TWO health workers in Kebbi State
THE Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Musa Adamu Aliyu, has revealed how two health workers in Kebbi State allegedly diverted 13,350 diapers meant for antenatal care at a primary health centre in Sambawa community in the state.
Aliyu made the revelation while addressing participants at a one-day conference organised by the ICPC in Abuja on Thursday, July 18.
While addressing participants on the conference theme: “Engendering Corruption-Free Primary Health Care Delivery For All”, the chairman said of the theft: “Recently, the Sambawa community in Kebbi State sent a petition to us regarding missing antenatal care items for pregnant women and newborn babies donated to a healthcare facility.
“Our preliminary investigation indicated that the missing diapers allocated to Sambawa Primary Healthcare Centre are 13,350 pieces, while the investigation by Kebbi State Primary Healthcare Agency puts it at 3,466.
He said though two staff members of the Sambawa Primary Healthcare Centre, a male and a female, were indicted for the missing items, the commission intended to go all out and unravel the criminal conduct and bring the culprits to book.
Aliyu said the choice of the PHCs in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as the pilot for the nationwide conversation on engendering-corruption-free PHC service delivery in the country was to create a comprehensive template that could be replicated in all the six geopolitical zones of the federation.
He said participants were carefully drawn from community healthcare stakeholders to have a holistic and collaborative approach to improving the effectiveness of primary healthcare service delivery.
He added that communities and civil society were becoming more interested in tackling corruption in the health sector.
According to him, the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) to be signed at the conference would provide opportunities for the cross-fertilisation of anti-corruption ideas and harnessing available resources to address issues that hinder people from enjoying a corruption-free healthcare system in Nigeria.
Speaking at the conference, the Minister of Health, Muhammed Ali Pate, said the nation’s PHCs faced multifaceted challenges, including corruption that must be urgently tackled.
He submitted that corruption in the health sector could not be isolated from other sectors.
Pate said Nigeria had a prosperous future but prosperity would only come if citizens did the right things collectively.
“So when we look at the issue of corruption in Nigeria, which is a long-standing issue, it’s almost everywhere but how do you address it?
“It’s a huge challenge and it’s a systemic challenge. It is also a multi-institutional challenge, it is due to state capacity…what we determine to do about it.
“The volume of mortality is on the poorest when we access Nigeria’s health utilisation and output in the continent compared to so many other countries,” Pate stated.

He stressed the need to strengthen regulatory bodies so they do not become predators.
In his speech, the chairman House Committee on Anti-Corruption, Kayode Akiolu, posited that the Nigerian health sector was in the middle of a crisis. He said doctors and other medical professionals were leaving the country in droves thereby leaving the sector in bigger crisis.
He listed insufficient manpower, poor working conditions and endemic corruption as some of the challenges facing the sector.
He added that if corruption is tackled in the PHC sector, the impact would be felt in the whole sector.
The keynote speaker and the Mandate Secretary, Health Services and Environment in the FCT, Adedolapo Fasawe, said a health system based on PHC structures functioned toward the values of equity and social solidarity and the right of every human being to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health without distinction of race, religion, political belief, or economic or social condition.
She said Nigeria’s vital health indices ranked among the worst globally and way off the path to meeting the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Targets:
According to her, Nigeria achieves far less value on funds spent on health.
“Corruption has hampered and continues to bedevil the PHC service delivery in Nigeria.
“In addition, we must adopt the public health approach to making the PHC system corruption-free,” Fasawe stated.
According to her, the inclusion of “Other related Offences” in the nomenclature of ICPC makes non-financial corruption the purview of ICPC and confers on ICPC a sector-wide health system strengthening partner and monitor.
She submitted that corruption thrives in weak systems with non-strategic and comprehensive processes.
There were goodwill messages from the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM)
Others are the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD), the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), the United Nations Development Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The ICIR reports that Nigerian PHCs have been mired in corruption, underfunding, low human resources, infrastructural deficits, poor power supply and other ills.
In 2023, this organisation tracked the implementation of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) and the Midwife Service Scheme (MSS) in 12 states namely Anambra, Ebonyi, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Oyo, Kano, Jigawa, Gombe, Bauchi, Niger and Nasarawa.
Several reports produced from the investigations are available here.
The investigations unearthed the challenges listed above and many more.
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance