The Leprosy Mission in Nigeria has lamented that the Federal Government is yet to comply in fulfilling the 30 per cent funding agreement it signed in the Memorandum of Understanding with the Mission for the total eradication of leprosy in Nigeria for past 21 years.
Speaking during his presentation at a training workshop for media practitioners on Reducing Leprosy Related Stigma and Discrimination, organised by TLM, Nigeria, in Minna, Niger State on Wednesday, the Operation Manager of the Mission, Pius Ogbu Sunday, said the Non Governmental Organisation had signed a new MoU with the Federal Government for a period of five years and it is yet to do anything.
According to Sunday: “We signed a MoU with the government for a period of five years and we are yet to get anything from them.
“This has been the trend for over two decades.
“Part of the agreement is that the government will bring in 30 per cent and the TLM 70 per cent.
“For the past 21 years, they (government) have not met their own part of the MoU.
“If they have been fulfilling their own part, by now the cases of leprosy in Nigeria would have reduced drastically.
“We are appealing that the government at all levels will play their role.
“The World Health Organisation recently gave its statistics report that in 2012, Nigeria had over 3,805 cases of persons affected by leprosy.
“We have data for 2012 released by the WHO, which says there are 3,805 cases in Nigeria, with 332 children affected.
“Annually, WHO said Nigeria has an average 3,000 new cases of leprosy.”
Sunday said that government’s priority is very low and this has made the level of stigma and discrimination in the country to remain very high.
Sunday also disclosed that in Niger, Kaduna, Sokoto, Bauchi, Adamawa, Taraba, Cross River, Ebonyi, Kogi and Borno States, an average of between 100 and 199 cases are recorded annually.
He said: “In the states we work, we have 1,000 cases annually and of the cases we usually get 14 per cent.
“Niger State alone as at 2012 has 172 new cases with 150 adults and 22 children.”
Furthermore, he said that with the 20 referral hospitals in the country and the availability of Multi-Drug Therapy from between six to 12 months depending on the degree of infection, leprosy is now curable.