1st June, 2011
A all has been made for greater involvement of people at the grassroots to support the crusade towards eradicating malaria in Nigeria.
During a programme organised to mark the 2011 World Malaria Day, with the theme: “Achieving Progress and Impact, the organisers stated that over 500million people are affected by malaria globally, over a million deaths are recorded yearly while more than 300,000 deaths due to malaria are recorded in Africa, 85% of which occur in Nigeria.
The programme was jointly organized by the Society for Family Health, Health Awareness and Gender Advocacy Initiative, Agege and Ifako- Ijaye Local Government and other civil society organisations. They held a rally which took off from College bus stop, Ifako- Ijaiye, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, and ended at the Secretariat of the Agege Local Government.
Speaking at the end of the walk, Hon. Aladeyelu Azeez Adebayo told P.M.NEWS that “I noted that a lot of progress is being made and this must impact positively on the target group which is the Nigerian people. All the effort put by all the tiers of government will not be meaningful without the cooperation of the target beneficiaries.”
He added that Nigerians needed adequate orientation to accept and take advantage of developmental projects such as malaria control and eradication programme. He identified the general attitude of the people as a greater stumbling block towards achieving the global goal of making Nigeria malaria free by 2013.
The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babaatunde Raji Fashola and the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris were represented at the event by the state’s Roll Back Malaria focal person, Mrs. Shogbesan, while ACOMIN was represented by Miss Margaret Onah. Both Mrs. Shogbesan and Miss. Onah called for total support of the community leaders, especially in activities involving indoor residual spray and Insecticide Treated Net, by ensuring use and cooperation of the people.
—Ayodeji Dedeigbo