From Austin Ajayi,Yola.
As part of effort to further flattened the COVID-19 curve, Adamawa state government has inaugurated an advisory committee consisting of 21 traditional rulers and traditional council secretaries from the 21 local government areas of the state. Religious leaders were also part of the committee.
To this end, the state ministry of health organised a 2-Day sensitization and awareness meeting for traditional rulers and religious leaders on the need to curtail further spread of the disease.
The state, with the support of National Primary Heath Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), has over the few weeks been working hard to ensure that COVID-19 is flattened.
While inaugurating the committee, the state Commissioner for Health, Prof. Abdullahi Isa, charged them to improve on the efforts of sensitizing their subjects on the need to adhere to the COVID-19 protocols to help in maintaining the successes the state has recorded in fighting the spread of the disease.
Represented by Dr. John Stephen, the Commissioner applauded the traditional and religious leaders for the role they played in ensuring that Nigeria is certified polio free as well as curbing the spread of the Coronavirus disease.
He stressed that “there is no intervention that can succeed without the community adherence to rule for safety of our people.
“There is no way we can make meaningful impact without engaging our royal fathers, community leaders, religious leaders who are the key players at the community level, more especially on COVID-19, that is why I want to emphasize the importance of this particular sensitization,” he said.
The commissioner reiterates the damage caused by COVID-19 globally and how it has changed man’s daily activities while regretting the fact that “a lot of people still do not believe that COVID-19 is real.”
He congratulated the containment committee team in Adamawa state for the successes recorded so far.
Executive Chairman of the Adamawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Suleiman Bashir, in his remark, explained that the meeting was to further re-echo the commitment of the agency that the present reality requires extraordinary measures, particularly in containing either the spread or the consequence of COVID-19.
”We want to identify with this gathering and thank our royal fathers who have in one year or the other contributed to passing key messages that will help in either preventing the spread of this virus or even mitigating the consequences where it has manifested itself,” he said.
On her part, Hauwa Hassan who is UNICEF’s Communication for Development (C4D) Specialist from Bauchi field office, revealed UNICEF has been supporting Adamawa state in several interventions and is poised as maintaining the tempo.
Hauwa added that: ”We in UNICEF know how critical the role of the royal fathers and traditional rulers are and that is why we have asked for your graciousness to be in this meeting, and to also thank you for your contributions in tackling not only COVID but also polio and malaria.”
Some of the participants at the meeting applauded the organisers and development partners for the enlightenment while describing it as timely.
Several presentations were made by representatives of the NCDC, WHO, the Adamawa state COVID-19 Containment Committee on the use of Personal Protective Equipment, adherence to safety protocols, dangers of the disease and preventive measures.
