…….Coalition Finger El-Rufais’ Relations and Friends.
……Passes Vote of no confidence on el-Rufai
A group, under the aegis of Coalition of Concerned Citizens for Better Healthcare In Kaduna State, has berated the Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, over decline in the healthcare sector despite claims of huge investments
The coalition expressed worries that those that should benefit from government’s investment in the sector are being shortchanged,
This was expressed at a press conference, held in Kaduna on Monday. A release signed by Timothy Sajoh on behalf of the coalition reads “In summary, it means that the state recorded 19.3% point increase and LOST 68.8% points in the coverage of the 6 interventions in 2018 when compared to 2015 baseline.
Embarrassingly, states that have been under the attacks of insurgents such as Borno and Yobe are far ahead of Kaduna in benefiting from performance based disbursement linked indicators with $13,637,500.00 and $ 29,007,000. 00 respectively.
“Kaduna State on the other hand, with so much propaganda about reforms in the health sector got a paltry $160,000.00. Keen watchers and other stakeholders in the health sector have alleged that there seems to be a high-powered syndicate, made up of political cronies and relatives of government functionaries close to the seat of power, in the sector shortchanging innocent citizens, while the government is looking the other away and claiming that all is well.
“The state government has done more talk than action in delivering the rehabilitation of the 255 Primary Healthcare Center (PHC), for over three years now they have been unable to complete the projects, which many stakeholders have observed are being poorly constructed by cronies of the government.
“While we agree impact is long time, it is expected that three and half years we should be seeing results (medium outcomes) that influence the outcome target indicators.
“To this end, we have no other option than to pass a vote of no confidence on the Governor El-Rufai’- led government as a result of her failure to deliver on many of the key outcome targets in the Health Sector Implementation Plan (SIP),” the group said.
The group said that it is with every sense of responsibility that they, the members of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for Better Healthcare in Kaduna State, convened this press conference to express their dissatisfaction with the poor quality of healthcare delivery in the state.
“With claims of huge investments and publicity by the government of improved healthcare delivery in the state, recent surveys and analyses of some of government’s programs, have shown great disparities between government claims and the realities on ground.
“For instance, a survey conducted by the National Nutrition and Health Survey (NNHS) revealed that Kaduna state performed abysmally poor across the Save One Million Lives (SOML) Performance for Results (P4R) using 6 high impact MNCH interventions as indicators to measure the performance of States in Nigeria.
“It is used as the data source for measuring progress in the 5 selected MNCH indicators.
“The 2015 survey was the baseline while 2018 was the year of measuring progress. Below is the summary of Kaduna State performance using the SOML P4R selected indicators, comparing 2015 and 2018:
1. mCPR DECREASED from 24% in 2015 to 12.8% in 2018 (decreased by half).
2. Delivery by skilled birth attendant DECREASED from 32.7% in 2015 to 28% in 2018.
3. Penta3 coverage INCREASED from 32.6% in 2015 to 45.9% in 2018.
4. Children <5years who slept under mosquito net DECREASED from 73.7% in 2015 to 24.3% in 2018.
5. Testing of pregnant women for HIV DECREASED from 58.1% in 2018 to 54.8% in 2018.
6. Vitamin A among children 6-59 months INCREASED from 14% in 2015 to 37.6% in 2018,” it stated.
The coalition said that they see no reason why a government that claims to be investing so much should be getting abysmal result.
“This calls for investigations to determine how the government is handling the Save One Million Lives intervention and spending in the health sector as a whole.
“In good conscience we cannot continue to remain in silence while citizens suffer, especially preventable deaths, and the government is misleading the world that the state is achieving results in healthcare delivery.
“Our heart goes out to the many victims of Child and Maternal death and their families due to government’s negligence and inability to provide basic and affordable healthcare delivery services,” it added.
The coalition commended the media for its role in ensuring good governance in the state.“We appreciate the role the media continues to play in good governance in Kaduna State and urge you to continue take this message of maladministration to the world so the state health sector can be salvaged,” they concluded.
