Professor Emeritus Umaru Shehu, who died on 2 October 2023, was born in Yerwa (Maiduguri), Nigeria, in 1930. Widely regarded as one of the country’s early leaders in public health policy and practice, he was the first public health physician in the northern region and remained active all his life.
He will be remembered for his great work in eradicating poliomyelitis from Nigeria. He started the National Programme on Immunisation in 1995 and was the agency’s first chairman. His efforts, with others, culminated in Nigeria achieving polio-free status on 18 June 2020. The country was officially declared free of the disease on 25 August 2020. Poliomyelitis mainly affects children under five years of age.
Umaru Shehu served as the leading adviser on the Polio Eradication Initiative in Nigeria. In 2003 five northern Nigerian states boycotted the oral polio vaccine due to fears that it was unsafe. Shehu was the person the federal government turned to in search of a solution. He was invited to help address misconceptions about the polio vaccine. As a specialist with over 40 years of experience in disease prevention and eradication, he was one of the northern experts who certified the oral polio vaccine safe and effective.
