Tinubu and HRG: Going Forward with Healthy Nigeria

ByYakubu Ozohu-Suleiman, PhD

Consulting Communication for Development Specialist

One reason I respect Nigeria’s President-elect – Bola Ahmed Tinubu is his respect for merit. His leadership and political histories are clear on this. For those who have observed over the time, it is easy to validly hypothesise that Tinubu’s political success and leadership impact in Nigeria have largely been due to his prioritization of merit in recruiting human resources for governance (HRG). Simple, when he was Lagos state Governor, he surrounded himself with people who are very intelligent and driven by productivity with proven record. We all have continued to see the impact of his leadership of Lagos state till today.

Tinubu understands that being in the forefront of leadership does not necessarily mean that you are the best to think out all that you are responsible and would be held accountable for. So, he ensures that only those who have proven capacity to deliver are recruited to positions of responsibilities. Of course, he is also aware that ‘capacity to deliver’ is a product of opportunity. Therefore, he as well watches from the side of his eyes for inopportune persons who have the potentials to deliver.

Like any other political leader, Tinubu also needs loyalty from his political disciples, but, perhaps, he thinks that the loyalty is for his benefit as an individual, while the capacity to deliver, which requires merit, is for the benefit of the people. So, he cleverly integrates merit and loyalty in selecting the people to work with him. Not only has his respect for, and prioritization of merit in recruiting human resources for governance made his leadership job easy for him over the years, it has also endeared him to many Nigerians in different parts of the country who supported him when his time of need came in 2023. To me, this is a double-edged investment anyone may wish to consider in his or her own interest and in the interest of our dear country.

For the past fourteen years, I have been a researcher, observer, supervisor, and worker in the health sector development. The sector does not only require disciplinary expertise to lead and to deliver services to the people, but it is also, unknown to many, the most intricately linked to the performance of the other sectors anywhere in the world. A simple way to explain this is to say that if you are not healthy, you might not be able to eat; you cannot work; you might not be able to think well; and you might even not be able to worship! If this makes a sense, it is my opinion that His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu should pay very close attention to recent history in our health sector development, especially at primary level where our indices are most poor, in taking decisions on whom to work with as he prepares to assume office in May 2023.

While it is reasonable to admit that a good foundation is crucial for a building and its roof to be stable, a badly delivered roof can bring the entire building to ruin. Nigeria spent decades fighting war against polio. It was only recently in 2016 that our most aggressive response came and brought down the last wild polio virus (WPV) in the country! The country skilfully kept WPV at zero until 2020 when its official certification as WPV-free was issued by the World health Organization. Even the post-certification circulating variant polio virus type 2 (cVPV2) has been effectively brought under control in the country!

Again, we saw how our Ebola response was effectively coordinated in 2014, and the virus was forced to surrender to the health of the Nigerian people within a short time. The most recent, and most challenging in contemporary world history – Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19), was also brought under control within a time that is relatively shorter than one would have expected of a highly controversial disease like it in Nigeria. I am aware that Nigeria has fully vaccinated more than 60 percent of its nearly 112 million eligible population against COVID-19. What this simply means is that the country is very close to attaining herd immunity against the disease, and when this happens, there would be yet another cause to celebrate the hard work of some leaders, who have spent their days and nights in the war room strategizing and coordinating the response. Considering the scale and strength of misinformation and disinformation, mis-theorization, and compound infodemic that accompanied COVID-19, I personally never thought that there was anything our country could have done to get the people to voluntarily accept the vaccine as much as current data is showing, but this is done because we have in the positions of leadership the people who merit the job.

How many of us are aware that 145 women die every day in Nigeria due to preventable pregnancy-related causes? Same way, our country loses 2,300 children under 5 years old everyday due to causes that are significantly preventable. It was not until 2019 that a state of emergency was declared on maternal and child health in the country. The declaration was immediately followed up with the setting up of a program implementation unit in the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) known as National Emergency Maternal and Child Health Intervention Centre (NEMCHIC) to serve as a national coordination platform on Reproductive, Maternal, Newburn, Child and Adolescent Health plus Nutrition (RMNCAH+N) in Nigeria. The declaration of a state of emergency on maternal and child health in Nigeria has attracted the attention of national and international stakeholders and development partners, who believe in, and are supporting the ongoing high impact interventions to reduce preventable maternal and child deaths in the country.

It is not by chance that people are not falling on the streets and dying of diseases and frustrations, it is because there are workers and leaders in the health sector who are genuinely committed and are sacrificing their right to family hours to ensure that people are healthy. In the interest of the collective wellbeing of Nigerian people, I strongly call on our incoming President – Bola Ahmed Tinubu to come along with his tradition of respect for merit, look for these people, involve them and let’s go forward with healthy Nigeria.