Agency
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Ali Pate, has described the Supreme Court judgment on Local Government autonomy as one of the milestones recorded in the evolution of Nigeria’s healthcare system.
He stated this on Monday in Abuja on the sidelines of the Inaugural Quarterly Performance Dialogue with State Commissioners of Health.
Recall that on July 11, the Supreme Court ruled that all LGA allocations should be paid directly into their accounts.
The Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fgebemi, SAN, had on May 24, on behalf of the Federal Government dragged the 36 governors before the Supreme Court over alleged misconduct in the running of affairs of local governments in the country.
The Attorney General instituted the court action against the governors primarily seeking full autonomy for local governments as third tiers of government in the country.
Pate said that LG autonomy was an opportunity to galvanise all levels of government to put healthcare delivery in one direction.
According to him, having all levels of government in one direction will ensure that healthcare is delivered using a ring-fenced fund.
“This fund will be managed by the state but with an agreement of the local governments to implement fully the Primary Health Care under one roof,” Pate added.
He emphasized that the local governments are closer to the people, the states close to the local government, and the FG is closer to all of the arms of government.
Going down memory lane, he recalled that before 2011, the responsibility of PHC was highly fragmented between the states, and it was a challenge as performance generally went low.
The minister said, “That presentation resulted in poor performance across different elements including immunisation, maternal health outcomes, and several other things.
“To reduce the fragmentation, the National Council of Health in 2011, approved the PHC under one roof, which accelerated the creation of State PHC delivery agencies at that time as a way to bring Federal Government, states and LGAs together.”
Pate said that not only the FG, but states were key parts of the national health system, and that the LG system by law was part of the system too.
He added, “So we are all operating in the context of cooperative federalism where all hands are on deck and our development partners have joined in that and we have raised grant resources to provide incentives to the states to contribute their counterparts.
“With this development, even LGs will be required to step up and we will measure each other’s performance and Nigerians should be able to tell which state, which LG is doing its part.”
Pate, however, said that the judgment was tilting the authorities towards the point where they would begin to find ways to work together to govern a complex health system that has different levels of responsibility.
“So how does each level do what it needs to do and be held accountable and respond to the needs of Nigerians?
“So long as we look at ourselves as serving Nigerian people, and we behave in the right way, I think we will see that the health system will be maturing over time.”
Pate restated the FG’s commitment to do whatever it takes to see that the health of mothers, children and the most vulnerable in society continued to improve.
(NAN)
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