The President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointments of five new heads  for critical agencies in the Nation’s Health Sector.

According to a statement issued on Friday by Director (Press) in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Bolaji Adebiyi, said that Professor Babatunde Lawal Salako is now Head of Nigerian Institute for Medical Research.

Dr. Chikwe Adreas Ihekweazu is Head of the National Centre for Disease Control; Dr. Sani H. Aliyu – Head of National Agency for the Control of AIDS; Professor Echezona Ezeanolue – Head of National Primary Healthcare Development Agency; and Professor Usman Yusuf – Head of National Health Insurance Scheme.

Dr. Salako  prior to the appointment was the Provost, College of Medicine at the University of Ibadan. 

He graduated from the same University in 1986.

He is a fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians in both Edinburg and London.  He is also a member of an International Panel of Experts, United States Institute of Disease Control in Atlanta.

Dr. Ihekweazu is currently the Managing Partner of EpiAfric, a public health consultancy firm that focuses on Africa.  He obtained his medical degree at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1996 and had worked in Berlin, Germany, the United Kingdom and in South Africa before he established his consulting firm in 2014.

Dr. Aliyu is currently a Consultant in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Cambridge University, United Kingdom.  He got his medical degree from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria in 1993.  He worked as a medical officer at the State House Medical Centre, Abuja and from there moved to Cambridge in 1998.

He rose through the ranks until he became a Consultant in Microbiology.

Professor Ezemolue is currently a Professor of Paediatrics and Public Health at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.

He got his medical degree at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1995.  He did his paediatric internship and residency at the Howard University, Washington DC, USA and obtained his Fellowship in Paediatric Infectious Disease from New Jersey Medical School.

He moved to Nevada in 2005 where he remains to date practicing Paediatric medicine.
Professor Yusuf is currently a Professor of Paediatrics at St. Jude Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, United Sates of America.

He graduated in medicine from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and worked in the University Teaching Hospital from 1984 – 1989.

Professor Yusuf worked in the United Kingdom from 1990 – 1995 from where he moved first to South Carolina, USA, where he rose to become a fellow in Paediatric Hematology/Oncology in 1998.

He is a Fellow of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the West African College of Physicians and the American Academy of Physicians.