To permanently rid the country of Malaria before
the World Health Assembly’s target of 2030, Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) on
Tuesday, called for increased efforts by scientists to fight the disease.
Dr Kudo Eresia-Eke, the company’s General Manager
External Relations, said this during the commemoration of this year’s World
Malaria Day (WMD) with – End Malaria for good- as its theme, lamenting that
there was grave indifference by Nigerian scientists to find a solution to a
scourge peculiar to the tropics and the country.
In a statement jointly signed by Tony Okonedo,
Manager, Corporate Communication and Public Affairs and Anne-Marie
Palmer-Ikuku, Head, Media Relations, Eresia-Eke remarked that the trend may not
augur well for global efforts to reduce malaria incidence and mortality rates
by at least 90 per cent by 2030.
He said: “That is why we, at NLNG, are speaking
out and calling on all Nigerians to make malaria eradication a priority. We
can’t continue to watch our people, especially the children, suffer under this
scourge. The worst will come if we continue with this indifferent behaviour.
Let’s support our scientists to find a permanent solution to this.
“We are calling the world’s attention to the fight
against malaria, in addition to the ongoing work in the Nigeria Prize for
Science. We refocused the prize to identify societal problems in need of urgent
solutions. We have beamed our spotlight on Malaria, introducing the theme
“Innovations on Malaria Control” to the prize.
“Malaria has remained one of the deadliest
diseases in the country and Nigeria still records unacceptably high number of
casualties. Considerable resources have been expended on this but we need to
find permanent solutions and free up these resources for other developmental
projects. That is why we have to work to beat the deadline,” he said.
The Advisory Board of the Nigeria Prize for
Science in 2016 announced the introduction of the Malaria theme to the prize,
extending the theme to the 2017 prize after no winner emerged last year. The
call for entries was published in March 2017 for another round of entries and
will close on May 12, 2017.
The Advisory Board of the Nigeria Prize for Science,
chaired by Professor Alfred Susu, a distinguished past winner of the prize also
includes Professor Michael Adikwu, another past winner of the science prize;
Professor Elijah Mshelia, a nuclear physicist; Professor Barth Nnaji, renowned
scientist and former Minister of Power and Chief Dr. Nike Akande, President of
Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Overseeing this year’s process is the panel of
judges is led by Professor Catherine Falade, a professor of pharmacology, at
the University of Ibadan. Other members of the panel of judges include
Professor Sunday Ene-Ojo Atawodi, Professor of Biochemistry at Ahmadu Bello
University and Prof. Obioma Nwaorgu, a public health parasitologist and
epidemiologist from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Akwa.
The first winners of the Science Prize emerged in
2004, Professor Alfred Susu and Dr Kingsley Abhulimen. Other winners of the
prize are Professor Michael Adikwu, Dr. Ebenezer Meshida, Professor Andrew Nok
and Professor Akii Ibhadode.
The Nigeria Prize for Science was established in
2004 by Nigeria LNG as part of its broader corporate social responsibility
initiatives targeted at helping to build a better Nigeria, and comes with a
cash prize $100,000.
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