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A public affairs analyst Ibrahim Yahaya Muye has described the Minister for Health, Prof. Mohammed Ali Pate as a global health genius, whose impacts in the health sector go beyond Nigeria.
In a statement to celebrate Prof Pate’s 57th birth, Muye noted that he has travelled to more than 100 countries across the world, proffering solutions to global health problems.
He stated that his patriotism knows no bounds; a trait he clearly demonstrated when he turned down an appointment with a global health company, Gavi-Vaccine Alliance, to take up the ministerial job in the current President Bola Tinubu administration.
“Nigerians will not forget soon how Prof. Pate turned down the leadership of the Gavi-Vaccine Alliance to take a ministerial appointment in 2023, a rare motivation to serve his fatherland. He lost the opportunity to lead the world largest financier of AIDS, TB & Malaria prevention, treatment and care programmes, despite emerging victorious in a competitive contestant for the position of the Executive Director of The Global Fund in 2017.
“For those who know what it means, especially in the global health sector, leading either the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Gavi – Vaccine Alliance or the Global Fund is a rare feat and that was my wish for him. He had contested for the Executive Director of the Global Fund in 2017 and was successful alongside Dr. Subhanu Saxena, the CEO of Cipla, a leading Global Pharmaceutical Company and Helen Clark, who once served as the Minister of Health in New Zealand, a long serving former Prime Minister of New Zealand and reforming administrator of UNDP,” he said.
He expressed confidence in his capacity, noting that since he became the health minister, the health sector has attracted a lot of attention, innovation and transformation. “This include promoting healthcare in the area of child vaccination against diseases, upgrading over 500 tertiary and primary facilities across the country, world-class cancer centres in the six geo-political zones, economic reforms in unlocking funding for healthcare sector, medical infrastructure projects at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, retraining of frontline health workers across the country, ratification of African Medicines Agency Treaty by Nigeria and N260 billion to revitalise Primary Health Care Centres (PHCs) across the country.
“Others include over $3 billion attracted from the international developing partners, $1 billion MOU signed with Afreximbank, $1 billion from GFATM, Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and an additional $150 million from GAVI Alliance and the establishment of new teaching hospitals and federal medicals centres.
“Professor Pate has also been able to oversee the processes of conversion and upgrade of about 10 hospitals/medical facilities to federal medical centres at different locations in Kaduna, Lagos, Adamawa, Ekiti and Bauchi states,” he stated.
He described him as a man who is at home with both the rich and the poor, despite the height he has attained in life. “People occupying powerful positions often exhibit haughtiness and edginess, even downright snobbishness, toward ‘ordinary’ people. But Ali Pate may be a wide deviation from the norm, hence his tendency to always have time for whoever engages him,” he said
Professor Pate today is ranked among renowned global health experts like Drs Tedros Ghebreyesus, Sanjay Gupta, Soumya Swaminathan, Christopher Elias, Paul Stoffels, Julio Frenk, Catherine Hamlin, Peter Piot, Mehdi Torkmahalleh and host of others.
“He is an epitome of knowledge, humility, wisdom, loyalty, discipline, patriotism and accountability. Fifty-Seven years ago, on September 6, 1968, he was born. I join his family, associates, and well-wishers on this occasion to salute his selfless service to Nigeria, Africa and the world,” he said.
