Headline
Muhammad Pate Declines GAVI Position For Appointment As Tinubu’s Minister
Ex-Nigerian minister declines top global position for possible appointment as Tinubu’s minister
On Monday, the global vaccine alliance, GAVI, announced Mr Pate’s decision to decline his appointment as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Strong indications emerged on Monday that Nigeria’s former Minister of State for Health, Muhammad Pate, may make the ministerial list of President Bola Tinubu.
Mr Tinubu, who was sworn in as Nigeria’s 16th president in May, is yet to send the list of his ministers to the National Assembly as required by law.
As stipulated by law, Mr Tinubu is expected to forward the list of his preferred cabinet members to the parliament within 60 days of his assumption of office. But almost one month after he was sworn in, he is yet to appoint any ministers.
Pate’s hint
On Monday, the global vaccine alliance, GAVI, announced Mr Pate’s decision to decline his appointment as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Mr Pate, who was scheduled to assume office as GAVI’s CEO on 3 August, informed the organisation that “he has taken an incredibly difficult decision to accept a request to return and contribute to his home country, Nigeria.”
His reason for rejecting GAVI’s appointment has raised speculations that he may be considering a position in Mr Tinubu’s cabinet.
While PREMIUM TIMES could not reach Mr Pate, a source who works with President Tinubu confirmed that Mr Pate’s name was on the list of guests scheduled to see Mr Tinubu “about two weeks ago.”
The source, however, could not confirm if the president eventually met him.
GAVI’s Appointment
Gavi had on 13 February approved the appointment of Mr Pate as its next CEO.
Mr Pate, a medical doctor, was to replace Seth Barkley, also a medical practitioner, who is expected to end his 12-year reign as the organisation’s CEO on 3rd August.
Gavi announced Mr Pate as Mr Berkley’s successor, even as it promised to continue its work to support routine immunisation, outbreak response and COVID-19 vaccinations worldwide.
Rejection
Gavi, in a statement published on its website on Monday, said the board decided to appoint David Marlow, currently Gavi’s Chief Operating Officer, to the position of Interim Chief Executive Officer, effective 3 August.
It said the appointment follows a communication from Mr Pate, that he will not be able to join Gavi.
“Mr Pate informed the Gavi Board Chair and Vice Chair that he has taken an incredibly difficult decision to accept a request to return and contribute to his home country, Nigeria,” Gavi wrote.
“Gavi fully respects the decision and wishes Mr Pate the very best for the future. On informing Gavi, Mr Pate thanked the Chair of the Gavi Board, José Manuel Barroso, the diverse set of Gavi Board members and partners, current CEO Seth Berkley, and the secretariat staff for their support over the last few months, commenting that he will remain a steadfast champion of the Gavi mission.”
About Pate
A medical doctor trained in both internal medicine and infectious diseases, with an MBA from Duke University in the United States, Mr Pate is currently the Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership at Harvard Chan School of Public Health and has served on several health-focused boards and expert panels in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors during his career.
He served as the Global Director for Health, Nutrition, and Population of the World Bank and Director of the Global Financing Facility at the World Bank between 2019 and 2021. He led the Bank’s $18 billion COVID-19 global health response and represented the bank on various boards, including those of Gavi, the Global Fund, CEPI and UNAIDS.
As Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health between 2011 and 2013, he led a flagship initiative to revive routine vaccinations and primary healthcare, chaired a presidential task force to eradicate polio and introduced new vaccines into the country.
About GAVI
Gavi, the vaccine alliance, is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. Since its inception in 2000, Gavi said it has helped to immunise more than 981 million children, and prevented more than 16.2 million future deaths.
The organisation said it has also helped to halve child mortality in 73 lower-income countries.
Gavi said it also plays a key role in improving global health security “by supporting health systems as well as funding global stockpiles for Ebola, cholera, meningococcal, and yellow fever vaccines.”
After two decades of progress, the organisation said it is now focused on protecting the next generation, “above all the zero-dose children who have not received even a single vaccine shot.”
Gavi is a co-convener of COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, together with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the World Health Organisation (WHO), and UNICEF.
The Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN has warned against obstructing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from carrying out its lawful duty .
Fagbemi’s warning is contained in a statement in Abuja.
“This is a matter of very grave concern, it is now beyond doubt that the EFCC is given power by the law to invite any person of interest to interact with them in the course of their investigations into any matter, regardless of status.
“Therefore, the least that we can all do when invited, is not to put any obstruction in the way of EFCC, but to honourably answer their invitation.
“A situation where public officials who are themselves subject of protection by law enforcement agents will set up a stratagem of obstruction to the civil and commendable efforts of the EFCC to perform its duty is to say the least, insufferably disquieting’’.
He added that running away from the law will not resolve issues at stake but only exacerbate them.
“Nigeria has a vibrant judicial system that is capable of protecting everyone who follows the rule of law in seeking protection.
“I therefore encourage anyone who has been invited by the EFCC or any other agency to immediately toe the path of decency and civility by honouring such invitation instead of embarking on a temporising self-help and escapism.
“This can only put our country in bad light before the rest of the world’’.
He said institutions of state should be allowed to function effectively and efficiently.
“I stand for the rule of law and will promptly call EFCC, and indeed any other agency to order when there is an indication of any transgressions of the fundamental rights of any Nigerian by any of the agencies’’.
NAN reports that the EFCC had on Wednesday warned members of the public that it was a criminal offence to obstruct officers of the Commission from carrying out their lawful duties.
Section 38(2)(a(b) of the EFCC Establishment Act makes it an offence to prevent officers of the Commission from carrying out their lawful duties. Culprits risk a jail term of not less than five years.
The warning , the EFCC said, became necessary against the background of the increasing tendency by persons and groups under investigation by the Commission to take the laws into their hands by recruiting thugs to obstruct lawful operations of the EFCC.
On several occasions, the anti graft agency said, operatives of the Commission have had to exercise utmost restraint in the face of such provocation to avoid a breakdown of law and order.
Some unknown gunmen have kidnapped Joshua Rogers, the ChannelsTV reporter in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Politics Nigeria learnt that Rogers was picked up close to his residence at Rumuosi in Port Harcourt and to an unknown destination by the gunmen around 9pm on Thursday, April 11.
The reporter was driving his official ChannelsTV branded car when the hoodlums accosted, pointed a gun at him and took him away in the same vehicle.
Rogers was said to be returning from his official assignment in Government House after a trip to Andoni for a government event when the incident happened.
Already, the gunmen were said to have contacted his wife and demanded a N30million ransom for bis release.
His cameraman confirmed the incident and appealed to his abductors to set him free unconditionally.
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