Health
Northern youths celebrate Alliance Hospital CMD, gives him award
Youths from the 19 northern states of Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Wednesday, celebrated the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Alliance Hospital, Dr Christopher Otabor for reversing medical tourism in the country.
The youths expressed their joy, saying that the patriotic zeal injected into the medical profession by Dr Otabor has helped to reverse medical tourism, thus generating income for the country.
The youths who operated under the aegis of the Northern Youths Association of Nigeria expressed their appreciation and presented to the Chief consultant orthopedic surgeon, the highest leadership award.
The youth presented to the CMD “Sir Ahmadu Bello Platinum Leadership and Northern Heroes Award.
Speaking through its president, Comrade Adams Bogoro, the group explained that
having followed the activities of the medical practitioner for long, it found him worthy to bell one of the recipients of the prestigious awards.
Bogoro described Otabor as an “Icon of nation-building, explaining that the award was in recognition of his immense contributions and philanthropy.
He said that the CMD had performed well in the areas of human transformation and educational transformation for the benefit of humanity and the country at large.
Bogoro said that the Northern Youth Association of Nigeria found it compelling to identify with Otabor for positive contributions to humanity and Nigerian society, to spur him to do more.
He insisted that Alliance Hospital had done very well to change the narrative in medical tourism, adding that the Northern youths were in the hospital to identify with the hospital.
“We are here to identify with you on what you have been doing. You have contributed positively to the Nigerian society, so we are here to encourage you to do more.
“We have been following your antecedents for quite some time, this hospital has done well in the area of impacting health, It is based on this that this group deemed it fit to consider you as one of the recipients of our awards.
“The award is to spur you, the award is to encourage you, the award is to motivate you to do more.
“The award is also to catalyze for you to continue to give your best to the service of the nation as you have always been doing.
“We are one people with a common destiny as exemplified by the founding fathers of Nigeria, most especially those from the northern extraction such as Sir Ahmadu Bello, Abubarkar Tafarwa Balewa, Joseph Tarka, Mallam Aminu Kano, Sunday Awoniyi and others, may their souls rest in peace.
“As part of the convention of the group, we try as much as possible to identify with people like you who have demonstrated patriotism to the country,” Bogoro said.
In his response, Otabor who was overwhelmed with joy thanked the group for finding him worthy of the award.
He commended the youth for organizing, and not joining the bandwagon in the society.
“This is quite commendable. When you have many youths constituting themselves as a problem to the country by getting involved in terrorism, banditry, and armed robbery, here you are organizing yourselves for a good course, yours is commendable.
“On behalf of the management of Alliance Hospital and the highly respected top management staff, I wish to formally accept this award, the Saudana Award. Thank you very much for considering me fit for this prestigious award.
I want to assure you that this would encourage us to do even more of what you have already seen in me,” he said.
“I warmly welcome you to Alliance Hospital, Abuja. A one-stop shop for multi-specialty care.
Alliance Hospital was established in 2011, with a clear mandate of stopping medical tourism, because medical tourism has been a big shame to this country.
” With a population of over 200 million people, our nationals are going out of the country for medical care- to India, Egypt, USA and other countries.
“A lot of people talk about the problem and not many people talk about the solution, so I decided that we would be part of the solution rather than just talking about the problem.
Health
Stakeholders Applaud A360 Impact On Adolescent Health
Stakeholders in Nigeria’s health and development sector say the institutionalisation and scale-up of the Adolescent 360 (A360) Amplify project have greatly improved adolescent sexual and reproductive health outcomes in participating states.
They made this known at a dissemination meeting on the project on Thursday in Abuja.
It was implemented by the Society for Family Health (SFH) and partners, and later adopted into government systems following documented successes.
Launched in 2020, the A360 project was designed to provide adolescent girls with access to sexual and reproductive health information, youth-friendly services and economic empowerment opportunities.
The programme was implemented in Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna and Nasarawa States using a human-centred design approach that engaged governments, communities and young people to improve uptake of family planning and maternal health services.
Dr Aisha Sadiq, Permanent Secretary, Kaduna State Ministry of Health, said institutionalising A360 had delivered measurable improvements in adolescent health indicators and community wellbeing.
She said Kaduna currently provides A360 youth-friendly services in 623 Primary Health Care (PHC) centres.
The Matasan Mata Arewa (MMA) initiative, she added, had reached 75 communities and empowered more than 15,000 girls with entrepreneurship skills and seed capital.
According to her, more than 60,000 girls have accessed contraceptives through the programme, with a reduction in discontinuation rates as more young women sustain use and transition to maternal and child health services.
“These changes have shown a marked reduction in maternal mortality among those communities. It has also reduced negative neonatal outcomes,” she said.
Sadiq recounted an elderly woman’s remarks from a programme community, calling them a strong reflection of the project’s success.
“These girls have spent their whole lives believing they will remain tolerable liabilities to the husbands they marry, but now they are realising the value of becoming appreciated assets,” she quoted.
Sadiq added that Kaduna’s 16 per cent health budget allocation and the integration of A360 activities into the state’s 2025 Annual Operational Plan demonstrated sustained political commitment.
Also speaking, Dr Omokhudu Idogho, Managing Director, SFH, said the four implementing states had successfully embedded A360 approaches into government systems, community structures and routine health practices.
He was represented by Dr Kenechukwu Erichalo, Deputy Managing Director, Project Delivery.
Idogho said the project had reached more than one million adolescent girls with family planning services and engaged over 500,000 others with comprehensive sexuality education messaging.
“We recorded more than 50,000 antenatal care visits, ensuring that girls received skilled care that saved lives, and supported over half a million girls to learn income-generating skills,” he said.
He said A360 pioneered the MMA and Niger Girls models, demonstrating that culturally sensitive, human-centred programmes can succeed even in conservative communities.
“Our most significant achievement is institutionalisation. Today, all 1,750 A360-supported facilities are fully government-led,” he added.
Mrs Roselyn Odeh, A360 Project Lead, said the initiative was developed in response to poor adolescent health indices in the country.
She said the programme ensured respectful, youth-friendly services at PHCs and supported school reintegration and entrepreneurship for girls.
She said the decision to scale the programme in northern states was based on data.
“When you look at maternal mortality among young people, you know the section of the country it is coming from. Data drove our decisions in alignment with government priorities,” she said.
Odeh identified challenges including weak PHC infrastructure, funding gaps, commodity shortages and the need to engage husbands in conservative communities.
“But creatively, we worked with governments to mobilise domestic funding through health revolving funds and the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund,” she said.
Mr Sagir Musa, Commissioner for Youth, Jigawa State, assured of continued commitment from implementing states to sustain and expand the project’s gains.
“This project may be nearing closure, but for us, it has just begun. We have gone beyond its life cycle to embed its approaches in the things we do,” he said.
The dissemination meeting brought together policymakers, community leaders, development partners and beneficiaries to review lessons learned and outline future priorities for scaling adolescent health interventions nationwide.
(NAN)
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