Wife of the Oyo state Governor, Florence Ajimobi, has restated her commitment to the eradication of malaria in the state. She gave this assurance on Wednesday during a courtesy call by the Malaria Action Plan team in Ibadan.
Recounting her activity during the campaign to distribute the insecticide treated nets in all the nooks and cranny of Ibadan, as well as across all the local government areas in the state, Mrs. Ajimobi said that she ensured that each family had at least two treated mosquito nets.
According to her, “After my investiture as Net Ambassador in the state in 2013, I ensured that each family in the state collected two treated mosquito nets. A malaria infested society or person cannot produce at an optimum level. Therefore, the higher the malaria prevalence, the lower the productivity of an individual or a society. And, this is not good for our society.”
Mrs Ajimobi emphasized how much the scourge of malaria must be fought stating that malaria does not only kill pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants and children but could also transform into other forms of ill-health such as blindness, paralysis, convulsion amongst others.
She assured the team of her maximum support and her willingness to collaborate with them in the distribution of mosquito treated nets to the people. She further assured the team that the wives of Local Government caretaker chairmen will be co-opted to join the team and be Net Ambassadors in their various jurisdictions.
Earlier, The Leader of the Team, Godwin Aidenagbon said the Malaria Action Plan team is poised to replace all the nets that were previously distributed in 2013 as they will no longer be effective in keeping mosquitoes away from the family.
He stated that the Federal Government is ready to reduce the frequency of malaria disease occurrence in Nigeria which is the reason for the partnership with USAID to give Net replacements to the vulnerable across Nigeria; in Oyo state, 4.3 million nets will be distributed.
Aidenagbon therefore appealed to Mrs Ajimobi to help with the campaign, awareness programme as well as mobilisation of people to come out and collect the treated Nets. Also, he urged her to be an advocate and openly endorse the Nets as effective tools to eradicate malaria.
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