As the World Cup continues in Qater, the World Health Organisation, WHO has partnered with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, FIFA to spread solidarity message for health, peace, solidarity for economic development.
The WHO Representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Mulombo while speaking to Journalists at the WHO-FIFA Walk the Talk to mark the 2022 World Cup in Qatar said that people need to stay healthy and that was the significance of the event.
“Walk the Talk so that we can join those who are doing the same. It is also an opportunity to remember that through physical exercise, we can beat non communicable diseases,” Molumbo said.
On her part, the Director of Health Planning and Statistics of the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Ngozi Azodo said that physical exercise was critical to people’s health.
She recommended that people takes every opportunity, to ensure that they move their body, remain physically active as a part of daily maintaining good health.
“The government of Nigeria is grateful to FIFA for partnering with WHO to spread the message of health is wealth because without good health, everything is else is insignificant. The Ministry of Health not just doing the policy, we are also using our communication channels to ensure that we encourage Nigerians to be physically active as a response to non communicable diseases.
There are two major plans, physical exercise and the other one is food and nutrition. so if we watch what we eat, do physical exercise and of course we watch what enters our system, like cigarette, alcohol and all of that, we will be certain that we are contributing more significance to our health,” Dr. Azodo said.
Azodo further said the Ministry of Health was using every channels possible, to make policies, stating that part of the policy was mobilising all other channels.
He says,”Because we are government, we have critical available channels like schools, churches and of course the civil society group that are working with us to spread the message and today the ministry is walking the talk”.
The ten kilometer walk was also used to create awareness about the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qater.
Confidence Okwuchi
