The Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association (NVMA) has asked the Lagos state ministry of agriculture for support for its forthcoming Eko 2023 Congress.
Speaking during the inauguration of the association’s local organising committee and courtesy visit to Abisola Olusanya, the commissioner for agriculture, Toyin Adetuberu, the national president of NVMA, said the state government’s collaboration is of great importance to the association.
“Part of my major visit to Lagos is to inaugurate the LOC for Eko 2023. 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 our coming will benefit the state as well,” Adetuberu said.
“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.
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“My mandate as the president of the Nigerian Veterinary Association is to work for the benefit and the welfare of every veterinarian registered in Nigeria, whether they are home or in diaspora and ensure 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 of 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 were the first public health service provider.
“We are the ones that nip the diseases in the bud before they get to the human populace. So, we are public health people and we do this in the various faculties of veterinary service centres that we have. We do a lot of epidemiological surveillance so that we can track diseases right and then control it. That’s why you have not 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.”
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On his part, Mark Ofua, the state NVMA chairman, noted that the association lacked basic requirements such as vehicles and a secretariat complex to enable a better and hitch-free operation.
“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 the backbench on public health matters when actually we should be at the front burners and my administration has come in to put in changes to the status quo,” Ofua said.
“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 food markets, bushmeat markets or abattoirs, there is so much left to be done and we are going to see that these gaps are adequately filled.
“We crave 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 to carry out surveillance or monitor disease flashpoints. Also, we need to be monitoring our members to ensure that their service delivery is absolute.”
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Tunji Nasir, the LOC chairman, said the association is looking forward to organising an event with great innovations to give vets in Nigeria a sense of belonging.
“The veterinary industry is ready. 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,” the commissioner of agriculture said.
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