Abuja, 11 April 2018 - Nigeria’s Vice President, His Excellency Professor Yemi Osinbajo says Nigeria should be a priority for the World Health Organization (WHO).
Professor Osinbajo made the request when he received in audience, the Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Regional Directors and other Global Policy Group members of WHO at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on 11 April, 2018.

“We are in challenging times and in the next decade or two, we will have more challenges given that the population is growing along and this calls for a lot of work especially with regards to health of our citizens,” the Vice President said.

According to him “our focus on universal health care is in line with WHO’s vision and is one that we have chosen deliberately and there is no question in our minds that it is the way to go”.
On polio eradication, the Vice President assured the top hierarchy of WHO that Nigeria is working with relevant stakeholders with a fair amount of success to reach vulnerable children in areas made inaccessible due to insecurity adding, “We want to be as vigorous as possible and progress achieved will be irreversible”.

Earlier, the WHO’s Director-General in his remarks stated that Nigeria is a critical partner on the global stage because this country is driving health policy on the continent. He noted that WHO is committed to supporting Nigeria’s efforts on improving health care for vulnerable populations.

“Nigeria’s leadership has shown great vision in promoting universal health care coverage with the expansion of primary health care centres” Dr Tedros said. 

For her part,  Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa urged the Nigerian government  to transition the huge investments by donors and partners beyond polio eradication to saving lives and impacting positively on people’s health. 

WHO is holding its Global Policy Group (GPG) meeting in Nigeria for the first time from 10-12 April, 2018. The GPG consists of the Director-General, the Deputy Director-General and six Regional Directors. The Group is an internal advisory mechanism to the Director-General, established to ensure the coherent implementation of decisions, policies and strategies of WHO across all levels of the Organization.