The Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, has received boardroom leadership awards 2.0 for “Africa’s COVID-19 Hero of All Time”.
Mr Jeffrey Adaralegbe, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Boardroom News, while presenting the award, said it was in recognition of his efforts in curtailing the spread of COVID-19 and the vacine distribution model as best in Africa.
According to him, the award is in recognition of Dr Shuaib’s selfless service to Nigeria, particularly in the areas on the fight against COVID-19 pandemic together with efforts, aimed at improving primary health care services across the country.
“I wish to place it on record that since this pandemic broke out the staff of the Agency have not had time to rest, while the whole country was in lockdown, staff and the Director of NPHCDA were still coming to work.
“It is worthy of note that the Executive Director Faisal Shuaib has been on his toes attending the briefings of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and he was given one of the most sensitive tasks which which is the storage and distribution of vaccines.
“At a recent briefing, one of the development partners observed that the vaccine distribution model of the NPHCDA is the best in Africa and that other African countries are occupying Nigeria’s model.
“There is no gainsaying that we are living in an interesting times, this is a period of a global pandemic and it is not just a pandemic it has also brought a global economic downturn,” he said.
He said recently, the Director has trained over two hundred thousand healthcare workers across the country, on COVID-19, amongst several others which makes Dr. Shuaib stands out as Executive Director.
“If we compare the situation of South Africa to that of Nigeria, you will observe that South Africa is experiencing what could be best described as a disaster.
“South Africa has some of the best health infrastructure and personnel in Africa but the situation in South Africa got so bad that at a point they were choosing which particular victim of the disease to be observed.
“Nigeria has been able to tackle the virus effectively and one of our champion is Dr Faisal Shuaib and permit me to confer our hero’s award on the Executive Director, ” he said.
However, he added that the Director has made efforts in the declaration of state of emergency in public health on maternal and child mortality, renovation of a good number of PHCs, and establishment of NPHCDA leadership academy.
Dr Shuaib, in his response, ascribed his success to the fight against the pandemic to the directors from different department of the agency, sister agency like NCDC, Federal Ministry of Health, World Health Organisation (WHO) and presidential steering committee on covid 19.
Shuaib, dedicated the award to the resilience of the NPHCDA staff and most especially the frontliners for their efforts in seeing that the pandemic is curtailed in the country, whom he described as “the very best.”
He also commended the efforts of the donor-partners, survivors, traditional and religious leaders, civil society groups in the country, for their roles in the fight against the pandemic.
“The award is not only for me but for all the formidable team bonded by a common vision and selfless service to all Nigerians in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
“The award recognition wouldn’t have been possible if not for the services rendered at different level by the management and staff of the agency.
“I thank the boardroom news for their media support all through till date for their accurate report on the epidemic, also for foresight in recognising that NPHCDA is working tirelessly to end the pandemic,” Shuaib responded. (NAN)