Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has hailed the appointment of Dr Ayoade Alakija as World Health Organization’s Special Envoy for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator). The appointment was announced by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General earlier in the week.

Dr Fayemi, in a congratulatory message signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Yinka Oyebode, commended the Ogotun-Ekiti born princess for exhibiting excellence for which Ekiti people are known in various fields of endeavours.

He noted that Dr Alakija’s appointment alongside former Swedish Prime Minister, Carl Bildt, was a great feat which could only have been achieved by dint of hard work, adding that he was not surprised that the daughter of the late renowned Professor of Agricultural Economics, Dupe Olatunbosun, would do the State proud since excellence runs in the family gene.

The Governor said he had confidence in Dr Alakija's ability to deliver on the targets set for her, having worked meritoriously with governments and multilateral institutions where she mobilized responses to many humanitarian crises across the globe.

Dr Fayemi stated that Alakija’s appointment has further re-established Ekiti’s place on the global map as Nigeria’s intellectual capital, even as he said the renowned Medical Doctor and Public Health expert had always demonstrated readiness in support of Ekiti’s development strides.

He charged the new WHO Envoy to continue to do the State and country proud and remain a source of inspiration to the younger generation.

Dr Alakija, a medical doctor with a Masters’ degree in Public Health and Epidemiology, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is a global health leader and activist who has deployed diplomacy to bring together the global north and south together in coordinated responses to the pandemic. In her previous role as Chief Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, she led the Oslo Humanitarian Conference for Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, working with governments and multilateral institutions to mobilise responses to some of the most under-recognized humanitarian crises in the world. While based in Fiji, she worked closely with the WHO and UNICEF to design, coordinate, and implement National Health and Behavioural Surveys across the Pacific region.

•PHOTO: Ekiti State First Lady, Erelu Bisi Fayemi with children during the Ekiti State children's Christmas party at the Ekiti Parapo Pavilion Ado-Ekiti . . . on Thursday

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