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• Queries data, pathogen-sharing provisions •Cites N36m release from N218bn 2025 health capital vote
From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has asked President Bola Tinubu to publish the full details of Nigeria’s five-year health Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United States, saying Nigerians deserve to know the commitments entered into on their behalf.
The agreement, signed on December 19, 2025, provides for nearly $2 billion in United States grant funding, while Nigeria committed to increasing domestic health financing in a move projected to mobilise nearly $3 billion over five years.
In a statement by the Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the terms of the agreement should be examined against the condition of healthcare in Nigeria.
The former vice president noted that the MoU covers areas including disease surveillance, health data systems and procedures relating to pathogen sample collection, transportation, testing, storage and disposal. The Federal Ministry of Health has publicly confirmed those broad areas of cooperation.
Atiku said public disclosure had become more important following concerns raised in Ghana over a proposed health arrangement involving issues of medical records, pathogen information, funding commitments and regulation of imported medical products.
“At this point, Nigerians do not know whether the provisions Ghana rejected are in the agreement Tinubu signed. That is precisely why the government must publish the full text. Nigerians should not have to guess what has been agreed in their name,” he said.
Atiku also drew attention to Nigeria’s maternal mortality burden.
“Those commitments must be measured against the condition of healthcare at home. The latest internationally comparable estimates put Nigeria’s maternal deaths at 75,000 in 2023, the highest total in the world.
“Every one of those deaths represents a woman whose family expected her to come home. This crisis did not begin under Tinubu, but he has had more than three years to show Nigerians how his government is making childbirth safer. Where are the results?” he said.
WHO and other UN agencies estimated that Nigeria recorded about 75,000 maternal deaths in 2023, accounting for 28.7 per cent of the global total, the highest number recorded by any country.
The ADC candidate also questioned how the Federal Government intended to meet its domestic funding commitments under the agreement when approved health projects had suffered funding shortfalls.
He recalled that Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Ali Pate, told lawmakers during the ministry’s 2026 budget defence that only N36 million had been released from the N218 billion appropriated for capital projects and programmes at the ministry’s headquarters in 2025.
“A government that cannot release funds for approved health projects must explain how it intends to honour a multibillion-dollar commitment,” Atiku said.
“A signed partnership cannot staff a maternity ward, supply a hospital or save a woman in labour. Nigerians need to see the funding and the care.”
Atiku called on the Federal Government to publish the complete MoU as well as related protocols, annexes, data-sharing arrangements, specimen-sharing agreements and financial commitments.
“Can Nigerians’ medical information or pathogen samples leave the country? Who may access them? What safeguards protect patients? Does NAFDAC retain full authority to inspect medicines and medical products? What exactly have the Federal Government and the states promised to spend? Tinubu should put the documents before Nigerians and answer these questions plainly,” he said.
He maintained that Nigeria should continue to engage in international health cooperation but insisted that government should be transparent about the commitments it undertakes.
“Nigeria welcomes international cooperation that saves lives, but the government must be accountable for the terms it accepts and the results it delivers. The same duty of disclosure applies to the administration’s other international commitments, including its expanding partnership with France.
“Ghana examined the proposal before it and said no. Nigeria has already signed. Tinubu must now tell Nigerians exactly what he said yes to. Nigeria’s sovereignty is not classified information,” Atiku said.
