevant levels of testing locally as stated by the Federal Government and when it is time, it will also, through the institution that is responsible for the preservation of the vaccine and all that, let the public know, and for the public to know, the National Orientation Agency will also continue, so that is all the information that will go out for now.
But when and how it will be done is not in the public domain and so there is no need to talk about it other than to tell Nigerians that the Federal Government believes that the vaccine is good, that the vaccine can be helpful, that it will do a lot of good than harm. That the people should believe that their government is doing it in their best interest. That is the information we are putting out there.
We have been seeing text messages from the NCDC since emergence of the pandemic in the country. Is there any support or collaboration between the telecommunication companies and your agency?
We have been sending bulk SMS messages just as the NCDC has been doing. We have been sending bulk SMS to different Nigerians but like I told you, we have been doing so and those messages have been going out. We are also on social media because we have a very strong situation room and we have young people there and that’s what they know how to do and whatever messages we want to send out, are going. At the state level, we have social media desk officers. Those are some of the things we have been doing. But as you said from the beginning, we have a very large population with different mindsets. And not everybody does social media but most people have phones, so sending bulk SMS is good but some of us still cannot read but they have phones also. So when you are sending this bulk SMS, you don’t know who is literate or not. You just send it. But also at the state level, when they (we) go out to sensitise, we utilise vernacular, that is the advantage we derive in the NOA, and that is a plus for us. So anything that comes, we are prepared for it.