He said government at all levels needed to know that health security financing was not a task done only when there was an outbreak but a fund in preparedness
Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu stated this while addressing journalists on Thursday shortly after defending the 2021 budget of NCDC in the National Assembly Abuja
NCDC DG explained that the agency previously advised Nigerians on the need to prepare for the type of the pandemic that happened this year,unfortunately nobody heeded to the warning.
“At NCDC,we don’t want to be agency that stops people from living, we want to be agency that enables businesses, allows people to attend functions and live normal life and the only way we can do this is by investing in preparedness,so we better prepared for the emergency we are facing
He however, commended the Senate Committee on Primary Health Care and Communicable disease for the robust working relationship the agency was enjoying with the Nigeria Senate, despite that the agency was just established
The Director General, added that the harmonious working relationship with the National Assembly resulted to the feats achieved by NCDC in tackling COVID-19 pandemic and other related diseases
“Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has been having working relationship with the Senate Committee on Primary Heath Care and Communicable Disease.
“I recall that it was this Committee that pushed the bill that eventually became an Act establishing NCDC
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman Senate Committee on Primary Health Care and communicable Disease,Senator Chukwuka Utazi charged Nigerian Scientists to find an end to the COVID-19 pandemic,he decried a situation where by Nigeria always depend on foreign countries when we have scientists in Nigeria that can find solutions to the pandemic.
He therefore commended NCDC for living up to expectations, urged the agency to put end to the pandemic.
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