By Ojoma Akor
Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has inaugurated the Southern Traditional Rulers Committee on Primary Health Care to strengthen primary health care delivery and improve health outcomes across the country’s southern states.
Speaking during the inauguration program, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, said that the roles of traditional rulers go beyond cultural preservation, adding that they are custodians of community values.
He said they are gatekeepers of trust and very powerful agents of change in many communities, adding that their voices carry more weight than any policy document or public campaign.
The minister said that their involvement in primary health care is indispensable, and that the country’s diverse cultures, visions, and languages are strengths that must be harnessed to make its population healthier.
He said that, through the committee, the government is further creating a coordinated mechanism for all the traditional rulers across the southern part of the country to collaborate with the existing zonal and state structures to actively champion primary health care, maternal health, and immunization.
He further said their responsibilities would include advocacy for improved health-seeking behaviors within their respective communities, promoting routine immunization, addressing misinformation, supporting maternal, newborn, and child health interventions, mobilizing communities for PHC programs, and strengthening accountability at the grassroots level.
Prof. Pate added that the committee was building on the partnership the government had with traditional leaders since 2009, when poliomyelitis bedeviled the country, particularly in the northern states.
He said,” We focused our efforts on engaging the traditional institution because of the respect that we have for community leaders, for custodians of our tradition. And in the north, the traditional leaders responded through the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee (NTLC), and succeeded.
“And this affirms our own belief that sustainable health outcomes cannot be achieved by government alone or just by transferring any method from other parts of the world to our own country. They require us to build tunnels of trust, to count on our influence and leadership as members of the traditional institution, and to domesticate our approach in the Nigerian context.”
While saying that the inauguration is a call to action, he enjoined the traditional rulers to use their influence to protect the lives of mothers and children, so that they don’t die needlessly because they don’t have access to basic quality health care services.
He said, “It is a call for all of us to make primary health care a lived reality in every community where we reside; working with you, there’s no doubt that we can change the narrative.”
The Chairman of the Southern Nigeria Traditional Rulers Council, and Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, commended the federal government for the initiative and pledged the traditional rulers’ commitment towards carrying out the assignment.
He said, “Our diversity is our strength. With over 400 ethnic groups in the South, we must harness our differences for national development. We are fully committed to this partnership for a healthier Nigeria.”
The Head of Mission at the Center for Wellbeing and Integrated Nutrition Solutions (C-WINS), Dr. Mahmud Mustafa, said the committee’s overall goal is to establish a structured platform for sustained, traditional leadership engagement to advance PHC outcomes in southern Nigeria.
He said, “The specific objective is that it will help us strengthen collaboration between traditional leaders and government institutions, particularly health agencies and development partners, both at the national level and at the sub-national level.
“The core responsibilities that we envisage from the committee are that we believe the committee will lead the PHC and immunization advocacy. They will champion vaccine advocacy and acceptance. They will promote culturally appropriate engagement and establish monitoring and feedback systems for us.
“Hence, we know exactly what is happening in the communities and can collaborate with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency and the various state primary healthcare development agencies that have a mandate for primary healthcare. Still, all work done without reporting is equal to zero. So we also expect reports that we will use to refine the program as we move on.”
The Deputy Chairman of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee (NTLC), Abubakar Umar Suleiman (Mai Bade), shared lessons from the NTLC, including sacrifices amid limited funding, and collaboration with the government to tackle polio and save the lives of mothers and children in the region.
