The Albino Foundation Public Notice
By Ruby Leo & Isah Danjuma Oboni
As campaigns for the 2023 elections heats up across the country, professionals and experts from all works of life have called on Nigerians not to vote for any politician who has no health agenda in his manifestos.
Speaking at a one day day workshop to develop a led citizen health agenda at the weekend at the Chida International hotel, the experts noted that Nigerians themselves have to drive the initiatives for the change they desire to see.
The workshop is supported by the Nigeria Governors Forum, Universal Health 2023 Forum and Chatham House.
One of the conveners of the Workshop, Mrs Moji Makanjuola noted that over the years issues concerning health has to do with resources not been enough, infrastructure out of place or not maintained or Human resources not available.
“when you look at the health indices or health indicators in Nigeria, it’s very poor”.
“We found out that around the world where universal health coverage has made any major of success its had a political muscle. So how do we get this political muscle? The political engine that will drive it, to ensure that Nigerians begin to realize that for us to accelerate national development, health must be in that pillar.
According to her the health sector has been neglected to to the extent that it took a pandemic to wake up action for improved healthcare delivery service.
“We’ve had all kinds of interventions, the Basic Healthcare Fund, but concretely and tangibly, you find out that if we put everything together, Nigeria’s healthcare delivery service is in disarray.
So we got Chatham house in London interested because they have also done that in other countries of the world, Indonesia, Pakistan, where they have been deliberate improvement of healthcare delivery service using the political muscle.
it’s a coalition of like minds coming together. We are not funded by anyone.
We’ve never pushed health agenda as a campaign material, oftentimes about security or the economy.
So we are hoping health can take the second or the third space so that we seriously begin to look at health as a development and deliberate investment. So that’s how we get U H C 2023.
. It is a national thing. It’s going to cascade to the local government. We are going to engage ALGON, we’re engage, local government chairman.
We are going to engage, would be governors, sitting in governors. We started engaging them. That is why we have the Nigerian Governors Forum as part of us. We’re not sitting and fold our hands. We are going out and talking to them.
Speaking on brain drain, Moji had this to say, “Nigeria has just become a training ground for healthcare practitioners around the world. We have to end this because we have people who need the services here.
Earlier the National President of Nigeria Union of Journalists, Mr Christopher Isiguzo Said that the workshop is geared towards setting agenda for the new sets of leaders across the board. New governors, president, vice and members of the federal executive council. New sets of legislatures at the national and state levels.
He added that it does appear sometimes we tend to gloss over this sector, which is a very important one at that.
His words, “ We are always concerned about building roads, bridges, power supply, but leave behind the engine room so to speak, because we cannot achieve anything without health.
Thye fact that past efforts failed, its not enough for us to stop trying. There is this mantra “quitters never win and winners never quit”. Before your aspiration become reality, you have to keep trying.
So, this meeting is about agenda setting. We not going to force it through the throat of the people, but set the agenda, let there be a working document, it makes governance a lot easier than when we don’t have at all.
So that when campaigning, you not only talking about roads and bridges but talking about critical issues that makes the country work, if we detract these issues, the system becomes a failed state. If we have a system that have health care, education,energy as primary focus, then the country is working.
If you check the airport to see the number of persons travelling out of the country, you will notice that appreciative number of persons travel for health-related reasons, that is what we call health tourism.
Why do they travel? Maybe they don’t have confidence in the system, maybe facilities are not available, maybe we don’t have people that are committed to healthcare delivery; the nurses, the doctors, maybe because of negligence in the system.
If we say we want to have a health system that works, that means we must have a system that takes care of all issues enumerated.
Hon. Mohammed Husman the current chairman of the National Advocates of Health Group, and a major, advocate for health said that politicians need to intimate Nigerians on their plans to improve the health sector.
“So we are doing it across party lines as well as to sensitize Nigerians, to understand the significance of including health in the agenda, so that when people come to campaign for their vote, they should be able to ask the aspirants, what do they have to offer to them.
why are we doing this? Of recent COVID 19 has demonstrated that there is nothing as significant as health because everybody abandoned, whatever one is doing for health, because you ought to be healthy to do anything.
people are now very conscious of the fact that health is a priority, but you know, the government has never taken health as a priority.
Most of what the government do is lip service. I can tell you that because you don’t see program that will really be translated into action.
The National President for Nigeria Association of Women Journalist, Ladi Bala Opined that the event is one of the noble initiatives in recent times.
Her words, “Because without having a healthy society, you cannot talk about any development. So health should be top of the agenda of every government and people of any society.
she lamented that there were many gaps in our health systems, saying, “Nigerians are all critical stakeholders in ensuring that we have a healthy society. And so we all have a role to play.
And even the electorates, sometimes don’t even get to understand that this is one aspect that they need to demand from all the political parties and all the aspirants that are coming to seek for their votes and to represent them.
most of our health facility at the primary health care level are collapsing. You may have structures, but beyond those structures that you have, what about the quality of health personnel? Are they adequate? what of the supply of consumables and the medicals, are they readily available?
She added that the coalition is set on putting down those policies, to redesign them in such a way that it’ll form like a pamphlet that will be readily available for advocacy.
So at the end of day, we’ll come up with that document that will be easily accessible and easy to understand, to read and understand. And to know that these are the core cry of Nigerians, the citizen, that these are the areas that they are demanding that interventions be made. So as to make healthcare services more affordable, accessible, and effective.
