Follow Us on Google
From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Federal Government, has co-opted the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, and other top traditional rulers in the south west geopolitical zone into the fight against vaccine-preventable diseases and quest for improved access to Primary Health Care (PHC) services at rural communities.
It also solicited the help of traditional rulers in the quest to reach out to rural communities with the messages on importance of immunization and other PHC services that would improve the health and wellbeing of the population.
The government said it’s leveraging on the loyalty and respect that are commanded by the traditional rulers at their individual localties to deepen the message of immunization and improved services at the PHCs.
Minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who spoke at the maiden quarterly meeting of to the South West Traditional Leaders’ Committee on Primary Health Care delivery, in Abuja, on Tuesday, said the meeting was a follow-up to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed last year regarding the involvement of traditional rulers in the works of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) particularly at the grassroots level.
He said the meeting was to kick-start the implementation of the MoU on the systematic engagement of traditional leaders in the Southwest zone between the Federal Government through the NPHCDA and the Royal fathers on PHC service delivery.
He said: “Our traditional institution is pivotal to whatever we do in all sectors, especially in health, and government is conscious of the fact that alone, it cannot effectively safeguard the health of the people without the support of our Royal fathers.”
He admitted that traditional rulers across the country have been very supportive of government initiatives in the health sector especially in mobilization, disease surveillance and reporting, making reference to the achievement of a wild polio virus free status in 2020 which would not have been possible without the support of traditional leaders across the country.
He, thus, challenged the traditional rulers to intensify community mobilization efforts and also advocate to political leaders the unquantifiable benefits of investing in the health sector, particularly in PHCs which is the closest to the people.
The Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr. Shuaib Faisal, in his remarks, expressed optimism that the meeting will adopt operational guide for member’s support to PHC programmes and interventions, notably, COVID-19 vaccination, polio, measles, yellow fever, rotavirus, all other routine vaccinations, maternal, newborn, and childhood nutrition, in the areas of role modeling, community advocacy, mobilization and sensitization, resource mobilization and monitoring.
He appealed to the traditional rulers to continue to promote routine immunization and COVID-19 vaccination in their kingdoms and communities. “This is very important because for everyone to be protected, we all must be fully vaccinated.
Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, in his remarks, appreciated the kind gesture, describing it a good opportunity to intensify community mobilization on vaccine- preventable diseases that would result in improved wellbeing of the people.
He promised to mobilize the support of the traditional rulers across the six states in south west geopolitical zone and other stakeholders to ensure that advocacy and sensitization on benefits of immunization and other PHCs services are taken to rural communities.
He said: “We are no longer leaving responsibilities to federal or state government alone. We are leading the advocacy now and it’s a commitment that will herald improve PHC services across the South West region.”
