The Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu today received the children's books published by the wife of Ondo State Governor, Arabinrin Betty-Anyanwu Akeredolu, on COVID-19 awareness.
Dr. Ihekweazu received the books from Mrs Akeredolu at the NCDC's administrative headquarters in Jabi Abuja, the Federal Capital territory.
NCDC DG with Mrs AkeredoluCommending the inspiration of the wife of the governor to come up with the idea, the NCDC boss assured that the COVID-19 awareness' books would serve as a beginning of stronger developmental relationship after reviewing the contents.
Dr. Ihekweazu who acknowledged that there was no doubt that children paid big price from the Covid-19 lockdown, described the book as an important piece of work and expressed readiness to provide quick feedback about its contents.
He said: " Thank you for the advance copy you earlier sent, we have already started looking at it, at NCDC we try to break the norm of slowness in government, we work very quickly; we will provide you with good feedback on the content.
"Once we have done that, I can assure you that we will find a way of working together with you to see how we can make sure that this book ends up not just in the hands but in the brains of the children, ".
Mrs Akeredolu who was in Abuja to join the campaign on 16 days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence with other First Ladies, said she seized the opportunity to visit the Centre for endorsement of the book and urged NCDC to make enough copies for Nigerian children.
"The reason I'm here today is to present my book that I wrote with the sole aim of creating awareness of Covid-19 among young people, actually children between ages 3-10", she said.
She explained to the NCDC boss that the book which was launched on her 67th birthday in July, was an aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic when she was caught up with lockdown earlier this year in Owerri where she went to bury her mother.
According to her, prior to the inspiration to write the book for children to be informed of the ugly development that had kept them out of classrooms, she had sensitised towncriers in every Community around hers on the need to enlighten their people, and also encouraged tailors to make Facemasks.
Aside the Covid-19 book, the wife of the governor also presented her quarterly magazine, "Keeping up with Arabinrin", which captures all her activities.
She was later taken round the office to see the COVID-19 statistics board.
