Posted on: Sat 27-05-2023

The Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP) has appealed to the president-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu to appoint a seasoned administrator as the Minister of Health to revive the health sector.

Dr Chimela Ogbonna, the group’s National Chairman, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos.

Ogbonna said that Nigeria needed ”to migrate from having clinicians as minister of health to having health professionals with expertise in health policy and management to redefine the country’s health system”.

“We have discovered that structurally the Federal Ministry of Health is in decay. The prowess of the people handling affairs at the ministry is questionable.

“The incoming administration, when appointing ministers, should not look at us who are healthcare professionals, let the incoming administration pick seasoned administrators to be Minister of Health.

“That was what President Olusegun Obasanjo did in 2004 to 2007 when he appointed Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, a seasoned health economist to handle the affairs of the health sector and he did marvellously well because he was not biased, he was an administrator per excellence.

“So, those of us who are clinicians or health professionals should go and face the clinics and manage our patients.

“We don’t have enough health professionals because many have left the country. Those of us remaining should go back to clinics and take charge,” he said.

Ogbonna, who is also the Vice-Chairman, Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), called for the involvement of major health stakeholders in government’s planning and policy formulation.

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