By Hassan Zaggi
The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, has charged Nigerians to take care of their health, do a lot of exercise, eat good food and ensure they keep fit.
He made the call at the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day Walk to commemorate the UHC Day in Abuja.
Prof. Pate, however, assured that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration was determined to improve the health of Nigerians through positive health transformation that will lead to the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
The Minster noted that with the making of health insurance mandatory through the National Health Insurance Authority Act, this, he stressed, will improve health care services in the country leading to the attainment of UHC.
He said this will bring about investment to expand the quality of healthcare services that Nigerians access through the primary healthcare systems and hospitals.
“We expect that states will complement with the participation of every stakeholder, to ensure that the society is healthier.
“This action requires that everyone has access to quality healthcare services that are affordable.
“UHC day which is marked every December 12 is used to stress the need for a healthcare system that provides equitable and good health care with financial protection to everyone,” the Minster noted..
On his part, the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Tunji Alausa, reiterated the Federal government’s readiness to partner with the states and local local governments to improve the health of Nigerians.
”We are not going to leave the states alone, we are going to work with WHO, that is why later today, we are going to be signing a pact with the state, a pact is what we are going to be doing, the role of the Federal Government, once we began to work together, we have met with the governors forum.
“The way we are pushing forward, there will be progress in the Health sector. We intend to engage with the citizen in order to express their opinion. We want to expand the line of citizen engagement we have now. This will help us to collect proper data,” he said.
On the other hand, the World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Mulombo, revealed that the walk was to create awareness and remind everyone that the world was lagging behind in providing universal health coverage to the population.
“It is an opportunity for us to rethink the way we do our business and associate towards universal coverage for everyone.”
He, however, reiterated the commitment of the WHO in collaboration with other partners to support Nigeria in finding solutions to most of its health challenges.
“WHO will be joining on the pact today to express our commitment alongside UN agencies and partners to support Nigeria to accelerate health, this is the time for action.
“As I said, we have seen over the years that what we have been doing didn’t work not only in Africa but globally so there is a need to re-strategise in order to accelerate health. The new investment in Nigeria will change the hope because Nigeria matters.”
