By Hassan Zaggi
The Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Chairman FCT Judicial Service Committee, Hon. Justice Husseini Baba Yusuf, has decried the lack of a law that directly provides for the right to health of Nigerians.
Speaking while delivering a keynote address at the Human Rights Sensitization and Legal Training workshop on Tuberculosis (TB), organized by Lawyers Alert, on Thursday, in Abuja, he lamented that the nearest law to the right to health is the non-justiciable section 17(3) (c( of the Nigerian Constitution.
The section, according to him, only requires the government to direct its policy towards ensuring adequate medical and health facilities for all persons.
The legal expert, therefore, charged lawyers in Nigeria to embark on extensive advocacy to call for legal recognition of the right to health in Nigeria, as this is imperatively necessary for deepening the enjoyment of this right in the country.
Justice Yusuf, said that : “Despite this constraint however, the Court has continued to remain a place of refuge for those seeking redress for rights violations in Nigeria.
“And once it can be established that the freedoms and entitlements in the enjoyment of the right to health have been violated, the Court is always ready to step in to provide remedy in deserving cases.”
Represented by Justice A.O Adeniyi, the Chief Judge noted that “beyond promoting human rights through the court, it is becoming absolutely essential for lawyers to also adopt other strategies such as embarking on extensive advocacy, to call for legal recognition of the right to health in Nigeria, as this is imperatively necessary for deepening the enjoyment of this right in the country.
“I’m saying this, conscious of the fact that many lawyers, as exemplified by Lawyers Alert, have already taken up this advocacy with vigour and dynamism, but pitched side by side with the enormity of the problem, it will be clear that more still need to be done.”
He further reiterated that: “Within the human rights domain therefore, the Court as well as the Bar play an enormous role by protecting and advancing human and health rights.
“In performing this role, the Court does not only interpret the law, but sometimes develop it in a manner that promotes the enjoyment of these rights through the dogged and consistent advocacy of the Bar.
“Hopefully, decisions arising from this struggle will provide the impetus for a wider advocacy that could lead to reforming the extant laws to adequately make provisions for the right to health as being more justiciable and enforceable.”
Speaking, the Coordinator, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP), Dr. Chukwuman Ayaike, lamented that Nigeria has high burden of TB among countries of the world.
According to him, “TB is one of the deadliest bacteria infection, unfortunately, Nigeria is the first in Africa and the 6th globally.
“So, in Africa, if Nigeria sneezes, other countries will catch cold when we talk of the burden of TB.
“Literature has it that 25 per cent of Nigerians have the true knowledge of TB.
“More worrisome is that our children are coming up with TB. Our children are also coming up with Drug Resistant TB.”
He, however, lamented that, “we found out that when TB comes to most families, it leads to poverty and it puts the family in the virtuous cycle of poverty. I strongly think that we must put every hand on deck to reverse the embarrassment due to TB.”
Dr. Anyaike, however, revealed that most of the people with Drug Resistant (DR) TB are refusing treatment, noting that: “Where do we have these burden. They are in the villages, in the urban slumps. So people are dying on daily basis. I think there should be a call to save Nigerians from TB.”
He explained that TB is preventable, it is curable and that diagnosis and treatment are free.
He, therefore, called on well-meaning Nigerians, CSOs, private sector, philanthropists and the media to join in the fight against the disease.
In his welcome address, the President, Lawyers Alert, Rommy Mom, said that his organisation is focusing on TB because it is a threat to public health considering it has killed more people than HIV and COVID-19.
He, however, blamed stigma and discrimination to the worsening TB situation in the country.
Mom, therefore, said that the workshop was to create awareness on the rights of TB patients and how to enforce these rights.
One of the medium to enforce these rights, he said, is through lawyers.
“My learned friends, we need to up our game in terms of providing free legal services for vulnerable groups in our society.
“My friends in the civil society sector, this is a call for action. Even if no body steps forward, strategic impact mitigation offers us a window to challenge the system.”
The workshop was high attended by lawyers, journalists and civil society organisations from different parts of the country.
