Juliana Taiwo
4 December 2008
Abuja — President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua yesterday assured that his government was fully commitment to the complete eradication of malaria by the year 2010.
Yar'Adua gave the commitment when a delegation from the United Nations led by Raymond Chambers, the United Nations Secretary General's Special Envoy on Malaria in company of the Vice President of the World Bank (Africa Region), Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, and officials of Roll-Back-Malaria and Global Fund, visited the presidential villa.
The President said he was fully committed to making sure that every step would be taken with respect to all the funding that the World Bank and Global Fund had committed to ending malaria by 2015, and will work with all the other partners in the roll back malaria partnership to accomplish the goals set by the UN Secretary General.
"This programme is extremely important to us and we will work hard to ensure that the Roll-Back-Malaria programme succeeds," the President said, adding that "if it works in Nigeria, you can be sure that the whole of Africa will benefit."
He supported the United Nations Secretary General's call for the formation of a coalition of African leaders against malaria, stressing that the continent needed to play a more robust role in the campaign against the disease because it is the most affected.
"We will continue to advocate and put in place measures and strategies for the distribution and use of treated nets particularly in the rural areas," the President said.
He noted that the Federal Ministry of Health, the Office of the Special Assistant on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the States and Local Governments would all be involved in ensuring the success of the distribution and use of treated nets.
In his remarks, Chambers had said that the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, had on April 25 during the celebration of this year's World Malaria Day, called for the use of treated bed nets by all by December 31, 2010.
The envoy said that $3 billion had been raised to accomplish the UN Secretary General's call and even eradicate death from malaria by 2015.Speaking to State House Correspondence, after the meeting, he said "we visited the President to speak about the UN Secretary General's call to cover everybody at risk of malaria by the end of 2010. That means in Nigeria the distribution of 70 million bed nets in the next two years".
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