Health minister, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has said the federal government’s partnership with the Southwest traditional leaders on Primary Health Care delivery has been impactful.
The minister stated this at the maiden quarterly review meeting of the Southwest Traditional Leaders Committee on Primary Health Delivery (SWTLC) chaired by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan in Abuja.
He said it was a step in the right direction while commending the Ooni of Ife for agreeing to partner with the government on primary health care delivery.
The event, which had the presence of over 20 royal fathers with each state represented by at least four royal fathers was organised by the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA).
“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.
“Traditional rulers across the country have been very supportive of government initiatives in the health sector especially in mobilization, disease surveillance and reporting. Our achievement of a wild polio virus free status in 2020 would not have been possible without the support of traditional leaders across the country,” he said.
On his part, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan said the South West traditional rulers were trying to use the strength of community volunteers to impact Primary health care, saying they don’t want to leave every responsibility to the federal and state government alone.
“We don’t want to leave every responsible to the federal and state government alone, as traditional rulers, we have a lot of volunteers within our community, we are trying to use the strength of volunteers to actually impact on primary healthcare initiatives on our communities. For us it is a very important role for us to do this partnership.”
The Ooni said the traditional rulers would use the strength of community volunteers to impact primary health care delivery in the region.
Acknowledging the efforts of the government in COVID-19 Vaccination and other routine immunisation, Oba Adeyeye said there was the need for the traditional bodies to assist the government towards achieving immunisation target in the country.
He said, “We don’t want to leave every responsible to the federal and state government alone, as traditional rulers, we have a lot of volunteers within our our community, we are trying to use the strength of volunteers to actually impact on primary healthcare initiatives on our communities. For us it is a very important role for us to do this partnership.”
In is remarks, the executive director, NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, noted that the SWTLC is impactful, saying the Southwest zone performance in achieving the country’s COVID-19 target is suboptimal, thereby requiring the Ooni’s quick intervention.
He said vaccine hesitancy due to low-risk perception has been the greatest bane in our effort to control COVID-19 transmission through vaccination.
“As of 23rd August 2022, Nigeria has successfully vaccinated 41,235,148 of its eligible population with the first dose and this represents 36.9 per cent of its eligible population. The number of eligible persons who are fully vaccinated currently stands at 29,052,850. Therefore, the proportion of the total eligible population that have been fully vaccinated in Nigeria is 26 per cent,” said Shuaib.
This, Shuaib said is a far cry from the country’s target of vaccinating at least 70 per cent of eligible population (18 years and above) by the end of the year, “Saying our disaggregated state performance analyses also revealed that there are important state-specific bottlenecks that must be addressed in their various contexts for improved vaccine uptake.”
The Southwest Traditional Leaders Committee on Primary Health Care delivery (SWTLC) was inaugurated a year ago.
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