President Buhari Appoints Adetifa As New NCDC Boss

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Ifedayo Adetifa as the new director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

Adetifa is to take over from the former DG, Chikwe Ihekweazu, who was recently appointed the assistant director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in charge of health emergency intelligence.

Garba Shehu, the presidential spokesman, said in a statement that Adetifa has also been named a member of the health sector reform committee, which will be headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.

The statement reads:

“President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the setting up of a Health Sector Reform Committee to commence the development and implementation of a Health Sector Reform programme for Nigeria in collaboration with the State Governments and the FCT administration.

“This is sequel to a Health Sector Diagnostic Review Report developed by a consultant, Vesta Healthcare Partners and the Federal Ministry of Health.

“The committee will undertake a review of all healthcare reforms adopted in the past two decades and lessons learnt and factor them into the development of the new Health Sector Reform Programme.

“Meanwhile, President Buhari has also approved the appointment of Dr Ifedayo Morayo Adetifa as the new Director General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The President has named him as a member of this important committee.”

Here is profile of Adetifa on the website of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, stating his academic and professional qualifications:

“I received my undergraduate medical training at the University of Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria and completed residency training in Paediatrics at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria for which I was awarded the Fellowship of the West Africa College of Physicians in Paediatrics.

I studied for the MSc in Epidemiology at the School and got my PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands,” the profile reads.

Source: Linda Ikeji