Tackling malaria, which is a major public health problem in the country, needs action not rhetorics. Previously, the issue was handled with levity but Kano State government under Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso takes everything serious. From healthcare delivery, education, water supply, infrastructural development— down to sports, every issue affecting the people receives government’s utmost attention.
According to Malaria Fact Sheet produced by the US embassy in Nigeria, “malaria accounts for more cases and deaths than any other country in the world”. With Kano’s leading position in terms of population, one wonders the percentage the state accounts in the cases and deaths.
Matching words with action, Governor Kwankwaso therefore developed a multi-pronged approach that will tackle the root cause, destroy the parasite itself and ensure general supply of effective and affordable drugs in the hospitals.
The long-abandoned vector control fumigation of yesteryears has now been revived in Kano. Enough vehicles, chemicals and equipment were bought, just as enough personnel were employed to go through every street and alley of the ancient city.
Apart from that, major channels in the state will soon be encapsulated and tiled. The famous Jakara stream will no longer bear its name, nor wear its ugly look, nor breed the parasitic vectors it bred for ages. The dream of the governor is to see that open drainages in the state, which are the breeding grounds of mosquitoes, are covered, tiled and become pedestrian walkways as obtained in the developed world.
Against this background, Governor Kwankwaso formed drainages committee which will identify the blockages and suggest ways of improving free flow of waste water in the state. With this, the perennial flood recorded in the state can be tackled. In a similar vein, another committee on interlocking is also working assiduously to make the state look neater.
Last week, the governor launched his administration’s flagship Malaria Control Programme, a few months after directing the state Ministry of Health to exit from from the 27 million US dollar loan obtained from the World Bank for the project by the previous administration.
Sourcing loans is not the trend of Kwankwaso administration, just as buffeting public funds in the name of “security vote” is outlawed by the government. The governor’s reason in abhorring loans is obvious as debt burden retards economic growth.
Known for brutal frankness and point-blank approach, Gov. Kwankwaso once told a World Bank senior official that Kano is exiting from the malaria loan. “As a matter of policy,” he told the official, “the state government is not taking any loan. What government is getting from IGR and other sources presently is enough to manage our health challenges. But exiting from the loan does not mean discarding the programme warts and all”.
Of course the government opted out of the loan without discarding the programme as it has enough resources in its kitty to execute the project. Aware of the perils of throwing the baby with bath water, the governor then developed a homegrown strategy and married it with the World Bank action plan.
Speaking during the launching of the malaria programme last week, Governor Kwankwaso said the government decided to continue the programme because malaria remains a major health challenge in the state, accounting for an estimated 30 percent child mortality and 11 percent maternal mortality.
“The disease has negative impact on the local and national economy by causing low productivity, absenteeism from school and work, resulting into economic loss of billions of naira annually. Because of the danger of malaria, we are putting in place our own Malaria Control Programme without any foreign loan. Action plan has been drafted and we welcome support from any well-meaning organization”, the governor stated.
He revealed that the state government is working closely with metropolitan local government councils in the state to address the scourge of the disease, while the state refuse disposal agency, REMASAB has been provided with adequate funds to enable it discharge its responsibility of keeping the environment clean and mosquito-free. While 80 dumpsites were purchased recently by the government, thousands of dustbins, as obtained in cities across the world, have dotted the city of Kano.
The governor therefore told the gathering that the state government recently awarded contract for channelling the Jakara River, which runs through five of the eight metropolitan local government areas, as part of deliberate strategies to address the menace of malaria, pointing out that a road would be constructed over the channel to improve transportation in Kano city. Contract worth N8.7 billion has been awarded for the Jakara river project.
He also appealed to people of the state to ensure that refuse is disposed the way it should be done to prevent malaria and other killer diseases, saying it is also necessary for them to make good use of health facilities provided by the government, as well as to patronize its reintroduced “Lafiya Jari”pharmacies for quality and affordable drugs.
Kwankwaso’s campaign promise of providing quality and affordable healthcare service to the people of Kano is steadily taking shape as not only those living in the urban areas but also the rural dwellers are benefiting. New urban and rural health centers are built, while the dilapidated ones are equipped and restructured. Government’s ambulances for the state’s Mobile Clinic Programme tagged “Kwankwasiyya Medical Outreach” are criss-crossing the state, covering major routes and strategic referral centres to reduce trauma associated with accidents and other emergencies.
While Kano doctors are now fully equipped to carry out surgeries, the dilapidated health infrastructures in the state are undergoing reconstructive surgeries by Gov. Kwankwaso, the surgeon-general of modern Kano. Apart from general overhaul of the structures and equipment, there is now constant supply of electricity in the hospitals. The Intensive Care Units (ICUs) are also standardized and qualified anesthesiologists/intensivists are recruited to man the units.
The government has also established a buoyant drug revolving fund to ensure steady supply of quality and affordable drugs to health facilities besides waging a war against prohibited and counterfeit drugs.
In view of our competing demands in the state, Kwankwaso devised a way of tackling the paucity of equipment in our hospitals. Some of the hospitals are now equipped with medical equipment and consumables worth millions of naira obtained free of charge from MedShare, a US based NGO, during the governor’s visit to their headquarters last year.
Of the 21 training institutes established by the present administration, three of them are health related. Additionally, government will establish two medical schools for Northwest University and Kano University of Science and Technology.
The achievements of the present administration in the health sector are as myriads as the vectors themselves. Now that the no-nonsense leader has waged a war against malaria, the mosquitos are surely on their mark…
