Conspiracy Theories: Nigerian Polio Vaccine Controversy

The predominantly Muslim state of Kano in northern Nigeria is the epicentre of the world’s biggest and fastest growing polio epidemic, radiating out from northern Nigeria to at least seven west and central African states. In late 2003, a massive new push by the World Health Organisation (WHO), funded chiefly by the US government, to distribute doses of the polio vaccine to 60 million children began, centred on Kano, where the number of cases had increased an alarming 30% on the previous year. The Nigerian vaccination drive was crucial to the WHO’s goal of eradication polio worldwide by the end of 2004.

What the Theorists say:

Kano is led by an extreme Islamist governor and ruled under Islam’s sharia law, a theocracy autonomous from the rest of Nigeria. There is a strong tradition of mistrust towards the US, and in December 2003, this malaise manifested itself in an unexpected and alarming fashion.

Muslim clerics in the region circulated warnings that the polio vaccines offered by the WHO were contaminated in some way, or were not even vaccines but toxic chemicals, and that the vaccination program was a front for a US-inspired WHO plot to make Muslim women in Kano infertile. According to Datti Ahmed, President of the Sharia Supreme Council in Kano: “The vaccine is part of a US-led conspiracy to depopulate the developing world.”

The state government, led by governor Ibrahim Shekarau, declined to take part in the program. When a panel convened by the Nigerian government insisted that the claims were unfounded and the vaccine safe, Kano state government spokesperson Sule Yau Sule was sceptical, telling reporters: “With due respect, I believe our professionals know better.”

Not until July 2004, once local ‘experts’ had tested a batch of vaccine prepared in the Muslim country Indonesia and proclaimed it to be safe did Kano relent and allow vaccination programs to continue on the basis that only the Indonesian vaccine would be used.

The Official Story?

The WHO indignantly denied being part of a US-hatched plot and insisted their vaccines were sfae, as did the Nigerian government, backed by a panel of experts convened to test the vaccines. UNICEF spokespeople discussed the dangers the embargo visited upon both Nigerians and the citizens of surrounding states. Sadly, their concerns were well-founded, and by the time the Kano authorities relented and the program got under way, Nigeria had three-quarters of the world’s polio cases and the disease was being transmitted at the fastest rate ever recorded.

Should you be paranoid?

To many in the west, the Kano Muslim claims about the vaccination drive seem absurd and several commentators have criticised the state’s leadership for playing politics with people’s lives. The episode is partly the result of local tensions, but it is also indicative of the level of belief in conspiracy theories present throughout the Muslim world. Like the widespread belief in HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories, the real victims of this triumph of suspicion over reason and science are always the most vulnerable.