President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday called on African leaders to look inward in the search of solutions to the scourge of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other related infectious diseases.
Jonathan made the call in Abuja at the opening of the Abuja+12, Special Summit of the AU on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The two-day Summit, with the theme, “Ownership, Accountability and Sustainability to HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Response in Africa: Past, Present and Future” is being attended by most African leaders.
The event witnessed the unveiling of the Nigeria’s Programmes of Action and Developed Blueprint for HIV/AIDS by Jonathan and the AU Chairperson, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn.
President Jonathan underscored the need for the leaders to do things differently and set clear and decisive goals and best adaptable strategies to attain the MDGs.
“We must begin to de-emphasise reliance on external funding and importation of essential medicines required for our treatment programmes.
“We must stand in solidarity with one another, be proactive to our health challenges and increase inter-continental scientific research partnerships and development efforts to compliment the various national and regional plans already underway.
“Ownership and sustainability should form the basis of our next plan of actions.
“Our goal should be to find local solutions to our challenges, translate planning into implementation, and develop our continent at the pace we desire,’’ he said.
In realisation of the laudable goal, Jonathan said the leaders must show commitments by increased funding and synergy between government and other stakeholders.
He stressed that the HIV/AIDS and the other infectious diseases remained the major causes of morbidity and mortality in Africa.
He said that, although, remarkable achievements had been made in fighting the diseases, the continent was still far from attaining the set targets.
“For too long, political instability, insecurity and infectious diseases have beclouded our efforts at rapid development and effective optimisation of the abundant potentials of our continent.
“However, today, there is renewed hope that together, and with home-grown initiatives, we can systematically and comprehensively address these tough challenges.
“Our people are anxious for tangible results and concrete action to improve the quality of life.
”As we look forward to a productive summit, meeting the needs of our people by achieving those goals should be our collective resolve,’’ he said.
Speaking in same vein, the AU Commission Chairperson, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, said HIV/AIDS and the other infectious diseases had posed challenges to socioeconomic development of the continent.
She underscored the need for the leaders to scale up their commitments to the fight against the diseases.
On the progress made so far since the Abuja Declaration of 2011, Dlamini-Zuma said that the annual rate of infection of HIV/AIDS had fallen by 25 per cent while death rate had reduced by 32 per cent.
She added that from 2001 to date, more than 30 million people had been reached with tuberculosis treatment while malaria infection had reduced by one-third.
She noted that the feats were achieved by the commitments of the leaders and support by the development partners.
The UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, said, despite all efforts, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other infectious diseases still posed a significant threat to the well-being and development in Sub-saharan Africa.
Represented by the Executive Director of UNFPA, Prof. Babatunde Oshotimehin, Ki-Moon said the leaders must show more political commitments to the fight against the diseases.
“Every minute a child dies of malaria, one in 20 adults lives with HIV, TB infection rates are highest in the world, with more than 260 cases per 100,000 people in 2011 while many Africans endure the double burden of HIV and TB.
”This summit could provide a tipping point in Africa’s progress on health, let us place AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria at the centre of public health policy,’’ he said.
The Abuja+12 summit is convened to take stock and assess the extent to which African leaders have achieved the targets set 12 years ago at the Abuja Summit of 2001.
At the 2001 summit, African leaders had pledged, among other things, to place the fight against HIV and AIDS at the forefront and as the highest priority issue in their respective national development plans.
Specifically, the leaders had set a target of allocating 15 per cent of their annual budgets to the improvement of the health sector.
