17th October, 2019
The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi on Thursday enjoined Lagos residents to imbibe a culture of prevention rather than striving to provide the cure for health problems.
Abayomi made the appeal in Lagos at a three-day National Organic Agriculture Summit with the theme: Organic Export Opportunities for National Development.
“We must move towards prevention rather than cure, give the wellness messages and eliminate stress by decongesting the roads.
“We must regulate pollution and ensure that drainages are free and flowing, discourage illegal dumping of refuse,’’ he said.
According to him, Lagos is a crowded city where any form of medical emergency should be immediately prevented.
The commissioner also said that the government had commenced the implementation of the global One Health Initiative to expand its interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of healthcare.
Abayomi said that the state government would establish a `One Health’ approach to ensure a coordinated effective way of addressing cross-cutting problems across the state.
“Problems impacting human health, animals, plants and the environment can be effectively resolved through improved coordination, communication and collaborative actions across disciplines and that these solutions be sustainable.
“With rapid population growth, globalization and environmental degradation, health threats have become more complex and solutions cannot be found by one sector alone,’’ he said.
The commissioner said that his ministry was working closely with the state’s ministries of agriculture, environment and justice to implement a Biosecurity Law for a holistic healthy state.
Dr. Olugbenga AdeOluwa, the Country Director of Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) Initiative in Nigeria said that there was a need for Nigeria to develop organic agriculture for export business.
“Organic agriculture is becoming more popular all over the world, and Nigeria is currently among the least organized countries in organic agriculture sector.
“So building the capacity of practitioners of strategic stakeholders in the organic agricultural sector of Nigeria is needed to contribute to food security, income generation, employment, systems resilience, among others.
“Thus, the annual National Organic Agriculture Business Summit (NOABS) is one of the ways of addressing challenges of organic agriculture development in the country,’’ he said.
He said that the summit initiated by Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) partners in Nigeria was to showcase the benefits of organic agriculture to all stakeholders in the organic agriculture sector.
The summit presented the Media and Advocacy Personality of the Year Award to Mrs. Ebere Agozie of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The Organic Farmer of the Year Award was presented to Ms. Olusola Sowemimo, a Lawyer and Farmer, and the Anambra State Government for supporting the development of Organic Agriculture in Nigeria.
The One Health project is an integrated approach for preventing and mitigating health threats at the Animal-Human-Plant-Environment interfaces with the objective of achieving public health, food and nutrition security, sustainable ecosystems and fair trade facilitation.