The last one year of Dr Temitope Ilori as Director General for the National Agency for Control AIDS (NACA) has been visionary, with purposeful leadership and system thinking in approach. It would be extremely difficult not to sound patronising and sycophantic in the eye of naysayers while commending her stewardship so far.
The bane of effective management of public agencies in Nigeria, among others are the lack of visionary leadership and system thinking in running the affairs of public parastatals and agencies. Having someone in person of Dr Tope Ilori, who combines these strategies in tackling the challenges in the way of achieving zero HIV epidemics in the nearest future in Nigeria is a thing of joy.
The positive feedbacks and commendation of her transformational leadership from staff of NACA and other stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations within the HIV care and management space and the testament of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Nigeria are pointers to her passion towards combating the HIV epidemic in the country. She has demo strated that she’s an seasoned administrator per excellence, a reputable public health expert and a resourceful manager.
Her efforts to establish a strong and sustainable system in tackling and preventing HIV transmission towards bringing it to zero by 2030 in line with AIDS Global Action are visible.
Some of these include Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) and Pediatric Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) Acceleration Committee, Vaccine Research Collaboration, Domestic Production of HIV Commodities among others.
How her office was able to manage the sudden withdrawal of HIV/AIDS funding and the attending shock on provision of anti-retroviral drugs and other consumables for the care of PLHIV when the US withdrew their partnership would be the height of her achievements so far. Despite the scarce available resources from the coffer of the nation antiretroviral therapy including HIV awareness, prevention and management continues freely to PLHIV and Presdient Bola Ahmed Tinubu must be commended as well for promptly rallying funds towards this.
On this occasion of one year anniversary of your appointment and stewardship in NACA, it calls for commendation and celebration of your modest achievement within this short period as we look forward to more of your greater achievement in your fight against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.