By, Moses Emorinken, Abuja

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that life expectancy for people living in low-income countries is 16 years lower than for people in high-income countries.

It also noted the covid-19 pandemic pushed between 119 to 124 million people into extreme poverty last year.

Furthermore, under-5 death rates among children from the poorest households are double that of children from the richest households.

It, therefore urged governments to invest in strengthening their health systems, and remove the barriers that prevent so many people from accessing them.

The Director-General of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made these known in a statement to commemorate this year’s World Health Day.

He said: “The covid-19 pandemic has thrived amid the inequalities in our societies and the gaps in our health systems.

“It is vital for all governments to invest in strengthening their health services and to remove the barriers that prevent so many people from using them, so more people have the chance to live healthy lives.

“Now is the time to invest in health as a motor of development.

“We do not need to choose between improving public health, building sustainable societies, ensuring food security and adequate nutrition, tackling climate change and having thriving local economies. All these vital outcomes go hand in hand.”

The United Nations’ Agency noted that within countries, illness and death from covid-19 have been higher among groups who face discrimination, poverty, social exclusion, and adverse daily living and working conditions – including humanitarian crises.

Also, the pandemic is estimated to have driven between 119 and 124 million more people into extreme poverty last year. And there is convincing evidence that it has widened gender gaps in employment, with women exiting the labour force in greater numbers than men over the past 12 months.

Noting that vaccines were important to tackling Covid-19, the WHO however stated that vaccines alone are not enough.

“Safe and effective vaccines have been developed and approved at record speed. The challenge now is to ensure that they are available to everyone who needs them. Key here will be additional support to COVAX, the vaccine pillar in the ACT-Accelerator, which hopes to have reached 100 countries and economies in the coming days.

“But vaccines alone will not overcome COVID-19. Commodities such as medical oxygen and personal protective equipment (PPE), as well as reliable diagnostic tests and medicines are also vital.

“So are strong mechanisms to fairly distribute all these products within national borders. The ACT-Accelerator aims to establish testing and treatments for hundreds of millions of people in low and middle-income countries who would otherwise miss out.

“But it still requires USD22.1 billion to deliver these vital tools where they are so desperately needed,” it said.

As  the pioneer set of Nexford University  Nigerian Master of Business Administration (MBA) graduated in Lagos last week, former Education Minister, Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili urged  them not to trade their values.

Addressing the 200 MBA graduates at the event held at the Oriental Hotel, Lekki, Ezekwesili, who is also a member of the Advisory Board of the university, said education has to be for character, attitude and meeting the needs of the society, while values should not be traded off.

She said: ‘’It will not always look like you are winning but I can assure you that a person who does not negotiate his or her value is the winner of all time.’’

She said they carried a seed of growth in them and urged them to affect the country positively.

‘’Building a society where people have access to the kind of education that Nexford has afforded you is the best way a country can shape its future,” she said.

In a similar vein, co-founder of Andela and also the Managing Director of Flutterwave, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, said they should always see the bigger picture in all they do.

“It is also important to have the discipline to choose long term value over short term value, long term value is thinking about the world in a perspective of five to 10 years time,” he said.

Founder and CEO of Nexford University, Fadl Al Tarzi, speaking virtually, said building Nexford had proved to be the most worthy investment of his time and energy since he started his career at age 18.

He urged the graduates  to think about their future after graduation.

‘’You have now equipped yourself; you have filled your brain with fuel; you have built yourself a launching App. What comes next is what matters the most,”  he said.

Tarzi said learning was a life- long journey and they should endeavour to continue.

Also, Senior Pastor of Trinity House Church, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, advised the graduates to believe in  God and their dreams.

‘’Work your talk and run your dream.Make sure you work very hard doing what you need to do to make sure that you fulfill your dreams,” he said.

Some of the graduates were employees of Sterling Bank, Dangote Cement, Union Bank, Play Network and Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs.

One of them, who was given $1,000, Azeez Olawale Yusuff, said Nexford helped him to achieve the goal he never thought he could achieve.

He said the school helped him to solve business cases and prepared him for entrepreneurship, and future challenges.

By Adekunle Yusuf

Hope brightens for tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment in Nigeria as a 16-Module Genexpert Machine is launched in Lagos. This will increase the testing and diagnosis capacity of TB, allowing patients to know their status without much ado.

The 16-Module Genexpert Machine, the first of its kind in the country, was unveiled by the Federal Government, Lagos State Government and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at the Diagnostics Complex of EL-LAB in Festac Town, Lagos. The state-of-the-art  machine, which is for molecular diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB), was purchased by USAID through its funded Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector Plus project (SHOPS Plus) for the government of Nigeria to facilitate case detection in the private sector.

The machine was launched at EL-LAB Ltd, one of the leading indigenous medical diagnostic and research centres in Nigeria, with a view to closing the gap in TB case detection, notification, and treatment. EL-LAB is one of the 118 engaged stand-alone laboratories trained by SHOPS/PLUS and has been very active in PPM Mix activities in Lagos State.

According to WHO, TB is a major public health concern in Nigeria with the country ranked sixth among the 30 high TB burden countries globally and about 15 percent of the global gap in TB case notification. Ayodele Iroko, the senior private sector advisor, USAID/ SHOPS Plus, commended all private sector partners that have remained committed to the proactive screening, testing, and treating of TB in their various communities. She also encouraged all engaged health professional associations to work tenaciously at expanding the pool of private-sector TB providers by scaling up engagement to include more of their members while facilitating efforts to integrate tested approaches into facilities service provision for ownership and sustainability.

The National Coordinator, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP), Chukwuma Anyaike, identified two main national goals as regards TB: to find the missing cases and to ensure all cases found are adequately treated. He applauded the efforts of the private sector partners, citing the increase in TB case finding and recent times but also emphasised that there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Anyaike also stressed the need for more up-to-date statistical data on TB cases in Nigeria. Anyaike described the introduction of the 16-Module Genexpert Machine as a “milestone” and encouraged optimal use of the machine to achieve maximal results. He pointed out, however, that the mission goes beyond case finding, to ensuring treatment for all cases. He encouraged stakeholders to re-strategise and think outside the box in order to “fish out all TB cases.”

Omosalewa Oyelaran, deputy director at USAID Nigeria office for HIV/AIDS & TB, also commended the efforts of all stakeholders and encouraged them to take up the challenge of finding and treating all cases of TB in Nigeria. She expressed her excitement about the launching of the 16-Module Genexpert Machine, stating that it will increase the testing capacity, allowing patients to know their status and be placed on treatment as quickly as possible.

By Onimisi Alao, Yola

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) in the Federal Polytechnic Mubi, joined the national strike on Wednesday.

Officials of the Mubi chapter of ASUP, who addressed newsmen at the campus of the polytechnic in the Adamawa State capital, Yola, said the national body was right in starting the strike over unpreparedness of the Federal Government to address the needs of the polytechnic sector.

Chairman of the Federal Polytechnic Mubi chapter of ASUP, Comrade Hussaini James, said polytechnics have been serially neglected by the Federal Government.

Mentioning some of the areas in which he accused the Federal Government of having failed the polytechnics, James said: “In the polytechnics we suffer total neglect, total abandonment.

Read Also; Poly lecturers begin indefinite strike

“Technical and vocational education is very important but most aspects have been neglected and abandoned. We are like orphans.

“We have nothing to hold on to. If you see most of our laboratories, you will shed tears. Everything is inadequate. Most of what exist are obsolete.”

He said such state of things and apparent noncommitment by government compelled the nationwide strike, which the parent ASUP started on Tuesday.

“We align totally with ASUP at the national level, “James asserted, adding: “We are suffering greatly in the polytechnic sector but we felt we should not be going on strike frequently so we opt for dialogue most of the time, but it is always like you are dialoguing with the deaf.

“That’s why this strike had to start. We hope that parents and students will understand. We got to the strike option in the hope that the Federal Government will do what it should do to reposition the system.”