Posted by From Ademola Adeyemo in Ibadan on
Governor Rashidi Ladoja of Oyo State yesterday said about 75,000 people are living with the dreaded disease of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome HIV/AIDS in the state.
Governor Rashidi Ladoja of Oyo State yesterday said about 75,000 people are living with the dreaded disease of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome HIV/AIDS in the state.
Ladoja, who spoke in Ibadan at the disbursement ceremony of over N200 million HIV/AIDS Fund to 41 civic society organisations in the state, said all stakeholders should rise to the challenges of combating the disease.
According to him, the disease has affected all facet of the national life and threatened the nation's survival, and that no government could fight the disease alone and win the war.
"It is not possible for any government to shoulder the burden of the epidemic alone without any meaningful collaboration and participation of all stakeholders in the fight. We cannot pretend or ignore the existence of a problem that has the potential to wipe out the whole populace. And as a people, we cannot continue to delude ourselves to believing there is no problem, when in actual fact, there is one,"he said.
He added that his administration has in January 2004, raised State Action Committee on AIDS (SACA), and paid the counterpart funding to enable the state benefit from World Bank-assisted HIV/AIDS project credit.
He said the 41 civic society organisations including National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) were being supported financially by the government to enable them engage in multi-dimensional activities that would drastically reduce the spread of the disease and mitigate the harsh impact of AIDS on the society.
Ladoja said in response to the danger which the disease posed to the society, his administration has earlier established a community child care centre where children, orphaned by HIV/AIDS were being catered for in conjunction with a pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithkline Nigeria Limited.
Urging the beneficiary to ensure proper use of the fund, the governor said the state project team has been empowered to monitor their activities to enhance effectiveness.
Earlier, the state Deputy Governor and Chairman of the state Action Committee on AIDS, Otunba Adebayo Alao Akala, said the state could not quantified the socio-economic loses incurred as a result of the disease.
According to him," the increasing number of mysterious and inexplicable deaths in most families and households are veritable evidence of the presence of the deadly disease in our midst."
Noting that available statistics on the prevalence of the disease were just a tip of the ice berg, Ala- Akala urged all stakeholders to rally round in combating the disease.