Olugbenga Kuye, Co-odinator, Polio Rescue
The Co-ordinator and Founder of Polio Rescue Association (PRASS) who is also the Publisher of The Polio, the first indigenous anti-polio comic in Africa is a polio survivor. He contracted polio at age 3 and lost his left leg to the deadly poliovirus. He now walks with the aid of callipers, shoe-raise and walking stick after post-polio surgery, courtesy of Lagos State Free Limb Deformity and Corrective Surgery Programme.
Because of his experience as a child with fresh polio case and his various encounters both within and outside the college walls, he has dedicated his entire life to the course of polio eradication in Nigeria. In his own words, Olugbenga J. Kuye said, ‘the deadly and lethal poliovirus must be eliminated from our country and continent. It is the single largest virus that claims responsibility for the deformity and incapacitation of our children. This is one side of its evil effects. If there remains a boy or a girl from the remotest village in the North to the remotest village in the South or from the remotest village in the East to the remotest village in the West who cannot live life in full- go to school, get good education, get lucrative job, marry and participate in nation building- because of polio infection, then to that boy, to that girl and to all of us as people of this great country, polio still exists as a social menace. This also must be eradicated.’
In the bid to achieve his polio eradication objective, he has authored a book called This Opportunity. He has also written various articles published in national newspapers like The Guardian, The Nation , The Sun and This Day and has featured in different television programmes on national television stations such as Channels TV, Lagos TV among others. Now he has brought his campaign to a new level with the introduction of The Polio the first indigenous anti-polio comic in Africa.
