Your Excellencies, Mr. Bill Gates, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Mr. Ambassador, Our Royal Fathers.
I am delighted to have such esteemed guests here at Government House in Kaduna State. Today, the per capita income of Kaduna State has momentarily risen due to the presence of the world’s richest man and the richest African. You are most welcome.
The business before us today is about achieving the highest calling of government: to create every opportunity for all families to live healthy and productive lives.
There are many ways in which we as State Governors are trying to do this. And they are all inter-related. These include creating employment, improving educational opportunities for all, particularly our girls and building accountability and sustainability in the health system. And getting life-saving vaccines to children to prevent killer diseases such as measles and pertussis.
Indeed, immunizing a child should be simple and routine. But across Nigeria, the health system has not been invested with the capacity to consistently provide even routine services at a high standard. This partnership is about changing that.
As State Governors, it is evident from the contributions of my colleagues that our key strategy is to ensure that a reliable supply of vaccines is delivered in the right quantities at the right time, with sustained potency, to our health facilities. And if we can do that for vaccines, we can deploy same for every other health commodity our people need.
Second, we have to ensure our health workers are well trained, managed, supervised and deployed in a rationale way. That’s particularly important when it comes to fighting infectious diseases, such as measles. Our goal in Kaduna State, for instance, is to achieve more than 80% coverage in every ward. So it won’t work if we provide immunization here in Kaduna, but fail to reach all children in far way Sanga.
Furthermore, it is essential that as State Governments we earn the trust of the community by delivering predictable, reliable health services if we want our citizens to come to the health facilities. By getting immunization right, we can ensure that families access other critical treatments against malaria, diarrhea and other common ailments.
Mr. Gates, Alhaji Aliko – I want to express our profound appreciation for the partnership you have extended to us today. We have come a long way together in the fight against polio – and we know we have to keep the pressure on the poliovirus for at least two more years. I am truly optimistic that we will remain polio-free.
And because of our success on polio, the door is open for us to focus on other key health services, starting with immunization. We have a lot of work to do, and I’m delighted that we are doing it together. I wish to acknowledge the contributions of the Gates Foundation–funded Clinton Health Access Initiative to our programme in Kaduna. We are open to all the support we can get, and you can be certain that Kaduna State is a responsible and responsive partner.
We are grateful for all you have done to support our states and our country, but we need more. We therefore appeal to you Mr. Gates and Alhaji Dangote to assist our state governments to revamp agriculture in the North, particularly livestock and rice production. We also need support to enhance the quality of data for decision-making. In Kaduna State, we have launched a state-wide data revolution, and we will welcome external support. There is no better group of people than Mr. Gates and Alhaji Aliko to enable this support to be realized.
Thank you for listening.
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