From John Bassey, Gusau
The wife of Zamfara State Governor, Hajiya Huriyya Dauda Lawal, has donated 28 Bajaj motorcycles and 2 Hiluxes to tuberculosis (TB) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) state supervisors and their assistants as well as ward programme officers, and declared that all forms of treatment for eradication of TB/HIV is free of charge as she received an excellence award to champion the course of the programme in Zamfara.
The event took place at Government House in Gusau, where she announced the theme of 2025 World TB Day as “Yes we can end TB, commit, invest and deliver”, calling on the governments, private sectors, healthworkers and citizens to rise up and support, taking strong actions in the fight against TB/HIV.
Speaking, Her Excellency Hajiya Huriyya Lawal said that TB is a dangerous disease that affect people across the globe including Nigeria, but the goodnews is that TB can be cured. It takes collective responsibilities to find the patients and treat them at the early stage of the infection.
She maintained that, it was her joy to stand as a TB champion, leading in the awareness and advocating for eradication of TB in the state.
“under the leadership of His Excellency, my dear husband the good Governor of Zamfara state, Dr. Dauda Lawal, we have made progress in the fight against TB infection, and so far, more people have been tasted and treated and many lives are saved.”
Huriyya Lawal commended the commissioner for health, Hon. Nafisa Mohammed Maradun, and her team for organizing a successful TB day while establishing that treatment for TB and HIV/AIDS is free of charge in Zamfara state.
Also speaking, the Director of Public Health in the state Ministry of Health, Dr. Yusuf Abubakar Haske, said the donation of the vehicles and motorcycles would assist the workers to go into rural communities to get disease samples and bring them to the lab for testing and other medical procedures. He noted that Zamfara State has low cases of HIV/AIDS and the fight against TB is still on.
Emphasizing the importance of the vehicles and motorcycles donated to the programme, the state’s TB praogrammes Manager, Dr. Lawal Sani, said, so far, active case searches have increased in Zamfara, and 10,000 cases of TB were discovered in the year 2024, by now , 93% cure rate has been achieved, and treatment is still on to ensure full recovery of the remaining patients, as it takes six months to treat a TB patient to a recovery stage.
Dr. Sani disclosed that the programme is supporting 508 private and public facilities in both urban and rural areas to enhance equitable healthcare for all. He mentioned that the challenges faced by the program are lack of computers for data management, reporting, and coordination; lack of implementation knowledge on the part of newly appointed local government supervisors and assistants; non-release of counterpart funding; lack of conducive office accommodation; and non-engagement of casual staff who served the interests of the state for a good six years.
“Particularly, the nonrelease of counterparts funding hampers our ability to effectively implement our programmes and reach our yearly target.”
Dr. Sani called on all stakeholders, especially the government partners, to prioritize the release of the funds so that the state TB programme could undertake more technical steps in the fight against TB/HIV.