Obasanjo Advocates For Coronavirus Vaccine
As global collective efforts continue to intensify towards procuring the cure for novel coronavirus, former president Olusegun Obasanjo has joined about 140 current and former world leaders calling for “a people’s vaccine” against the ravaging virus.
The call, which was contained in a petition they signed on Thursday, May 14, is urging all governments to push for a free Covid-19 vaccine for all when developed.
Obasanjo, who led Nigeria as a civilian head of state between 1999 and 2007, is a member of the Champion for an AIDS-Free Generation.
In the petition, the leaders are demanding that when a Covid-19 vaccine is developed, it should be made available free of charge to all, NAN reports.
According to UNAIDS, the demand is the most ambitious position yet by world leaders “on what has become the most urgent quest in modern science.”
President of South Africa, who also doubles as the chairman of the African Union (UN), Cyril Ramaphosa; his Senegalese and Ghanaian counterparts, Macky Sall and Nana Akufo-Addo, respectively, are among the signatories.
According to UNAIDS, the demand is the most ambitious position yet by world leaders “on what has become the most urgent quest in modern science.”
The petition came ahead of a virtual meeting of the World Health Assembly, the world’s highest health policy-making body comprising health ministers from UN member states, holding on May 18.