First Lady Flags Off Elimination of HIV/AIDS, Syphilis, Hepatitis Campaign

Hot Source
Hot News
March 27, 2025
0 Comments

•Oborevwori assures of Delta’s continued women empowerment

Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba

Wife of the president, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, yesterday, in Asaba, flagged-off the campaign for elimination of HIV/AIDS, syphilis, and hepatitis in the country, calling for intensified efforts against HIV/AIDS by stakeholders in Africa.

Mrs. Tinubu called for a robust advocacy that would expand access to HIV testing services with comprehensive counselling, treatment and care for all individuals who tested positive.

Speaking at the flag-off ceremony in Asaba, Senator Tinubu explained that the launch of the “Free to Shine Campaign” was an advocacy initiative led by the African Union, and Organisation of the African First Ladies for Development and Global Partners.

Tinubu underscored the importance of the advocacy towards enabling a nation free of all the transmissible diseases, saying the campaign’s goal is “to address the growing complacency in the response to the spread of HIV/AIDs in Africa”.

She stressed the need to deepen engagement with traditional faith-based institutions with a view to addressing cultural and religious influences on HIV prevention behaviours, especially those engaging in virtual services.

She said Nigeria, being the country with the highest burden of HIV/AIDs in sub-Saharan Africa due to its large population, faced significant challenges, adding that the burden is particularly severe among children, youth, women, and marginalised groups.

The wife of the president said, “To complement the ‘Free to Shine Campaign’, I have also decided to advocate for the triple elimination of HIV/AIDS, syphilis and hepatitis by 2030.

“The campaign will cover six geopolitical zones of the nation. We launched the maiden campaign for the North-central zone in Kwara on 30th January 2025 and that of the North-west zone in Kaduna on 25th February 2025.

“Today, we are flagging off the campaign in Delta State for the South-south zone. By the grace of God, the next zone to benefit will be the North-east, and Taraba State will be the host.

“The ‘Free-to-Shine Campaign’ seeks to significantly reduce new HIV/AIDS infections among women of reproductive age, prevent mother-to child transmission, vertical transmission and ensure that every child born with HIV/AIDS receives the necessary treatment for support to thrive.”

Referencing the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, she said in 2024 there were over 100,000 children and nearly two million adults living with HIV.

Mrs. Tinubu added, “Also, it is reported that most infants born to HIV-positive parents are not tested within the first two months of birth, largely due to the fact that the mothers are not aware or they are ignorant of the consequences of their inaction.

“It is heart-breaking to know that just two years ago, 15,000 children aged 0-14 lost their lives in AIDs related illnesses. Each of these children was not just statistics but represented the future full of potential but sadly cut short.”

According to her, the challenges faced by the children underscores the urgent need for sustained action to improve prevention strategies, enhance diagnosis, and expand access to treatment.

She pointed out that in Nigeria, hepatitis and syphilis were major public health concerns, adding that experts highlight that hepatitis, especially hepatitis B and C, poses a significant threat as it can lead to chronic liver disease and even liver cancer.

She stated, “If syphilis is left untreated, it can result in miscarriages, stillbirth, congenital abnormalities, and neonatal abnormalities.

“The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness, renew our commitment, and take collective action against these diseases.

“This, I believe, aligns with our shared vision of a healthier Nigeria where every individual, particularly women, youth, and children, can thrive and live healthier lives.

“This vision is in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda on health of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which focuses on health as an extension pillar of development.

“Nigeria is at a pivotal stage in her fight against HIV/AIDs and it is poised to join other countries in Africa who have achieved the 95/95 target by 2030.”

In his remarks at the event, Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori commended Senator Tinubu and the Organisation of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD) for the renewed drive at addressing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women of reproductive age, elimination of mother-to-child transmission, and treatment of children born with HIV/AIDS.

Oborevwori described the campaign as a giant step towards addressing the gender-sensitive concerns of sexually transmitted diseases and sexual and reproductive health issues, as highlighted in the Beijing Declaration of 1995.

Oborevwori stated, “The difference in HIV prevalence between women and men is increasingly highest among younger adults, with young women aged 20–24 years three times more likely to be living with HIV as young men in the same age group.

“Several factors including violence against women and girls, early and forced marriage, prevalence of harmful traditional practices, cultural norms, and limited access to education and healthcare on the part of the women accounts for this disparity.

“It is estimated that about 35.6 per cent of women across the world have experienced either non-partner sexual violence or physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or both, with all the implications these have for increased risk of HIV transmission.”

The governor assured of his administration’s readiness to complement the efforts of the First Ladies of Africa by ensuring that women were continuously empowered to make decisions for their economic and physical well-being.

He stated, “I am pleased to inform you that the empowerment of women is one of the cardinal objectives of my administration’s MORE agenda.

“We believe that as more women achieve financial independence, they will be in a better position to make better decisions regarding their choices in life.

“Hence, we consider ourselves partners with Your Excellency and OAFLAD in the campaign against these public health challenges.”

In her welcome address, wife of the Delta State governor and founder, You Matter Charity Foundation, Deaconess Tobore Oborevwwori, said the flag-off of the Free to Shine intiative will help to advance the fight against mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.

The governor’s wife assured Mrs. Tinubu of her support in her desire to reverse the ugly trend in the health sector.

She congratulated Senator Tinubu for being a vibrant member of the Organisation of African First Ladies for Development, urging her not to relent in her avowed commitment to stand for women, children and other vulnerable groups.

Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Salako, lauded Mrs. Tinubu for renewing the health of Nigerians and helping to secure a healthier future for the country.

Salako said, “Yesterday, we were here to witness your intervention for the South-south region of our country, just towards the development of the health of pregnant Nigerian women and our new-borns.

“Today, we are here again, under your direction, to amplify our voices and work towards the triple elimination of HIV, syphilis and viral hepatitis, three diseases that significantly contribute to morbidities, disability, premature death and hold our people down from achieving their full potentials.”

World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr. Walter Gazali, while lauding Senator Tinubu for her support, commended Nigeria for making significant strides towards ending the epidemic by 2030.

Hot Source

Hot Source
Hot News
April 1, 2025
1 views

Sokoto Gov Seeks Collective Effort to Combat Banditry

Sokoto State Governor, Ahmed Aliyu, has called for a collective effort to combat banditry in the state, emphasising the need for all segments of society to work together to address this challenge.

The governor made the call during a Sallah homage to the Sultan, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, at his palace.

He highlighted the progress made by his administration in the fight against insecurity, attributing the successes to the fervent prayers of the people, as well as the renewed commitment of the state government and security agencies.

Aliyu noted that the Sokoto State Community Guard Corps, established by his government, has been instrumental to assisting conventional security forces in securing the state, and commended traditional institutions for their role in curbing banditry and called for sustained efforts.

The governor reiterated his administration’s unwavering support for Islamic propagation in the state, as part of the governor’s efforts to strengthen security and promote peace in Sokoto State.

Aliyu further praised the Sultan for his contributions to Da’awah (Islamic propagation), and called for continued support and advice from the revered traditional ruler.

Responding, Sultan Abubakar commended Aliyu for his various intervention programmes, particularly his support for orphans, the needy, the physically challenged, and Islamic scholars in the state.

He government’s ongoing infrastructure development and urged the governor to sustain the initiatives for the benefit of the people.

Sokoto State Governor, Ahmed Aliyu, has called for a collective effort to combat banditry in the state, emphasising the need for all segments of society to work together to address

Hot Source
Hot News
April 1, 2025
1 views

Why Nigerian Governments Pay Lip Service to Civil Service Reforms

By Tunji Olaopa

In all functional democracies across the world, from the OECD countries to the continent of Africa, the successes and failures of democratic governance are directly proportional to the readiness of the governments to pursue institutional and governance reforms. These reforms prioritize the public service first as the inevitable complement of democracy (to paraphrase Joseph Schumpeter), and second, as the mechanism for implementing good public policy. Democratic governance, in other words, depends on how optimal and efficient the public service is as the powerhouse of government’s policy commitment to its citizens. This is the reason why the difference between a prosperous democracy and a failing one is the commitment to institutional reforms.
However, complementing democracy is a task that would not come automatically. The political and bureaucratic leadership must make a conscious effort to make reform an enabling framework that achieve the capability readiness of the public service. It is only within this context that we can start talking of a democratic order that is founded on the responsiveness of the public service to the aspirations of the citizenry. The struggle to initiate reform designs and blueprints, and follow through with their implementation does not often come easy as the trajectories of reforms in Africa often reveal.
But we only need to look at comparative efforts across the world to see why the capability readiness of the public service is key especially in a developing country like Nigeria. The experience of Japan after the disastrous bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War is a significant example of how a country could leverage policy and institutional reform to get back on its feet. The establishment and efficiency of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and its operational philosophy mirrors the significance of the governance policies that brought the Asian Tigers into reckoning. Apart from a strict governance regulation, including protectionism, that influenced the market in specific regulatory manner; as well as the deployment of sociocultural principle, like the Keiretsu principle that organized the private sector into a cooperative economic structure, the public service was also organized around the idea of technocratic and meritocratic “embedded autonomy” which implies that the bureaucracy was insulated from political exigencies and eternal pressures. Now, the governance resolve of post-war Japan and the Asian Tigers has become a governance and reform lesson no country can ignore.
The inauguration of any democratic government is always interesting. Electioneering campaigns regal the citizens with promises of good policies. This comes from the recognition that governance and institutional reforms form the bedrock of development planning that articulate government programs, especially for effective and efficient service delivery to the people. Once electioneering is done with, the move from election victory to governance articulation is meant to concretize clear development performance and outcomes that bear significant impact on the lives of the generality of people. What is rather interesting, from a Nigerian perspective, at least, is the heightened attention that public service institutional reforms received in the early years of a government’s administration which all too gradually get sidelined in a way that undermine the progressive transformation of the public service into a formidable complement of democratic governance.
Inevitably, government is then constrained into an arbitrary engagement with governance and administrative matters and problems that leads to setting up ad hoc committees and task force structures which elevate the already burdensome cost of governance problem. This is further aggravated by the penchant for administrative discontinuity that insists, quite illogically, that a government must reinvent the reform wheel rather than deepening and consolidating the reform agenda of the previous administration, or at best incorporating some of its elements into a new framework. The reformer in me worries about the danger that reform complacence or the trade-off of solid reform measures for short-term political gains poses for Nigeria’s transformation trajectory.
The administrative history of institutional reforms in Nigeria is laced with cogent examples of what I am saying. Let us start with the Gowon administration and the Udoji Commission report of 1974. It was the keen awareness of the significance of the public service in the context of enhanced, expanded and deepened role of the state, and what it could contribute to the development planning and management in Nigeria needed as a post-independent country, that led the constitution of the Commission to recommend a way to get the public service capability ready for the objective of national development. And yet, the administration turned deaf ears to the fundamental implications that the recommendations of the creative managerial disruption of the system the Udoji Commission proposed. Those recommendations were meant to take the Weberian “I-am-directed” public service beyond its post-golden age era into the future that demands some critical reforms to withstand modern administrative and national exigencies of a newly independent country. At a critical moment when political will was required to take the recommendation beyond the pages of the report, the government faltered.
The government’s political will was not lacking in the need to implement the Dotun Phillips report of 1988, initiated by the Buhari administration and carried through by the Babangida administration. The study group was given the objective of a professionalized civil service circumscribed by a managerial philosophy into the institutional context of presidentialism. However, there was an underlying conception-reality gap that disrupted the significance of the report and its recommendation, and this was further aggravated by the inflexibility of the administration’s endorsement of Decree 43 as a legal instrument for the implementation of the recommendations. When some aspects like the politicization of the office of the permanent secretary who ceased being accounting officer and whose tenure was coterminous with that of Ministers therefore failed in the face of reality, and in a governance context of command and control, the system chose to throw away the baby with the bathwater rather than getting back to the drawing board and initiating amendment to the legal instrument as part of a learning journey.
Unfortunately, the succeeding reform commission—the Ayida Panel—got the marching order to simply reverse the trajectory that was already leading away from the traditional model for doing government business to a managerial reform blueprint. This was a foolhardy attempt at rescuing the form of the golden era of public administration of the 1960s and 1970s without the full benefits of the new managerial revolution that demands professionalism and performance management. By the time we arrived at the Obasanjo administration, and the commencement of the democratic experiment in 1999, Nigeria has sufficiently learnt some administrative and reform lessons that led to the inauguration of the National Strategy for Public Service Reform (NSPSR), the most comprehensive reform blueprint ever in Nigeria’s reform history. The approval and opportunity for the civil servants to reform the system led to the establishment of the Bureau of Public Service Reform as the lead agency and engine room for continuous learning, change management and the incremental institutional improvement of the public service. Implementing the NSPSR raised lots of fundamental issues, like whether or not the civil service can reform itself; whether or not to policy choices should be made based on selectivity or comprehensiveness, and the issue of getting the basics and details of institutional reform right so as to be able to manage the sequencing of the reform around building new systems and models on the restructured Weberian bureaucracy.
In a 2005 study of the administrative trajectories of twenty-nine African countries, Ladipo Adamolekun introduced a useful typology for reckoning with the administrative progress of African states. He characterized the 29 African states into four different categories: the advanced, committed, hesitant and beginning reformers. Nigeria fell into the ‘hesitant’ reforming African state. Unlike the committed and advanced reforming states, the hesitant reformers, like Nigeria, manifest the symptoms of not always seeing through reform designs, innovation and ideas, just like we saw with the Udoji reform. To be hesitant is to be enthusiastic about reform ideas, commit to seeing them through, but stopping short of implementing the key reform innovation in ways that impact the efficient service delivery capability of the public service.
The perfect example that articulates Nigeria’s reform hesitancy is the failure of successive Nigerian governments to deal with the cost of governance issues that has been limiting Nigeria’s institutional coordination and functional capacity. Nigeria operates one of the most expensive governance systems in the world. This derives from the multiplication of structural and institutional processes and dynamics that not only burden budgetary allocations through the large chunk of money spent on recurrent expenditure, but also undermine functional efficiency due to wastage and redundancies. This phenomenon was consequent on the breakdown of the internal establishment control mechanism built around the control tool of organization and method (O&M) and the treasury control of establishment that regulates the capital and recurrent ratio of the budget. The core elements of this controls were the manpower forecasting and planning system of identifying, planning and acting upon human resource requirements and problems related to the conceptualization of the role of the state in the running of the national economy, as well as the trend analysis of service’s growth in size and expansion of the scope of responsibilities.
The Oronsaye Report—or, the Presidential Committee on the Rationalization and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions, and Agencies—was meant to first articulate a rationalization framework that reduces all parallel, ad hoc and redundant structures; and second, achieve governance accountability that will instigate more efficiency in the conduct of government business. The overall objective was to get the MDAs to achieve more with less. The Committee was guided by five fundamental principles: (a) the economic challenges and the need for Government to make more efficient use of its resources to achieve its development objectives and goals; (b) the fact that Nigeria had undertaken reforms in the past; (c) it was imperative to reform to meet the challenges of a better socio-political and economic society; (d) there was no need to create another body to perform the functions of an already existing statutory entity. The fact that an institution was inefficient and ineffective should not warrant the creation of a new one; and (e) the reform would ensure efficient and effective management of Government structures and functionaries to guarantee better service delivery and good governance.
And yet, given the fundamental significance of the Report of the Committee, no government from the Jonathan administration to date has been unlock the binding constraints nor muster the audacity to fully implement the recommendations of the Committee. Several reasons can be adduced for this. The first is that the long-term demands of reforms are counteracted by the short-term tenures of many administrations. Second, since there is no making an omelet without breaking eggs, reform implementation requires offending vested interests that would be affected by the hard-political decision these reforms require. Third, reforms possess deep and expensive psychological implication due to the trauma that would attend, for instance, the rationalization and consequent rightsizing of the MDAs will demand in terms of specific downsizing and severance compensations.
However, since institutional reforms are inevitable, it becomes imperative that the Tinubu government has to facilitate specific systemic and structural changes in order to get the basic rights. These include the following: (i) elimination of the dysfunctional non-value adding processes including silos operations which create red tapes and operational bottlenecks; (ii) the efficient activation of the performance bond that MDAs signed with the President as the means of instituting the performance management system; (iii) strengthening of MDAs’ programme and project management capabilities; (iv) the recalibration of research and policy analysis functions of MDAs through the re-professionalization of their Department of Planning, Research and Statistics (DPRS); (v) the identification of core skills requirements of the MDAs that touch on the implementation of the Renewed Hope Agenda, and their sourcing and deployment through retraining, fresh recruitment, contract appointment, staff exchange, sabbatical, donor technical assistance, etc.; (vi) strengthening the merit system through more rigorous entry-level assessment and induction system to mitigate the extent to which the service inherits low-quality education and deficits from the tertiary institutions; (vii) reprofiling of public service institutional capacity to better optimize the potentials of PPPs to boost service delivery; and (viii) the imperative of launching a national waste reduction strategy that involves (a) the unbundling of the expenditure structure of government; (b) productivity audit of the MDAs, (c) getting MDAs to articulate their productivity and waste reduction plans based on agreed national benchmark, (d) launching of the productivity metrics and tools for holding MDAs accountable to national productivity targets, and (e) launching of the new national assets and facility management and national maintenance system.
However, and preparatory to institutionalizing the above, it is logical and expedient that the Tinubu administration establish the Program Management Office (PMO) in the short term to act as the MDAs’ institutional life support model. This becomes functional, for instance, in generating project management ideas which can then be mainstreamed to activate performance-managed operations in the MDAs. This will serve to reinforce the MDAs with required skills and competency upgrade needed to deliver high performance that urgently backstops the Renewed Hope Agenda. This involves, among other things, a backend review of the capability readiness of the MDAs (or at least carefully selected ones based on criteria that are aligned with the eight national policy objectives and priorities of the federal government). There is also, following on this, the need to activate the performance management system components of the Federal Civil Service Implementation Strategy. This demand that the federal government institutionally insist, through the support of key players provided by a consortium of experts and firms, that the MDA deliver on the performance bonds signed with the government.
The Tinubu administration has what it takes, in terms of extant reform blueprints and designs, professional expertise and technocratic know-how, and the political will to break the jinx that has bedeviled other administrations in terms of passing on reform ideas that could have turned the tide of efficient service delivery to Nigerians. All that is required is taking the first step, say, by going full throttle with the implementation of the Oronsaye Report, and dealing a final blow to the cost ofd governance problem in Nigeria’s governance framework.

*Olaopa, a Professor of Public Administration, is Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission

By Tunji Olaopa In all functional democracies across the world, from the OECD countries to the continent of Africa, the successes and failures of democratic governance are directly proportional to

Hot SOURCE News

Or check our Popular Categories...

Hot SOURCE News

Or check our Popular Categories...

First Lady Flags Off Elimination of HIV/AIDS, Syphilis, Hepatitis Campaign

Hot Source

Related Posts

Sokoto Gov Seeks Collective Effort to Combat Banditry

Why Nigerian Governments Pay Lip Service to Civil Service Reforms

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Business & Economy

FG revokes allocation of 1,357 National Housing Programme units over payment default

Nigeria cuts oil production by 50,000 bpd in March as OPEC tightens quotas – Report

2025 billionaire boom: Over 3,000 people control $16 trillion net worth worldwide

Ekiti Govt to install N4.6 billion Instrument Landing System for 24-hour operations at Ado Airport

NITDA partners Doballi to connect Nigerian tech talents with global jobs

UK government to introduce legislation preventing sentencing guidelines for ethnic minority offenders

Fidson healthcare reports N5.78bn profit for 2024

Cadbury Nigeria records another loss-making year

BUA Foods declares N13 final dividend

Finally, CBN reveals Nigeria’s “Net External Reserves” figure

The Uromi 16 and the problem with Nigeria

LAWMA to lease compactor trucks to PSP operators to improve waste management in Lagos

Credit Direct: Building Nigeria’s Leading Embedded Finance Business

NSIA announces Audited Financial Results for 2024 Financial Year

Nigeria’s new Investment Act empowers SEC to get user data from tech firms

Omoni Oboli’s ‘Love In Every Word’ hits 20million YouTube views in 3 weeks

Nollywood: Labake Olododo debuts with N50.4 million in opening weekend

ISA 2025: Ponzi schemes promoters in Nigeria now face 10 years jail term—SEC DG

African airlines record 5.7% drop in air cargo demand in February 2025 – IATA

LCCI demands transparent disbursement of $500 million World Bank loan to SMEs, vulnerable communities

Tether’s Bitcoin holdings top $8.29 billion after latest $735 million BTC purchase in Q1 2025

OpenAI says new image generator now available to free ChatGPT users globally

Australian university announces 2025 vice-chancellor’s postgraduate scholarship for international students

OpenAI secures $40 billion in record-breaking funding round, valuation hits $300 billion

Raw Materials Council seeks Industry’s support on raw materials exportation ban in Nigeria

China, Japan, and South Korea unite to bolster regional trade amid looming U.S. tariffs

Oando seals underwriting pact with Afreximbank’s insurance subsidiary

MTN Nigeria vests 1.3 million shares to key staff

Lagos Govt begins demolition of unapproved buildings as amnesty period ends

African airlines record 6.7% rise in international passenger demand, 75.3% load factor in Feb 2025 – IATA

Cascador 2025: Applications Now Open for Nigeria’s Premier Entrepreneurial Development Program

Livestock support project to expand Nigeria’s annual vaccine production to 850 million doses

Custodian Investment drops N60 billion in profits, up by 133% year on year

Mobile technicians urge NCC to mandate phone registration at point of purchase in Nigeria

FGN Bond subscriptions fall to N2.83 trillion in Q1 2025 as offer volume drops

Enugu Govt to launch 260 smart farm estates to boost agriculture