The Federal Government has set another two years for the eradication of the obstinate polio virus from the country. This happened when Microsoft chief and Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr. Bill Gates, led his team to pay a courtesy visit to President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday, September 29, 2011.

An elated President Jonathan thanked the current richest man in America for his interest in the wellness of Nigerians and disclosed that his government would soon set up a team to oversee a rejuvenated campaign for the total eradication of the menace, which leads to the crippling of its victims.

Explaining further, Jonathan told the visitors: “I can assure you that we will work very hard on polio with the objective of eradicating it in the next 24 months. It is now limited to about six states and eradicating it within our tenure is a goal we will pursue with full commitment.”

Indeed, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has shown an abiding interest in the fight against many afflictions in Nigeria such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and now polio with the infusion of a large portion of its multi-billion dollar vote for charity around the world. Bill Gates and his wife are therefore following the worthy footsteps of former American presidents, Jimmy Carter (who for more than two decades, committed himself to the now eradicated guinea worm scourge) and Bill Clinton (who has been associated with the fight against HIV/AIDS, especially in Africa).

Bill and Melinda Gates are shining examples of philanthropy, the spirit of giving back to humanity, especially the less privileged, from the abundance of their material accomplishments. After conquering poverty through the pioneering of the Microsoft revolution that set the pace for a new world order dominated by the Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Gates addressed his uncommonly febrile mind to the conquest of health problems that plague humanity, especially the poor.

Our “money-bags” have a lot to learn from the likes of Bill Gates and put in more efforts to reduce social challenges that the poor, women, children and youth suffer in our society. They should turn greater attention to corporate social responsibility activities to support communal development, education, creation of gainful employment and the promotion of sports.

Bill Gate’s initiative also places a lot of moral burden on governments at all levels, especially in the polio-endemic states of Northern Nigeria. Due to massive campaigns starting from the middle of the 1980s, polio, which is one of the six common childhood killer diseases (the others being whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus, measles and tuberculosis) had been all but eradicated from Nigeria.

However, the effort suffered a serious draw-back in the early 2000s when some politicians, traditional rulers and community leaders introduced religious sentiments and some states in the North decided to stop the vaccination of children. The scourge, thus made a dramatic comeback. Only goodness knows how many more Nigerian children have become victimised as a result of this reactionary measure, which eventually was rescinded with vaccination efforts fully resumed.

The case is compounded by the fact that our borders, especially in the North, are so porous and foreigners from Chad, Niger Republic and other Sahelian West African countries come in almost at will. Foreigners from these countries which may not share the same level of commitment to the elimination of these diseases flood our country and re-introduce diseases already on the way out through our modest efforts.

It therefore behoves governments at all levels to work closely with traditional and religious leaders to tackle both the disease and its human vectors from foreign land.

We hope that the committee the President promised to set up will be able to go beyond the tepid routine for which government committees are known in Nigeria. The fight against these common childhood killer diseases should involved universal best practices that have worked in other countries. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed models that have worked in other countries. Let us put them to work for us.

The two-year deadline for the kicking of polio out of Nigeria is a challenging target. The world out there and Nigerians as well will use it to gauge the capacity of the President Jonathan regime to govern effectively.

We must meet this target, at least to justify the hand of friendship and assistance extended to us by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.