Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq last Friday, flagged a state-wide campaign to curtail malaria, calling it one of the first fruits of his early interventions in the health sector where he recently paid N232million counterpart funds.
The campaign, named Malaria-Free-Kwara, qualifies Kwarans to access free malaria treatments in the health centres near them in the state. It is part of the Roll-Back-Malaria Partnership, a donor-funded programme which Kwara has now keyed into after Abdulrazaq paid the required counterpart funds.
“One of the interventions we have made in the health sector was to pay N82m out of the total N232million counterpart funds to show commitment to be involved in the global anti-malaria campaign led by the Roll-Back-Malaria Partnership, a donors-driven initiative to stamp out the menace of malaria in the world, especially in our country Nigeria,” he said at the official launch of the Malaria-Free-Kwara in Ilorin.
“The Malaria-Free-Kwara we are launching this morning is a product of that timely intervention, which is to complement the humanitarian efforts of the Roll-Back-Malaria Partnership. No serious government, especially in Nigeria, should trivialise the global campaign against malaria. In 2018 alone, Nigeria recorded 100million malaria cases with at least 300,000 deaths resulting from such cases. Such shameful data contributed to our recurring low rating in global development indices.”
Speaking further, Abdulrazaq, who was represented at the event by the Secretary to the State Government, Dr Saba Jibril, said, “As I flag off the Malaria Free Kwara campaign for year 2019, I request all Kwarans and caregivers in the state to visit the nearest health facility to them to access this service in the interest of everyone and overall well-being of our state.”
No fewer than 2,500 patients have benefitted from a three-day Intensive Medical Intervention programme, organised by the US-based Kwara State Association of Nigerians (KSANG) and Sakinah Medical Outreach in conjunction with the Kwara State Government.
The free healthcare services, which cut across the three senatorial districts of the state, came up between 28th and 30th August at three different locations — Ajase Ipo, Tsaragi and Okelele primary healthcare centres.
KSANG President Dr. Yusuf Adanlawo said the gesture was aimed at complementing the present administration’s efforts.
