Bauchi targets zero malaria prevalance, to distribute 5 million insecticide treated nets to protect pregnant women, U-5 children
ByAkanji Alowolodu, Bauchi
Bauchi State Government has declared that it is targeting Zero malaria prevalance across the State with the distribution of Five million insecticide treated mosquitoes nets (ITNs).
The ITNs are to be distributed to the residents in order to prevent malaria prevalence especially among children under five and pregnant women.
The disclosure was made by the Executive Chairman of Bauchi State Agency for the Control of Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria (BACATMA), Dr Adamu Umar Sambo during a Media parley for the 2026 ITN mass campaign, held on Monday.
He said, “For the giant malaria, there is no longer a scourge in every house. When the agency was established, in this very Bauchi, we used to have prevalence of over 70%. Almost 75%. It means out of 10 people in the family, more than seven will have malaria, whether it’s a child, whether it’s a pregnant mother, whether it’s the father in the house, or any other beneficiary of the family. But we have seen a very serious reduction as the datas have came. Now it’s 10%.”
According to him,”We know we are not where we’re supposed to be, but we believe from where we started, we have made significant progress. We don’t need stories about malaria because almost everybody is aware and early. They say, I got treatment last week, or my wife got treatment last week, or my child got treatment last week. It’s difficult to say you spend more than a month without receiving one form of malaria treatment or the other in your family. And this is not just isolated to Bauchi. It’s a global problem. Where in tropical areas, the prevalence up to now is about 20%. “
He said, “That means Bauchi, we are already down compared to what other places experience. The good thing is even the severe form, especially among children. When I was a House Officer, we used to have one table in the specialist hospital, like this one, and we will lie the children like this. You can look for the leg, you will not see. You have to come here to find them, form, they will be convulsing, and maybe before they come, they must have pushed some traditional medication down the throat, thinking it’s one form of spiritual attack or the other. Meanwhile, in the severe form, malaria is hitting those children, giving them the severe form, with convulsions and all other manifestations. They come with dehydration, anemia.”
“If the death is going to be because of severe malaria, but the measures we are putting, we are doing a great effort. The SMC is there where we follow household during the peak season, five months at least, we give the child five years pack, which will reduce the transmission rate for malaria. We still follow where immunity to malaria will drop and children will have less incidence of malaria as they grow up. We also do vector control. Sometimes we have a chance to go to communities. We do a survey approach,” he added.
Adamu Sambo further said that, “The last campaign was 2023. We believe after three to four years of the utilization of those nets, it’s either some of them are torn or the chemical in them has become less efficacious, and therefore we are now prepared with the partners here, every other stakeholder, to distribute close to five million nets for the good people of Bauchi state. This was designed in such a way that we want to have every beneficiary that is due to benefit from this net gets their net.”
He stressed that, “After this media parley, some few days to come, we’ll have household mobilizers going around various households to mobilize. We go, give them cards that when we are ready to distribute, these forms, they will present those cards and collect their nets. After that, we move these nets to the various distribution points. And some of the distribution points may be in the health facilities that are in those communities, or schools in those communities, or we use any safe place, be it the house of the Mai Angwa, or our Imam, or our Pastor, or whoever is our leader there that can help us to secure the nets while people now receive this net from the distribution points.”
The BACTAMA EC added,”We put them there, we present those cards that we are issued to them so that we give them the new nets. But because sometimes when nets are disposed in the community, they become also nuisance to the environment. We are not certain whether this chemical that are killing these mosquitoes, after four years completely it deactivated to the point that if animal chews those nets will still survive with safety. Therefore this time around we are involving even BASEPA so that we can retrieve the old nets for proper disposal.”
He explained that,”We are not saying it must be a strict condition to receive the new net. But paraventure everybody has old net that we are now changing with a new one. We receive that old net and then bring it back for proper disposal. Every household in Bauchi state will receive a new net.”
According to him,”Some rich families can themselves afford a net. Or within their house have window nets that the mosquitoes may not go in. But our rural folks and our low-income classes, they cannot afford that. So they would depend solely on the mosquito net to prevent them from mosquito bite. And if we succeed in preventing mosquitoes that will bite people to get malaria and transmit to others, we will one day wake up with mosquitoes that don’t have malaria. And so even when they bite, they will not transmit malaria.”
He said that,”We have countries that today, it’s not that they don’t have mosquitoes. They don’t have malaria because those mosquitoes there do not transmit malaria. They will bite people but they will not spread malaria. So once we prevent these mosquitoes from biting us with that have malaria, the mosquitoes will be healthy, and when they are healthy, they cannot transmit malaria. And so one day we wake up with, even though we have mosquitoes, but they will not have malaria. That is the basic need for us to have these nets and mosquito-treated people.”
According to him,”During the hot season, we can see how people come outside sometimes and sleep. But they will put these mosquito nets and they sleep inside. They will sleep with the mosquito net on their head. Some at the river bank. But unfortunately, if they are not properly educated, they will not even know how to manage the mosquito nets, and some will not even utilize them for the purpose they are provided.”
The BACATMA EC added, “These nets are coming to us at high cost. Our partners are going to inform you that these nets, from the estimation, they are somewhere around Seven Dollars per net. And if you put our exchange rate now, we know what Seven Dollars is. This is minus the logistics that will take this net to various people who will benefit from it. By the time you add this and the other campaigns and the awareness and everything that will come with it, the net may go to the beneficiaries at maybe Ten Dollars per net, or even more. That means, put to our Naira, it’s over N50000 per net, because it’s the highest quality of net.” “Unfortunately somebody will carry that net, go to the market and sell it for N1000. Yes, the same person that helped themselves. And this is happening because perhaps the awareness, how to use the net and the importance is not there. This is the reason for this: call all of you, each stakeholders, and propagate the right information that you look at them,” he added.
Adamu Sambo added, “Somebody may even decide that he will use the net as a fishing net, take it to the river, just go and catch fish with it. Can you imagine a precious commodity like this? How much fish are you going to catch? But because maybe his popular way is to catch fish, he doesn’t understand that by the time he has malaria, he will spend all the money he got from the fish to go and treat himself. He will still use it,” he further said.
He stressed that Malaria is biting the people but they have refused to use the nets,”So all these things that we believe are happening because people are not properly informed. Somebody will carry it and go and use for something else. So these are not the proper things we provided. These nets are provided for the people. Utilize them to prevent mosquitoes. So this engagement today is to help us canvass this, help us educate and enlighten our various people in the state to know that this is the intent of providing these nets to all the beneficiaries.”
He said,”We are lucky, in Bauchi State, we have a large number of ITN. This means we have factored in so many factors that will allow people to use. So the next thing we always advocate for is the conduct during the distribution. We tried as much as possible to see that during the distribution, we make it in such a way that we have timetable kind of thing. Where when we come to a community, we say, This people is part of the community, they will collect their own today. Maybe another part collects their own tomorrow, another part collects their own tomorrow. “
He expressed confidence that with the traditional rulers there, “we should be able to know that, these people collecting today are from this designed community to collect here.”
“We don’t want a situation whereby people will go and congest at the distribution point and even become chaotic during the distribution. In Bauchi, we know our people are religious, either Muslims or Christians. We have few pagans there. So we are guided by our mutual thoughts, and we all have traditional institutions that we have grown to understand, to guide us in terms of morality. So engage almost everybody.”
According to him, “The morality part of it should come out during the distribution. We are not going to take it lightly with anyone trying to siphon any nets. I want to make this categorical: we are not taking lightly with anyone, be it a health worker, be it a government distributor, be a stakeholder in the community, or any other person that wants to utilize the opportunity of position to say they will siphon nets that are provided, intended for the right beneficiaries. Bauchi State government, partners, are not going to take it lightly anymore. We will make sure we allow the law to take its course.”
He also warned that, “Anyone who decide to do any shady thing is going to face the wrath of God and the law. Therefore, we are working for zero tolerance to any form of siphoning or misappropriation, any misguided conduct during the distribution. Zero tolerance. The security agencies, they have given us their commitment, physically they are out there. They have people, perhaps, DSS that can just come and watch now, look at the distribution, understand the pattern. We call all our stakeholders to help us achieve this, because we don’t want a situation whereby the nets that are intended for the users, and others may utilize the opportunity to siphon them for other things.”
The NUJ, Bauchi State Council in its remark, assured that the members will work with BACATMA to achieve the aims and objectives of the parley through educative stores that will create awareness.
The State office of National Orientation Agency (NOA) also assured that it will join in the advocacy and other means of creating awareness on the importance of the ITN.
End
A cross section participants at the parley
