By ZAKAA LAZARUS
The First Lady of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has donated two state-of-the-art mobile clinics to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to help strengthen its rural health programme.
The mobile clinics, donated under the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) Health Support Programme, were formally presented at a ceremony, which took place today, at the Headquarters of the Nigerian Customs Service in Maitama, Abuja.
The Taraba State Government also received one mobile clinic at the event.
Speaking on the occasion, Senator Tinubu commended successive batches of Corps Members for being drivers of the NYSC health interventions, adding that the donation of the mobile clinics would support the numerous medical outreaches of the Scheme, especially under its Health Initiative For Rural Dwellers (HIRD).
The First Lady added that her visit to Taraba State last year necessitated the donation of one mobile clinic to the State Government in order to complement its efforts on healthcare delivery.
She said there was the need to provide the dividends of democracy for the people, irrespective of ethnic, party or other affiliations.
“Love on wheels represents care in motion, to strengthen healthcare delivery beyond hospital wards, improve access, shorten response time and support flexible and reliable health services, especially in emergencies and underserved areas through professional healthcare givers,” she added.
Speaking at the event, the Director-General of the NYSC, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, described the First Lady’s gesture as a timely and strategic intervention that would significantly expand the HIRD.
General Nafiu said the Renewed Hope Initiative’s philosophy, anchored on the belief that “health is not a privilege but a right,” aligns perfectly with the NYSC’s mandate and ongoing efforts to deliver free healthcare services to underserved communities.
He explained that since the launch of the HIRD programme in 2014, NYSC medical personnel had provided free primary healthcare, maternal services, malaria testing, health education and disease prevention campaigns to more than four million Nigerians nationwide, with an average of about 360,000 beneficiaries annually.
He disclosed that in 2025 alone, over 6,300 corps medical personnel, including more than 2,300 doctors, were deployed to remote areas to improve access to healthcare .
He said the two new mobile clinics would greatly enhance operational capacity, by allowing the NYSC to reach more communities simultaneously and treat tens of thousands of additional beneficiaries.
“What has been done today has renewed the hope of millions of Nigerians,” he said, adding that the donation should be seen not just as support, but as a challenge to the Scheme to do more in extending government presence and quality healthcare to those who need it most.
While expressing gratitude to the First Lady for what he described as a generous and well-intentioned gesture, he assured that the mobile clinics would be effectively utilised and that the impact would be felt across rural Nigeria.
Also speaking, the Taraba State Governor, Dr Agbu Kefas thanked Senator Oluremi Tinubu for the donation, and assured that the State Government remained committed to advancing the welfare of residents of the State.
