The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate, has expressed grave concerns over the pervasive corruption in Nigeria’s health sector, describing it as a “very deep issue.”
Speaking at a one-day conference organized by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on Thursday, Pate highlighted recent incidents of corruption, including the diversion of therapeutic food donated for children.
Addressing the theme “Corruption-Free Health Care Delivery for All,” Pate shared a troubling example: “I recently just dealt with another case where donated, ready-to-use therapeutic foods, were donated to feed acutely malnourished children, free of charge to where we have severe acute malnutrition. Somebody raised grants, raised resources, brought it to Abuja, deployed it to one of the state capitals, and they filtered away.”
Pate further elaborated on the systemic nature of corruption: “It’s a very deep issue. I have to write to the IG, and I would like to thank him also, specifically for deploying a very senior officer of the police force to be part of the task force. The challenge we face is a system and a paradigm that exists, that tolerates, encourages, demands, and accommodates corruption.”
Highlighting the difficulty of isolating corruption within the health sector, Pate noted, “In health, which is just one sector, sometimes it’s difficult to isolate corruption in health. So in health, what we are trying to do is to improve population health outcomes for all Nigerians. To save lives, to reduce pain, physical and financial pain, to produce health, and to do it for all Nigerians.”
The Chairman of ICPC, Musa Aliyu (SAN), reaffirmed the commission’s commitment to tackling corruption in the health sector: “The conference is specifically organised to stimulate discussions that will help improve service delivery devoid of windows for corrupt tendencies in the Health Sector. This has become necessary considering the sector’s critical nature and its role in ensuring a healthy society at all levels.”
The FCTA Mandate Secretary, Health Services and Environment, Adedolapo Fasawe, delivered a powerful keynote address, describing corruption in the health sector as worse than a pandemic.
“The opportunity cost of financial corruption in health is inestimable. What is the cost of a life? Therefore, in health, corruption must either be prevented or nipped in the bud in infancy,” Fasawe stated.
“A cancerous like corruption is worse than a pandemic – procurement of substandard equipment, fake drugs, revenue leakages, and inflated health bills are some of the immediate results of corruption.”
The conference, held in Abuja, aimed to create a comprehensive template for combating corruption in the health sector, starting with Primary Health Care in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and potentially expanding to all six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.