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The West and Central Africa Programmes Director of Malaria Consortium, Dr Kolawole Maxwell, has called for stronger collaboration between the organisation and the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, to strengthen malaria prevention, improve case management, and accelerate malaria elimination in Nigeria.

Maxwell made the call during an advocacy visit by the Malaria Consortium Board of Trustees to UCH management. He said tertiary health institutions play a critical role not only in treating severe malaria cases but also in advancing prevention, research, capacity building, and health system strengthening.

He thanked the hospital’s management for receiving the delegation despite its busy schedule, describing the visit as an opportunity to deepen collaboration between one of Nigeria’s foremost teaching hospitals and an organisation committed to preventing diseases and saving lives across Africa.

According to him, Malaria Consortium, a United Kingdom-registered charity, has implemented public health programmes in Nigeria since 2008 and now operates in more than 20 states, managing projects worth over £18 million annually.

Although malaria remains its core focus, he said the organisation uses malaria programming as an entry point for broader health system strengthening to improve maternal, newborn and child health.

Maxwell disclosed that Malaria Consortium supports the Oyo State Government in implementing Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) in six northern local government areas identified through epidemiological evidence as having highly seasonal malaria transmission. The intervention targets areas where at least 60 per cent of annual malaria transmission occurs within a four-to-six-month period, making preventive treatment particularly effective for children.

He said programme data and feedback from caregivers indicate that the intervention has significantly reduced malaria cases among children in benefiting communities.

‘We have seen encouraging evidence from programme data and from mothers themselves that malaria cases have reduced considerably in the intervention areas. However, we recognise that one intervention alone cannot eliminate malaria,’ he said.

Maxwell stressed that malaria elimination requires multiple evidence-based interventions recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), including preventive chemotherapy, vector control, prompt diagnosis, effective treatment, and emerging tools such as the malaria vaccine.

He described UCH as one of Nigeria’s foremost referral centres for severe malaria cases, noting that many complicated cases from Oyo and neighbouring states are referred to the hospital, making it a vital partner in reducing malaria-related deaths.

He also revealed that the visit held personal significance, as Malaria Consortium’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. James Simbendirani, and Board of Trustees member, Professor Jenny Hill, were both born at UCH.

Maxwell added that discussions with clinicians and researchers would explore how tertiary hospitals could strengthen the continuum of malaria care, from households and primary healthcare facilities to specialised referral centres.

He reaffirmed Malaria Consortium’s commitment to working with the Federal Government, Oyo State Government, UCH and other stakeholders to strengthen malaria prevention, improve case management and mobilise additional resources towards eliminating malaria in Nigeria.

A member of the Malaria Consortium Board of Trustees, Professor Jenny Hill, reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to supporting Nigeria’s malaria control efforts through stronger collaboration with tertiary health institutions, primary healthcare facilities and communities.

Professor Hill, a Professor of Global Health and Malaria at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, said the advocacy visit was aimed at identifying ways to further support Nigeria’s malaria response across all levels of the healthcare system.

She said the delegation was particularly interested in visiting the hospital’s paediatric ward to gain deeper insights into the management of severe malaria in children and its complications.

Professor Hill commended UCH for its longstanding contributions to specialised healthcare, medical training, and research, expressing confidence that stronger collaboration would improve child survival, advance operational research and strengthen Nigeria’s malaria response.

Responding, the Chief Medical Director of UCH, Prof. Jesse Otegbayo, pledged the hospital’s commitment to strengthening collaboration with Malaria Consortium to reduce childhood malaria deaths.

While commending the organisation for its sustained investment in malaria prevention and control, he noted that although SMC and other preventive drug interventions remain valuable, lasting malaria control requires a comprehensive public health approach that addresses the environmental and social factors driving transmission.

He said environmental sanitation, mosquito breeding site control and community-based vector management should complement chemoprevention to achieve sustained reductions in malaria incidence.

‘We look forward to a future where fewer children are admitted to our wards because of malaria. Through stronger partnerships, improved prevention and sustained research, we can significantly reduce the disease burden and give more children the opportunity to grow up healthy,’ Prof. Otegbayo said.

As part of the visit, the Malaria Consortium delegation presented insecticide-treated mosquito nets and toys to children admitted to the paediatric wards to protect vulnerable patients from mosquito bites during admission while providing emotional support to those undergoing treatment.

Afrobeats singer, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has said he will seek the intervention of United States President Donald Trump if anything goes wrong during the forthcoming Osun State governorship election.

The singer made the statement during a livestream hosted by content creator Carter Efe, where he discussed his interest in politics and his concerns about the conduct of elections in Nigeria.

Davido said he would consider joining politics when he is convinced that the country’s electoral system is transparent and allows voters to freely choose their leaders.

According to him, he is confident of emerging victorious in an election that is conducted fairly.

He said the lack of transparency remains one of the reasons he has not ventured into politics despite his interest.

‘Until there’s transparency, then I can go ahead with politics because nobody can beat me in any election,’ he said.

Davido added that he would be confident of winning if Nigerians were allowed to vote freely and have their votes properly counted.

He also expressed concern about the upcoming Osun governorship election, saying he was waiting to see how the exercise would be conducted.

‘I want to see what they are going to do in Osun. We are waiting,’ he said.

The singer then disclosed that he would reach out to Trump if he became dissatisfied with the electoral process in Osun.

Davido said he would tag and call the US president and, if necessary, take his concerns to the White House.

‘I’ll tag Trump, I’ll call Trump, everybody. If they still don’t see anything, I’ll go in front of the White House and say, ‘Help us,”

‘Trump will just say, ‘I think there’s a Nigerian artiste sending me a message. Don’t worry, my message will be delivered.’he said.

He stressed that his threat should not be dismissed as a joke, adding that he expected his concerns to reach the US president.

Davido concluded by calling on those involved in the electoral process to allow the people of Osun State to freely determine their next governor.

‘Leave Osun alone oo, leave it,’ he said.

Peter Okoye, popularly known as Mr P, has alleged that his elder brother, Jude Okoye, and twin brother, Paul Okoye, also known as Rudeboy, pressured his wife, Lola Okoye, to terminate their first pregnancy and claimed their late mother once confronted her during a family meeting.

The allegations were made in the eighth episode of Mr P’s ongoing video series chronicling the long-running rift within the Okoye family.

His claims came as Rudeboy reacted to another allegation in the same episode that their late mother, Josephine Okoye, mistreated Lola during a family meeting held years ago.

Responding in a brief post shared on his X account on Friday, Rudeboy wrote:

‘Unfortunately, you’re not here to defend yourself. Continue resting, Mum.’

In the video released on Thursday, Mr P recounted a meeting held at his Omole residence shortly after the birth of his son, alleging that their late mother, Jude, Paul, Tony and some pastors gathered to confront him and his wife over their relationship.

He said, ‘When we moved into Omole, our mom came to visit. My son was about five or six months old. When my mom visited, I gave her the master bedroom and moved into Jude’s room. I was expecting my mom to ask, ‘How is your new baby?’ My mom didn’t ask. She just said, ‘How is Lola? I hope she’s fine.’ She said, ‘Can you tell her to come?’ I said, ‘Okay, do you want to see the baby?’ She said, ‘No. Let her come first.’

‘Then Lola was living on the Island. How do you expect me to tell Lola my mom wanted to see her and ask her not to come with the baby? I had to lie to Lola not to come with the baby because we had fumigated the house.’

Mr P said Lola arrived at the residence without their baby and was led into the master bedroom, where the family meeting was already in progress.

He alleged that neither of them was offered a seat during the gathering.

‘Everybody was seated… I went to call Lola. When she entered the room, nobody stood up or said, ‘Lola, sit down.’ Nobody even bothered to welcome her properly. Lola and I just sat on the floor.’

Mr P alleged that their mother then told his wife, ‘Young woman, we the Okoye family have decided that you should leave our son alone.’

He continued, ‘I said, ‘What is going on?’ A few days earlier, Lola and I had had a small quarrel, so she looked at me thinking maybe I had planned this to evict the relationship. She said, ‘Babe, what’s going on?’ I asked my mum the same thing. Next thing, Jude said, ‘Leave our brother alone.’ I looked at Jude’s face.’

He further claimed that Jude later picked up a photograph of his infant son and made a derogatory remark in Igbo, which Lola understood to mean the child was a ‘bastard.’

‘Lola started crying. The pastors tried to calm her. They pushed Lola out of the house,’ he alleged.

Mr P also accused Jude and Rudeboy of trying to stop Lola from keeping her pregnancy, alleging that they questioned the paternity of the unborn child through an anonymous email.

‘Nothing that Jude and Paul didn’t do for Lola to take that pregnancy out,’ he alleged.

According to him, their late mother later accepted that the child was his biological son and directed his brothers to apologise, but he said the apology never came before she died.

Mr P also rejected claims that Lola had a strained relationship with their late mother, maintaining that she cared for her until her death.

‘When my mom was sick… Lola stayed with her in the hospital till midnight and took the pastors back home every day for over two months,’ he said.

He further alleged that before their mother’s death, she instructed Paul and Jude to apologise to him, but they never did.