Prince Chinedu Munir Nwoko
By Our Reporter
Prince Chinedu Munir Nwoko has added another feather to his over-decorated cap. Prince Nwoko, who is commonly referred to as the Prince of Hope by his friends and admirers for restoring hope in the lives of the hopeless and less-privileged, was bestowed with the LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPERS SOCIAL IMPACT PERSON OF THE YEAR 2021 award by the Leadership Newspapers for devoting his time, energy and financial resources to the eradication of malaria, the disease that has continued to kill thousands of children and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa.
Great deeds are like carnations; they flower in the exploits of a philanthropist like Prince Ned Nwoko, chairman of Prince Ned Nwoko Foundation (PNNF) who has his eyes fixed on eradicating malaria instead of mere treatment and control of the disease in Nigeria and Africa
Unlike some billionaires who are self-centered and care only about themselves and family members, Prince Nwoko believes in touching the lives of all and sundry. No wonder, he is perturbed about the frightening figures which revealed that African region accounted for 94 per cent of all malaria cases and deaths recorded worldwide vis-a-vis the recent World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics which revealed that six African countries accounted for approximately half of all malaria deaths globally.
Going by WHO report, Nigeria accounted for 24 per cent, the Democratic Republic of the Congo 11 percent, United Republic of Tanzania 5 per cent, while Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Niger accounted for 4 per cent each.
The 2019 World Malaria Report rates Nigeria as having the highest number of annual global malaria cases accounting for 25 per cent of 229 million cases and the highest number of deaths or about 24 per cent of 409,000 worldwide annual malaria deaths.
Prince Nwoko cannot be compared with the proverbial warrior who lives to sing the song of his own deeds and derring-do, he remains impressively humble and immune to conceit, treading a rare path to acclaim thus attracting honour in torrents, from home and abroad. While he strikingly commands the relentless tribute of a cheer, his feats reverberate as deafening applause.
Prince Nwoko’s undiluted passion for humanity culminated in his setting up the Prince Ned Nwoko Foundation Malaria Eradication in Africa Project (PNNF) which basically focuses on the eradication of malaria in Africa.
In the year 2021, Prince Nwoko embarked on a rigorous campaign through his foundation, PNNF. He sought and obtained approval from the Federal Ministry of Health to support and coordinate a national response towards malaria eradication involving strategic partnership for the deployment of the premier malaria vaccine RTS,S in Nigeria.
On account of Prince Nwoko’s tenacity in ensuring malaria is wiped out of Nigeria, he ensured the Minister of Health approved the vaccine’s implementation in Nigeria based on the framework submitted by the Prince Ned Nwoko Foundation Malaria Eradication in Africa Project (PNNF)
It is an incontrovertible fact that between March 18 and 19, 2021, the PNNF invited the RTS,S vaccine experts and other malaria specialists to a two-day workshop on developing concept note and proposal to the Federal Ministry of Health for the foundation to lead in the development of RTS,S in Nigeria.
On July 27, 2023, the minister of Health, in a letter addressed to Prince Ned Nwoko Foundation approved the foundation’s proposal to lead in the roll -out of RTS, S vaccine in Nigeria.
In September 2021, the PNNF co-hosted a virtual sideline event tagged Global Action For a Malaria Free Africa(GAMFA 2021) during the United Nation General Assembly (UNGA), with the panel discussion moderated from New York by the national coordinator of the Ned Nwoko Malaria Project, Chukwuebuka Anyaduba.
It did not stop there, the foundation initiated the process of a bill for malaria eradication sponsored and passed at the National Assembly. This followed a series of meetings between members of the foundation and the leadership of the National Assembly as well as relevant chairmen of Senate and House Committees on Health and Environment.
