ABUJA (Federal Ministry of Health Report) – The Federal Government has recognised and given post humous awards to about 74 persons including representatives of Organisations and persons who died while carrying out humanitarian response activities in the North East of Nigeria in the last decade.
The awards which were presented by Vice President, Yemi Osibanjo, in Abuja recently, was at the event of activities, of the National Health Humanitarian Response Dialogue, themed: The Role of the Health Sector in Humanitarian crisis.
The Vice President, who was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, reassured that the Federal Government was working tirelessly to ensure that all policies regarding the security of lives and properties of all Nigerians saw the light of day. He said that the huge number of victims honoured indicated the gravity of the loss witnessed in the country over the decade, due to insurgency.
He maintained that the ‘’Dialogue’’ was in tandem with one of the cardinal objectives of the Federal Government which was to provide quality healthcare services to all Nigerians, where and when needed.
Osinbajo added that, the anti-corruption activities of the Federal Government had contributed to changing the face of humanitarian response with high positive impact.
He commended the conveners of the Dialogue which he said, was a veritable platform to showcase intervention efforts of government, towards the crisis that engulfed the country; and also condoled with the families of those who lost their lives.
Charting the way forward, the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole in his address said that the Borno State (North East) situation has served as a case study from which lessons learnt were envisaged to assist the country in developing a health sector Humanitarian Response System.
He stated that the Dialogue would provide an effective and equitable response hinged on the New way of working; the Humanitarian Development Peace Nexus (HDPN).
Participants were therefore expected to arrive at a consensus for the best modalities towards developing a systematic approach for health sector response to humanitarian crisis as well as provide deliberate next steps for contextualization of the Nigerian Humanitarian response architecture.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Lanre Tejuosho, regretted that Nigeria had about 2.5million malnourished children, as such Nigeria needed special intervention to feed them.
In view of this, he advised the Federal Ministry of health to consider giving waivers to interested individuals and organisations who would want to support with Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) in those States in critical need.
In his welcome remarks, earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Health, Mr. Abdullaziz Mashi Abdullahi, charged participants at the Dialogue to prioritise expected outcomes that were specific to health humanitarian crisis, especially as it concerned the North East.
He also urged them to use the opportunity to re-energise their commitments towards the achievement of health response in humanitarian crisis in Nigeria as a whole. This, he opined, would contribute to the present Government’s sustainable growth and development towards a productive Nigeria.
