G. D. CHANRAI MEMORIAL HOSPITAL is breaking the frontier of medico-humanitarian services in Adamawa State. Recently, it provided free medical care and palliatives to members of the community and its environs. Our Correspondent, EMMANUEL SAMUEL, who attended the event, sent in this report.

Celebration and jubilation took over Ngurore community, a suburb in Yola South Local Government Area of Adamawa State as Govinda D. Chanrai Memorial Hospital provided free medical care and palliatives to members of the community and its environs.  Govinda D. Chanrai Memorial Hospital, who is battle set to reduce maternal mortality in Nigeria, is blazing the trail in providing quality health care delivery to reduce maternal mortality rate in Nigeria.

Govinda Chanrai Memorial Hospital was founded by AFCOT Nig. Ltd. producers of the favorite SUNOLAR Vegetable Cotten Oil which was a house hold name in the then Gongola State, and Tulis Chanarai Foundation (TCF) a Kewalran group. It was also gathered that the hospital was established in honor of Govinda D. Chanrai who died along Yola – Gombe road 10 years ago as a result of lack of oxygen. Today the hospital has in the last one year treated over 5,649 children, 1887 infants and 7,424 mothers and 1987 patients recorded 33 deaths as at today. The hospital has 22 bed space with well equip structures and medicament for patients, 3 medical doctors 4 Health care workers 3 drivers on standby, 1 storekeeper and over 40 staff in the hospital.

The services render including free medical service for pregnant women and children under the age of one. According to Dr. Ubong Shammah “we render Health services, maternal and child health, we also take care of children and pregnant women. Our services are all free. We offer free delivery to women who come for labor. We take about 30 successful deliveries every month and when you multiply by twelve months you know how many in a year”.

“Maternal mortality is not common in this area, if we come across such cases; we take them to Federal Medical Center Yola. We have 3 drivers who are always here on standby”.

Available records show that in the last one year, the Hospital recorded only 3 maternal mortality deaths   from 7,424 patients attended to during the period. Dr. Ubong  Shammah, a medical Resident Doctor in the Hospital said the Hospital has over 40 staff with three medical doctors and an exasperate reaches  out to 65 villages and 5084 households in Yola south alone,

Ubong said the hospital also provides free oxygen for patients who are in need for 24 hours as this is the only hospital you get this treatment. “we do not carry out surgical operation here in the hospital but we refer cases to FMC with our ambulance on standby for 24 hours daily, the doctor who explain further that hospital also carries out routine immunization for children 0-5 years old in conjunction with the federal  and Adamawa state government at no cost. He added that the hospital records between 50- 100 patients every day, we have HIV counseling unit as well as DOT center for the treatment of TB.

In an interview with the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Tulis Chanrai Foundation (TCF) Mr. Shravan Kumar Kasam said the foundation which is funded by the Kewalran Group and supported by Afcot Limited, is giving back to the society what they have benefitted from the host community,   noting that the group has being in Nigeria for over 120 years and the best way to give back is to compliment the efforts of the governments in providing quality and affordable health services to the people. He added that:

“It is worthy of note that because the chairman of the group died here in Nigeria as a result of lack of oxygen when he had a road accident, the family decided to have a 24/7 free oxygen for any patient who have respiratory  problem, this we have attained in the last 10 years  of the hospital in Yola”.

Commenting on Challenges, he said the major challenge is malnutrition especially among under five children.

“We attribute it to poverty, so we are calling on the government to step into this matter. We have no issue of COVID 19. In fact we have a table outside there where we educate them on the need to sanitize their hands.

We give free NAN to babies from zero to 9 months. The truth is that their parents cannot afford that. When you ask questions you discover that the father is a farmer. Some come all the way from Jimeta and Demsa to access the hospital and to receive treatment”. He said.

Speaking on Security of the staff, he said “One of our staff was kidnapped and later she found her way back home. In fact they came looking for our staff that stays in the quarters, they took her away to the forest and as God would have it, she spent not less than 24 hours and she came back. Also one of our staff was beaten by bandits. So insecurity in Nigeria is everywhere.  We have 16 outposts all over Yola south, scattered all over in the bushes. We run the hospital without any assistance from the government or anybody except for vaccines that Yola South gives us. We have water; we have light 24 hours as you can see.

“This hospital is one of the best hospitals I have worked with. I started in Calabar to FMC Yola and now GD memorial hospital” He stated.

Hajiya Sadatu Adamu, 25 years old who gave birth a few hours before this reporter visited the hospital said

“My appreciation goes to Almighty God for safe delivery. I must thank this hospital for the quality service they give us. From my anti natal to the point of delivery, it has been very good experience…. Today, I and my baby are alive. The oxygen they gave my daughter after her delivery is what saved my child, where would I have gotten the money to buy this oxygen? The visibly happy Sadatu asked rhetorically.

Dr. Luke Oghweniale, a staff of the Hospital also spoke his mind. “In thick populated places like Ngurore you can get as much as 15 Patients one at a time. Meanwhile they are so many other facilities that the hospital carries out, such as antenatal care, under pipe care. They also do malnutrition delivery services supervised by us. When they contact us we go there. It just cut across the things that we do here. We have about 16 facilities lay out spread across three wards, in Namtari District.” He said.

Chanrai Memorial Hospital is an NGO that is single handedly championing the fight against maternal mortality, by putting smiles on the faces of the community member in Yola South LGA in Adamawa State by providing palliatives including medicated soap, toiletries, tissues, hand sanitizers, and face mask among others to patients. The hospital has distinguished itself from other major health centers/hospitals that charge exorbitantly for drugs and medical services.

Memories of the good gesture rendered by Govinda D. Chanrai Memorial Hospital will linger in the minds of the Ngurore community forever; even as communities look up to other hospitals in Adamawa State to take a lead from G. D. Chanrai Memorial Hospital.

 By Jethro Yerga

The Management of Nobis, a Private Eye Care Centre situated in Jalingo, Taraba State has taken a very bold step towards reducing cases of blindness in Taraba State.

The Medical Director of the Eye Care Centre, Dr. Gideon Avar, disclosed the decisions of the Eye Care Centre where he dedicated to God a Very Important Persons (VIP) Storey Building which he added in the facility last Sunday.

The Director said the Centre is trying its best to see how it could establish partnership with other similar centers in order to maintain excellent services in our facility.

“We want to get so specialized so that people who travel from here to other places to access eye care services can have it treated here. We are at the moment discussing with Ecwa Hospital in Kano. As time goes on, we shall be engaging the services of Eyes Foundation Super Centres in Nigeria, and some specialists in India to help render superb Eye Care Services to our patience in Taraba State.” He said.

Dr. Gideon Avar stated that the center was doing all it could to also train more personnel in various cadres for effective eye care of the good people of Taraba State.

He noted that the National Blindness and Vision Survey that was conducted sometimes in 2006/2007 showed clearly that Taraba State was one of the list states in terms of Eye Care Services as the state has only few Eye Care Facilities, few ophthalmologist and few personnel. The director identified cataract as the leading cause of blindness, but noted that it could be cured through surgery.

“Every year we do up to 3000 eye surgeries in Nobis out of which cataract accounts for about 2000 of these surgeries. There is also Glaucoma which is also one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness. Some people who have Glaucoma most at times don’t even know that they carried it until they finally get blind. So the best thing is to access a good facility and have your eyes checked in order to prevent the silent killer, Glaucoma.” He called. Dr. Avar charged governments at all levels to intensify efforts in fighting insecurity in the country in order to save many of the patients from total blindness as they finds it difficult to access the facility for treatment because of insecurity.

In his comment, the Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Nkantah Edet described Nobis as the best Eye Centre in the State so far in terms of facilities. He expressed satisfaction that Glaucoma which is the second major cause of blindness in the world has gotten a place in Taraba State to be diagnosed. The chairman called on the Medical Director (MD) of Nobis Eyes Centre to take advantage of the world Glaucoma Day of 2021 and assist in screening the vulnerable people to detect patients suffering from glaucoma.

During a brief exhortation in honour of the occasion, the District Overseer, Redeemed People’s Mission Jalingo, Pastor Livinus Obi who dedicated the building to God, said the Eye Care Centre was of God. He appreciated the Medical Director, Gideon Avar for putting up such gigantic projects in just a few spate of time and called on people to patronize the facility.

Reading from the book of James 1:17, the man of God maintained that every good and perfect healing comes from God as such, he employed the Medical Director of the Eye Centre, his workers and all the patients in the Centre to always call on God even as they do their possible best through human endeavors.

By Christiana Babayo

The Executive Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has recently discouraged the use of the Covid 19 vaccine in the country. In his words, “…they want to use the covid-19 vaccines to introduce the disease that will kill you and us” and the impact of the comment on Nigerians cannot be ignored as he is a person a lot of people have great regard for.

This comment came at the time when the Nigerian government has released 10bn to support domestic vaccine production and also revealed that it is expecting at least 100,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech approved Covid19 vaccines by the end of January 2021.

On a global scale, nine vaccines have been authorized by at least one national regulatory authority for public use and as of January 14th 2021, 32.64 million doses of Covid 19 vaccine had been administered worldwide based on official reports from National Health Agencies.

In Nigeria however, the numbers are still on the rise as NCDC reports that as of the 19th of January 2021, there were 1301 new cases and 15 deaths recorded. The global figure counts in millions and still there are controversies here and there concerning the vaccine and treatment.

It can be recalled that in 2020, former President, Donald Trump of the United States of America stirred the hornets’ nest when he descended on the World Health Organization, by announcing that, his country will withdraw the funding of the organization if it did not come up with a workable policy on the treatment of Covid-19. President Trump also accused the WHO for complexity in the pandemic, alleging that it is covering up china concerning the outbreak of the pandemic and also for their failure to make the requested and greatly needed reforms.

President Trump and the WHO also disagreed on the treatment formula of the virus. When Trump recommended hydrochroloquine as the treatment solution, WHO said the drug has side effects and therefore dangerous for human consumption. Finding a cure or vaccine to the pandemic seems to be taking longer than the world imagined it would and the world is becoming impatient. Even the treatment measures on ground have controversies surrounding them.

Some people in Nigeria have even resorted to the traditional means of keeping themselves healthy or preventing the virus, like bathing with salt water, using herbs and other traditional remedies. This does not look good for the wellbeing of people.

There was an ongoing clinical trial in 2020 organized by the World Health Organization and other bodies called the “Solidarity’, which aims at finding a cure to the pandemic. The treatment is meant to compare four different treatment options and assess their relative effectiveness against covid19.  The treatment options are, Remdesivir, Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Lopinavir/Ritonavir with interferon beta-1a and finally hydroxychloroquine. Through this, they can be able to discover whether any of the drugs slow disease progression or improve survival. The good news is that while randomized clinical trial will take years to design, the solidarity trial will reduce the time taken by 80%.

In Nigeria, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), insist that it will continue to apply the hydroxychloroquine as Clinical trials in Nigeria. Speaking to newsmen in Abuja, the Director of the agency, Mrs Adeyeye, said there are proven records that hydroxychloroquine has been effective in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. “There is data to prove that hydroxychloroquine worked for many COVID-19 patients…“Therefore, we would continue our own clinical trials in Nigeria.” The Director-General said.

During this second wave, the former vaccine may not be suitable as experts have said that the second wave will be more severe than the first wave and we can already see it with the rising figures.

The Director General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebrehesus decried the inequity in global vaccine distribution. He said that it is not right that young and healthy people in wealthy countries should receive vaccinations before older people and healthcare workers in poorer countries. He went further to say that just 25 doses have been given in one lowest income country. He described the situation as catastrophic moral failure.

Meanwhile as the WHO continues to procrastinate on the treatment pattern of the pandemic, which is roundly described as fighting and unseen enemy, the casualty rate keeps depleting world population and crumbling the economies of many nations.

By Christiana Babayo

The Director General of Taraba AIDS Control Agency (TACA), Dr Garba has affirmed that he wants to leave behind a TACA that is more vibrant with a sustainable system at every stage of development that can possibly further reduce the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in the state by the time his tenure elapsed.

The DG stated this while interacting with Newmission correspondents in his office in Jalingo recently.

He stated that the agency is not new to him. Reiterating that he had served in the agency in different capacities, as such he is familiar with the challenges and strengths of the agency which he can leverage on.

The Dr. said before he assumed office as the DG TACA, he had served the state in different capacities beginning from the year 1999. He served in the cottage hospital Sunkani as Principal Medical Officer, with Health Systems Development Project (WorldBank) and several other projects before he became the DG of the agency.

Speaking on the statistics on HIV/AIDS in the state, Dr Garba said the situation has improved but has not gotten to the level they expected it to be.

According to him, “The National HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Survey (NARHS), sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Health and partners in 2012 showed that the HIV prevalence in Taraba state was 10.5%,while Nigerian HIVAIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) also sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Health but supported by other partners, reported HIV prevalence of 2.9% in Taraba state.

“I was the zonal coordinator for northeast in that NAIIS survey, I led almost over 350 field staff, we moved to different states for 6 months testing for HIV in the Northeast. It was that survey that placed Taraba at 2.9%”.

Dr. Garba who said about 46,000 people living with HIV are receiving medication in the state, however expressed fear that there may be many other people out there that may not know their status.

While outlining some of the innovations the agency has introduced to help it to be visible to the outside world, Dr. Garba noted that, TACA has created a website to enable it showcase whatever it is doing to the global community.

He said they have also developed social media handles including Watsapp groups, Facebook and twitter pages since they are providing social services.

The Dr. said apart from these
developments, he is working tirelessly to ensure that everyone working in the agency takes responsibility, as they are the ones that would make TACA look serious and attract the support of partners.

Dr. Garba applauded the contribution of the State Governor, Arc Darius Dickson Ishaku towards the agency. He said it is because of the level of passion the Governor has on the well being of the Taraba people that he is facilitating the movement of TACA staff to the new TACA office complex, aside from many other facilities put in place to help the state do well in health sector.

As a call to the people living with the HIV virus and the general public, Dr Garba maintained that, they have placed priority on counseling in the state health facilities to help people come to terms with the situation and understand that, living with HIV virus is not a death sentence.

He encouraged victims to shun stigma and follow the right procedures to live longer, as they can get married and have their own children who can turn out to be negative as long as the pregnant women attend antenatal clinics. Maintaining that stigma killed faster than the virus.

Dr. Garba expressed hope that by the time another statistics is taken in the state, the number of people living with HIV would reduce even as he noted that the statistics on the north east alone shows Taraba State has the highest HIV prevalence.

The Chairman of the technical committee on Covid-19, Dr Innocent Vakkai said this while addressing journalists in Jalingo.

The Chairman showed his appreciation to the health workers, security personnels and the press for their relentless efforts in the fight against this pandemic. ” i want to thank you all, frontline workers for standing with us to fight this pandemic. Today we have no case of this virus in the state. It is thanks to all of you” he said.

Dr Vakkai also mentioned during the briefing that Taraba state is among the 5 states to have record the least cases of the COVID 19 and thankfully all the cases recorded have been discharged and the state is void of the virus. He also mentioned that even among the 18 previous cases, only one is Taraban.

The Committee appreciated the support from the government under the adminitration of His Excellency, Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku in the fight againts this pandemic. Dr Vakkai encouraged Tarabans to still maintain the COVID 19 guidelines so as to prevent contracting the virus anywhere.

By Williams Ayooso

Since it was published in 1978, the Primary Health Care concept has undergone different stages of administrative surgeries, depending on the health needs of nations, countries and communities. But basically, it was conceptualized to serve as a grass-root management approach to providing health care services to communities.

The approach, as the concept stipulates, is to address the main health problems in the community, by providing preventive, curative and rehabilitative services at the grass-root level.

Primary Health Care initiative is agreed upon, globally, as a noble health care concept. The challenge however, has being the implementation strategy which in many communities, has rendered the concept ineffective. However, some public health administrators around the world are doing their best to overcome the challenges that posed on the successful implementation of this noble health care concept. Alhaji Aminu Jauro Hassan is one of them.

Since he assumed the mantle of leadership, on the 23rd February 2015, as the Pioneer Executive Secretary of the Taraba State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Hassan has never relented in deploying his skills and commitment to ensure that the agency’s goal succeeds in Taraba State.

Through his efforts, the Agency has hit the bar of success as a Primary Health Care Agency with at least one Health Care in each of the 168 wards in the state, operating 24 hours per day. This is a PHC’s global policy that poses a great challenge to other communities. But the Jauro Hassan led leadership have overcome the challenge. He is now pushing for other reforms and administrative strategies that can consolidate the gains that the agency has made in the state under his watch.

Like in every organization, the Agency had its measure of challenges. But Jauro Hassan broke the crust and changed the narrative. The agency, as Jauro Hassan told our reporter, in an exclusive interview, never had any budget allocation from the beginning. It relied so much on partners for support and funding. But respite came on its way subsequently. But this was until when development partners discovered that the agency is fully repositioned and the state government allocated a budget to it.

At present, it is a norm that the Primary Health Centers are working in collaboration with the nine General Hospitals in the state. As such, cases that cannot be managed by these health care centers are sent to the General Hospitals for proper management, after which they are referred back to the Primary Health Care centers, as the case may be.

After all, the Jauro Hassan led agency has an administrative structure with the capacity to deliver. At present, there are six functional departments in the agency. They are: Department of Community Health, Department of Primary Health care, Department of Immunization and Disease Control, Health Plan Research and Statistics. It also has different program units which comprises of; maternal and child health, family planning, immunization and nutrition among others.

With this heap of achievements, Jauro is not pumping his fist in the direction of his glory. He is attributing the success story to the support and cooperation of other stakeholders.

“To achieve this, I continue to liaise with the Head of Service, Civil Service Commission, Local Government Commission and indeed the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and the Secretary to the State Government… Not only that, the State Ministry of Health which is our mother ministry is supporting us a lot.” He said.

But Executive Secretary spoke more on the support from the Executive Governor of Taraba State.

“Taraba State Government under the leadership of His Excellency Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku has given us the enabling environment. If the governor had not given us such environment, those partners working here in Taraba state and particularly in the Agency, wouldn’t have worked with us.

“Taraba State Government has been consistent in releasing funds as at when due and on timely basis. He has personally attended to all our flag up ceremonies. That goes a long way to show his political will and commitment. He has been consistent in providing these funds. That is the reason why all the partners have also keyed in, to ensure that funding to the agency does not seize.

“As I am speaking to you, the UNICEF is the major funder of the Primary Health Care Development Agency. Through UNICEF we have succeeded in providing so many interventions to the teaming populace of Taraba state which includes IMCF, ICCM, Maternal and Child Health, immunization nutrition activities and a host of other things. We couldn’t have achieved all these, if His Excellency has not been forth coming…”

Sitting on this heap of achievements, is Jauro Hassan satisfied with the Agency’s impact on the health needs of the people of Taraba State?

“Deep within me, I can say that I am satisfied, due to what we put together; but not completely, because we are not yet there” He told our reporter.

“We want to ensure that we keep a legacy and create an enabling environment so that people can know where to go and get their services and also reduce out of pocket expenses. For us to achieve that, we must do more. But I have to appreciate the fact that we have achieved a lot, looking at where we started.

“When I took over, the immunization coverage was below 16% but now we have recorded about 82% coverage of the state in terms of immunization. Immunization is just one aspect of it. I use immunization as the backbone of our service delivery which is free and efficient.

“Another example is the Hard to Reach Project. The Hard to Reach Project is an initiative of His Excellency Arch. Darius Dickson Ishaku in collaboration with the Canadian Government and the UNICEF. A quantum of money was set aside for partnership and collaboration with counterparts coming from the state. The state baseline survey was conducted across the state, whereby it was realized that we have about 650 hard to reach ends. I believe you understand what we mean by hard to reach. But this goes beyond your imagination. Only someone who has being there will appreciate what I am saying.

“These are people living behind riverine areas, mountain areas, behind thick forest and what have you, who have never received medical attention or seen health personnel before. And their distance with health facilities is up to 30 – 40 kilometers. Thus, accessing those facilities becomes a problem. It may interest you to know that those services were delivered free of charge. We handled that project for a period of three years and it was a very successful one.

“Not only that, we have changed the narratives of our approach toward providing integrated Primary Health care services across all the 16 LGAs through capacity building of our staff, training, among other activities, providing them with all the necessary requirements, not 100%, but at least maximally to the level that they will appreciate.

“This is the reason why the patients in various hospitals have reduced, because they trust our Primary Health Care centers. The environments are hospitable, the drugs are there, the diagnoses units are there and they have proper diagnoses and also effective and qualitative drugs are being administered to them.” He said.

After his community health education at the famous ABU Zaria, Jauro Hassan proceeded to Federal University of Technology Yola (FUTY) where he read Health Administration and again to MAUTECH to read Bsc in Community Health. From there, the Community Health professional went to Taraba State University, where he obtained MSC in Health Economics. Aside these, he has attended national and international courses, obtained many certificates, among which is International Certificate in Decentralization from the Harvard University in the United States of America, International Certificate on performance Based Financing (PBF) and Sinna Health International from Kenya, among others.

Alhaji Aminu Jauro Hassan has a background in Public Health, which he started at the lower lungs of the ladder as the Community Health Care Assistant, from where he raised to the level of Health Economist. He has capped up his eventful career with a 34 year working experience in the Primary Health Care environment.

As a pioneer leader of this agency, Jauro wants to leave behind, a State Primary Health Care Development Agency that has a solid foundation and a workforce that will stand the test of time, providing integrated Primary Health Care Delivery that will translate into reduction of maternal mobility and mortality in the state.

Williams Ayooso is an Abuja based Media Practitioner

Alhaji Jauro Hassan is married, a marriage that is blessed with children.

Enjoy, as you peruse through the full text of the interview.

As a pioneer leader of this agency in Taraba state, what have you done so far to actualize the mandate of this agency?
Let us look at it from the background of the creation of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency. Taraba State never had a functional or existing agency, not until the coming on board of the then Governor Sani Abubakar Danladi who stayed for just a while and subsequently, the coming on board of the present Governor of Taraba State, Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku. Back then, I was the Director of Primary Health Care at the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. Governor Darius was the one who pushed for the establishment of the primary health care center. We felt that Taraba state was almost left behind so we pushed until it saw the light of the day and His Excellency keyed in.

I was appointed on the 23rd February 2015 as the pioneer Executive Secretary of the agency. We have been given the mandate to, reposition the agency as an agency of the government that is saddled with the responsibility of providing health care services to the entire people of Taraba state. Looking at the fact that health is generally divided into three: primary, secondary and tertiary health care and majority of the population lives in the rural areas. That is why the Primary Health care is given that responsibility to carter for these people. That is the general mandate of the agency. The agency has about 10 components, but they are summed up into 4: preventive services, curative services, rehabilitative services and promoting services. These are services that we render to ensure that we get across the whole state.

Now having that mandate, the responsibility now rest on my shoulder as Executive Secretary, to reposition the agency. To achieve this, I continue to liaise with the Head of Service, Civil Service Commission, Local Government Commission and indeed the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and the Secretary to the State Government to ensure that the essence which this agency is established is accomplished. It has not been easy; it has been a very difficult and demanding task. But we give glory to God because we have succeeded in repositioning the agency for the benefit of humanity. And indeed it has been made possible through the enabling environment that the Governor, His Excellency Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku has given us. More to that, it is pertinent to mention that presently we have six functional departments in the agency which comprises of Department of Community Health, Department of Primary Health care, Department of Immunization and Disease Control, Health Plan Research and Statistics, and the Department of Admin and Finance which is been headed by the Director of Admin who doubles as the Secretary of the agency. We also have different program units which comprises of; maternal and child health, family planning, immunization and nutrition among others which all works for the attainment of the agency’s goal.

We are presently working to ensure that the agency is giving a list of life. What I mean is that, the agency has a budget line dedicated to the agency. This is because, in the first two years, we never had any budget allocation. We relied so much on our partners for support and funding, but subsequently, when our partners discovered that the agency has come of age, and it is fully repositioned, then the state government decided to give us a budget allocation. We have a subject and a head that is being used to provide these services across board and the areas of our services cut across the 16 LGAs having 168 wards and 1048 health facilities. But we have cut the number of health facilities through what is called “MSP” Minimum Service Package, considering the fact that , the more we allow more number of health facilities to exist, coupled with the fact that we have challenges with human resource for health, we will not be able to man or handle those resources adequately and provide quality health services and also because it is a national norm that all states should at least produce a working plan in line with the MSP which we did and subsequently the number of our health facilities dropped down to 168, that is one PHC functional per ward. This is because; we want to align with the policy of one PHC per ward, working 24 hours per day.

More to that, what we have achieved so far is repositioning the PHC. About 90 wards, out of the 168 are functional. Thank God, thanks to World Bank and indeed thanks to His Excellency the Governor of Taraba State for the conducive environment for the repositioning. These Primary Health Centers are working in collaboration with nine General Hospitals, so that cases that cannot be managed by these health care centers can be sent to the General Hospital for proper management after which they will be referred back to the Primary Health Care centers and we are also having international collaborations. That is how far we have gone.

Looking at these efforts and your service delivery initiatives, are you satisfied with the impact of the agency on the health needs of the people of Taraba State?
I will say I am satisfied, but we are not yet there. This is because if you look at the diversity of the state and the perception of some people at the national level, Taraba is like an orphan state. I say so because none of the partners wants to come to Taraba state due to the wrong impression given to them about the state. There is no part of the country that does not have its own problems peculiar to it. But in the case of Taraba, its own issues have been overblown to the extent that partners don’t want to come to the state.

Back to your question, deep within me I can say that I am satisfied due to what we put together but not completely because we are not yet there. We want to ensure that we keep a legacy and create an enabling environment so that people can know where to go and get their services and also reduce out of pocket expenses. For us to achieve that, we must do more. But I have to appreciate the fact that we have achieved a lot, looking at where we started. When I took over, the immunization coverage was below 16% but now we have recorded about 82% coverage of the state in terms of immunization. Immunization is just one aspect of it. I use immunization as the backbone of our service delivery which is free and efficient. Another example is the Hard to Reach Project. The Hard to Reach Project is an initiative of His Excellency Arch. Darius Dickson Ishaku in collaboration with the Canadian Government and the UNICEF. A quantum of money was set aside for partnership and collaboration with counterparts coming from the state and indeed the state base line survey was conducted across the state, whereby it was realized that we have about 650 hard to reach ends. I believe you understand what we mean by hard to reach, but this goes beyond your imagination. Only one who has being there will appreciate what I am saying. These are people living behind riverine areas, mountain areas, behind thick forest and what have you, who have never received medical attention or seen health personnel before and their distance with health facilities is up to 30 – 40 kilometers, thus, accessing those facilities becomes a problem. So based on the initiative of the governor, these are the first strata of people that His Excellency is directing us to, and it may interest you to know that those services were delivered free of charge. We handled that project for a period of three years and it was a very successful one.

Not only that, we have changed the narratives of our approach toward providing integrated Primary Health care services across all the 16 LGAs through capacity building of our staff, training, among other activities and also providing them with all the necessary requirements although not 100% but at least maximally to the level that they will appreciate and will also give them the enabling environment to strive and provide those services. This is the reason why the patients in various hospitals have reduced because they trust our Primary Health Care centers. The environments are hospitable, the drugs are there, the diagnoses units are there and they have proper diagnoses and also the elements and effective and qualitative drugs are being administered to them. Through the Nigeria steady investment project, what we do is N-ship, as the name implies it is home based services that provides and allows the facilities to perform independently. We don’t even buy drugs for them. All we do is to allow them develop what we call a work plan. What this means is that, access your own facility, tell us what your problem is, I don’t have cotton wool, I don’t have seat, I don’t have BP apparatus, drugs, Stethoscope, chairs etc. You just send it to us, we look at it holistically, we will give you approval and money will be sent into your account, ensuring that the needful is done in collaboration with the ward development committee because there must be what we call community buy in and community linkage and that is why it has been very successful.

We have also given our health facilities the capacity to hire and fire. If you think you have shortage of human resources and you think you don’t have laboratory technicians, you don’t have midwives the staffs are not there, capture that in your plan and tell us how much you are going to pay them, we will give you the money to employ and you will keep on managing. When you go to our PHC’s you will find out that our staff are up and doing working 24hours a day to ensure that all is done and they are working in collaborating with the ward health development.

To what extent is the Taraba State government supporting the agency?
The Taraba State Government under the leadership of His Excellency Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku as earlier stated has given us the enabling environment. Why do I say so? This is because if the governor had not given us such environment, those partners working here in Taraba state and particularly in the agency with us wouldn’t have worked with us. Because whenever there is an issue of health, it is expected that the government also will give its funding. So the Taraba state government has been consistent in releasing funds as at when due and on timely basis. He has personally attended to all our flag up ceremonies. That goes a long way to show his political will and commitment. He has been consistent in providing these funds and that is even the reason why all the partners have also keyed into ensure that funding to the agency does not seize. As I am speaking to you, the UNICEF is the major funder of the Primary Health Care Development Agency. Through UNICEF we have succeeded in providing so many interventions to the teaming populace of Taraba state which includes IMCF, ICCM, Maternal and Child Health, immunization nutrition activities and a host of other things. We could have achieved all these if His Excellency has not been forth coming. So the prominent and most of the majority partners in Taraba state are WHO, UNICEF, IPAS, the Challenge Initiative , CDC, Mario Stack and host of others.

And not only that, though also the State Ministry of Health which is the mother ministry that we are working under, we have what we call SOME, (saving one million lives) project which is also a World Bank project that also support in the area of reduction of malarial infection and increase uptake of family planning commodities, nutritional aspect and a host of other things. Through that collaboration, we have also succeeded in providing adequate services to the teaming populace of Taraba State. So we are fully repositioned to advance the cause of providing integrated healthcare to the teaming group for Taraba State by the grace of god and through the sole cooperation of his Excellency the executive governor of Taraba State

What are the challenges?
You see, we can’t say after all these successes that we don’t have challenges, we have. The first challenge we have faced as a state and as an agency is security, we have security challenge because there are some pockets of local governments and settlements that we are unable to reach because of the simple fact that there are a lot of security challenges in those areas. But be it as it may, we are trying all we could to collaborate with the security agencies and regional groups in those domains to ensure that at least we reach out with these very important services which are free. Then the second challenge has to do with human resource for health, skilled manpower. If you look at the number of years the state was created to date, many staffs that are technical have retired from service, and some have transferred their services to other organizations seeking for greener pastures. These vacuum that has been created has been a challenge to us because as I told you earlier, we have over one thousand health facilities but we have decided not to close all the facilities but to ensure that our emphasis is on one PCM per ward and this one PCM per ward requires the compliment of 9 trained staff per facility which comprises of midwifes, two midwives or four midwives, 6 Community Health Workers and what have you. But the fact that we do not have much, that poses a challenge to us. But we are trying to ensure that we make do with what is available and then ensure that there is proper distribution of these staff to ensure that we cater for our populace. But be that as it may, I want at this juncture, to appreciate His Excellency because just in the last one or two years, he gave waiver to nurses and he has also graciously extended that waiver to the State Primary Care Development Agency workers that are due for retirement to also work for the next two years.

Their retirement will not be stopped; they will also be allowed three years so as to enable them to mentor those that will be coming on board. Because he has given us an administrative approval to employ so that will help us to bridge that gap. That is also another factor. Then another factor has to do with office accommodation but to God be the glory this is where we are today though we are occupying an office that belongs to TACA but at least we are okay and we are looking forward to having our own office accommodation one day. Then another aspect of challenge is for people to understand exactly what are our mandate, what is expected of us and what is expected of them is also a challenge. What I mean is community linkage and collaboration. Then we are also working assiduously to ensure that community take ownership. It is one thing for the government to construct to renovate, to provide but the maintenance and to ensure that those facilities are judiciously put to use is vested on the community because the government will not do it alone, we need to collaborate and we need the community to also support whatever the government is doing for the benefit of all of us.

As a pioneer leader of this agency what is your dream, what kind of Taraba Primary Health Care Agency would you like to leave behind?
I will like to leave a State Primary Health Care Development Agency that has a solid foundation and then a workforce that will stand the test of time of providing integrated primary health care delivery that will translate into reduction of maternal mobility and mortality in the state. That is exactly what I will like to see and by implication also reducing out of pocket expenses to the common man so that he can just but by the door of his house access services at a minimal cost.