Governments at all levels have been tasked to restore quality healthcare delivery in Nigeria by addressing the deplorable state of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in urban and mostly rural areas.
During a radio programme, Public Conscience, produced by the Progressive Impact Organisation for Community Development (PRIMORG) on Wednesday in Abuja, a medical practitioner and other participants lamented the state of PHCs across Nigeria, describing it as ‘very bad, especially in rural areas’.
The warning follows a recent investigative report published by Dataphyte, which revealed that, in addition to understaffing and underfunding contributing a lot to the challenges within the health sector, gender bias and cultural and religious beliefs are restricting healthcare services and endangering the lives of women in Nasarawa state.
A medical practitioner, Dr. Nnenna Onwere described the state of PHCs said that most health facilities in rural areas lack adequate staffing and infrastructure and are heavily underfunded.
The women’s health advocate urged the government to revitalise PHCs given their crucial role in providing basic healthcare, adding that the government must prioritise creating a conducive environment and the remuneration of health workers, especially in areas where serious improvement is to be made.
‘I can tell you for free that things are not the way they should be mainly due to lack of funding. Most of the PHCs have workers who are not on the ground; they are all over the place looking for alternative sources of income. Basic things such as gloves, needles, and syringes are not found in the health center, and there is no power supply or an unconducive environment. These centers are meant to be the first line of patient care, and these things are not there. This is an idea of what you have in a lot of PHCs, especially in the rural areas’, she said.
Onwere stated that gender bias cases had been an age-long challenge in gynecology and obstetrics treatment, being a male-dominated area of the health sector. She advised citizens to shun gender bias, blaming its growing rate in the northern part of the country on ignorance, poor education, and lack of women empowerment.
She also faulted the Federal Government’s allocation of about 5 percent of its 2025 budget to health.
‘Gender bias stemming from men restricting their wives from being treated by male doctors is common with the obstetrics and gynecology cases, and unfortunately, most of the obstetricians and gynecologists are men.
‘My advice to Nigerians is that the male doctor is not different from the female doctor. We all go through the same training.
‘Be open, receive your treatment. Religious leaders need to talk to their members. Receive healthcare with an open mind. For the government, we can do better in the area of funding and the area of remuneration of health workers. A happy worker will give you the best. A worker with no job satisfaction will not give you the best.
‘Globally, the benchmark for health budget is meant to be 15%, and I don’t think Nigeria has ever reached that benchmark. Which means that our government has not prioritized health’, she stated.
The Chief Executive Officer of Gender Consult, Joyce Ahmadu frowned at cases of gender bias restricting women from accessing healthcare while lamenting that women up to this age lack the power to decide for themselves.
According to her, at the rate at which gender bias is thriving in rural areas, it is affecting the health needs of women. It contributes to the reason why there is high maternal mortality in rural areas in northern Nigeria.
Ahmadu stated that the Bola Tinubu administration must be intentional about health and ready to stamp out corruption. Emphasising that for the government to restore quality healthcare, good governance, and leadership are very important and central to achieving it.
‘The government of the day has to tackle corruption head-on. The government has to be intentional about funding. They have to have immediate, medium, and long-term goals.
‘The immediate issue is funding so that there will be facilities, healthcare, etc. In the medium term, there has to be education, and that education has to be ongoing. The government has to start prioritising girl child education. When more girls go to school, more girls will enroll in healthcare institutions.
‘Statistics show in Nigeria that women have low decision-making power even concerning their health. Even when you look at the issue of reproductive health, a lot of women do not have the power to decide when to have children, how many children, and how and when sex takes place. A lot of women cannot make decisions concerning their health’, Ahmadu lamented.
Dataphyte’s Data Journalist and Research Executive, Kafilat Taiwo called on federal and state governments to have robust conversations with stakeholders in the health sector to improve healthcare delivery across the country.
She warned that funds meant for health and PHCs must be channeled towards the appropriate quarters and utilized accordingly for there to be positive change while calling for more sensitisation of men who are still restricting their wives from being treated by male medical personnel.
She said: ‘The government needs to engage the stakeholders in the health sector. They need to meet to discuss their experience and how the government can improve their sector. Also, there is a need to look into the education of nurses, doctors, and medical and nursing schools. Are they meeting international standards? There needs to be a holistic approach.
‘The government needs to ensure proper health education from the grassroots. The people need to be enlightened. It’s not merely about budgeting funds for the health sector; if that keeps happening without solving any issues, that’s a waste of time’.
Other participants during the radio programme gave poor descriptions of the state of PHCs in their localities, as well as acknowledged that gender bias was a major threat to women’s health, especially in rural areas. They also joined the call for the government of the day to fix the deplorable state of PHCs.
Public Conscience is a syndicated weekly anti-corruption radio programme, PRIMORG that draws the government’s and citizens’ attention to corruption and integrity issues in Nigeria.
It runs in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation.
