PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Obasanjo's revolution, security, fuel and health concerns reported in Nigeria
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Former President Olusegun Obasanjo's call for a revolution, knocks for CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, government's resolve to fight Boko Haram to finish and polio and HIV concerns were the main stories in Nigeria this week.
The PUNCH, with the headline "Obasanjo’s call for revolution", reported that "During a recent conference on youth employment in Dakar, Senegal, former President Olusegun Obasanjo shocked his audience by openly calling for a revolution in Nigeria."
Obasanjo’s call, the paper reported, was hinged on the prevailing high rate of youth unemployment, which he estimated to be about 72 per cent.
According to the paper "Also, it will be recalled that the former President called Nigerians to come out en mass for a Nigerian type “Arab spring (revolution)” during a workshop on economic diversification and revenue generation in December 2011 at the June 12 Cultural Centre in Abeokuta, capital of South West Ogun State.
The Arab Spring or Arab Uprising started in Tunisia on 18 December, 2010, when a Tunisian unemployed graduate, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself ablaze to protest police corruption and brutality.
The ensuing protests spread through North Africa and the Gulf States engulfing Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria. Echoes of the Arab Spring resounded in Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Djibouti.
Today, the dregs of the Arab Spring are yet to settle.
Also during the week, the papers ran stories on reactions to comments by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, that 50% of the Nigerian workforce should be sacked. Sanusi, who spoke at a seminar in Warri on Tuesday, listed the sack as part of measures to reflate the economy.
He said the government was servicing civil servants, legislators and local government officials with 70 per cent of its income, leaving a paltry 30 per cent for development.
According to the NATION, whose headline was "Sanusi under attack", there was outrage in Labour circles Wednesday over the call.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Civil Service Workers Union were up in arms against the CBN governor for his suggestion, calling for his resignation or his sack by President Goodluck Jonathan.
The NLC described Sanusi as an agent of death because, according to the Congress, he wanted to escalate the insecurity in the country and the TUC President General, Peter Esele, said the problem of Nigeria is the greed of the elite, demanding that Sanusi should tell the people what the CBN budget is.
The NLC, in a statement entitled: “Sack Sanusi now”, signed by President Abdulwaheed Omar, said: “We see in Sanusi an agent of death that must be defeated and crushed before he further destroys the Nigerian economy. While President Jonathan is promising to create more jobs, Sanusi is calling for mass sack of civil servants in a country with one of the highest number of unemployed, which has indeed led to gross deprivation and the current state of insecurity in Nigeria.
"While we believe the Federal Government will ignore the ranting of this hollow economist, Sanusi has never demonstrated patriotism in all his advice on economic and financial management in Nigeria.
“Sanusi’s only understanding of governance is simply about saving money and not saving lives as his proposals are repeatedly devoid of human content and without consideration for the implications on the larger society. The burden that will come with mass sack as high as 50 per cent of civil servants, in addition to the already saturated unemployment market can better be imagined. Governance is about improving the quality of lives of the people and not destruction of productive lives.”
“Sanusi is the most loquacious of Central Bank Governors. Central Bank Governors all over the world and all other treasury governors comment on monetary policies, which is responsible for the growth of their economy. They are not headline makers; they only make news when necessary. The CBN Governor should resign, if he is bored with the job or if the CBN is too small for him, and look for a job that will get him ready headlines," the TUC chief said
The Secretary-General of the Association of Civil Servants of Nigeria, Mr. Solomon Onaghinon, said the CBN governor’s statement was condemnable.
According to him, salaries and allowances of civil servants are not more than 18 per cent of the total budget.
The CLO described Sanusi’s recommendation as insensitive.
Addressing a news conference in Lagos, Lagos State Chairman of the CLO, Mr. Ehi Omokhuale, described the call as “a backward statement” by a public office holder.
Also, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria advised the CBN Governor to tender his resignation letter to buttress his call for the sack of 50 per cent federal of the country’s work force.
THISDAY newspaper reported the story under the headline "No Worker Will Be Sacked, Says FG". It reported that the Federal Government on Thursday allayed the fears of Nigerian workers over the recommendation by the Governor of the CBN, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, that the government should trim its workforce by 50 per cent, saying it was desirous of creating more jobs for Nigerians.
The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, who made government’s position known at the 8th National Labour Relations Summit and Fellowship Award held at the Michael Imodu National Labour Studies (MINILS) Ilorin, Kwara State, assured the workers that “no worker will be sacked”.
He said government had set up a Job Creation Committee that would commence work in the next two weeks, noting that the committee would focus mainly on how to create more jobs in all the sectors of the economy.
He emphasised that employment creation was central to the transformation agenda of the present administration, adding that more plans on job creation would be revealed in the next couple of weeks.
This, he added, would go a long way in accelerating the socio-economic growth of the economy.
But the CBN governor has denied the statement attributed to him on the 50 per cent reduction of the public sector, stating that he was quoted out of context.
Speaking yesterday when the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency visited the CBN in the course of its oversight functions, the central bank’s Deputy Governor, Operations, Mr. Tunde Lemo, alongside the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Alhaji Suleiman Barau, said Sanusi had been quoted out of context.
Lemo said Sanusi's comments were purely hinged on macroeconomic issues, stressing that the central bank has always initiated several monetary interventions in the agriculture and aviation sectors, which were geared towards job creation as well as support for the masses.
The TRIBUNE and the VANGUARD had similar headlines on the story on Sanusi "We won’t sack workers — FG" said the TRIBUNE while the VANGAURD also called it "We won’t sack civil servants, says FG".
On Bok Haram, the SUN on Saturday headlined its story "BOKO HARAM: FIGHT TO THE FINISH". It said "Rattled by two daring attacks on well-fortified security formations in Jaji, Kaduna State, and Abuja, the nation’s capital, within 24 hours, the Presidency, through the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), has launched a discreet investigation into an intelligence report that some of the country’s law enforcement organisations may have been infiltrated by Boko Haram.
"This is coming at a time security agencies, collaboration with their counterparts in Mali, have intensified their manhunt for the wanted leader of the sect, Imam Abubakar Shekau, who is believed to be hiding in northern Mali now under the control of the Toureg Islamist rebels. It was gathered that following the progress being made in the efforts, the sect leader is planning to escape from Mali and sneak back into Nigeria."
The sect had, last Sunday, defied the precincts of a military base when it successfully executed a twin suicide bomb attacks in a church located in the Armed Forces Barracks, Jaji, near Kaduna, killing no fewer than 11 persons and injuring over 30 others.
Less than 24 hours after, while the nation was still grieving over the killing, the sect struck again in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), killing two policemen at the police special anti-robbery squad (SARS) headquarters, Abuja, and set free scores of suspects detained in the facility, including its members.
The two lethal attacks came just as the military Joint Task Force (JTF), in a statement issued last weekend, declared 19 top leaders of the sect wanted. The statement, which was signed by JTF spokesman Lt-Col. Sagir Musa, said the commanders were members of Shurra Committee, the highest decision-making body of the terror group.
Saturday SUN gathered that the attacks were seen in the Presidency and within the security circle as a direct response to the JTF action.
But beyond this, the Federal Government is deeply worried over the ease with which the sect carried out the latest attacks on sensitive and supposed well-fortified security formations. As a result, a top security source revealed that the NSA’s office has begun to work on a piece of information that the sect must be “enjoying some comfortable level of sympathy and support from some elements within our security agencies.”
Also on Boko Haram, the GUARDIAN Thursday ran its story under the headline "CAN to take Boko Haram to ICC over crimes against Christians", saying: "OUTRAGED" at the unrelenting killing of its members by the terror group, Boko Haram, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is set to seek redress – legally and not through retaliation.
The Christian organisation intends taking its case to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a step which tallies with its position not to take retaliatory measures against Muslims.
The National President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, who disclosed this urged the Federal Government to name Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist group.
Oritsejafor spoke at the opening of CAN’s National Executive Council Meeting (NEC) in Awka, Anambra State, Wednesday. According to him, Boko Haram has targeted Christians in attacks aimed at wiping out Christianity in the North and Nigeria entirely.
“We in CAN are strongly considering pressing charges against the Boko Haram sect for crimes committed against Christians at the International Criminal Court and we will commence soon. We are not encouraging Christians to carry arms,” he said. But he noted that CAN had always called on Christians and the churches to defend themselves.
He said: “We call on the governors of the southern states to come together and hold a meeting to know the fate of their people who are being killed in the North and to challenge their northern counterparts.”
According to him, without the measures put in by the southern governors, there will be reprisal attacks everyday, arguing that the northern governors should put the same measures in place.
In his speech, Governor Peter Obi called on the Federal Government to stop further killings in the North, saying that Nigerians should not allow people to be slaughtered anyhow in the North.
Meanwhile, the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has said that the statement credited to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, that the PDP is not a security agency and should not be blamed for the insecurity in the country, is the clearest indication yet of his party’s cluelessness over the worsening state of insecurity and other ills bedevilling the country.
In a statement issued in Lagos Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party, however, expressed its happiness that “the chairman of the biggest non-performing party in Africa has finally come to terms with what the ACN and others have been saying for a long time, that the PDP lacks the wherewithal to preside over a country that is hungry for security and development like Nigeria.
“What the PDP chairman is saying, in essence, is that his party is no longer fit to rule and that Nigerians should look elsewhere if indeed they want a government that will ensure the security of their lives and property,” it said.
“Thank you, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, for speaking from the heart and admitting that your party, the PDP, has finally reached the end of its tether.’’
"Presidency, Alison-Madueke Assure of Fuel Supply at Yuletide" was THISDAY's headline on Friday on the story on concerns for the availability of fuel during tthe Yelutide.
The story said that the Federal Government on Thursday said it was determined to guarantee uninterrupted supply of petroleum products during the Yuletide season, quoting the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, as promising that the entire length and breadth of Nigeria would receive adequate supply of petroleum products as the Christmas and New Year celebrations approach.
A presidency source told journalists in Abuja, that: “The government is determined to ensure that there is no return of queues at the petrol stations” in order to discredit the attempts being made by some unpatriotic elements to frustrate the efforts of President Jonathan, in reforming the oil and gas sector
On health concerns, the GUARDIAN, with the headline "Nigeria, India partner to eradicate polio", reported that efforts to check the menace of polio in the country received a boost with Nigeria and India partnering on how best to reach communities at high risk of the disease.
it quoted the Minister of State for Health, Muhammad Ali Pate, as saying at an interactive session in Abuja, Wednesday, that sustaining the current tempo of immunisation in the country was critical to reaching more children and eradicating polio.
He said: “I do not see anything what India is doing that is impossible in Nigeria. We have a relationship with India that enhances the work we are doing.
"A few of their medical personnel come to work with some Nigerian officials at high risk areas. They are providing World Health Organisation officials who worked with India. They learnt a lot from Nigeria in the past and there is a lot we can also learn from such officials now.”
According to the President in charge of Global Development at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Christopher Elias:”22 months ago, India recorded the last case of polio, giving hope that polio eradication is possible. Key to India’s success is social mobilisation at the community level.”
Noting that polio cases were limited to a few local councils, he said Nigeria could win its polio war using the micro plan strategy that India used in order to reach more persons in rural areas even as he commended the Federal and state governments for the political will to fight the polio war.
On HIV prevalence in Nigeria, the NATION headlined its story "Over three million Nigerians live with HIV/AIDS – Minister". It quoted the Federal Ministry of Health as saying that over three million Nigerians are living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
According to the paper, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, made the disclosure on Friday in Abuja during a press briefing to mark World AIDS Day.
The theme of this year’s event was – “Resourcing the National Response towards Getting to Zero AIDS Related Deaths.”
The minister, who was represented by the Acting Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Mansur Kabir, explained that the virus had claimed over 20 million lives globally, with an estimated 33 million people living with it.
“Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 25 million of these people and Nigeria is home to about 3,130,000 infected with the virus. Crrently, Nigeria bears the second highest burden of HIV/AIDS, next to South Africa and third in the whole world after South Africa and India.”
-0- PANA VAO 1Dec2012
The PUNCH, with the headline "Obasanjo’s call for revolution", reported that "During a recent conference on youth employment in Dakar, Senegal, former President Olusegun Obasanjo shocked his audience by openly calling for a revolution in Nigeria."
Obasanjo’s call, the paper reported, was hinged on the prevailing high rate of youth unemployment, which he estimated to be about 72 per cent.
According to the paper "Also, it will be recalled that the former President called Nigerians to come out en mass for a Nigerian type “Arab spring (revolution)” during a workshop on economic diversification and revenue generation in December 2011 at the June 12 Cultural Centre in Abeokuta, capital of South West Ogun State.
The Arab Spring or Arab Uprising started in Tunisia on 18 December, 2010, when a Tunisian unemployed graduate, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself ablaze to protest police corruption and brutality.
The ensuing protests spread through North Africa and the Gulf States engulfing Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria. Echoes of the Arab Spring resounded in Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Djibouti.
Today, the dregs of the Arab Spring are yet to settle.
Also during the week, the papers ran stories on reactions to comments by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, that 50% of the Nigerian workforce should be sacked. Sanusi, who spoke at a seminar in Warri on Tuesday, listed the sack as part of measures to reflate the economy.
He said the government was servicing civil servants, legislators and local government officials with 70 per cent of its income, leaving a paltry 30 per cent for development.
According to the NATION, whose headline was "Sanusi under attack", there was outrage in Labour circles Wednesday over the call.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Civil Service Workers Union were up in arms against the CBN governor for his suggestion, calling for his resignation or his sack by President Goodluck Jonathan.
The NLC described Sanusi as an agent of death because, according to the Congress, he wanted to escalate the insecurity in the country and the TUC President General, Peter Esele, said the problem of Nigeria is the greed of the elite, demanding that Sanusi should tell the people what the CBN budget is.
The NLC, in a statement entitled: “Sack Sanusi now”, signed by President Abdulwaheed Omar, said: “We see in Sanusi an agent of death that must be defeated and crushed before he further destroys the Nigerian economy. While President Jonathan is promising to create more jobs, Sanusi is calling for mass sack of civil servants in a country with one of the highest number of unemployed, which has indeed led to gross deprivation and the current state of insecurity in Nigeria.
"While we believe the Federal Government will ignore the ranting of this hollow economist, Sanusi has never demonstrated patriotism in all his advice on economic and financial management in Nigeria.
“Sanusi’s only understanding of governance is simply about saving money and not saving lives as his proposals are repeatedly devoid of human content and without consideration for the implications on the larger society. The burden that will come with mass sack as high as 50 per cent of civil servants, in addition to the already saturated unemployment market can better be imagined. Governance is about improving the quality of lives of the people and not destruction of productive lives.”
“Sanusi is the most loquacious of Central Bank Governors. Central Bank Governors all over the world and all other treasury governors comment on monetary policies, which is responsible for the growth of their economy. They are not headline makers; they only make news when necessary. The CBN Governor should resign, if he is bored with the job or if the CBN is too small for him, and look for a job that will get him ready headlines," the TUC chief said
The Secretary-General of the Association of Civil Servants of Nigeria, Mr. Solomon Onaghinon, said the CBN governor’s statement was condemnable.
According to him, salaries and allowances of civil servants are not more than 18 per cent of the total budget.
The CLO described Sanusi’s recommendation as insensitive.
Addressing a news conference in Lagos, Lagos State Chairman of the CLO, Mr. Ehi Omokhuale, described the call as “a backward statement” by a public office holder.
Also, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria advised the CBN Governor to tender his resignation letter to buttress his call for the sack of 50 per cent federal of the country’s work force.
THISDAY newspaper reported the story under the headline "No Worker Will Be Sacked, Says FG". It reported that the Federal Government on Thursday allayed the fears of Nigerian workers over the recommendation by the Governor of the CBN, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, that the government should trim its workforce by 50 per cent, saying it was desirous of creating more jobs for Nigerians.
The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, who made government’s position known at the 8th National Labour Relations Summit and Fellowship Award held at the Michael Imodu National Labour Studies (MINILS) Ilorin, Kwara State, assured the workers that “no worker will be sacked”.
He said government had set up a Job Creation Committee that would commence work in the next two weeks, noting that the committee would focus mainly on how to create more jobs in all the sectors of the economy.
He emphasised that employment creation was central to the transformation agenda of the present administration, adding that more plans on job creation would be revealed in the next couple of weeks.
This, he added, would go a long way in accelerating the socio-economic growth of the economy.
But the CBN governor has denied the statement attributed to him on the 50 per cent reduction of the public sector, stating that he was quoted out of context.
Speaking yesterday when the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency visited the CBN in the course of its oversight functions, the central bank’s Deputy Governor, Operations, Mr. Tunde Lemo, alongside the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Alhaji Suleiman Barau, said Sanusi had been quoted out of context.
Lemo said Sanusi's comments were purely hinged on macroeconomic issues, stressing that the central bank has always initiated several monetary interventions in the agriculture and aviation sectors, which were geared towards job creation as well as support for the masses.
The TRIBUNE and the VANGUARD had similar headlines on the story on Sanusi "We won’t sack workers — FG" said the TRIBUNE while the VANGAURD also called it "We won’t sack civil servants, says FG".
On Bok Haram, the SUN on Saturday headlined its story "BOKO HARAM: FIGHT TO THE FINISH". It said "Rattled by two daring attacks on well-fortified security formations in Jaji, Kaduna State, and Abuja, the nation’s capital, within 24 hours, the Presidency, through the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), has launched a discreet investigation into an intelligence report that some of the country’s law enforcement organisations may have been infiltrated by Boko Haram.
"This is coming at a time security agencies, collaboration with their counterparts in Mali, have intensified their manhunt for the wanted leader of the sect, Imam Abubakar Shekau, who is believed to be hiding in northern Mali now under the control of the Toureg Islamist rebels. It was gathered that following the progress being made in the efforts, the sect leader is planning to escape from Mali and sneak back into Nigeria."
The sect had, last Sunday, defied the precincts of a military base when it successfully executed a twin suicide bomb attacks in a church located in the Armed Forces Barracks, Jaji, near Kaduna, killing no fewer than 11 persons and injuring over 30 others.
Less than 24 hours after, while the nation was still grieving over the killing, the sect struck again in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), killing two policemen at the police special anti-robbery squad (SARS) headquarters, Abuja, and set free scores of suspects detained in the facility, including its members.
The two lethal attacks came just as the military Joint Task Force (JTF), in a statement issued last weekend, declared 19 top leaders of the sect wanted. The statement, which was signed by JTF spokesman Lt-Col. Sagir Musa, said the commanders were members of Shurra Committee, the highest decision-making body of the terror group.
Saturday SUN gathered that the attacks were seen in the Presidency and within the security circle as a direct response to the JTF action.
But beyond this, the Federal Government is deeply worried over the ease with which the sect carried out the latest attacks on sensitive and supposed well-fortified security formations. As a result, a top security source revealed that the NSA’s office has begun to work on a piece of information that the sect must be “enjoying some comfortable level of sympathy and support from some elements within our security agencies.”
Also on Boko Haram, the GUARDIAN Thursday ran its story under the headline "CAN to take Boko Haram to ICC over crimes against Christians", saying: "OUTRAGED" at the unrelenting killing of its members by the terror group, Boko Haram, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is set to seek redress – legally and not through retaliation.
The Christian organisation intends taking its case to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a step which tallies with its position not to take retaliatory measures against Muslims.
The National President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, who disclosed this urged the Federal Government to name Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist group.
Oritsejafor spoke at the opening of CAN’s National Executive Council Meeting (NEC) in Awka, Anambra State, Wednesday. According to him, Boko Haram has targeted Christians in attacks aimed at wiping out Christianity in the North and Nigeria entirely.
“We in CAN are strongly considering pressing charges against the Boko Haram sect for crimes committed against Christians at the International Criminal Court and we will commence soon. We are not encouraging Christians to carry arms,” he said. But he noted that CAN had always called on Christians and the churches to defend themselves.
He said: “We call on the governors of the southern states to come together and hold a meeting to know the fate of their people who are being killed in the North and to challenge their northern counterparts.”
According to him, without the measures put in by the southern governors, there will be reprisal attacks everyday, arguing that the northern governors should put the same measures in place.
In his speech, Governor Peter Obi called on the Federal Government to stop further killings in the North, saying that Nigerians should not allow people to be slaughtered anyhow in the North.
Meanwhile, the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has said that the statement credited to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, that the PDP is not a security agency and should not be blamed for the insecurity in the country, is the clearest indication yet of his party’s cluelessness over the worsening state of insecurity and other ills bedevilling the country.
In a statement issued in Lagos Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party, however, expressed its happiness that “the chairman of the biggest non-performing party in Africa has finally come to terms with what the ACN and others have been saying for a long time, that the PDP lacks the wherewithal to preside over a country that is hungry for security and development like Nigeria.
“What the PDP chairman is saying, in essence, is that his party is no longer fit to rule and that Nigerians should look elsewhere if indeed they want a government that will ensure the security of their lives and property,” it said.
“Thank you, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, for speaking from the heart and admitting that your party, the PDP, has finally reached the end of its tether.’’
"Presidency, Alison-Madueke Assure of Fuel Supply at Yuletide" was THISDAY's headline on Friday on the story on concerns for the availability of fuel during tthe Yelutide.
The story said that the Federal Government on Thursday said it was determined to guarantee uninterrupted supply of petroleum products during the Yuletide season, quoting the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, as promising that the entire length and breadth of Nigeria would receive adequate supply of petroleum products as the Christmas and New Year celebrations approach.
A presidency source told journalists in Abuja, that: “The government is determined to ensure that there is no return of queues at the petrol stations” in order to discredit the attempts being made by some unpatriotic elements to frustrate the efforts of President Jonathan, in reforming the oil and gas sector
On health concerns, the GUARDIAN, with the headline "Nigeria, India partner to eradicate polio", reported that efforts to check the menace of polio in the country received a boost with Nigeria and India partnering on how best to reach communities at high risk of the disease.
it quoted the Minister of State for Health, Muhammad Ali Pate, as saying at an interactive session in Abuja, Wednesday, that sustaining the current tempo of immunisation in the country was critical to reaching more children and eradicating polio.
He said: “I do not see anything what India is doing that is impossible in Nigeria. We have a relationship with India that enhances the work we are doing.
"A few of their medical personnel come to work with some Nigerian officials at high risk areas. They are providing World Health Organisation officials who worked with India. They learnt a lot from Nigeria in the past and there is a lot we can also learn from such officials now.”
According to the President in charge of Global Development at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Christopher Elias:”22 months ago, India recorded the last case of polio, giving hope that polio eradication is possible. Key to India’s success is social mobilisation at the community level.”
Noting that polio cases were limited to a few local councils, he said Nigeria could win its polio war using the micro plan strategy that India used in order to reach more persons in rural areas even as he commended the Federal and state governments for the political will to fight the polio war.
On HIV prevalence in Nigeria, the NATION headlined its story "Over three million Nigerians live with HIV/AIDS – Minister". It quoted the Federal Ministry of Health as saying that over three million Nigerians are living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
According to the paper, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, made the disclosure on Friday in Abuja during a press briefing to mark World AIDS Day.
The theme of this year’s event was – “Resourcing the National Response towards Getting to Zero AIDS Related Deaths.”
The minister, who was represented by the Acting Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Mansur Kabir, explained that the virus had claimed over 20 million lives globally, with an estimated 33 million people living with it.
“Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 25 million of these people and Nigeria is home to about 3,130,000 infected with the virus. Crrently, Nigeria bears the second highest burden of HIV/AIDS, next to South Africa and third in the whole world after South Africa and India.”
-0- PANA VAO 1Dec2012
