Talk about one choice of Minister that Pres. Bola Tinubu made which many have hailed as a perfect fit and the name of Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate (CON) will crop up. He is the co-ordinating Minister of Health & Social Welfare. He is not only an erudite scholar of note. He wields tremendous influence in the medical field, globally. He is an accomplished global health leader. He has been described as the man to heal Nigeria’s ailing health sector.
Apart from being a good and befitting candidate to represent his state, he is also going to bring to bear on his job, his wealth of experience, globally. City People can authoritatively reveal that President Tinubu had to beg Prof to leave all his commitments to join his cabinet, to help professionally handle the Health sector. No wonder his choice has been described as Pres. Tinubu putting a round peg in a round hole. Truly so. Going by his pedigree and profile he seems tailor-made for the job that the President wants him to do.
Lets tell you more, Muhammad Ali Pate (CON) who will turn 55 on 6th September. He is a physician. He is a Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University. He formerly served as the Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population and Director of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) at the World Bank Group. Pate is also the former Minister of State for Health in Nigeria.
On Tuesday, October 11, 2022, Pate, along with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Amina J. Mohammed were conferred with Nigeria’s national honours. Pate was conferred with Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON).
Earlier in 2019, Pate was appointed Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Pate was also the former Minister of Health in Nigeria. His appointment in July 2011 followed his role as the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency in Abuja. He resigned as Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health effective 24 July 2013 to take up the position of Professor in Duke University’s Global Health Institute, USA. He is formerly the Chief Executive Officer of Big Win Philanthropy and an adjunct Professor of Global Health of the Duke University Global Health Institute. On September 1, 2021, Pate returned to Harvard University as a Julio Frenk Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In February 2023, Muhammad Ali Pate was appointed Chief Executive Officer of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, which works to provide vaccines in low-income countries. Muhammad Ali Pate was born in the Misau local government area of Bauchi State in Nigeria and was raised in the north of the country. He is the son of a fulani herdsman.
The first in his family to complete a secondary school education, Pate graduated from high school to enter the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Medical School in Kaduna State, Nigeria. He graduated from ABU and moved to Gambia where he worked in rural hospitals for a few years. He was then a Fellow in infectious diseases at the University of Rochester Medical Center in the United States. He is an American Board-Certified MD in both Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, with an MBA (Health Sector Concentration) from Duke University USA. Prior to this he studied at the University College London. He also has a Masters in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK. Muhammad Pate is married and has four daughters and two sons. He resides in northern Nigeria. He is a practicing Muslim. Pate holds the equivalent of a knighthood title as “Chigarin Misau” from the village where he was born.
Prior to his appointment to the NPHCDA in 2008, Muhammad Pate had an extensive career spanning over 10 years at the World Bank in Washington DC and held several senior positions including Senior Health Specialist and Human Development Sector Coordinator for the East Asia/Pacific Region and Senior Health Specialist for the African Region. While at the World Bank, a major project led by Pate was the far-reaching health sector reform programmes in Africa, East Asia and other regions of the World Bank. Of note is his initiation of landmark Public Private Partnership to replace a National Referral Hospital in Lesotho, Africa.
Other board, commission, and committee memberships include the following:
- Co-chair (along with Margaret Kruk), The Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems. Report was launched on September 6, 2018 • Member, Lancet Commission on Malaria Eradication -ongoing • Member, Lancet Commission on the Future of Health in Sub-Saharan Africa (report 09/2017) • Member, Independent Monitoring Board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative • Board member, American International Health Alliance, Washington D.C. 2015–2022 • Board member, Aceso Global,Washington DC 2015–2022 • Board member, Healthcare Leadership Academy • Member, Investment Committee, Flint Atlantic Capital • Member, Steering Committee on the Value of Vaccination Research Network, Harvard University • Member, Steering Committee, Study on the Assessment of the Impact of Polio Eradication on Routine Immunization and Primary Health Care, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2011–2012 • Editorial advisory board, BMJ Global Health • Advisory Board member, Ethiopian International Primary Health Care Institute • Senior Fellow of the Nigeria Leadership Initiative (NLI), Inducted at Yale University, New Haven Connecticut, April 2015 • Co-chair, Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria
2012 – Harvard Health Leader, awarded by the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program. Many believe that with this intimidating profile and politicial experience, nothing can stop Prof. Ali Pate from fulfilling President Bola Tinubu’s dream of a vibrant health sector.
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