President Muhammadu Buhari has
been conferred with the Polio Champion Award in recognition of his commitment
and leadership in the polio eradication programme in Nigeria.
Rotary International President,
Mr Barry Rassin, who is on a four-day official visit to Nigeria, presented the
award to President Buhari, Thursday, at State House, Abuja.
The Polio Champion Award was
instituted by Rotary International in 1995 to recognize and appreciate Heads of
Governments and organisations that have played a key role in polio eradication
around the world
The last recipient of the Award
was Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada. Other past recipients include
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and
former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
Receiving the award, the Nigerian
leader, while thanking Rotary International for the honour, lauded their
commitment to humanitarian work across the globe.
‘‘Rotary International is well
known to my generation. Your work is really humanitarian; no amount of
materialism can pay you for what you have been doing and we thank you very
much.
‘‘I am pleased with the efforts
of Rotary International, you are champions of the weak, and I pray that God
will abundantly pay you for your humanitarian services. I am also pleased that
I have a competent Health Minister, who supervises the work,” the President
said.
Earlier in his remarks, Mr
Rassin, while commending the President for providing significant leadership in
the efforts to eradicate polio in Nigeria, advocated for increased political
and financial commitments at all levels for routine immunization and primary
health care strengthening.
He also commended President
Buhari for his commitment to Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) by expanding
the presidential task force on polio to include state governors shortly after
he took office in 2015.
‘‘You are an inspiration to your
country’’, the Rotary president, who was accompanied by his wife, Esther, and
other senior Rotarians in Nigeria, told President Buhari.
He said Rotary has contributed
$1.7 billion to the global effort to eradicate polio, of which $270m was
expended in Nigeria.
‘‘We have come a long way from
1985 when polio was crippling 350,000 children annually in 125 countries of the
world to 27 cases in two countries.
“But even one child paralysed by
polio is one child too many. We need to end polio now,’’ Rassin said, adding
that Nigeria has not recorded any case of polio in the last 27 months, nine
months away from ‘‘possible certification of eradication.’’.
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Indeed, Buhari is an inspiration.. One’s saviour is not recognised in his country
ReplyDeleteSAI BABA TIL 2023!!!!!!
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