Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha says the federal government will soon make COVID-19 immunization mandatory for civil servants.
Mustapha made the announcement during a meeting of the Health Commissioners Forum in Abuja on Thursday.
The government wants civil officials to be vaccinated because they occasionally represent Nigeria abroad, he stated.
The SGF, who is also the chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 (PSC), went on to say that one of the reasons civil workers should embrace vaccination is that certain countries have barred unvaccinated people.
“You should, in the course of this meeting, deliberate on the challenges caused by vaccine hesitancy all over the country. It is expected that you will come with policy alternatives as solutions.
“Let me state, however, that the federal government shall, very shortly, unveil its decision on mandatory vaccination for every employee in its service.
“One of the reasons why we want to do that with the federal civil service is because they will be travelling on behalf of the nation.
“Assuming the American government said, ‘you can’t come into their country unless you’re vaccinated’, you have to be vaccinated.
“It’s a sequential thing and we are taking one step at a time, because we realise we don’t have sufficient vaccines in the country at the moment,” Mustapha said.