Nigeria: Preliminary Polio Findings 1. Political Will Remains an Open Question - The Federal Government is on board with efforts to eradicate polio. In fact, it considers failures to eradicate polio an embarrassment. Political will at the level of local governments, however, remains a roadblock. With the 2015 campaign just around the corner, eradication is likely to become an even lower priority. - While many governments in Africa are nominally decentralized, Nigeria's governance structures are highly decentralized in a way that makes politics a multi-layered process. One must engage the Federal Government, State Government and lower levels such as LGAs and Wards. At every level, government officials are entirely capable of blocking programs that they either do not approve of or feel were not sufficiently channeled through them. A considerable amount of time and energy is spent working with local governments and keeping them sufficiently satisfied. - There is much more money being poured into Nigeria than is necessary for eradicating polio. This overabundance of cash allows local governments to misappropriate funds while still carrying out polio eradication programs. The release of funds are regularly delayed, which in turns disrupts planning and implementation. 2. Non-Compliance is an issue, but not the only issue - Refusal of vaccinations, or "non-compliance," is widely cited as a major roadblock to polio eradication. Rumors of pork being in the vaccine, that polio campaigns are a plot to sterilize Africans, and the use of polio workers by the CIA to collect information on Bin Laden in Pakistan are all widely cited as reasons why people refuse to let their children receive vaccinations. - But most data suggests that with every round, same children are getting vaccinated, and the same children are getting missed. While steps need to be taken about non-compliance, it has been overemphasized and in many ways, being used as an excuse. It allows