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The Nigeria Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Forum has called on political parties and governments at all levels to make health insurance for poor and vulnerable Nigerians, effective budget implementation and improved management of health workers key priorities ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The Forum also urged political actors to sustain their commitment to health beyond the elections, saying previous advocacy efforts had shown that pre-election promises must be followed by continuous engagement with governments after they assume office.
Speaking at a Stakeholder Policy Engagement Workshop, themed “Leveraging 2027 Election to Advance Nigeria’s UHC Quest,” in Abuja, the Chief Executive Officer of DGI Consult and co-convener, Nigeria UHC Forum, Dr Abdulgafar Alawode, said the group would develop a clear health agenda and present it to political parties and candidates ahead of the elections.
Alawode said the Forum was particularly interested in policies that had produced measurable improvements in some states and could be replicated across the country.
He cited Delta State as an example, saying it had achieved about 50 per cent health insurance coverage while paying particular attention to poor and vulnerable residents.
“We want all the states in Nigeria to do that. They should pay attention to the poor and vulnerable to ensure that they are better protected,” he said.
He also identified effective implementation of health budgets as critical to improving health outcomes, noting that some states had achieved 80 to 90 per cent budget execution while others had continued to struggle with implementation.
According to him, increasing health allocations alone would not solve Nigeria’s healthcare challenges without deliberate decisions on how the funds were spent.
Alawode further called for improved management of human resources for health, including the establishment of reliable data on health workers across states.
He said the depletion of the health workforce, coupled with inadequate tracking of personnel, remained a major challenge requiring urgent attention.
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At the national level, he urged the government to explore innovative financing mechanisms, particularly health-related taxes, to generate additional resources for universal health coverage.
He, however, stressed that additional revenue must be deliberately channelled into healthcare.
On technology, Alawode said digital systems could improve the management of health workers by providing reliable information on their numbers, skills and deployment, while also helping governments monitor attendance and link payroll systems to actual service delivery.
Earlier, the Forum’s welcome address delivered by Moji Makanjuola, the Executive Director, International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH), recalled its interventions ahead of the 2023 elections, including the development of a Citizens-Led Health Agenda and engagements with political actors and governors.
She said the agenda influenced the manifesto of the ruling party and contributed to subsequent policy engagements with the Federal Government.
However, she acknowledged that its engagement was concentrated largely on the period before the 2023 election and was not sufficiently sustained afterwards.
She said this experience had informed its strategy for 2027, which would involve engagement before, during and after the elections.
She said the Forum would visit political parties and candidates, seek to have health priorities reflected in their manifestos and continue engagement with ministers, commissioners and other political appointees after the elections.
She also said the objective was to ensure that the outcome of the current engagement did not “just lie in the files” but translated into measurable health commitments.
