After party convention, next is healthcare, by Tonnie Iredia

Nigeria’s ruling political party, the All-Progressives Congress (APC) has held its 2026 National Convention in Abuja. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his Vice, 32 state governors and a host of party officials and top political office holders were reportedly in attendance. The Live broadcast of the event showed a beautifully organized event adorned by a well-choreographed scenario. For some of us who have watched political party events in Nigeria since the return of democracy to the country in 1999, the event looked more like a victory parade rather than a contestation.

One cannot but commend the organizers of the show which for some time to come, may be a model to be studied by those in search of the meaning of political consensus – a term that is rather strange to a people that cherish contesting every election. Whether or not the APC is able to sustain the grave-yard peace it has achieved in a market place is not really our concern today. What really matters now is for Nigerians to appeal to the APC to propel its government to extend its ingenuity to a critical area of governance – healthcare. This is because citizens have to be alive to be able to enjoy the benefits of democracy.

Among the numerous expectations of citizens, what the Nigerian Constitution identifies as the primary purpose of government is the security and welfare of the people. What that suggests is that those in government should prioritize the personal safety and happiness of the people. It is therefore not enough to prove to Nigerians that the ruling political party can perform the magic of organizing a noiseless world-cup football final match or any other game. Such an achievement is essentially cosmetic; it is not the substance of a people’s most cherished need. APC can rule for ever if it shows commitment to the improvement of the living standards of the people.

Put differently, political defections, budget padding, excessive remuneration for the political class and magical political consensus do not help the ordinary citizen. The greatest help for we, the people, is to build a healthy nation and not one where a disease such as Tuberculosis (TB) has always been and still is a leading cause of death. Indeed, Nigeria which is ranked the 6th most affected country globally, records more infection and deaths than any other African country. The extreme dangers of TB are well-known to our government. First, it is a notorious fact that anyone can be a victim of the ailment because it is an airborne disease caused by a bacterium that mostly affects the lungs.  

Second, TB is the second deadliest infectious killer disease (after COVID-19) and among the top 10 causes of death worldwide. Third, it is now established that 10 % of all deaths in Nigeria is caused by TB. A recent survey actually suggested that about 15 Nigerians die every hour from TB totalling 347 deaths daily and over 10,000 every month. This should scare every leader into prioritizing healthcare. But unfortunately, it has not been so. Instead, many people in authority are more interested in showing off wealth, holding irrelevant rallies that continue to make the citizenry the object rather than the subject of governance.  

It was against this background that this column exactly a year ago openly commended Senator Oluremi Tinubu, the nation’s First Lady for her continuous generous donations towards the eradication of Tuberculosis (TB) in Nigeria. We took note of her first pledge in 2024 of one billion naira from her Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) during her investiture as the Global and National Stop TB Champion. Again in 2025, she donated another one billion naira during a community outreach in Sauka, Abuja as part of activities marking the 2025 World TB Day. But such major initiatives are hardly ever heard of from other political leaders leaving Nigeria where it has always been.

From 2000 to 2022, investments in health-related matters moved between 3.65% and 4.27% of our annual budget making it exceedingly difficult for any improvements to be recorded. Since then, Nigeria has continued to be lowly rated. In a recent study, the World Bank ranked the country 187th out of 191 countries in its health system performance evaluations. One of the factors causing this is low health insurance coverage. Although there is a National Health Insurance Scheme, less than 10% of the population is covered. As a result, over 90% of the private health expenditure is handled through direct house-hold payments which cannot make any appreciable impact.

There is also insufficient and poorly maintained infrastructure. In some cases, such facilities do not even exist in many locations. This is more obvious in the rural areas where there are hardly any medical facilities. The result of this is that there is ample medical tourism in which many people move away to urban centres. Interestingly, it is the leaders who should provide the facilities that often run outside in search of better treatment opportunities which they failed to provide. Some people who would have clapped for the colourful party convention we just watched some hours ago were in medical agony and were thus unable to see the feat.

None of the issues raised above is as significant as the effect of the absence of an effective public enlightenment system in the country. The main implication of this is that the emphasis on healthcare is greatly tilted to curative rather than preventive care. Consequently, many parts of the country are recording poor hygiene and environmental sanitation which have in turn created more diseases in such parts. At the beginning of this month for example, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) was constrained to call for strengthened state-level response measures following an upsurge in Lassa fever – an acute often severe viral haemorrhagic illness caused by the Lassa virus endemic to West Africa.

Lassa Fever is transmitted primarily by rats via urine or faeces and it affects humans through contaminated food or house-hold items.  In other words, it is a disease that can best be prevented rather than cured. Yet, it ravages our people annually. According to the NCDC, Lassa fever cases and deaths had spread to as many as 18 states and 67 LGAs. Five (5) of the affected states — Bauchi, Ondo, Taraba, Edo, and Benue reportedly account for over 80% of confirmed cases. Of particular concern is the increase in infections among healthcare workers, with 28 confirmed infections and 3 deaths recorded this season. The latest figures indicated that there had been 413 cases and 80 deaths.

From what has been publicised by the NCDC so far, Lassa fever follows a predictable seasonal and geographic pattern in Nigeria. High-burden states are known, peak months are well documented. Also well documented are national clinical and Infection Prevention and Control measures. If so, how come our people are still victims on an annual basis? That question appears simplistic because it is asked all the time with little or no effort made to identify solutions. Meanwhile, at every election cycle, there is always evidence that many people never know how to vote because they keep spoiling their ballots and different groups – political parties, INEC, media etc continue to intensify voter education as a solution

Outside politics such as the case of poor sanitation, no systemic arrangements are made to educate people on the dangers of poor hygiene. Besides, it is not enough to talk of poor hygiene in general terms. Federal, States and local information officials need to develop specific messages for areas where a particular problem needs to be resolved. The National Orientation Agency NOA which has offices in all local government areas in conjunction with the state governments ought to be mobilized to undertake public enlightenment to fight against the annual upsurge of Lassa Fever in parts of the country which often experience the plague.

We cannot over state the point that yesterday’s convention of the ruling APC would have been better valued by Nigerians if the government formed by the party had helped to prevent the deaths of some Nigerians by ensuring the eradication of Lassa Fever. At the same time, the so-called opposition parties would have been better appreciated if in addition to their cry of marginalisation they spent more time providing alternative suggestions on how to attain a healthier nation. The political class in general must therefore realize that striving to be in government is not just about the comfort of leaders; nothing at the end of the day is as fulfilling as service to humanity.   

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