By Abujah Racheal
The Health Sector Reform Coalition (HSRC), on Monday called for the reinvestment of petroleum subsidies into the country’s health sector.
Its Chairperson, Mrs Chika Offor, said this in a press conference in Abuja, organised by the Coalition to analyze the health manifestos of the four front-running political parties in Nigeria.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the right to health is inextricably linked to the right to life, as Nigeria is bound by certain laws and charters to protect the right to health of its citizens.
Sustainable Development Goal 3 is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all irrespective of age.
According to the official, Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services.
“They also have the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
Offor said that seeing the cross-cutting commitment to the removal of petroleum subsidy which in 2022 gulped over 20 per cent of the country’s budget, the Coalition strongly suggests a substantial reinvestment of the subsidy package in the health sector.
She said that the idea is not only because the removal creates ample fiscal space to achieve the Abuja Declaration, but because health is one of the few sectors that can provide immediate dividends of productivity for the people and economic growth for the country.
She said it is necessary to inform Nigerians of the recent activities to help shape the political conversation around healthcare in the build-up to the long-anticipated 2023 polls.
Offor said that HSRC is a coalition of more than 100 Civil Society Organizations and other non-government actors who came together to drive citizens-led health sector reforms in the country.
“Since this period, HSRC has continued to pursue the implementation of the Act and other sectoral reforms which have a strong potential for transforming the healthcare landscape in Nigeria through the provision of Primary Health Care (PHC) services to all Nigerians and providing a roadmap to th Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
“Effectively, the group, in line with its mandate of advancing the rights of Nigerians to UHC and health security, commissioned a scientific analysis of the plans of the top-contending political parties and candidates in the forthcoming presidential elections.
“Beyond activating a culture of holding the political class accountable to their health promises, the overarching goal of this exercise was essentially to visualize to Nigerians the various health roadmaps of the top candidates to inform voter decision-making,” she explained.
Offor, however, congratulated the political parties and candidates for heeding citizens’ call for a more comprehensive health agenda to indeed earn their positions as front-running candidates in this election, since health is directly at the heart of human development.
NAN recalled that Chapter two of the 1999 Constitution, sec 17 (3), provides for the rights to health of Nigerians, which states “The health, safety and welfare of all persons in employment are safeguarded and not endangered or abused; there are adequate medical and health facilities for all persons.”
Also, the recently-signed National Health Insurance Authority Act, 2022, has an overriding objective to promote, integrate and regulate all health insurance schemes; improve and harness private sector participation in the provision of health care services, and do such other things that will assist the authority in achieving universal coverage in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, some health experts said that the four front-running parties made a common promise to increase the number of persons enrolled under the health insurance scheme but are not clear on how they would raise the funds to achieve the set targets.
The target to increase health insurance coverage is in line with the strategic objective of attaining universal health coverage.
The UHC has a goal to improve healthcare by accelerating reforms to adequately finance the health system and realign resources in line with the responsibility for health across the tiers of the healthcare delivery system.
They say “To achieve this, whoever emerges winner of the 2023 presidential election will implement the NHIA Act that makes health insurance mandatory for all residents in the country adding that the imposition of an insurance levy on all residents of the country will generate the required funds necessary to fund the health sector.
The next president will also commit to allocating 15 per cent of the entire annual budget to health, in line with the Abuja Declaration of African leaders, the experts said.
Meanwhile, the Coalition described the four front-running parties as; the Labour Party, the Peoples Democratic Party, the All Progressives Congress and the New Nigeria Peoples Party out of the 18 registered political parties. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Vincent Obi
