Adewole spoke of ongoing efforts to mobilise resources needed to make some 10,000 primary health centres across the country functional, with at least one per political ward, in the next two years. The plan is to make each health centre able to operate 24 hours to provide all round primary health services, the minister said.  “The [primary health care] agenda of the administration is geared towards providing universal care to about 100 million vulnerable Nigerians, while also addressing the huge financial burden of out of pocket expenditure which has over the years hindered access to health care,” said Adewole, according to a statement.
CISLAC seeks constitutional reform to back free health care

Judd-Leonard Okafor, The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has called for an amendment of the constitution to include provision of “basic health care as a legal right.” CISLAC executive director Auwal Musa said at a press conference to mark this year’s World Health Day in Abuja that basic health care should be “free for children up to age 10, pregnant women, the elderly and persons with disabilities.”
The group also urged the National Council on Health to set up “urgent and strong” mechanisms to implement the National Health Act passed in December 2014 but stalling at implementation.

In a statement read out by Okeke Anya, Musa said Nigerians needed to pay more attention to public health issues and play more active role in ensuring that legislations relating to public health are effectively implemented. It cited the Health Act, and the National Tobacco Control Act, which cannot be implemented or guidelines drawn up because no committee has been constituted to do that. “We recognise the peculiarities of our country’s public health sector and are indeed faced with brutal realities in our national developed,” said Anya.  “However, just as we continue to advocate for commitment on the part of government with respect to welfare of its citizens, we remain fiercely optimistic in a better and highly improved national health care system that will address the myriad challenges confronting the sector,” he added.

Source: Dailytrust