By Hassan Zaggi
The outgoing Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Health, Hon. Tanko Sununu, has insisted that for the country to tackle its poor health indices, there is the need to invest in medical research.
He stated this while responding to questions from journalists at the stakeholders’ meeting put together by the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) on the establishment of Medical Research Council in Nigeria, in Abuja.
He argued that medical research was a multi-billion investment globally which Nigeria was yet to key into.
Hon. Sununu explained that the establishment of the medical research council will coordinate funds for medical research in the country.
According to Hon. Sununu: “We tried to create an avenue for inter agency collaboration so that NIMR, NAFDAC, and other associations can also share and exchange skills and experiences and with that, we believe that manpower will be addressed and capacity will be built for both institutions.
“It is also open to wealthy individuals within the country. We have research foundation that is being spearheaded by the immediate past minister of works, all this are issues that we try as much as possible to give them legal basis so that we cannot be challenged in court questioning our actions which I think is a good moment.”
The lawmaker noted that: “When we came in we met NAFDAC with the issue of budgeting but we have addressed that and we also made NAFDAC move from maturity level 1 to 2 but as today, they have been confirmed to be at maturity level 3 and we are working closely. Very soon the assessment is coming to move NAFDAC to achieve maturity level 4. To achieve that, we have also succeeded in amending both the NAFDAC establishment act and also together with the Nigerian research council waiting for the assent of the president.”
On his part, the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Babatunde Salako, stressed that the establishment of Medical Research Council is key to resolving Nigeria’ poor health indices
“Globally, the medical research council funds medical research and the advantage is that countries, where they exist, can actually focus on the variance of health challenges that are affecting the people and providing solutions.
“If you take care of health, you have probably taken care of all SDG indices because health is central to them.
“A nation with good health and high life expectancy is likely to have a good healthy workforce that will build and improve the economy in all ramifications.”
The NIMR Director General lamented how Nigeria is currently depending on donor funding for health research in the country.
According to him, about 70 per cent of medical research in the country was donor-funded, while the remaining 30 per cent comes from within.
The lack of adequate funding for medical research, he noted, is responsible for the poor health indices in Nigeria.
“The funding provided is not enough to address our challenges, perhaps the reason for our poor indices, maternal mortality, and under-five mortality.
“We know the diseases that are responsible for this, so if we have funding to address those challenges, we will certainly be able to involve the development of new drugs, new vaccines, new approaches to treatment, new prevention, and this can only come from evidence from research.
“If we have a council that is well funded that can focus on research, within the next five years, we will begin to see solutions to our problems,” he reiterated.
