Although the Human Rights Act (1998) does not expressly guarantee a standalone right to healthcare, Articles 2, 3, 5 and 8 of the Act provide profound indirect protections for life, human dignity, and freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment – and there is no dignity in dying because there is no hospital, no doctor, no glove, no water.
The Human Rights Act derives its force from the International Bill of Human Rights, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted on 16th December 1966 and in force since 23rd March 1976. But it does not stop there. Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) guarantees “the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.” Article 16 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights – domesticated in Nigeria, guarantees every person the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health. Section 17(3)(d) of our own 1999 Constitution (as amended) commands the State to ensure adequate medical and health facilities for all persons.
In other words, healthcare is not charity. It is not a favour from government. It is law. It is covenant. It is a sacred duty.
During my dissertation for the Master of Laws (LLM) at Warwick University, United Kingdom, I drew global attention to the deplorable state of healthcare and the grossly limited access to healthcare in South East Nigeria. I highlighted the alarming Infant Mortality Rates (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rates (MMR) – indices that reveal the true state of healthcare and the preservation of life in any society.
The figures are a national shame. According to the World Health Organisation, Nigeria recorded a Maternal Mortality Ratio of 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020, with 82,000 maternal deaths, 181,000 stillbirths and 277,000 neonatal deaths in that year alone. UNICEF tells us that every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 children under-five and 145 women of childbearing age. Every two minutes, somewhere in the world, a woman dies from pregnancy-related complications – and Nigeria accounts for nearly 29% of all global maternal deaths.
These are not statistics. These are mothers. These are babies. These are our sisters, our wives, our daughters.
Our hospitals were in ruins. Basic medical equipment was non-existent, running water was a luxury, and our medical personnel were poorly remunerated – a tragedy that fuelled massive brain drain from Abia State and Nigeria as a whole. The Nigerian Medical Association estimates that over 50,000 Nigerian-trained doctors now practise abroad.
Yet, many of our politicians, Governors, Senators, and even the Presidency, travelled abroad for medical care, for access to healthcare and definitive treatment. And who treated them there? Nigerian doctors. In the United Kingdom, over 47% of NHS doctors are Nigerians, and a similarly high percentage serve in the United States of America.
Is it not sheer folly; indeed, a betrayal of the people, that for over 50 years, our governments failed to build adequate healthcare systems at home, so that our leaders could be treated in Nigeria by the very same Nigerian doctors who now heal them in the Diaspora?
Consider the haemorrhage: Nigeria loses about $2 billion every year to medical tourism, according to the Coordinating Minister of Health, Prof. Muhammad Pate. That is money that could build six world-class specialist hospitals every single year. That is money that could employ thousands of doctors, equip hundreds of hospitals, and save millions of lives. Instead, it flies to Paris, London, India, Dubai and America – while our mothers die in labour for lack of a glove.
Nigeria is a co-signatory to the International Bill of Human Rights, in force since 23rd March 1976. This means that the transformation Abia State is now witnessing under H.E. Dr. Alex Chioma Otti ought to have been in place, functioning, and serving the ordinary citizen for the past 50 years!
And now, Abia is proving that it can be done.
Today, under the visionary leadership of H.E. Dr. Alex Chioma Otti, communities across Abia State are witnessing an unprecedented transformation. Under “Project Ekwueme”, the state is revitalising 200 Primary Healthcare Centres, alongside 77 World Bank-supported PHCs – 277 PHCs across all 184 wards and 17 LGAs. As of 2026, over 139 have been fully functionalised, with modern equipment, running water, solar power, and even ordinary hand gloves now made available for our healthcare professionals!
This is not mere renovation. This is resurrection.
Abia has done what the Abuja Declaration of 2001 demanded and what most states ignored: it has consistently allocated 15% of its annual budget to health, the exact benchmark African leaders promised but abandoned.
The results are speaking: Abia has recruited 821 healthcare professionals, with 771 already resumed duty. Enrolment in the Abia State Health Insurance Scheme has exploded from 40,000 in December 2024 to over 225,581 by July 2026. And in the First Quarter of 2026, the Federal Ministry of Health ranked Abia among Nigeria’s best-performing states, with only ONE maternal death recorded in the quarter, and neonatal mortality falling from nine to seven.
One death is still one too many. But from a state once known for decay, to a state now celebrated nationally for saving mothers, this is nothing short of a miracle of leadership.
Rather than appreciate and embrace these life-saving changes meant to alleviate the suffering of the ordinary people, some still raise voices of dissension and dissatisfaction. To them I say: Go to the villages. See the mother who now delivers safely. See the child who now lives. Then tell us that nothing has changed.
I contested under the Social Democratic Party (SDP) as the Governorship Candidate for Abia State. The collapsed healthcare system was one of the compelling reasons that motivated me to join the 2023 election race.
What greater joy could I have than to see the very changes I sought to implement in Abia State now being carried out? These changes are 50 years overdue, considering that Nigeria has been bound by the International Bill of Human Rights since March 1976.
Today, I, together with many progressive minds of Ndi Abia, applaud H.E. Dr. Alex Otti, as each of the 17 LGAs of Abia State has had its health centres rebuilt, refurbished and modernised; some have been elevated to full hospital status. The General Hospitals – our secondary healthcare facilities, at Obingwa, Arochukwu, Okeikpe, Ikwuano and Ohafia have also been better equipped, rebuilt and better staffed.
We do not pause to lament what happened to the people’s monies meant for healthcare over the past 50 years. No. We choose to move forward with H.E. Dr. Alex Chioma Otti, to forge ahead and build up Abia State. For this, I urge you and others to align yourselves and overwhelmingly vote him back to office, to continue till Year 2031.
We are also witnessing remarkable changes at the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH), and we know that work is ongoing to build it into an excellent tertiary health centre – with a target of international JCI certification, so that Abia will no longer export its patients, but will attract patients from other States and Nations.
Ndi-Igbo would say: “Ndu bu isi” – Life is Supreme. It underscores the sacredness of the right to life for all people. For it is only the living, healthy person who can engage in daily activities to create wealth.
Health is not just the absence of disease. Health is the foundation of prosperity. A sick state cannot build wealth. A healthy Abia will build wealth.
Let us therefore remain focused, supportive, and vote for Dr. Alex Otti to continue with his second term as Governor of Abia State, for continuity, prosperity, and greater and wider access to healthcare for the people of Abia State.
Health indeed is Wealth; let us support his re-election for a healthier Abia State and a much wealthier people of Abia State.
Ndewo nuo!
Apstl Dr. Ngozika Gladys Johnson-Chukwunenye
MD. FRCS. LLB. LLM. ORTH FELLOW (USA). MSc ORTH (UK). JP.
_CEO / FOUNDER_
_The Sanctuary Christian Ministries (SCM) & The SHOGNA Foundation Int’l._
