The couple of months ago the Taliban in Pakistan attacked polio health workers and killed about 6 of them. The next day after that they did the same and it led the United Nations into suspending the vaccination exercise.
The Taliban anger was that it was through a staged polio vaccine by the CIA that Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda’s leader was identified and later killed.
In the case of Nigeria with its copy cat tendencies, I believe some terrorist network are just trying to emulate Pakistan Taliban. The Taliban both in Pakistan and Afghasnistan have great influence on Nigerian terrorist groups.
Apart from the copycat issue, there has been propaganda against polio in the North, mostly by religious and opinion leaders who are increasingly become anti-West and pro-East. To some of these people, anything from the West is a conspiracy theory against Islam or imperialism. Anti-Western messages and promotion of it became very popular in these areas after 9/11 and it is still waxing stronger till date. This polio vaccine is much more than killing health workers, it is an attack on the United States and the West.
I am not against freedom of speech and all that, but I believe religious institutions and some fanatics parading themselves as liberal should be in the search light of the SSS. Some of this utterances are deliberately doctored to incite. – George Onmonya Daniel.
