A non-governmental organisation (NGO) ONE Campaign, has launched a campaign to end poverty and prevent diseases in the country. OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA reports on its partnership with a coalition of civil society groups for allocation of 15 per cent of the budget to health as declared in Abuja 15 years ago.
They were a spectackle to behold. As guests stepped into the banquet hall of the Lagos Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Hotel, Ikeja, venue of the event, they were confronted with the participants in black tee shirts, lying on the floor as if dead. Their posture was to indicate the poor state of health care delivery in the country.
The event was coordinated by a non-govermental organisation (NGO), ONE Campaign, and its partners, comprising Nigeria Health Watch (NHW), the Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria, Africa-Dev, the Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre and the Centre for the Right to Health. Their mission: improved access to lifesaving health services for Nigerians.
The coalition also amplified Nigerians demand that the government should fulfil its promise to save the health system by funding the 2014 National Health Act and allocating 15 per cent of the budget to health.
Fifteen years ago, African governments made a commitment in Abuja to increase health spending to 15 percent of their budgets. Nigeria was a signatory.
To address the country’s health crises, the coalition noted that successive administrations have failed to deliver on the Abuja commitment. Nigerians – particularly women and children, it said, continued to die from treatable and preventable diseases. The historic Abuja declaration has never been met by policy-makers. Only 4.37 per cent of the budget is allocated to health this year and the National Health Act is yet to be funded or fully implemented.
“We are all hopeful for change. But as responsible citizens, we must learn how to hold our governments accountable for the promised change,” said Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu of NHW, adding that fulfilling the Abuja promise will make a difference for millions of Nigerians, who die from lack of access to basic healthcare.
“It’s hard to imagine that in our beautiful country, millions of Nigerians from Lagos to Wawa, from Sokoto to Yola, die preventable deaths every year because of poor investment in the health sector,” said Waje, Nigerian lady recording artist and ONE’s Strong Girl campaign activist. “I am asking all Nigerians to join us in calling the implementation of these life-saving plans and promises, starting with the 2017 budget. This is not beyond Nigeria, I know it is doable and we need to support government in rolling out those plans,” she said.
Despite being Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria spends relatively little on the health of its citizens and is facing both health and nutrition crisis, as women and children continue to die from treatable and preventable diseases.
Nigeria’s health expenditure puts it in the bottom third of the ranking of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Out of 49 lower-middle income countries, only seven countries’ governments spend less per capita than Nigeria does on health. In 2014 the figure stood at $55 per person – $31 dollars short of the minimum expenditure required to ensure proper health services
If fully implemented, the National Health Act could save the lives of over three million mothers, newborns and children under-five by 2022.
“Nigeria has a large rural population and many of these people are impoverished. The Nigerian government owes welfare to her citizens, especially in the area of health care delivery services,” said Dr Nkem Onyejizu, ONE Champion working in Kano State.
“It is also not news that there are also wide regional disparities in child health indicators in the Northeast and Northwest geo-political zones of the country, which have the worst child survival indices,” added Dr Onyejizu. “We laud the Nigerian government’s plan to build 10, 000 PHCs across the country, but these must be well planned, mapped and staffed to ensure success as well as development of a comprehensive community health insurance scheme.”
President Buhari and the Minister of Health last year reaffirmed their commitment to prioritising healthcare by agreeing to pursue the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals present an opportunity for government to translate its commitment to time-bound and measurable outcomes to dramatically cut avoidable deaths of mothers, children and the marginalised. Now is the time for increased implementation of these important commitments.
“We urge President Buhari to keep his promise to increase the quantity and quality of funding to implement the National Health Act, and ensure that children not only survive, but thrive,” said Mwambu Wanendeya, Africa Executive Director of the ONE Campaign.
