There is no contesting the fact that health is wealth, and no nation
can attain a profound level of development without a functional healthcare system. Because of Nigeria’s deplorable healthcare services, huge sums of money are being spent on medical tourism, which implies that Nigerians seeking healthcare often export prosperity to nations with advanced medical services.
Essentially, the overall goal of the health sector is to improve the citizens’ social, economic, and physical well-being beyond merely ensuring the absence of disease or infirmity.
One sure way of achieving this is by ensuring access to affordable, qualitative, effective and efficient healthcare services to the populace. Investment in health has a direct positive relationship with the socioeconomic development of the population.
Conscious of this and mindful of his administration’s responsibilities to ensure the provision of accessible and affordable healthcare for the citizens of Jigawa State, Governor Umar Namadi, through a 12 Point Agenda, provided a clear strategic roadmap for social development in the state.
Fundamentally, this agenda’s health component provides further guidance for developing and implementing the administration’s healthcare activities.
It is on record that the current health sector reform processes driven by the Federal Ministry of Health unveiled a sector-wide approach (SWAP) as the vehicle for health sector development, ensuring Nigeria has one national health plan, one coordination platform, one report, and one conversation on health.
As should be expected, Governor Namadi’s administration aligned with this agenda and is already operating within the SWAP process’s landscape.
For effective and efficient service delivery, national health policy addresses health matters in the widest yet focused prongs, guided by the global best practices in WHO guidelines via the Pillars of the Health System.
To this end, the health sector in Jigawa state is guided by proactive
governance, leadership, and structure that emphasizes all the critical components of human resources for health and service delivery.
To ensure the provision of a formidable pool of human resources for healthcare delivery in the state, the Governor Namadi-led administration continues to pay copious attention to improving facilities at the College of Nursing Sciences.
The institution has witnessed remarkable achievements, including lifting the accreditation embargo imposed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN). As a matter of fact, the School of Nursing in Birnin-Kudu now has five (5) years full accreditation period (2024—2029).
Additionally, the government established the Department of Midwifery on the Hadejia campus this year. As a result of the government’s efforts, the NMCN has increased the admission quota of all three campuses of the College of Nursing in the state.
Consequently, the nursing program intake increased from 75 to 120 students for all the campuses, while the midwifery program has an intake capacity of 120 students at the Birnin-Kudu campus and 75 students for the Hadejia and Babura campuses.
Also, with the support of a development partner (Lafiya Project), the College has developed the ND/HND nursing program curricula and revised the Foundation Year Program curriculum. The college has commenced admission for the ND/HND, with the first set of students admitted to all campuses.
Last year, the state government began the construction of the permanent site of the School of Nursing and Midwifery Hadejia.
Interestingly, the College has attracted partnership support from development partners.
These modest efforts of the state government are already having a positive impact on human resources and health. With these processes set in motion and benefits increasingly being felt, the government continued its focus on other critical areas, including disease surveillance, where the State Disease Surveillance and Epidemiology unit is conducting a series of activities in its effort to curb the menace of public health disease outbreaks.
The unit has been fully supported in responding to, investigating, and confirming all reported outbreaks and other public health emergencies within the state.
Beyond the investigation, the unit is fully supported in procuring and offering propositions for all sorts of EPR drugs and supplies for free treatment at all the hospitals where outbreak cases are being treated.
The Danmodi administration also ensured that the state molecular laboratory was upgraded to a full-fledged public health laboratory accredited by the National Center for Disease Control.
Essentially, Jigawa has developed the state action plan for health security (SAPHS), the state multi-hazards/multisectoral EPR work plan, and the joint flood disaster work plan.
Another critical area where the Governor Namadi administration is making a mark is the Malaria Eradication Program (MEP), where the state witnessed an integrated campaign of Insecticide-Treated Net (ITN) and Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) drug distribution.
The ITN campaign reached 6,829,193 residents in the state, covering 97% of the target population. The SMC had an average coverage of 96% after the fourth cycle, which implies that a total of 1,392,999 target population under 5 children were reached with the SMC drugs.
Also, in collaboration with some development partners, the State Ministry of Health conducted a series of free eye care services in the state. The services covered: 1) Cataract Surgeries, 2) Provision of reading Glasses and 3) Treatment of Non-surgical Eye Diseases.
Available records showed that no fewer than nine thousand six hundred and eighty-six (9,686) persons benefitted from this intervention, which was conducted from November 2023 to December 2024.
Expectedly, the Governor Namadi administration has received a series of awards in appreciation of its dogged commitment to repositioning healthcare delivery. For instance, the National Malaria Eradication Program presented the Jigawa State Government with an award of recognition based on the state’s commitment to implementing malaria eradication programs over the years.
In a related development, the State Primary Health Care Development Agency was ranked the first zonal runner-up for the PHC Leadership Challenge 2024 assessment. The PHC Leadership Challenge award was an initiative of the federal government to foster the improvement of Primary Health Care Services and promote sustainable health financing in the country.
