Kaduna State Government has challenged the 23 Local Government Area (LGA) chairmen in the state to take direct responsibility for improving primary healthcare services, insisting that access to quality healthcare is a matter of social justice and a critical tool for saving lives in rural communities.
Speaking at the Primary Health Care (PHC) Dialogue held in Abuja, Kaduna State Deputy Governor Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe, who represented Governor Uba Sani, urged council chairmen to move beyond administrative duties and embrace their roles as frontline leaders in healthcare delivery.
The dialogue, themed “Strengthening PHC Systems: A Joint Leadership Dialogue,” brought together government officials, development partners and civil society groups to discuss strategies for improving healthcare outcomes across the state.
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Balarabe said strengthening primary healthcare was not merely about constructing buildings or improving statistics but about ensuring that vulnerable residents can access life-saving services when they need them most.
“When we talk about strengthening primary healthcare, we are not talking about bricks, mortar, or cold statistics. We are talking about the mother in a remote ward in Giwa who is in labour at 2 a.m. We are talking about the infant in Zangon Kataf whose life depends on a single vial of vaccine,” she said.
She warned that government efforts in democracy, education, and development would amount to little without a functional healthcare system, stressing that local governments occupy a pivotal position in translating policies into tangible outcomes.
According to her, while state governments formulate policies, it is at the local level that those policies either become life-saving interventions or remain unimplemented.
The deputy governor challenged the council chairmen to measure their legacies not by infrastructure projects alone but by improvements in health outcomes.
“I challenge you today to ask yourselves: ‘What will be the legacy of my tenure?’ Will it be measured only by the centres I renovated? Or will it be measured by the number of mothers who stayed alive to raise their children because I ensured the PHC facility in my wards had water, essential medicines, equipment, staff and dignity?” she asked.
Balarabe also urged the chairmen to demonstrate stronger political commitment toward ensuring that healthcare facilities remain functional and adequately equipped.
Supporting the state’s position, Ekenem Isichei, Deputy Director for Policy Advocacy and Communications at the Gates Foundation, said primary healthcare outcomes depend largely on effective local implementation.
“Primary healthcare is delivered in communities, and that is why you, LGA chairpersons, are not just administrators—you are champions of health outcomes for your people,” Isichei said.
He identified three priorities for local governments: strengthening governance and oversight mechanisms, ensuring transparent release of healthcare funds to frontline facilities, and tracking measurable indicators such as immunisation coverage and maternal health outcomes.
Also speaking, Idris Baba, Officer-in-Charge of the Kaduna Field Office of UNICEF and Chairman of the Health Partners Forum in Kaduna, said strengthening primary healthcare remained essential to improving health indicators across the state.
“For us to make any positive movement in the right direction around our health indicators, primary healthcare must be strengthened,” Baba said.
He pledged continued support from development partners for the state’s healthcare reforms and expressed confidence that ongoing efforts would deliver lasting benefits for residents.
From the civil society sector, Garba Muhammad, Co-Chair of the Maternal Accountability Mechanism in Kaduna Initiative (KADMAM), said citizen participation and accountability would be critical to sustaining improvements in healthcare delivery.
“We are particularly encouraged by the focus on citizen engagement as a tool for improving health outcomes,” Muhammad said.
He added that KADMAM would continue monitoring the use of public health resources across communities to ensure that investments in healthcare translate into better services and outcomes for citizens.
The dialogue ended with renewed commitments from government officials, development partners and civil society organisations to strengthen primary healthcare systems and improve access to essential services across Kaduna.
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