JIFORM PRESS STATEMENT
Dear colleagues, compliments of the season from the Journalists
International Forum For Migration, JIFORM. May the New Year bring
forth joy unlimited to your households. Please the below statement for immediate attention at your media outlets.
Email: jiformalert@gmail.com : Phone: 234-8111811225, 234-8036458653
CALL FOR AFRICAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM BEYOND THE PANDERMIC.
In 2021, Africa being the continent that hosts the 4th largest number
of global international migrants pegged at 25 million people in 2017
migrating within and outside the region, it must wake up to the
reality of evolving a sustainable health care solution to the
rampaging Covid-19 to save her citizens and guarantee the future of
young population to further reap the fortunes of migration, the
Ajibola Abayomi, the President, Journalists International Forum For
Migration, JIFORM said in a new year message.
With 19 of the world’s 20 youngest countries in Africa, the data from
the United Nations’ World Population Prospects in 2019 confirmed
Africa’s youthful population with Niger tipped to have median age of
just 15.2-years-old.
The West African country has the world’s highest birth rate, with
every woman having an average of 7.2 children over the course of her
lifetime. As a result, the country’s population is set to nearly
triple by 2050 while Mali and Chad round out the top three, with
median ages of 16.3 and 16.6, respectively.
“We must not risk the life of the people. There is a plant as solution
to Covid-19 and other health challenges in the African bush, but where are the brains to tap to the resources? Over 80% of the herbal roots being used for orthodox drugs are from Africa, ironically less than 2% profit returns to the continent. Governments are not encouraging the
right investment to bring about research. With all the natural
resources, when would Africa have its own health care institute?.
To realize the health objective, Ajibola said time has come for the
African Union (AU) under the new leadership of President Felix
Tshisekedi of DR Congo, the Chairperson for AU for 2021 to serve as catalyst to propel African leaders to make the New Year a season of
solution by funding formidable health research institute.
Records shows over 19 million people migrate between the African
countries contributing to the surge in global 272 million migrants
enhancing integration, thus their wellbeing is germane to the economic
progression of the continent.
JIFORM, an international migration media body with headquarter in
Lagos, Nigeria said investment in the health sector was long overdue
to replace the over reliance on the support and dictates from the
Western world and the other continents.
“It is not enough to claim that Artemisia annua, a plant used to
develop Covid-19 Organics by Madagascar grows in Nigeria and othe African countries, what did those nations do with it? The AU in 2020
should had upgraded the Madagascar effort to produce a cure for
covid-19 with a team of medical experts as solution for all if one is
available.
“This is an indication that real investment is needed in the health
sector, notwithstanding, Africa cannot fold arms and wait to reap from
the benefits of brainstorming leading to discoveries of various
coronavirus vaccines being launched in China, Europe, Britain,
Argentina and elsewhere without attempting home solution.
“In as much as the continent is lucky to have escaped the baseless
prediction by likes of Bill Gate and others that over three million
Africans would die before 2020 from Covid-19 infections, yet we must
know that the danger is not completely averted, hunger kills more than any disease as remittance by migrants has been predicted by the UN to shrink by 14% in 2021 compared to 2019.
“Remittance flows to low and middle-income countries (LMICs) were
projected to fall by 7 percent, to $508 billion in 2020, followed by a
further decline of 7.5 percent, to $470 billion in 2021. The foremost
factors driving the decline in remittance.
E-signed
Ajibola Abayomi
President JIFORM