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• Kefas hails Tinubu’s ‘Love on Wheels’ as life-saving beyond party lines
• Clinics will help corps members ‘chase tens of thousands’ in rural health outreach – NYSC DG
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From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
First Lady of Nigeria and National Chairman of the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI), Senator Oluremi Tinubu, on Monday officially handed over three mobile clinic units under the RHI’s Love on Wheels project to boost healthcare delivery in underserved areas.
The event, long anticipated, fulfils promises made over the past year. Speaking at the handover ceremony in Abuja, Mrs Tinubu described the initiative as “care in action, a motion to strengthen health care delivery beyond hospital walls, improve access, shorten response times, and support flexible services, especially in emergencies and underserved areas through professional health care givers.”
Two of the mobile clinics were pledged to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) on January 23, 2025, during the commissioning of the Nigerian Digital Museum in Abuja.
She explained that the delay in delivery stemmed from building the clinics from scratch to certification standards.
The third clinic goes to the Taraba State Government, promised during her official visit on April 11, 2025, amid a health programme for frontline health workers. “We visited, it was during a health programme… frontline health workers,” Tinubu recalled, reflecting on the intense schedule. “You see, so many programmes we’ve done in the past couple of months that both me and Mrs Shettima are both burnt out. I can tell you that… But we will keep moving and I know we will not break down, we’ll keep moving still.”
Emphasising non-partisan service, she highlighted the handover to Taraba, then under a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration. “I said it would be a good, despite they were from a different party. I said that from the beginning, we’re all Nigerians. Party politics aside, but we have to provide a dividend of democracy to our people. And it’s people first before party, and that’s what we’ve been doing,” Tinubu stated. “We are not afraid to campaign, when campaign starts, we’ll campaign. But when we visit states, it’s to reach out to every Nigerian, every concerned Nigerian that needs whatever little we have to offer.”
The First Lady prayed for responsible use of the clinics to save lives and complement state efforts. “It is my prayer that our efforts through RHI’s Love on Wheels project will be used responsibly and effectively to help save lives, respond to emergencies, and bring relief to families and communities,” she said, concluding, “To the glory of God, I hereby hand over one RHI Love on Wheels home again to Taraba State Government, and two to the National Youth Service Corps.”
Taraba State Governor Agbu Kefas, on his part, expressed profound gratitude to the First Lady for the mobile clinic donation, emphasising its non-partisan impact during the handover ceremony.
Kefas noted this was his first such gift as governor. “Nobody has ever given me any gift since I became governor. And our mother spoke to me when I was in PDP. It shows that it goes beyond party line and this is what we expect from leaders,” he said. “Our mother has shown that she’s a visionary mother and leader supporting the husband. And that is what women are supposed to do.”
Urging other governors’ wives to push for similar initiatives, he added, “I will say that all the Renewed Hope Initiatives women should press on their husband, the governors to make sure they get this mobile hospitals in their state if they have not yet.”
Kefas hailed the clinic as transformative. “I am only here to thank our mother of the nation, First Lady, on behalf of the good people of Taraba State for the donation of highly impactful high standard of mobile hospital to Taraba State,” he stated. “This is not just hope or a facility but hope on wheel or like you say love on wheel, it is a life saving intervention that will reached communities that have waited for long. Communities where access to quality health care has remained challenged.”
He pledged responsible deployment under President Bola Tinubu’s leadership. “We’ll provide emergency support under the leadership of His Excellency, our President, President Bola Tinubu, and the team, ensuring that this mobile hospital is deployed with responsibility, transparency, security, maintenance and proper coordination,” Kefas assured. “Taraba State Government is committed to show initiative and pledge to continue to partner with you and the federal government under local government areas in Taraba State, especially in rural and hard to reach areas.”
Recalling her April 2025 visit, he thanked her for fulfilment. “Your Excellency, when you visited Taraba State last year, thank you for fulfilling… on a regular basis through my wife,” Kefas said, calling for nationwide replication. “We need action that they get this mobile health feature in every state. If they are not getting it, that will be conducted with pictures, and details of what will be done will be sent to you.”
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Kefas concluded with blessings, committing to maternal and child health outreaches.
Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Salako, on his part praised Mrs Tinubu’s Love on Wheels initiative, calling it a vital boost to Nigeria’s health sector.
He highlighted the First Lady’s maternal focus. “For a mother who truly cares, for a mother who understands the full importance of motherhood. She never jokes with the health of our children,” he said. “And that is why this mobile clinic that is being donated and being commissioned today is a further demonstration of the love that Her Excellency has for the average Nigerian person.”
He commended RHI’s broader contributions. “We continue to celebrate Your Excellency. We continue to appreciate the very high priority attention that the health sector is receiving under the Renewed Hope Initiative,” Salako noted, listing efforts like “promoting HIV care, HIV treatment, from promoting the elimination of tuberculosis from our society, from focusing attention on childhood illnesses, providing equipment for maternal care, from elimination, the triple elimination of HIV, hepatitis, and syphilis, and several other initiatives in the health sector.”
Declaring Tinubu a “public health champion”, he pledged federal backing for NYSC and Taraba. “Your Excellency, you are our key public health champion. And today, this is a further demonstration of that,” Salako affirmed. “I want to pledge on behalf of the federal government that we would love to see scale-up… We offer to support the NYSC service and the Taraba State Government in any way they may require that provides training, we can provide technical support, we can provide operational support to ensure that this function optimizes.”
Salako urged sub-nationals to emulate. “Please permit me to also use this opportunity to recommend this initiative to all sub-national governments. I hope Governor Kefas will take this to the Governors Forum so that the governors can also procure additional mobile clinics like this,” he said, aligning with President Tinubu’s vision: “In the spirit of Mr President making public health and providing health care the cornerstone of health care delivery in Nigeria, we can use these mobile structures to take health care much, much closer, further into the interiors of Nigeria.”
Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Oluseye Nafiu, called the two mobile clinics a “strategic boost” to reach underserved Nigerians.
Nafiu recalled his confidence in her promise from January 2025. “If it’s true that Her Excellency made such a promise, there would be no need to remind her because she would deliver them even more, knowing her for who she is, a kind, caring, benevolent, and charitable lover of youth, children, and individuals,” he said.
He aligned NYSC with RHI’s mantra: “Health is not a privilege. It is a right. And the Renewed Hope Initiative is committed to make this a reality for every Nigerian… [ensuring] all individuals have access to a full range of quality health services they need, whenever they need them, without facing financial hardship.”
NYSC, he noted, is the ideal partner, with its Health Initiative for the Right to Health providing quarterly rural outreach since 2014. “Our core medical personnel have provided three primary health care services… to over 4 million Nigerians. That’s about 360,000 beneficiaries annually on the average,” Nafiu detailed. “Specifically last year, we deployed our 6,344 medical personnel, including 2,319 doctors, to increase access to free healthcare in remote areas.”
Previously limited to one clinic from former First Lady Aisha Buhari, NYSC now gains flexibility. “With one mobile clinic, Her Excellency, we have chased a thousand. Now, with two additional, we will reach tens of thousands across the land,” he stated. “Now we have greater flexibility and can take on more communities at once.”
Nafiu viewed the donation as a challenge. “What you have done today is renew the hope of millions of Nigerians… We take your gesture, not as a donation, but as a strategy and a challenge. We will be able to go further, care better, and extend the reach of government to more deserving Nigerians who otherwise would not have had the benefit of quality Medicare.”
On behalf of NYSC, he thanked Mrs Tinubu and her team for their generous, thoughtful and well-intended donation, saying, “This is indeed a strategic boost to our health initiative. And I can assure you, Your Excellency, that you will hear news of our exploits with this mobile clinics. Your investment and kind gesture will not be in vain.”
He commended past DG Brigadier General Y.D. Ahmed and congratulated Taraba Governor Agbu Kefas as co-beneficiary, pledging a visit: “Your Excellency we will come to Taraba to help you utilize this… I’ll come with my team of corps members.”
