Urges govt to expedite action on the release of Chibok girls 
THE wife of Ondo State Governor, Mrs. Olukemi Mimiko, has reiterated the commitment of the state government towards the welfare of the girl-child, urging the Federal Government to speed up action on the release the Chibok girls.

Mrs. Mimiko said this at the weekend in Akure during the official launch /commissioning of the Adolescent and Youth-Friendly Health Programme (AYFHP) Centre at the State Specialist Hospital, in commemoration of the 2015 International Girl-Child Celebration.

She said: “We come together to celebrate about 30 per cent of our population in Ondo State: the adolescent, the young ones, who hold our future, our peace and our joy at hand.
“Should it go wrong with these ones, we will lose our peace. And should it go well with them, great shall be our peace and our joy.”

The wife of the Ondo State governor revealed that the welfare of the adolescents and especially, the girl –child, necessitated the moves by the state government to embark on such adolescent-based and friendly initiatives.

She re-enacted her family background as against the African traditional beliefs, which place more importance on the male-child, stating clearly that her parents never thought less of the girl-child, despite the initial girl-child bearing in sequence.
“My father should have been unhappy, but rather, as I grew up, I found out that he devoted his time and love specially for me, “ she said, admonishing parents to love their girls. “

You don’t know what she would become tomorrow, “ she said
Mrs. Mimiko revealed that that was the essence of her presence at the occasion alongside other women including the wife of the Deputy Governor, Alhaja Fatimat Oluboyo.

She appealed to the Federal Government and all security operatives to intensify efforts to release the Chibok school girls, who were abducted by Boko Haram last year.

She emphasised that those girls had their innate potentials that could be used for societal development and national advancement in all facets of human endeavours.

Earlier, the state Commissioner of Health, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, enumerated the need for such initiative and listed further the milestone achievements achieved by the state government.

According to him: “The population distribution of Ondo State is skewed in favour of adolescents and young people as the 2006 population estimated that 30 percent of the population is between 10-24 years.”

He said: “This positions the state as one with tremendous human potentials both in the present and the future.
Adeyanju explained further that “the AYFHP is an initiative of the state government to guarantee qualitative health care services for all young people in the state.”

The programme, he said, was planned to offer integrated services in four major core areas namely: Clinical Preventive Services, Community-Based Outreaches, Treatment /Curative Services and Referral Services.
His words: “In achieving these objectives, the current administration has carried out the necessary baseline survey, set up by the leadership and governance of the programme trained health care workers and built youth- friendly centres.”
“All these had been done with huge support of all stakeholders and our funding partners among, which Ford Foundation has played a key role.”

The commissioner affirmed that the state would continue to rely on “this tremendous goodwill and collaboration as we continually run with the vision of providing quality youth-friendly services in the state.”

The President of Kids and Teens Resource Centre (NGO), Mr. Martin-Mary Falana and Mrs. Adetula, representing NGOs working on Human Immunodeficiency Virus/ Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), lauded the government and urged for more concessions and extension of the programme to the rural areas.