Persons living with HIV/AIDS storm NACA over fund, drugs… accountability and transparency is our watch word – NACA

They barricaded the entrance as early as 6am, stopping staff from entering the agency’s headquarters in Central Abuja yesterday.Both staff and protesters from the Members of the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN), which represents more than 3 million people living with the virus, stood in the sun and under sheds in […]

They barricaded the entrance as early as 6am, stopping staff from entering the agency’s headquarters in Central Abuja yesterday.
Both staff and protesters from the Members of the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN), which represents more than 3 million people living with the virus, stood in the sun and under sheds in NACA premises for most of Monday.
They have vowed to continue daily barricade of the agency for at least 25 days. The agency called the barricade a “deliberate attempt to jeopardize” its activities.
Men, women and children with palm fronds stuck between their lips carried placards that queried: “How many more people will die of AIDS before government gives attention?”
The protest comes on the heels of concerns that international agencies have started reducing funding for HIV services in Nigeria, being the largest funders of the project.
“If they withdraw funding and we don’t get funding for our treatment, we are going to die,” said Samaila Garba, the network’s public relations officer.
NACA admitted donors were “flat-funding”- keeping annual donations to Nigeria at a steady level – but the static funds have already impacted services in some tertiary hospitals where HIV services are supported by AIDS Prevention Initiative Nigeria (APIN).
PCRP, to be bankrolled using money from Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P), was estimated to cost N140bn in the first year alone, but only N8bn was appropriated, said NACA director-general John Idoko.
“As we speak, we have received only 20% (around N1.6bn). We hope that we are going to receive the rest,” he said to protesters on Monday. “It is important to recognize that no other government has released this amount of money. I can assure you the money that is going to be released is going to be transparently and accountably used.”
PCRP problem is implementation, said Garba. “If we allow the implementation to go wrong at this point, the president’s plan will be defeated by bureaucrats.”
The network said PLWHA community was not involved in NACA’s decision to start implementing PCRP to pay for treatment and lab tests for PLWHA in Taraba and Abia states.
On protest placards, the network insisted it wanted PCRP to cover all 36 states and the FCT. One placard read “Nothing for us without us.”
Idoko said PCRP treatment would eventually roll out nationwide but was restricted to Abia and Taraba yet because it was a “stopgap” to intervention from the US government.
“On PEPFAR and the Global Fund, we are targeting to put 40,000 people on drug. This is unprecedented. Even in the past, the government of Nigeria never did this. And I want to emphasize, PEPFAR is not withdrawing. PEPFAR is reducing their activities. But in those areas where they are reducing, we decided to bridge the gap.”
Some providers have stopped registering new HIV patients for care and previous patients are paying for services out of their pockets.
From October 1, HIV patients began paying N12,000 a year for laboratory tests at an APIN-supported HIV clinic at University College Hospital Ibadan.
This November, another APIN site where some 23,000 people seek treatment, began charging patients N5,000 for registration, N2,000 for consultation, N8,900 for laboratory evaluation, N2,900 for lab follow up, and N1,000 to pick up drugs.
The services have been free since 2006 when the administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo rolled out sponsored antiretroviral treatment for 250,000 people living with HIV.
Since then, countries with lesser HIV burden than Nigeria – Kenya, Zambia, Togo, South Africa – have at least doubled funding for HIV services.
Donor agencies that have famously funded HIV services in parts of the country, including the US government, Global Fund and UNAIDS, have variously said they expect Nigeria to up domestic funding to provide treatment and services for people living with HIV.
Only 30% of all eligible for treatment have access to antiretroviral drugs – all others are not registered for any sort of treatment.
But government proposed plans to register extra 600,000 adults and children for antiretroviral treatment under the President’s Comprehensive Response Plan for HIV/AIDS, launched when heads of governments of African Commonwealth met in Abuja July last year.
PCRP also plans to provide HIV testing for 80 million Nigerians, drugs for 244,000 pregnant women to stop them from passing HIV to their unborn children, prevention services to 500,000 people considered most-at-risk population, and open up 2000 new sites for HIV treatment and another 2000 for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of the virus.