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| Ambassador Maiyegun (2nd left) surrounded by other officials of AU and WHO at a Press Briefing at the end of their Visit in Abuja |
The African Union said on
Saturday that Nigeria will host one of Africa’s Centre for Disease Control,
CDC.
Media
report continues:
Nigeria
was favoured to host one of the region’s CDC after AU experts appraised the
effectiveness of the Nigerian government in managing the Ebola scourge in 2014,
as well as the recent outbreak of Lassa Fever.
The
head of the AU delegation, Olawale Maiyegun, informed correspondents that his
team came to Nigeria with a checklist of requirements that Nigeria needed to
fulfil before the AU committee on CDC could ratify its nomination as one of the
5 approved collaborative regional centres for Africa-CDC.
“We
are satisfied with our findings that Nigeria can be able to take on the triple
responsibility of running the Nigeria-CDC, the Regional-CDC and African-CDC”,
said Maiyegun, a Director in charge of Social Affairs AU Commission.
“The
Ebola outbreak in West Africa, provided the impetus and the Heads of States and
governments of the AU together with the executive council decided to fast track
the establishment of the African-CDC.
In
2014, the Heads of states and government of the African Union at a Special
summit on HIV, TBN and malaria, decided upon the need for an African Centre for
Disease Control that will conduct lifesaving research, that will also have the
capability for disease detection, surveillance and response.
In
January 2015, the Assembly also reaffirmed and asked the African Union to get
to work; even though they gave clear instructions on the nature of the
Africa-CDC that is to be setup.
“They
want an African-CDC that will not reinvent the will, but build on an existing
structure that will leverage on existing assets on ground”, Mr. Maiyegun said.
The
concept approved by the African leaders in January 2015, was to have a
coordinating office inside the AU headquarters in Addis-Ababa with five
regional collaborating centres, each bringing certain capabilities, asset and
values to the work of the African-CDC.
And
the ministers of health of each member countries had recommended criteria for
the selection of the regional collaborating centres and which country was to
host the regional centres.
“We
have to start with five – but they could be more than that as the CDC expands,”
said the Nigerian AU officer Maiyegun. “Each regions of Africa was to nominate
the centres for the African-CDC; and we received nominations from all the five
regions of the continents.
“Central
African has nominated Gabon; East Africa nominated Kenya; North Africa
nominated Egypt; the Southern African region nominated Zambia and West Africa
Nominated Nigeria.
“The
AU team has to visit the countries proposed to host the regional centres for
African-CDC for on the spot assessment to ensure they meet the criteria
contained in the article 26 of the CDC statue.
“The
purpose of our mission is to see whether the Nigeria CDC which also doubles as
a regional CDC for West Africa has indeed met those criteria contained in the
statue. We are not comparing the countries hosting the African-CDC with each
other, but we are evaluating and assessing them viz a viz the criteria
contained in the statue.
The
team’s point of reference was to assess “Government commitment, Human Resources,
The infrastructure and Funding.”
“In
all these, we are happy to note that there is strong commitment in the part of
the government of the federal Republic of Nigeria and that was clearly
demonstrated by the two ministers. We have seen the legal frame work and the
one that is being put in place , which we feel is very strong and we hope that
the efforts that will be made in the legal frame work to reflect the regional
dimension of the Nigeria-CDC to be seen not only the Nigerian CDC but a regional
one for West Africa, and a regional collaborating centre for the African CDC.
“We
are happy to note that from what we have seen on ground that indeed the
Nigeria-CDC can take those responsibilities that is about to be entrusted to
it.
“We
also looked at some of the strength that they are bringing to the table, we
have found that they are bringing in strong human resources, a strong and
powerful field epidemiological and laboratory training – which is a huge asset
that will help in the fulfilment of the core capacity of the international
health regulation.
One
of the challenges that may affect the smooth running and sustenance of the
Nigerian-CDC office is that the country has been notorious in not fulfilling
its agreement on counterpart funding.
Mr.
Maiyegun said his team strongly hopes the Nigerian government’s commitment
“will be translated into proper funding.”
“We
will need more indication of continued funding, which is the strong political
commitment being translated into budgetary support and financial allocation.”
The
committee said Nigeria has an edge over other African countries to earn its
coordinating status because it has some key healthcare infrastructures that
other don’t have.
“Nigeria
has a very strong Emergency Operating Centre (EOC) dedicated to polio; and
government will need to decide on putting it at the disposal of West Africa and
the continent as a whole and begin to use it for the larger public health under
the CDC. We see this as a very powerful asset that Nigeria can put at the disposal.
Unlike other four African countries hosting the sub-regional CDC centres, Mr. Maiyegun said the CDC
facility in Nigeria could function as a centre with triple obligations: for
Nigeria, as a regional hub and as Africa’s CDC coordination centre.
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