APC women leader tasks stakeholders to humanise health stories to impress political leaders

National Women’s Leader of the APC, Betta Edu, said stakeholders should humanise the health sector in such a way to interest and appeal to political leaders.

Edu said this on Wednesday in Abuja, at a Health Policy Dialogue with the theme: Setting UHC and health security priorities in the new dispensation: Getting it right from the onset.

Our correspondent reports that the dialogue examines Nigeria’s health policy priorities in the light of the Presidential Committee on Health Reform’s recommendations and the citizens-led health agenda to chart a course of action.

According to her, “We must recraft our stories to make them appealing to political leaders.”

She said highlighting political gains in Health Policy Reform was key.

She said that Political leaders battled with competing priorities from different sectors, hence there was a need for the health sector to be strategic.

Rep. Tanku Sununu said that the Nigerian health sector had a low budget absorptive capacity, hence the inefficient utilization of resources allocated to the sector.

Sununu said that it was important to address this challenge to improve the efficiency of health investment.

Dr Ahmed Abdulwahab, Senior Health Advisor, Nigeria Governors Forum, said the country had reduced the scope of National Health Reforms to only refer to the federal level.

Abdulwahab said for reforms to be effective, it was crucial to consider their implementation at the sub-national level during their design phase.

Dr Garfa Alawode, Co-convener, UHC 2023 Forum, said that increased investment must be accompanied by increased accountability, transparency, answerability and controllability for resource utilisation, policy implementation and system performance.

“While increased investment is central to improving the health system, it must be coupled with increased accountability with increased transparency, answerability (asking appropriate questions), and controllability (effecting desired changes),” he said

Alawode said there was also a need for increased accountability for resource utilisation, policy implementation and system performance, to ensure that the different organisations involved were alive to their responsibilities.

He said health MDAs and institutions should be held to account for their stewardship and other roles.

“Part of the measures needed to raise the accountability bar is the mandatory and periodic release of information to the public.

Such information should be on resource utilisation, policy implementation and system performance by relevant health MDAs.

“Others include the creation of robust accountability frameworks on resource utilisation, policy implementation and system performance,” he said.

He said the lawmakers, relevant MDAs, the media, and civil society should also be alive to their responsibilities of holding implementers accountable.

“Enforce the legislation mandating MDAs to publish information on resource utilisation, policy implementation, and system performance (finance and service provision) annually.

It should also ensure that the National Assembly acted on the annual audit reports received from health MDAs.

The UHC 2023 Forum is a robust coalition of a wide array of stakeholders, including donor agencies, development partners and civil societies.

Such societies should be committed to taking advantage of the policy-reset window that will be created by the forthcoming general elections to put UHC on the political front burner.

The platform aims to mobilise health policy advocates, the media, citizens and the political class to chart a narrative-changing course of action that will accord the health sector appropriate political attention and set Nigeria on the course of UHC.

The platform has formed a robust partnership with a global policy think-tank, the Chatham House, to raise the political profile of health in Nigeria and create a “health manifesto” for adaptation by the major political parties in Nigeria.