HALTING THE HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC

At the Presidential Forum on HIV/AIDS

Abuja, 9 March, 2002

It is a pleasure to welcome you to this special Forum on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.

As observed in my speech at the Inaugural Session of the National Assembly on the 4^th of June, 1999, I believe that Nigeria’s most valuable asset is the population of dynamic, versatile men, women and youth, whose energies have to be harnessed and channeled to productive use, as a condition for Nigeria’s economic recovery. As I speak, there are about 3.6 million Nigerian young, productive and talented men, women and youth, aged between 15 to 49 years, who are infected with the AIDS virus. And this figure is on the rise by the minute!. This situation totally negates the notion of an accelerated economic recovery and development based on the dynamism of a productive population.

Therefore, as soon I assumed office on the 29^th of May 1999, one of my first acts in office was to call for a full brief on the HIV/AIDS situation in Nigeria. I learnt that the first case was diagnosed in 1986, and that, following persistent official denial and indifference, the prevalence rose to 1.8 percent in 1993, 3.8 percent in 1994, 4.5 percent in 1996, and 5.4 percent in 1999.

The evolution of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Nigeria is a very alarming story. We are beginning to witness the serious implication and impact of this devastating scourge at the National, State, Local Government and community levels. Today, there is hardly a community in this country that has not been touched by the AIDS virus. A truly lamentable situation that is mainly attributable to the wrong attitude of denial and inaction at all srtata of the society.

While the official denial lasted, the modest efforts on ground remained mostly donor-determined, donor-driven, and they were grossly inadequate for the size and population of the country. We all owe gratitude to those donors who stood up to challenge of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, while official denial held sway.

In response to the crisis - and that is what it became - the Government promptly put in place a Presidential Committee on AIDS (PCA) made up of Honourable Ministers of key sectors of our national economy, namely: Health, Labour, Defence, Women Affairs, Culture and Tourism, Internal Affairs, Information, Justice, Education and Agriculture. Simultaneously, we inaugurated a National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA), for technical implementation coordination of all actions aimed at combating HIV/AIDS scourge.

In response to the challenge, NACA has adopted Nigeria’s HIV/AIDS Emergency Action Plan (HEAP) which was launched last April at the African Summit of Heads of State on HIV/AIDS here in Abuja. This Plan is currently being implemented with the support of the United Nations Expanded Theme Group on HIV/AIDS and various multilateral and bilateral Agencies, State and Local Government Action Committee on AIDS (SACA), Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), Civil Society and People Living with HIV/AIDS.

However, despite of the these intensive ongoing strategies, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS has grown from 5.4 percent in 1999 to 5.8 percent in 2001. This rate may be smaller than in preceding years, but it is still above zero which is our real target. In fact, by the method of sampling used, these figures are conservative. If we use sampling that take all age into consideration, the figures may be higher.

The painfully tragic reality is that more and more Nigerians are falling victim to the AIDS virus and its devastating consequences. We must do everything possible to halt this waste of our human resources. Hence, the purpose of inviting you to this Forum. Let us all to re-examine our commitments, let us refocus our plans, and let us re-strategise, so that we can achieve the target of zero increase in incidence of HIV from June 2002, and therefrom register significant decline in overall prevalence from 2003.

Ladies and Gentlemen, these objectives are noble, and they should be, because they harmonise with our equally noble objective for healthcare in this country: that Nigerians should not die from causes that could be prevented by the right combination of effective policies and actions. The price for achieving these objectives cannot be too high. Whereas failure will continue to haunt our sense of social responsibility as well cost us dearly in grief and the waste in human resources.

I am convinced that the objectives are achievable. My expectations are that at the end of this Forum, we would have refocused our strategies and would have taken our programmes to every nook and corner, to achieve the stated objectives.

Thank you for coming and God Bless you.