By Abujah Racheal

The Coordinating Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has unveiled a groundbreaking Tuberculosis Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Advocacy Project, marking a significant leap forward in the ongoing battle against tuberculosis.

Dr Anyaike Chukwuma, Director of Public Health, emphasised the project’s role in fostering collaboration and innovative solutions in the fight against this formidable public health threat.

This was the thrust at the National Consultations on Public–Private Partnership and post-United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM).

The event organised by Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, is in collaboration with the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP).

Chukwuma said that the establishment of the PPP Advocacy Team underscored a deep recognition of the pivotal role that Public-Private Partnerships played in addressing the challenges posed by TB on a global scale.

“This strategic move reflects a collective commitment to fostering collaboration and innovative solutions in the ongoing fight against this formidable public health threat,” he said.

He said that although the previous intervention possibly contributed to the good knowledge about TB and care-seeking attitudes displayed by Nigerians, sustaining active case-finding through PPP can go a long way to reduce the TB burden, especially in rural communities where healthcare systems were generally weak or inadequate.

He said that adequate funding of TB control activities was critical in eliminating TB as a public health problem, adding that private sector participation such as this was a welcome development.

Dr Stella Makpu, PPM Focal Person, NTBLCP, said that the country faced a significant TB burden, and addressing the challenge required innovative approaches and partnerships.

Makpu said that the private sector, including healthcare providers, businesses and civil society organizations, played pivotal roles in expanding access to quality TB services in the country.

On how the country can address extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis, she said that investing in precise diagnostic technologies, researching and developing new drugs and educating the public about TB, early diagnosis, and treatment were important.

She said that there was a need for improved healthcare systems for timely and proper treatment, collaboration globally for shared resources and expertise and implementing support programmes for patient adherence.

Earlier, Mr Mayowa Joel, a representative, Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, said that the consultation would facilitate discussion on fostering partnerships between the public and private sectors to enhance access to TB services and resources.

Joel said that the consultation would focus on exploring avenues for sustained advocacy to mobilise domestic resources to end TB in the country.

He said there was a need to build the capacity of team members in PPM advocacy, policy analysis and communication skills.

“This will enable them to advocate for favourable policies, regulations, and incentives to encourage private sector engagement in TB control.

“It will also facilitate collaboration between the public and private sectors, foster partnerships that enhance access to TB services and resources,” he said.

The UNHLM Political Declaration on TB contains several global targets endorsed by Heads of State, including target to treat 40 million people with TB between 2018 and 2022.

The targets include treating 3.5 million children with TB, 1.5 million people with drug-resistant TB and at least, 30 million put on TB Preventive Treatment. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Idris Abdulrahman

By Abujah Racheal

Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, has emphasised the critical importance of investing in human capital, as Nigeria’s foremost asset for development.

Speaking at the Barewa Old Boys’ Association Annual Lecture and Award Ceremony in Abuja, Pate highlighted the pivotal role that prioritising health, education, and social well-being plays in steering the nation toward a prosperous future.

The minister highlighted that the health, education, and social well-being of the population should be at the forefront of all governance and policy actions.

Recognising the need for leadership and elite consensus, he emphasised the priority of investing in basic health and education, particularly for adolescent girls, women and children.

He said investment in human capital would unlock the inherent potential of the country’s population and propel the nation towards a brighter and more prosperous future, as envisioned in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

To manifest President Tinubu’s vision for a prosperous Nigeria, he underscored the need to address the pressing challenges in healthcare and education.

He called on subnational leaders, especially governors in the northern part, to refocus their efforts on prioritising investments in basic health and education for their populations.

He identified several key areas that required immediate attention, including tackling high maternal, infant, and child mortality rates, as well as controlling vaccine-preventable diseases.

Additionally, he highlighted the need to reduce the burden of diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, hypertension, diabetes, strokes, and cancers through prevention and treatment measures.

He also underscored the importance of caring for the elderly population and empowering the girl child and women economically, socially, and politically.

He underlined the need to provide quality jobs with career progression, harnessing the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of Nigerians.

He stressed the importance of ensuring that the boy child received a well-rounded education, enabling them to grow into responsible adults.

He acknowledged that achieving these goals would require improved governance, collaboration across governments, stronger institutions and enhanced citizen focus.

Others are reduced wastage and corruption, as well as improved and stable macroeconomic management. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Idris Abdulrahman

By Folasade Akpan
The President, Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (ICCON), Prof. Fanna Abdulrahman, has announced the upcoming implementation of a revolutionary framework in 2024, aiming to regulate and enhance the use of chemicals.

Abdulrahman disclosed this on Monday in Abuja during the 18th Mandatory Continuing Programme Development workshop organised by the institute with the theme “Chemistry for Better Health.”

According to her, the framework, presently going through the process of approvals, will give chemists the authority to examine and analyse the use of chemicals.

She said emphasis would be on those who use chemicals indiscriminately, and those who have no right using them.

She explained that “by the end of this year, and especially at the beginning of 2024, we believe that our regulatory framework will have been assented to by the National Assembly.

“And we will be able to enforce the framework on indiscriminate use of chemicals.

“We will then have the power to enforce the provisions of the framework on people that are using chemicals wrongly, especially those who are also producing.

“Right now, we have certification from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) that enables us to be on the end user certificate of importing some specialised chemicals.

“That’s a very big thing because we are working alongside NAFDAC, once our regulatory framework has been assented to, it also means that we will have the right to look at the premises and everything that goes with the utilisation of chemicals.”

Abdulrahman also said that the institute was able to register about 100 chemical companies and other companies importing chemicals in 2022.

She added that the institute recently commenced the issuance of practicing licence to eligible members in February.

The policy, she said, was to ensure that only qualified and up-to-date chemists were allowed to practice in the country.

“The institute also inaugurated its Chemical Security and Safety Programme.

“The programme is designed to ensure the safety and security of workers and chemical facilities from many threats in the country, such as chemical terrorism, biohazards, insider threats, theft and diversion for use.”

According to Abdulrahman, Nigerians are constantly exposed to chemicals that have the tendency to create some health challenges.

She added that chemistry has a role to play in health and diseases, as most sicknesses have their etiology in some biochemical processes, and that the chemicals have the tendency to trigger most of the elements.

The Minister of Environment, Mr Balarabe Lawal, said the workshop theme was significant because of its importance to the health sector.

Represented by Prof. Aliyu Jauro, the Director General, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Lawal said that finding innovative solutions for Nigeria’s healthcare challenges required multi-disciplinary collaboration in cutting edge research and environmental stewardship.

He said “we recognise the essential role of chemistry in advancing medicinal research and development, understanding the impact of genes and environmental factors on diseases and improving drug discovery processes.

“Comprehensive chemistry practices throughout the pharmaceutical industry will undoubtedly contribute to decent environmental impact, lowering healthcare cost and ensuring global access to essential medicines.”

In his presentation, Dr Edwin Edeh, Consultant, Public Health and Environment Programme, World Health Organisation (WHO), said there are more than 160 million chemicals known to humans.

He also said that chemical pollution negatively impacted a range of facets of the ecosystem, which could harm human health, adding that about two million deaths were estimated from a variety of health outcomes.

This, he added included poisoning, heart diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and cancers which occurred from a small number of chemicals.

Edeh, however, said there was need to raise awareness about potential exposure, vulnerabilities to and health impacts from chemicals.

He said that Nigerians also deserved to live healthy and in a clean environment, free from chemicals.

“Chartered chemists have a critical role to play in improving health outcomes in Nigeria through sound management of chemicals.

“It is necessary for Nigeria to invest in chemical systems surveillance strengthening to achieve good health and sustainable development,” he added.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop featured the training of members, induction of 180 members, and investiture of 25 members to fellowship status. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Abiemwense Moru/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu

By Justina Auta

Stakeholders have called for more funding and male participation in ending Gender Based Violence (GBV) and its harmful traditional practices affecting women and girls in the country.

They made the call at a news briefing in Abuja to commence the 2023 16 days of activism organised by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Tabitha Cumi Foundation (TCF) on Friday.

The Executive Director, TCF, Mrs Tayo Erinle, said more funding, prevention and response interventions, as well as male involvement would reduce prevalence of GBV cases in the country.

Erinle added that through their Flashlight Actions on Girls Safety ( FLAGS), a UN Trust fund project, they had supported 750 marginalised adolescent girls through virtual case management on GBV.

“We call for increase financing of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Prevention and Response interventions, including the development of school code of conduct for both staff and students in schools.

” And across all the non-formal centres as well as allocation of specific resources linked to the achievement of the set outcomes.

” Government, Civil Society Organizations and the Private sector should scale up interventions for male engagement and involvement in GBV prevention and response,” she said.

According to her, through the FLAGS project, 30 safe spaces were created, 82 community outreaches in FCT, Nigeria and Nassarawa states.

She also stressed the need for more women to be empowered, girl-child education and advocacies by religious, cultural and political leaders end GBV, as well as effective punishment for GBV cases.

Funmi Kolawole, Gender Desk Officer, Nigeria Police Force, reiterated the commitment of the police, who were constantly trained on handling GBV cases to ensure survivors and victims gets justice.

” In FCT command there is no division that you will not meet someone specialised on GBV because we don’t want the perpetrator to continue.

” We want them to be punished and we equally want justice for the survivors. We have gender officers, who attend to such cases that comes to the station, ” she said.

Also, Mrs Ijeoma Amigo from Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) department, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), noted the challenges of out of court settlement, which affects prosecution of SGBV cases.

” In NAPTIP, we have so many challenges of prosecuting people, especially under Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV).

” Some people will do heinous crime against others but because they are poor and before it gets to NAPTIP they will go and meet them and offer as small as N50,000, they will forgive a crime as heinous as rape.

“But if everybody is sensitise and know that there is nothing bad about going to law enforcement and having the case go to court, ” she said.

Mr Olusegun Olurunfemi, representing Child’s Protection Network (CPN), stressed the need for more sensitisation and collaboration to end harmful traditional practices affecting women and children.

” There are some social norms within our communities that we need to do a way with like the killing of twins in 57 communities within the FCT still being practice.

” It is time for us to begin to see some of our norms that does not support what we are doing and it is a challenge for everyone of us,” he said.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that other activities organised by TCF to mark the 16 days of activism include community dialogue, sensitisation session, advocacies, rallies and social media campaign. (NAN)

Edited by Isaac Aregbesola

By Justina Auta

Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have inaugurated a Child Protection Information Management and Research Centre to collate information on child welfare in Nigeria.

Unveiling the centre on Monday in Abuja, the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, said the centre would be a repository of information on all cases pertaining to Nigerian children.

She added “the pledges of President Bola Tinubu in his Renewed Hope agenda cannot be achieved without credible data, and this is a major step toward the realisation of the agenda.

“The centre is a laudable project which UNICEF has done, to support Nigeria’s effort at protecting children.”

The minister explained that cases of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), harmful traditional practices and other violations against children would be recorded at the centre “and this will assist in conducting research that can pave the way to finding durable solutions.”

According to her, the centre is a major boost toward protecting children since children cannot speak for themselves.

“Now, whistleblowers can reach us, and we put up this information to help with intervention,” the minister said.

Rownak Khan, UNICEF’s Deputy Country Representative, described the establishment of the centre as “timely intervention to understand points of entry in terms of support for children.

“Without data and evidence, we won’t know what is happening in a child’s life.

“This centre will be the bedrock to all evidence, to allow us to design programmes for children all over Nigeria, mainly focusing on the most excluded children, the vulnerable.

“In UN, we talk about sustainable development and sometimes we provide support which is not very well sustained and does not leave any legacy.

“But this is one true example where we will be leaving a lot of legacy, as the research will be the background for all the work that will be done, and it will stay with the government.”

Also, Ibrahim Sesay, Chief Child Protection Officer, UNICEF, explained that the centre would harvest and annex reports showing areas and locations with high incidence of child violations.

“We have gathered standard tools for data across the 36 states through the development and deployment of the child protection information management system throughout the federation.

“This will help in gathering data and enable data analysis as well as strengthen the capacity of the ministry,” he said.

It will be recalled that the ministry recently inaugurated the Nigerian Council for Social Works (NCSW) and its board to ensure compliance with operational regulations guiding the practice of social work in Nigeria. (NAN)

Edited by Aisha Ahmed/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu

By Justina Auta

The Federal Government partnered Green Agriculture West Africa (GAWAL), a subsidiary of the Chinese General Construction Company (CGC), to train 5,000 women nationwide on modern rice farming technology.

The Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, said this at the graduation ceremony of the first phase of the Rice Cultivation Technology Training Programme on Monday in Abuja.

Kennedy-Ohanenye said the programme would reduce poverty, improve food sufficiency and economic empowerment at the grassroots.

She said that the ministry would use the bottom-top approach in its poverty intervention efforts to reach the targets.

She added that “the Chinese company is giving our women a high yield rice variety; they are going straight to the farmlands with it for planting.

“These women are totally prepared alongside the pumping machine that we are giving them from the ministry so that they can water their farms.

“This will also help them to plant this rice variety four times in a year, this will help us cultivate  enough food for Nigerians.

“Every stage of this project will be recorded because Nigerians have the right to know what goes on in the country.

“And if we don’t carry them along, how will they know that there is hope and that the renewed hope is coming. We will show Nigerians a stage by stage progress of the project.

“We are going across the whole nation and the women are going into various economic activities. When women and children are busy making money, when will they get time to get into unproductive ventures?,” she asked.

The minister said “70 per cent of the criminals and insecurity challenges we have are due to poverty, as a push factor because of idleness but this project will create jobs for people to do and they will make their own money.”

She announced that the ministry has a portal for the programme, where sellers, farmers and manufactures are readily available, with others in the marketing chain, including bankers.

“So, it will be a communal thing. We are trying to get Nigeria to be a community where all of us are one with a united purpose,” she said.

She explained that the government would bring innovation in the area of animal farming, specifically cow rearing under the programme.

Mr Wang Xiemin, the Managing Director of Green Agriculture West Africa Limited (GAWAL), encouraged beneficiaries of the training to utilise skills acquired and teach others in their communities to promote activities of women farmers.

He said “as you leave this training programme armed with knowledge and renewed sense of purpose, remember that the future of agriculture is in your hands.

“Your commitment to innovation, resilience in the face of challenges and dedication to sustainable practices will shape the landscape of agriculture for generations to come.”

Mrs Fatima Abubakar-Kure, a beneficiary from Niger, said the training would enable her to acquire skills on the use of modern farm equipment, different pesticides and fertilizers.

“This will enable us to teach other women the different kinds of equipment, pesticides and fertilizers to be used for different crops and farming, how and at what stage it should be applied.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training also focused on land preparation for seed breeding, fertilizer application and various agriculture chains, among others. (NAN)

Edited by Dorcas Jonah/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu

By Aderogba George

By Silas Nwoha

An England-based charity, Seeing Hearts Foundation, has commenced due diligence in Lagos and Ibadan on how to assist a cross-section of Nigerians who are visually-impaired.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that the initiative is being spear-headed by a Briton of Nigerian extraction, Ms Tope Songonuga.

NAN also learnt that the endeavour will be extended to other cities in Southwestern Nigeria in due course, to give hope to millions of people with visual impairments.

Records show that an estimated 4.25 million people in Nigeria have visual impairment issues with cataract and glaucoma identified as dominant and the main cause of blindness in the West African countries.

In a telephone interview with a NAN correspondent in Abuja on Sunday, Songonuga, the Chief Executive Officer of Seeing Hearts Foundation, confirmed that her team had been putting things together to move into the field in Lagos and Ibadan.

She, however, pointed out that the foundation had been supporting visually-impaired people in the two cities since 2022, noting that more people would be captured to benefit from the initiative soon.

According to her, the project is being coordinated with other strategic partners of the foundation, including Mrs Funmi Adetola-Francis and Miss Boluwaseto Adenuga.

“Our vision is to create a world where everyone has equal access to information, opportunities and experiences, regardless of their level of vision.

“This vision is being manifested through the provision of practical support to the visually-impaired, to ensure that individuals with visual impairments have the financial resources they need to lead independent, fulfilling and dignified lives.’’

The chief executive officer said that the foundation’s vision encompassed holistic and multi-faceted approaches with five key pillars to change the lives of virtually-impaired people for the better.

According to her, the pillars include using education to empower people with visual impairments.

Songonuga said that the vision also entailed providing educational opportunities and training programmes to equip affected individuals with skills and knowledge to navigate their surroundings, access information and pursue their life goals.

She said that the foundation would also give practical and sustainable support mechanisms through direct financial assistance to individuals with visual impairments.

Songonuga further said that the charity was keen on promoting access to employment opportunities and vocational trainings that would enable concerned individuals to develop marketable skills and achieve financial independence.

Many Nigerians in the diaspora had in recent years, risen to the challenge of touching the lives of their less-privileged compatriots back home, to make life worth living for them. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu