Primary Healthcare: Sultan and CAN promise to help the government

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, and the Christian Association of Nigeria, or CAN, yesterday vowed their support for the governors of the 36 federally recognized states in their mission to establish an efficient primary healthcare system in the nation.

The governors, working under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), made a commitment to establish a robust primary healthcare system in each of their states at the same time.

The Sultan pledged his support for the effective implementation of primary health care throughout the nation while speaking at the overview of the Primary Health Care Leadership Challenge Fund’s launch yesterday at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja. He said this because health is wealth.

Similar to this, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), who charged the governors with vigorously pursuing the initiative, emphasized the necessity of making sure that the program was carried out for the benefit of the inhabitants living at the grassroots.

In his Seattle Declaration, NGF chairman and governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, stated that governors would ensure that the primary healthcare system’s governance was improved at the subnational level by fully implementing the “primary health care under one roof” policy and by actively leading primary health care through regular engagement with pertinent primary health care stakeholders.

He claims that governors will hire the necessary medical personnel to guarantee that all primary healthcare institutions meet the minimum staffing standards necessary for their level, in accordance with the state’s minimum service package.

He continued by saying that they would establish a culture of using evidence when making decisions by making sure that data quality was steadily improved throughout all primary healthcare facilities.

We are all looking forward to receiving this money, he remarked. Getting to the right road and the money is the most crucial component of the entire operation. This is our pledge to improve the primary healthcare system in Nigeria on behalf of the 36 state governors and other participants in the Nigerian Governor Forum.

“The Nigerian Governors Forum, representing the 36 states of the federation, hereby affirms our commitment to strengthening the primary health care system in the nation following the accession of the 36 Nigerian governors to the Seattle Declaration in November 2019.

“We adopt and reaffirm our commitment to the Seattle Declaration as a result. As evidence has shown, primary health care (PHC) has the potential to increase attainment of Universal Health Coverage to as much as 80% of the population. Today (yesterday), we are happy to reiterate our commitment to developing a resilient primary health care system.

“On November 12 and 13, 2019, we held a roundtable in Seattle, Washington, USA, as a part of our ongoing cooperation with the Bill & Melinda Gates and Aliko Dangote Foundations to discuss the state governments’ development strategy for immunization, PHC, and human capital development.