Health
THE Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has described Dr Muhammad Pate’s appointment as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gavi, a Vaccine Alliance, following an extensive recruitment process as a validation of the country’s new image.
Ehanire, said this on Saturday evening in Abuja, at a dinner, organised by friends of Pate.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Pate’s appointment was confirmed on February 13, 2023, at an extraordinary meeting of the Gavi Board, in Geneva, Switzerland, and he will assume the role on August 3, 2023, replacing Dr Seth Berkley, who would step down after 12 years leading the Alliance.
He was selected following a year-long recruitment process personally overseen by the Chair of the Gavi Board, Prof José Manuel Barroso.
The minister of health said that the country is now in the good books of the world with Pate’s appointment, noting that “this is a big one for us all, Pate is the first African to be appointed as a CEO and first Nigerian and he will do exceptionally well in his appointment.”
He said that Gavi should also celebrate with Nigeria because they have one of the best hands in the whole world, as an expert in internal medicine and infectious diseases, Pate’s appointment was well deserved.
He said that Gavi has already protected an entire generation of children, and Pate would ensure the next generation is also protected.
He said that Pate will also improve access to new and under-used vaccines for millions of the most vulnerable children, which would transform their lives and make the world safer for everyone.
Ehanire also urged Pate to advocate and support policies that would increase vaccination interventions globally as a strategy to curb diseases worldwide and most especially on the continent.
The minister said that local vaccine production is now a priority with Pate as Gavi‘s CEO. He will actualise this very important project.
According to Sen. Ibrahim Oloriegbe, the Chairman of, the Senate Committee on Health, “as a country, we need to help Pate succeed in his appointment by putting more resources in Gavi.”
Oloriegbe said that it’s time for the country to strengthen its health system, especially its Primary Health Care centres across the country by ensuring that every child everywhere gets vaccinated.
He called on Pate to use his office to support and make vaccination and immunisation programmes sustainable to prevent infectious diseases in the country.
He said he is confident that Gavi’s new CEO would excel.
Dr Joseph Haruna Kigbu, team leader of Doctors On The Move, said that the appointment has provided over 64 per cent of children aged between 12 and 23 months in the country the opportunity to receive all recommended vaccines.
Kigbu said that with Pate’s knowledge and experience of both national immunization programming and international emergency response and global finance, he is confident that Gavi would build on its vision and mission.
He said he is confident that Pate would continue to support countries to scale up critical routine immunisation programmes, reach more vulnerable children, expand access to new vaccines, transform primary health care systems, and help fight outbreaks and future pandemics.
Pate said: “I’m deeply honoured to be joining Gavi as its incoming CEO and there is a lot to be thankful for. And I feel an incredible gratitude.”
He said he would work round the clock not to disappoint the country, rather make the country proud, saying that he would serve with a lot of courage, knowing that the country is right behind him.
NAN recalled that friends at the event wished Pate, a former Minister of State for Health in Nigeria, success in his new assignment, assuring him of their support.
Pate was in May 2019 appointed by the World Bank Group as the Global Director of Health, Nutrition and Population, HNP, and Director of the Global Financing Facility, GFF, in Washington DC.
At about the same time, he was also appointed by the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health as Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Global Health and Population.
He has previously worked with the World Bank, which he joined as a young professional in 2000 and worked on health issues such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in several regions, including Africa and the East Asia Pacific.
Before Pate was appointed Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health in 2011, he had successfully served as the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).
In 2013, he resigned as the Minister of State for Health to join Duke University’s Global Health Institute, where he served as a visiting professor and taught comparative health systems to postgraduate students. (NAN)
KN
Tags: Muhammad Pate Osagie Ehanire
