UN Secretary-General arrives Nigeria

News Update (May 22, 2011 03:33 PM...)

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Abuja (WorldStage Newsonline)-- United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon arrived Nigeria on Sunday for a two-day official visit. The visit is part of the “Every Woman, Every Child” global health campaign that he launched in September 2010 during the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit at UN Headquarters in New York. He arrived in Abuja after attending the inauguration of Ivorien President, Alassane Ouattara on Saturday, is on a four-nation trip that will cover Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Ethiopia and France. He met President Jonathan on Sunday and he is scheduled to visit the Dutsen Makaranta Primary Health Centre, Bwari, and the Maitama District Hospital in the Federal Capital Territory, to see achievements recorded towards achieving the health targets of the MDGs. The two projects are supported by the UN population agency UNFPA, the World Health Organisation and the UN Children's Fund. The eight Millennium Development Goals are: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and women empowerment; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development. Mr. Ban’s UN team, including Professor Jeff Sachs, his Special Adviser on the MDGs are to meet governors, ministers, as well as the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega and other top government officials before leaving Nigeria. Last week, a UN-backed three-day conference in Cape Verde attended by Jega, representatives of other West African countries’ electoral bodies, security agencies, media organizations and civil society groups issued a declaration containing a series of recommendations for boosting stability and improving the quality of elections in the region. On May 6 this year, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations agency tasked with promoting universal access to education signed an agreement with Nigeria to revitalize adult and youth literacy in a country where an estimated 50 million adults cannot read and write and nearly 9 million children are out of school. Under the agreement with the Nigerian Government will finance a project managed by the agency to strengthen capacities for designing, delivering and monitoring quality literacy programmes at a cost of $6 million. According to a press release by the UN, the UN Secretary-General would leave for Ethiopia and France from Nigeria. “In Ethiopia, the Secretary-General will visit a rural health programme which trains young women to serve their communities’ health needs, and which is considered a model for the continent. The Secretary-General will also hold discussions with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, and other leaders attending the India-Africa Forum Summit in Addis Ababa,” the statement said. “Mr. Ban will then travel to the Group of 8 (G8) Summit in Deauville, France, where he will continue to advocate for sustained attention to women’s and children’s health as a cornerstone of the global development agenda.” Story by Adesanya Alao (adesanyaa2001@yahoo.co.uk)