Aideloje Ojo
27 December 2007
Minna — Commissioners, special advisers and other top government officials in Niger State are to undergo HIV/AIDS screening, Gov Muazu Babangida Aliyu has said.
The state governor gave the order at the Christmas/Sallah ce-lebration organised by the state for HIV/AIDS orphaned and vul-nerable children in Minna on Tuesday.
The governor at the occasion personally volunteered for the screening before he comman-ded his commissioners and other aides to follow suit.
Aliyu said the essence was not to embarrass anybody but to buttress the need for all the people of the state to know their status.
He urged all top government officials in the state to voluntarily present themselves for the screening, reminding the people that HIV/AIDS is not as a result of promiscuity but an infection that could affect anybody like other ailments.
He said: "For the past few years, I have been carrying out the test on an annual basis. I believe if we are sensitizing the people on the need to know their HIV status, we need to live by examples by acting what we preach. I was surprised when Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan told me that in Bayelsa State, people who are HIV negative had been coming out to declare positive to enjoy the benefit provided by the state government. We need to look into this and study what the state government put in place in Bayelsa and replicate same here."
He expressed concern over the plight of the affected children and promised that the government would do every-thing possible to make life more meaningful to them.
He promised that the state government would grant scholar-ships to the over 200 HIV/AIDS orphaned and vulnerable children in the state and urged all local government areas in the state on the need to have standard orphanages to take care of the needy.
The governor, who directed the state director general of the state action committee on AIDS to visit Bayelsa State to study the incentives for the HIV/AIDS victims there, promised that his government would replicate same in Niger.
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