Nigeria’s former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has received the Pfizer Bio-NTech COVID-19 vaccine in Dubai.
An online newspaper, The Cable, quoted Atiku’s spokesman, Paul Ibe, as saying that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2019 election received the COVID-19 vaccination on January 6 in Dubai where he went visiting.
“The importance of the #COVID19 vaccine in mitigating the effect of the coronavirus cannot be overstated, particularly in Africa and Nigeria. Yesterday (Wednesday), as part of the mass vaccination programme, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,” Atiku’s spokesman said.
“He is anxiously looking forward to when Nigerians, especially medical professionals in the frontline and the most vulnerable will be vaccinated in the country,” Paul Ibe said.
The Pfizer vaccine is the first to be granted emergency use authorisation by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and it is 90 percent effective.
The Nigerian government says it is expecting the delivery of 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the country in early 2021.