Africa’s most populous country − with about 200-million people − received its first delivery of 4-million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday.

Doctors, scientists and scholars in Borno State’s capital, Maiduguri, have reassured residents that there is nothing to fear from the vaccine, saying “it is harmless and could save your life”.

They confirmed that the coronavirus COVID-19 was real and that every precaution should be taken by every person to stop the pandemic.

Maiduguri doctor Muhammad Kashim said the virus was real and urged everyone, including those who still doubted its existence and those who thought the vaccine was dangerous, to get inoculated.

He said: “The vaccine is good, it will not harm anyone. We all live with our family members and with neighbours close by. We will take the vaccine and urge our friends and everyone else to get vaccinated.”

He reiterated that the vaccine was not at all harmful and would only do good.

Kashim said the whole world was getting the vaccine and that experts had investigated its efficacy and found that it was not harmful. He urged every person in Borno State, “and in the whole of Nigeria to get the vaccine”.

Abdullahi Hassan, an Islamic scholar in Maiduguri, said the virus was real and Islamic countries, such as Saudi Arabia and others, had confirmed it.

He said it was the responsibility of the government to keep everyone safe by providing a remedy to the virus. He said it should be compulsory for every citizen to take the vaccine.

“Since our government has agreed to vaccinate all of its citizens, we will take our children to hospital to be inoculated. Doctors and scientists have confirmed that the vaccine is harmless. We don’t have any doubts about the vaccine. Everyone should go and get it,” Hassan said.

Modu Bukar, a resident of Maiduguri, said that according to Nigeria’s Constitution, it was optional for citizens to accept or decline anything they felt uncomfortable about. He said he would not get vaccinated, but he would not discourage others from doing so.

“I won’t take the vaccine because the government doesn’t give out things free of charge. We have to pay for everything. When we go to hospital we have to pay for medication. You do not get even a paracetamol for free, let alone the COVID-19 vaccine,” he said.

But resident Bintu Mustapha was more than ready to get inoculated. “I want to protect myself from the virus.”

Times LIVE reported that the government would start by vaccinating front-line healthcare workers on March 5. Strategic leaders would be inoculated on March 8.

It quoted Boss Mustapha, chairman of the presidential task force on COVID-19, as saying that the government expected to receive 84-million doses of the vaccine this year, enough to inoculate 20% of the population.