Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, governor of Ondo State in southern Nigeria has stressed the need to mainstream the delivery of primary health care solutions as key performance indicator in assessing governments and governance.
Mimiko in a chat with a select team of development partners and journalists after speaking at a break-out session of the London Conference 2016 on Thursday, June 16, 2016 of the Royal Institute for International Affairs, Chatham House, in London said it takes political will to pursue the delivery of primary health care as the results, though tangible, are rarely appreciated.
“There is a lot of premium placed on road construction, building of infrastructure and little attention to building healthy young people and citizens,” Dr. Mimiko, told the audience. “Good Governance is not measured in respect of how many young lives were saved from communicable diseases, how many were immunized and so saved from measles, polio and such vaccine-preventable diseases and yet these are more important to the sustenance of the society.”
“It therefore takes a political leader with the required dosage of political will and courage to devote time and resources to such areas in the face of competing physical infrastructure needs,” the governor said.
The governor, who has come to be known as a relentless advocate for universal healthcare in Africa, who said his government has institutionalized regular and consistent immunization programmes, apart from free, affordable, qualitative and accessible primary health care, added that the state met the MDG target on infant and maternal death reduction and it is working on building the foundation for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals as spelt out by the UN.
“We have through the expansion of the facilities for primary, secondary and tertiary health delivery met the MDGs on infant and maternal health delivery, and are at work to build the structure upon which the achievement of the SDGs will be erected. In the face of dwindling resources at national and state levels, we are ready to look deep and craft out ways and means to move forward towards meeting the SDGs and at the same time deliver more of the dividends of democracy,” Mimiko said.
Mimiko is in London on the invitation of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House for the 2016 London Conference, where he spoke on “Healthcare for All: From Aspiration to Implementation.
The governor spoke alongside other notable figures as Harmid Karzai, 12th president of Afghanistan, Robert Yates, project director, UHC Policy Forum, Global Health Security. Full list of Speakers can be found HERE.
Dr. Mimiko is globally celebrated for championing revolutionary policies for mother and child healthcare in Ondo State.
The governor’s flagship programmes known as Abiye Safe Motherhood and Agbebiye have earned him numerous accolades and have been adopted by global institutions such as the World Bank as templates for solving infant and maternal mortality in the developing world.
The governor who is travelling on the bill of the organisers with an aide, will return on Friday, 17 June, 2016.
