United States government has donated about $90 million to support the forthcoming HIV survey in Nigeria. Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the survey. The agreement was signed by the minister, the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Stuart Symington, and the National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA). The survey, tagged “Nigeria Aids Indicators and Impact Survey (NAIIS),” is the largest in the world and Nigeria is the 12th country conducting it, and it “will begin in June and last for about six months across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).”
“The resources for the survey are largely from the US government. Directly, they are giving us about $90million and indirectly they are working with other partners to ensure the success of the survey. “The survey will put behind us the concept of making guess work in terms of burden of HIV disease in Nigeria. We do not know how many people are infected, so this study will enable us get a precise number.
“This survey is not only about HIV, but about Hepatitis B and C. This survey will also help us to drive forward the agenda to cure Nigeria of Hepatitis C. As you know, Hepatitis C now has a cure. “Also, people who test positive will be placed on treatment, as having HIV is not the end of the world,” he said. Continuing, he said: “For us as a country, we owe it a duty as a government to make sure that it works and to ensure that politics is excluded from the entire work.
“It is mainly a scientifi c process and we will publish the data as it From left: Former Ministers of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina, Hajiya Maryam Ciroma, Omu of Anioma, Obi Marha Dunkwu, former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, Danish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Torben Gettermann and others, during a rally tagged ‘Women4Women’, in Abuja yesterday Photo: Albert Otu/ICE/NAN Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Abdullahi Muhammad, has said the “Commission intends to accredit journalists that will cover the yearly pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in order to ‘sanitise’ Hajj reporting.”
Muhammad, who said this at the public presentation of Independent Hajj Reporters (IHR) news website and awards ceremony yesterday in Abuja, decried the current situation whereby journalists, who are sponsored by various state Muslim pilgrims’ welfare boards and agencies sometimes ”work at cross purposes.”
According to him, the Commission intends to select journalists that will report Hajj and train them on the intricacies of covering the religious rites. “If FIFA has to accredit journalists that report the world cup, it is absolutely necessary for the commission to accredit journalists that should cover Hajj,” he said.
Justifying the need for the accreditation, Muhammad said there are reports that “many endanger the diplomatic relations between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia which a journalist may not be aware of.” The official implored journalists to report strictly on Hajj matters if they go to the Holy Land and should desist from reporting issues that have diplomatic implications.
Muhammad praised IHR for pioneering the first website in the country that is dedicated to Hajj and Umrah, hoping that the news portal will provide credible information that will counter the misinformation in the media about the yearly pilgrimage. According to the NAHCON boss, Independent Hajj Reporters deserve financial and material support as well as support in terms of ideas from the Muslim ummah.
He also advised that IHR should not shut its doors to ideas from outside. (Premium Times) is. It will be totally free of politics and free of government interference so we can discover the real state of HIV in the country. It will serve as a drive to our effort to control the epidemic.
” The Director-General of NACA, Sani Aliyu, said the survey “will help solve the problem of accurate data and also provide precise information of the coverage of HIV in Nigeria.” Aliyu urged Nigerians to make themselves available for the survey, to enable accurate and precise results, as every Nigerian “is needed to make the study a success.” In his remarks, the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Stuart Symington, urged Nigerians to contribute their resources and time to ensure the success of the survey.
He said the survey, which will serve as an example to the rest of the world, will bring the HIV epidemic under control. “It is the joy of everybody in the United States to make Nigerians healthy. This survey, this partnership, this opportunity will set an example for Nigeria and to the whole world,” he said.
