Competence triumphs over politics as Nigeria appoints new CDC head

Clinical epidemiologist Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa has been named the new director general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. He will be taking over from Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, who will be joining the World Health Organization as the agency’s assistant director-general of health emergency intelligence and head of the Berlin-based WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence.

When news broke that Ihekweazu would be leaving NCDC, there were concerns among public health stakeholders in Nigeria, including NCDC officials who told Devex they were worried about the possible appointment of a politician to lead the agency.

Adetifa’s appointment has been met with relief as many believe that this is an indication that competence has triumphed over politics.

Oyewale Tomori, chairman of Nigeria's Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on COVID-19, told Devex that even though Ihekweazu has built something great at the NCDC, what happens after his departure is even more important.

“If the man coming after you is chosen not on competence but purely on federal character balancing, then bye-bye to progress and sustainability,” he said.

Adetifa received his undergraduate medical training at the University of Ilorin and completed his residency training in pediatrics at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. He then proceeded to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he obtained an MSc in Epidemiology. He also has a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Amsterdam.

He has a background in academia and research and has been working as an associate professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for the past seven years. He also worked as a professor at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme.

As a researcher, Adetifa has shown interest in the epidemiology of infectious diseases and vaccine policy in low- and middle-income countries. He has also advised Kenya’s National Immunisation Coordination Committee and WHO Africa’s Immunization Technical Advisory Group on vaccine policies.

Dr. Ifeanyi Nsofor, CEO at EpiAFRIC, a Nigeria-based health consultancy, said in addition to having the right qualifications to “lead the efforts to prevent, control, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks,” Adetifa also has great people skills which will serve him in his new role.

“He is somebody who knows how to relate with people,” he said.

Adetifa will take on the leadership of NCDC at a time when Nigeria is battling the COVID-19 pandemic. Under his predecessor's leadership, the organization has managed to build the framework of disease detection, surveillance, response, and control. It has also expanded COVID-19 testing and marshaled national control efforts — conducting nearly 3 million tests and actively contributing to the genomic surveillance of the disease in Africa.

But the fight is far from over, as the country has only administered about 5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses with only about 0.8% of the population fully vaccinated amid a third wave of the disease.

NCDC is also tracking and responding to other disease outbreaks including cholera while also striving to build a more robust framework for the country to more quickly detect and respond to future outbreaks.

Nsofor said that the new director-general should build on the NCDC’s current digitization of disease notification and surveillance that exists from the community to the national level.

“For someone who has worked within WHO and several others, that is something he really needs to consolidate to make sure the work continues and gets better,” he said. Adding that Adetifa would also need to generate more funding, not just from abroad but also from within Nigeria.

Update, Sept. 13, 2021: This article has been updated to clarify that Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa obtained his MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and worked as a professor at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme.