President says No Nigerian should be allowed to die of HIV from now henceforth

President Goodluck Jonathan has said that no Nigerian should be allowed to die from HIV/AIDS henceforth, noting that there had been no comprehensive plan in the fight against HIV/AIDS and its management.

Jonathan decried the continuous prevalence of HIV/AIDS scourge in Nigeria, and flayed the uncoordinated approach to the campaign against the killer disease.

Speaking at the presentation of his emergency plan for HIV/AIDS in Nigeria for 2013-2015, organised by the Office of Chief of Staff to the President, Mike Ogiadomhe, Jonathan said, “If we must be able to achieve our target, we must have management plan. I believe that we don’t have the kind of comprehensive management plan. All departments are just spending but we don’t have a coordinated plan.

“I believe that there is no coordinated plan to bring the corporate organizations who will be willing to contribute towards the management. If we have this plan in place, gradually the prevalent rate will continue to drop year by year until we get to the level we are targeting.”

The president also said N630 billion ($4.2 billion) is required to tackle the HIV/AIDS pandemic between 2010 and 2015 in Nigeria, a country where over 3.4 million persons are living with the disease, the federal government disclosed yesterday.

But sadly, it lamented that, only about N198.5 billion ($1.28 billion) had so far been sourced, which falls short of the amount required for the half-term response in the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan,NSP, within the period of 2010 and 2013, which amounted to N126.9 billion ($820 million).

He said, “If we must successfully manage HIV, we must have a comprehensive plan. Example: how many of anti-retroviral drugs doses we need as a nation for a month and for a year? How many we need for Bayelsa State? How many we need for Benue State, etc? How can we fund it? What are the states’ spending? what is the federal government spending?

“What are we getting from development partners? The funding gap: can we collectively procure these drugs to reduce cost? How do we make sure that all Nigerians know everything about HIV/AIDS to avoid new infections or transmission?

-- Daily Post