Nigeria Has Best Health Team, Says Remi Tinubu

First Lady Oluremi Tinubu has described Nigeria’s health sector workforce as the best, expressing confidence in the capacity of government officials to tackle the country’s healthcare and malnutrition challenges.

She made this remark on Monday when she received a delegation of the US-based organisation, Operation End Starvation, led by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, at a meeting to explore collaboration on combating hunger and child malnutrition in Nigeria.

The delegation included representatives of the organisation and other agencies under the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

In a statement by her media aide, Busola Kukoyi, the First Lady commended the expertise, commitment and dedication of Nigerian professionals across government institutions, noting that her experience working with officials in the health and education sectors had strengthened her confidence in their ability to deliver results.

“Nigeria has the best team in the health sector presently,” she said.

Tinubu specifically acknowledged her working relationship with Pate, Dr Muyi and other officials, expressing satisfaction with the quality of personnel currently serving in government ministries.

She said the country deserved better and that the ongoing reforms being undertaken by President Bola Tinubu were gradually moving Nigeria towards its desired level of development.

The First Lady stressed that investments in the country’s development would ultimately benefit Nigerians if government institutions functioned effectively.

“Nigeria deserves better, and there is nothing we give to her that is too much because if the system works, it will ultimately come back to us,” she said.

She also assured the visiting delegation that any assistance provided to Nigeria through the proposed partnership would be put to effective use by the country’s health team.

“I assure you that whatever aid you give us, this health team would put it to good use,” she added.

Earlier, Pate disclosed that the Federal Government was exploring a partnership with Operation End Starvation to strengthen efforts to combat hunger and child malnutrition.

He said Nigeria was working to reduce its estimated 6.4 million cases of acute child malnutrition while addressing the nutritional needs of pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers.

According to him, the National Community Food Bank Programme, launched in partnership with the Office of the First Lady, was already making a positive impact across the six geopolitical zones.

Pate reaffirmed the government’s commitment to tackling malnutrition through existing programmes and frameworks.

Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of Operation End Starvation, Williams Holdsworth Moore, said the organisation was seeking to work directly with the Nigerian government to support large-scale interventions against child starvation.

He explained that the initiative, supported by a macro grant from the United States government and global philanthropists, aimed to mobilise more than $1 billion annually towards preventing child deaths caused by starvation.

Moore said the organisation was targeting $1 billion in investments over the next two years to combat starvation across sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria identified as a primary country for the programme.

He said the organisation was impressed by Nigeria’s commitment to addressing acute malnutrition and the capacity of its health officials.

Operation End Starvation, an initiative of the Eleanor Crook Foundation, is a public-private partnership nonprofit focused on ending child malnutrition and deaths caused by starvation across sub-Saharan Africa.