Governor Abdulrahman Abdulfazaq of Kwara State has recently flagged a state-wide campaign to curtail malaria scourge in the state.
The governor says the campaign is one of his administration interventions in the healthcare sector since assuming over three months ago.
He noted that the state has paid N82 million for the fight to tackle malaria as part of its counterpart funds.
The campaign, tagged ‘Malaria-Free-Kwara’ qualifies indigenes to access free malaria treatments in any healthcare centres across the state.
According to the governor, the initiative is part of the Roll-Back-Malaria Partnership, a donor-funded programme which Kwara has now keyed into after AbdulRazaq paid the required counterpart funds.
“One of the interventions we have made in the health sector was to pay N82m out of the total N232million counterpart funds to show commitment,” he said.
“The Malaria-Free-Kwara we are launching is a product of that timely intervention, which is to complement the humanitarian efforts of the Roll-Back-Malaria Partnership.
“No serious government, especially in Nigeria, should trivialise the global campaign against malaria. In 2018 alone, Nigeria recorded 100million malaria cases with at least 300,000 deaths resulting from such cases. Such shameful data contributed to our recurring low rating in global development indices,” he further said.
Abdulrazaq, who is currently in the entourage of President Muhammadu Buhari to Japan, was represented at the event by Saba Jibril, the Secretary to the State Government
“As I flag off the Malaria Free Kwara campaign for year 2019, I request all Kwarans and caregivers in the state to visit the nearest health facility to them to access this service in the interest of everyone and overall well-being of our state,” he said.
Lamenting that the anti-malaria campaign had been purely donor-driven since 2008 when it started, Abdulrazaq said the payment of the counterpart funds has qualified Kwara for such future interventions by donors in the global campaign against the deadly disease.
“I assure you that our administration will continue to do everything possible to reposition the health sector in line with our campaign promises of making sure that quality health care services are available and obtainable by all and sundry so as to brighten our chances of achieving Universal Health Coverage.
“It is our belief that with the planned sustainability of this project, Kwara State will witness a significant decline in malaria cases, which would in turn boost our standing in developmental ratings.
“I urge our religious and traditional leaders to support this project by giving their consent and creating awareness on the importance of these campaigns and its far-reaching effects on improving the health indices of the State. Let me make it clear that the interventions for eliminating malaria are ‘free for all’.
No fewer than 2,500 patients have benefitted from a three-day intensive medical intervention programme, organised by the US-based Kwara State Association of Nigerians (KSANG) and Sakinah Medical Outreach in conjunction with the Kwara State Government.
The free healthcare services, which cut across the three senatorial districts of the state, came up between 28th and 30th August at three different locations — Ajase Ipo, Tsaragi and Okelele primary healthcare centres.
Yusuf Adanlawo, president, KSANG says the gesture was aimed at complementing the Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq-government’s good intention to responding to the medical needs of Kwarans.
“Shortly after the elections, the Governor came to US and we listened to his passionate agenda about improving the people’s access to healthcare services. We assured him of doing whatever we can to support his government. That is why we raised fund within ourselves and put up this programme,” said Adelanwo in Ilorin
He expressed satisfaction about the turn-out of patients suffering from different ailments such as malaria, diabetes, hypertension, cataract and sickle cell in all the selected locations, adding that the project gulped about N20million for medications only while the government provided the facilities to carry out the surgical aspect and other logistics.
According to him, the surgical operation for at least 150 patients would be carried out at the General Hospital, Ilorin, and Sobi Specialist Hospital in the next two weeks’ time.
He praises the government for appointing one of them, Wale Suleiman, a professor as Special Adviser on Health Matters. Adelanwo also acknowledged the government’s sincere commitment to engendering a healthy citizenry.
Taiye Ahmed, a beneficiary of the outreach who checked her blood pressure, gave government a pass mark for providing such a platform, lamenting that a lot of patients had died because of certain ailments that could have been treated if they enjoyed timely medical care.
SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin
