Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof Kingsley Moghalu has congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari for establishing the End Malaria Council for Nigeria.
Prof Moghalu said, “I congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari on his laudable initiative of establishing the End Malaria Council for Nigeria headed by Aliko Dangote, in line with similar efforts globally and in Africa. The goal is to end malaria in Nigeria, which takes a huge economic toll in the form of productivity losses, by 2030”.
“I have always believed African countries should aim to end malaria in the continent in the same way the United States and several European countries did decades ago. As a senior official of the World Health Organization and Head of Global Partnerships & Resource Mobilization at the $20 billion Global Fund in Geneva in the mid-2000s, I also advocated this approach which is more strategic for Nigeria and Africa from a worldview standpoint. It’s unacceptable that Nigeria should have the world’s highest malaria burden at nearly 30% of the world’s total cases and 27% of global malaria deaths.”
“It will not be easy to eradicate malaria here, let’s not kid ourselves, what with a high degree of poverty, poor sanitation (open sewage and gutters) and ponds where mosquitoes breed. But with a combination of chemical spraying, some atomic radiation possibilities, and the availability of malaria vaccines, it can be done if we are serious enough. We can make Mal Aria (Latin for “bad air from the swamps” from which the word malaria comes) history.”