8 Shake-up as Buhari appoints new heads for health agencies
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday ordered the re-organisation of five agencies in the Federal Ministry of Health with the appointment of new heads of the agencies. The Director Press of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Bolaji Adebiyi said yesterday in a statement that the President approved the removal of the heads of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Nigerian Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) and National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Adebiyi listed the new heads as Dr. Chikwe Adreas Ihekweazu, who takes over as the National Coordinator of NCDC succeeding Prof. Abdulsalami-Nasidi, Dr. Sani H. Aliyu who takes over as the Director-General (DG) of NACA from Prof. John Idoko, Prof. Babatunde Lawal Salako as the new DG of NIMR taking over from Prof. Innocent Achanya Otobo Ujah, Prof. Echezona Ezeanolue as the new Executive Director (ED) of NPHCDA taking over from Dr. Ado Muhammad, and Prof. Usman Yusuf as the new Executive Secretary (ES) of the NHIS taking over from Mr. Olufemi Akingbade.
Akingbade has been acting for almost two years after the former ES, Dr. Femi Thomas, was removed a day to the exit of a former President Goodluck Jonathan. According to the statement Dr. Ihekweazu is currently the Managing Partner of EpiAfric, a public health consultancy firm that focuses on Africa.
Dr. Aliyu is currently a Consultant in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Cambridge University, United Kingdom. He got his medical degree from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria in 1993.
Dr. Salako is currently the Provost, College of Medicine at the University of Ibadan (UI). He graduated from the same University in 1986. He is a fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians in both Edinburg and London.
Prof. Ezemolue is currently a Professor of Paediatrics and Public Health at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA. He got his medical degree at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1995.
Prof. Yusuf is currently a Professor of Paediatrics at St. Jude Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, United Sates of America. He graduated in medicine from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and worked in the University Teaching Hospital from 1984-1989. Aliyu M. Hamagam, Dutse Five international donor agencies are to provide more technical support for sustaining polio eradication in Jigawa State the state Commissioner of Health, Dr. Abba Zakari has said.
Dr. Zakari made this known yesterday after leading the agencies to the palace of Emir of Dutse, Mohammed Sanusi.
The support comes as the state marks four years of polio virus free.
The agencies are: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; United Nations International Children Emergency Fund, (Unicef); World Health Organization, (WHO); Eusign and Istop consultants from Ethiopia.
He said the agencies were in the state to further provide technical support to tackle loopholes on how the feat achieved in the campaign on polio eradication could be sustained.
The commissioner added that the visit on the monarch was in recognition of the effort of traditional institutions toward that direction.
In his remarks, the Emir of Dutse, appealed to Bill and Millinda Gate foundation to consider intervention in the area of routine immunization and nutrition support to the people of the state.