By Ngozi Nwoke
The Nigerian Vetinary Medical Association (NVMA) has appealed to the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture for assistance in its forthcoming Eko 2023 congress.
Speaking during the inauguration of the association’s local organising committee and courtesy visit to the commissioner for agriculture in Lagos, Abisola Olusanya, the national president of NVMA, Mrs. Toyin Adetuberu, said the state government’s collaboration was of great importance to the association.
She said: “My mandate as the president of the Nigerian Vetinary Association is to work for the benefits and the welfare of every veterinarian registered in Nigeria, whether they are home or in the diaspora. I work for their welfare, and also ensure that they as veterinarians, deliver quality veterinary health care to the general citizens of Nigeria. So, I protect them and I make sure they also deliver service to the good people of Nigeria. That is my mandate.
“With the support of the executives, I have literally been able to fulfill my mandate so far. In fact, as at 2021, the hazard allowances for veterinary doctors were suspended. But I was able to work and we had the hazard allowances restored by October 2022. The hazard allowances were paid because we are the first public health service provider. The veterinary profession is a public health professional. So, on the one health platform, we collaborate and deliver quality veterinary services.
“We are the ones that nip the diseases in the board before they get to the human populace. So, we are public health people and we do this in the various faculties, veterinary service centres that we have. We do a lot of epidemiological surveillance so that we can track diseases right in the board and then control it. That’s why you have no found avian influenza in the human populations, because the veterinarians are making sure that it does not get to the human populace by doing epidemiological studies, and then doing the control.
“We have been able to achieve that mandate. Some states like Lagos State, recently employed 21 veterinarians, and we use this opportunity to express our unreserved gratitude to the Lagos State Government for this laudable request they granted us. So, my mandate of getting the states to employ more vets to deliver adequate service, and safeguarding the welfare of veterinarians is part of my mandate which I shall continue to fulfill to the end of my administration.
“Part of my major visit to Lagos is to inaugurate the LOC, for Eko 2023. The Lagos State will be hosting over 11,000 veterinarians from all over the country and we are expecting that the government of Babajide Sanwo-Olu will support us to receive these veterinarians that are coming because we are coming to benefit the state as well.
“The tourism industry will be benefiting from the Eko 2023 by this hosting, and we expect that they should also support us by giving us an enabling environment to carry out this conference successfully. The Lagos State governor is our chief host and as the number one citizen in the state, we expect his utmost support. The commissioner for agriculture would be our special guest of honour for the conference. So, we are expecting good collaboration from the Lagos State Government towards the successful hosting of the forthcoming Eko 2023.”
On his part, the state chairman, NVMA, Mr. Mark Ofua, stressed that the association lacks basic requirements such as vehicles and a secretariat complex to enable a better and hitch-free operation.
He said: “We had an election that brought us into the seats a couple of weeks ago and we hit the ground running, we came fired up to cause changes. Now, the veterinary profession in Lagos State and in Nigeria at large has been at backseats, the backbench on public health, when actually we should be at the front border and my administration has come in to put in changes to the status quo.
“We want to move the association forward such that we take our position as custodian of the public health through ensuring animal health. It will surprise you to know that over 65 to 75% of human diseases can be traced to animals and these are even diseases that we have domesticated as human diseases, not to talk about the possibility of imagine diseases known as zoonosis that can jump from animals to humans.
“Currently, we’re suffering the Lassa fever epidemic in Nigeria, which we’re currently battling. Lassa fever has killed more people than COVID-19. COVID-19 is thought to be of animal origin. Let’s not even mention Ebola and other viruses that we are grappling with.
“Now, just imagine the veterinarian as a guardian of a dome. If he slacks in his duty, so many things will pass through the door, so many diseases will pass through the door. So we’re going to take up our role as custodian of animal health in order to safeguard human health. “And also food safety rests squarely on our table and we are going to step up our roof. We’ll do that first by sensitising our comrades to step up their game in service provision to their clients or to the state to the vision and then also we’ll increase our collaboration with the state governments.
“Now we have established a very good relationship with the state government and we are going to increase our collaboration with the government in order to put these checks and balances in place. If you go to our markets, bushmeat market or abattoirs, there is so much left to be done and we are going to see that these gaps are adequately filled.
“We expect benefit or assistance from the state government. For example, this is an association that does not have its own secretariat. We need trucks. We do not have a vehicle or bus or any form of transportation. Meanwhile, we need to be monitoring them to ensure that their service delivery is absolute. That our service delivery is what is expected.
“So, we need more of these veterinarians to be employed. Also, we will look for ways to open collaboration such that even the private veterinarians are able to provide service to the state governments. Though they are not employees of the state government, they will do this through private / public partnerships. So, these are the things we hope to look into the new administration.”
The LOC chairman, Mr. Tunji Nasir, added: “Basically, we are here to plan ahead for the forthcoming congress and to superintend over the organisation of the event. We intend to stage a successful congress that surpasses the standard.
“We are aiming at having a national congress that will be acclaimed in terms of the kind of participants that will attend. We are looking at a standardised event with great innovations. We want to make vets in Nigeria have a sense of belonging because they have a good organisation with good exposition. We will be bringing on board this are activities that have never happened before. The significance of this conference, we are looking at the global spectrum of the economy and what professions that must align with global economy.
In her response, the commissioner for agriculture, Abisola Olusanya, noted: “The Vetinary industry is ready. We have fisheries, poultry and other livestock. A lot of vets, particularly the regular ones, have actually been a very critical component in the industry.
“In fact, when you and your team came into my office, we were discussing the budget and also discussing certain line of activities that should be included for you that I did not see in the budget because these activities are actually very critical for us in the ministry and for the veterinarians.
“So, the ministry of agriculture pledges its continuous support to you, not that we have a choice anyway. We shall continue to do what we can do, by God’s special grace. And I want to assure you that so long as we are here, till the next tenure, I believe also that whoever comes in after me or whatever the case may be, the vets department will always and fully receive the support required because they are one of the flagship faces for the ministry. So, we will continue to give our full support. May God lead us right and help us to do the needful.”