FG partners monarchs for efficient PHC services in South-East

From Chinedu Nwafor Abakaliki

The Federal Government of Nigeria has expressed it resolve to partner traditional rulers in South-East for effective Primary Health Care (PHC) services.

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, who stated this on Friday while inaugurating South-East Traditional Leaders’ Committee (SETLC) on Primary Health Care (Services) Delivery in Enugu, explained that in order to push PHC services and COVID-19 vaccination forward, there was a need to mobilise traditional rulers, who are very influential in each community, to achieve the desired objective.

The inauguration of Committee was part of a two-day programme for traditional rulers of South-East on Primary Health Care, organised by the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and Enugu State Primary Health Care Development Agency (ENS-PHCDA).

“We are going to rely on the powers of advocacy of traditional rulers and the respect they command among our people to push PHC services, which included the COVID-19 vaccination, to the next and desirable level.

 “With the inauguration today, we are making them more relevant to issues of PHC services and they should also have royal input and oversight to ensure that PHC centres under them in communities function optimally.

“We are targeting a huge change, growth and patronage to PHC services and COVID-19 vaccination; and we must achieve all these by active and effective collaboration with our respected and influential traditional rulers,” the Minister said

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State in his remarks said as gatekeepers of the communities, it was necessary to get them more involved in advocacy and ensuring that the PHC services are timely delivered to the people.

Mr Ugwuanyi who was represented by the state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Ikechukwu Obi, said: “With the traditional rulers coming on board, we will soon achieve and even surpass our targets in various PHC services”.

He said the State government over the years had strived in repositioning PHC services and structures by making the people to easily and affordably access PHC services at each ward in the state.

Also, the Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, said that with the inauguration, the traditional rulers had been directly connected to the PHCs.

He said “there is no greater collaboration than working and going through traditional rulers to reach the communities.

“The people in the communities and localities listen more to them and the Agency sincerely believes that the PHC services target will be better and faster realised through them,” Shuaib said.

He commended the giant strides of Enugu State, through the support of Gov. Ugwuanyi, to PHC services and programmes, adding that the state had continued to witness sustained and improved PHC services and ranking for some years now.

“The reward for good work is more work; I want the state and indeed the entire South-East to do more in advocating for increased COVID-19 vaccination and other PHC services,” he said

The Chairman of the SETLC Committee, Igwe Lawrence Agubuzu, said that the traditional rulers had been part of the PHC before now, but “with this inauguration, we will personally ensure that all PHC services run successfully in our various communities”.

Agubuzu, who is also the Chairman of Traditional Rulers’ Council in Enugu State, said: “We are going to redouble our efforts by putting PHC services and COVID-19 vaccination advocacy at the front burner in our various communities.

 “The traditional rulers in the South-East will also ensure that the PHC centres run optimally to the greater benefit of our subjects in our communities.

“We are going to use town criers, community meetings/gatherings and even our cabinet meetings to discuss PHC services and ensure that everyone, including our children, in our communities is healthy and sound.” In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of ENS-PHCDA, Dr George Ugwu, noted that the inauguration was a celebration of excellent PHC services Gov. Ugwuanyi had brought to the state through sound PHC policies and massive financial support to PHC services.