Nigeria seeks health security sovereignty in Africa

The Federal Government has called for a continental shift towards health security sovereignty in Africa to transform the continent from reliance on foreign aids to self-sufficient, homegrown health systems.
Vice-President Kashim Shettima, made the call on Friday during a high-level side event on ‘Building Africa’s Health Security Sovereignty’, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event held on the margins of the ongoing 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU).
The Africa health security and sovereignty initiative is a collaboration between the Nigerian government and the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is aimed at mobilising investments in the health workforce, community health and sustainable immunization programmes.
Shettima said it has become a matter of necessity to ensure the health of Africans is not subjected to the uncertainties of distant supply chains or the shifting priorities of global panic.
The vice-president reaffirmed Nigeria’s readiness to partner with other African nations to build a continent that is capable of healing itself.
” Nigeria stands ready to collaborate with every member state of our union to make health security sovereignty measurable in laboratories, health workers trained, counterfeit markets dismantled, and insurance coverage expanded.
“When history reflects on this generation of African leadership, may it record that when confronted with vulnerability, we chose capacity.
” And when confronted with dependence, we chose dignity; and when confronted with uncertainty, we chose cooperation. And in choosing cooperation, we built a continent that could heal itself,” he said.
Shettima, who cautioned against the consequences of vulnerability, recalled that during global health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, improvised and negotiated for rationed vaccines and scarce oxygen.
The vice-president said, however, that endurance was not a strategy, as “leadership is measured not by how long vulnerability can be withstood, “but by how deliberately we reduce it.
“Health security is national security, and in an interconnected continent, national security is continental security.
” A virus, as we have witnessed, does not carry a passport. A counterfeit medicine does not respect a border. A pandemic does not wait for bureaucracy.”
Shettima outlined measures being adopted by Nigeria to tackle health challenges, saying the nation is currently treating health matters with every seriousness under the leadership of President Tinubu.
He pointed out that the nation was focusing on boosting local manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, increasing domestic health financing, and strengthening regulatory oversight.
Shettima said, ” Nigeria has approached this challenge with seriousness under the leadership of Tinubu. In December 2023, we launched the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative.
” The initiative set out to renovate and revitalise more than 17,000 primary health care centres across our federation, to train 120,000 frontline health workers, and to expand health insurance coverage within three years.
” We prioritise this because we believe that sovereignty must rest on financial protection as much as on infrastructure.”
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, thanked the CDC and AUC for their partnership with Nigeria to strengthen Africa’s health security and sovereignty.
According to him, the move will help build resilience across the continent in readiness for emergency situations.
He said Nigeria was committed to leading by example by boosting capacity building initiatives for the health workforce in Nigeria and beyond and turning ambition into reality.
The Director-General, Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Dr Jean Kaseya, highlighted the trend in the distribution of health workforce across Africa.
He commended Nigeria’s leadership in the area through healthcare reforms especially in building resilience and boosting immunisation programmes. (NAN)