BY AMOS DUNIA, IN OKADA-BENIN – Former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, has raised concerns over the inability of African countries to effectively harness available and needed resources to provide home-grown solutions to their health challenges.
Obasanjo specifically said that Africa’s main challenges cannot and should not be attributed to lack of funds or resources but the lack of adequate use of all within its disposal to proffer sustainable solutions.
Chief Obasanjo, who stated these at the launch of the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA) Independent Task Team on Equitable and Universal Access to Vaccines and Vaccination in Africa, said the African region must consciously harness available resources to develop home-grown solutions.
The launch of the initiative which took place on Monday at the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, witnessed the presence of medical experts, researchers and policymakers from nations across the continent of Africa. CoDA is an initiative of the Africa Union established to discuss and begin the process of vaccine development and distribution in African.
Represented by the former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Central Africa, Prof Abdoulaye Bathily, the former Nigerian president said that African nations need to show more commitment to developing home grown solution in other to halt the dependence on other nations and or continents.
Obasanjo, who is also the chairman of the CoDA’s Board of Directors further said; “Many of our researchers, doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers are constantly being drawn out of the continent to serve in other continents. They use their intellect to serve the needs of other continents, and most times without being duly credited or acknowledge for their intellectual investments, while our own health systems are underdeveloped.
“We need to reverse this trend and begin to take actions to harness our local resources to solve our local problems.
“Through initiatives like this one, Africa will be able to encourage and retain its talents and support them in finding solutions to its age-long healthcare challenges. The initiative we are launching today is one of those initiatives that will help Africa look inwards to identify and channel available resources to areas where they are needed.
“This initiative has the potential to positively change the vaccine and vaccination landscape across the continent and set precedence for vaccine entrepreneurship in the continent. If we carefully nurture the initiative through to maturity, we would have laid a good foundation for a healthier Africa using, largely, resources from within the continent,” he said.
Other members of the CoDA team are Deputy Chairperson, African Union Commission, Monique Nsanzabaganwa, Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, Deputy Chancellor of Igbinedion University Okada, Lucky Igbinedion, Chief Medical Director of Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital (IUTH), Godwin Bazuaye and Chairman, Pan African Manufacturers Association, Mansur Ahmed.
Also speaking, the Deputy Chairperson, African Union Commission, Dr. Monique Nsanzabaganwa noted public health research in Africa has suffered some setbacks in the past few decades owing to insufficient investment in research and development.
Nsanzabaganwa explained that the gaps between public health research, the private sector and public policy in Africa continue to widen, saying; “This is partly because the African private sector has not shown sufficient interest in health sector research and development”.
She stated further; “Public health research is capital intensive, but we must also realise that health business is everybody’s business, judging from our experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from the lives lost, the private sector has been greatly affected, and that tells us that if the people are sick, businesses will also be sick”.
Nsanzabaganwa said the private sector is the spirit of any nation as it gives direction to human and economic development, adding that when businesses do not play their role of uplifting the morale and helping to raise living standards sustainably, they lose their relevance.
According to her. It is essential for the African private sector to be involved in public health research that will help find solutions to the health problems on the continent, stressing that the launch of CoDA is a wake-up call to other private universities and businesses in Africa to contribute towards strengthening healthcare services across Africa.
Speaking in turn, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, described the launch of CoDA Taskforce as timely, adding that Africa has to address health inequalities between developed and developing nations like those found on the continent.
In her own remarks, the Executive Director of CoDA, Ms Souad Adon-Osman stressed the need for togetherness of African nations to achieve higher results, stressing that African nations must do something different.
Adon-Osman also said that the actions of non-state actors is important in assisting governments in African to succeed.
