Nigerians deserve better medical care access, good living

Nigeria’s poverty status is well known. That we are now one of the poorest countries in terms of various indices is a fact, but quite unfortunate. Yet, Nigerians cannot continue to wallow in abject poverty, while there are resources, if well managed, that could be deployed by the state to assure them of a certain […]

Nigeria’s poverty status is well known. That we are now one of the poorest countries in terms of various indices is a fact, but quite unfortunate. Yet, Nigerians cannot continue to wallow in abject poverty, while there are resources, if well managed, that could be deployed by the state to assure them of a certain minimum of health care, to ameliorate their conditions.

In 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics jolted the nation with the announcement that as many as 133 million Nigerians, or 63 per cent of the population then were multidimensionally poor. The Multidimensional Poverty Index measures poverty in terms of deprivations or exclusions that individuals suffer in four broad areas – health, education, living standards, work, and shocks.

Multidimensional poverty gives a broader measurement of poverty as it delineates some aspects of deprivation that could be lost in broader measures of poverty. Under this concept, for instance, a household may be able to meet the poverty line requirement but still lacks access to some basic needs such as nutrition, access to basic health facilities, safe water, education, and sanitation, according to Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the economic development expert.

Let’s consider the health dimension here. Health poverty in Nigeria has become a contentious issue because those who are supposed to provide health care play politics with it. Basic health is a social service that governments should provide for the people.  So, Nigerians have health poverty because the government fails to play its role in addressing the health needs of the people. . But, like most other public goods, it is often glossed over by the state, and consequently, the average Nigerian is left to fend for himself.

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What becomes of the health sector in a country starts with low budgetary allocations. In the 2025 budget, the government allocated N2.48 trillion to the health sector, representing 5.18 per cent of the N47.90 trillion federal budget. This amount for health includes the provision of N402 billion meant for health infrastructure and another N282.65 billion for Basic Health Care.

Two years ago, the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari allocated N1.17 trillion to the health sector out of the total of N20.5 trillion in the 2023 budget. That represented just 5.75 per cent of the entire budget. Included in that amount was N404.08b for capital expenditure and N580.82 billion for recurrent expenditure. There was also a N2.5 billion provision for Aid & Grants, among other sundry items.

In both examples above, as in others, Nigeria failed the 15 per cent minimum budgetary allocation recommended by the African Union for its member states to devote to the health sector. Known as the Abuja Declaration, this decision, taken in 2001, has yet to be met by any Nigerian administration.

The miserly allocations to the health sector are simply indicators of the government’s disregard for the state of the citizens’ health. And it is perpetuated because the rich can easily afford better health services, either locally or abroad, or both. After all, their medical tourism usually starts when the best doctors in the country can no longer handle their cases. In such situations, the recommendation is that such patients must be flown abroad where the types of facilities to handle their cases exist. Nigerians are still waiting to see the reversal of medical tourism in the country, which some government officials promised to the people.

Poor Nigerians do not have that opportunity. Poor women die during childbirth because of poor health facilities. Common causes of such deaths include a lack of facilities at the maternity or hospital where they are registered for their antenatal care. In one recent case, when the woman developed complications, there was no ambulance to take her to the nearest government hospital. Before the family could arrange for a vehicle, it was too late. The woman died. That is a measure of multidimensional poverty.

We need a standard measurement of health poverty in Nigeria. What is it that constitutes a measure of how poor a Nigerian is or should be, health-wise?  As Philip Clarke and Guido Erreygers said in their research paper, `Defining and measuring health poverty,’ “The measurement of health poverty obliges us to reflect on what we consider to be reasonable minimum standards of health and on how we define and measure deprivation in the domain of health”.

Clarke and Erreygers went further to declare that the application of more general health poverty measures provides a way of monitoring what proportion of a population falls above or below these thresholds and should be of direct relevance to clinicians and health policy makers.

Health poverty constitutes a limitation on the performance of an individual or a household. It is a generative form of poverty because it easily leads to higher levels of poverty in a home or community. It takes a healthy person or household to perform tasks at reasonable levels. It takes healthy people to work to earn incomes and meet basic needs and therefore escape from the poverty trap.