Nigeria has called for a decisive continental shift towards health security sovereignty, urging African nations to move from dependence on foreign aid to resilient, self-sufficient and home-grown health systems capable of responding to emergencies without external uncertainty.
Vice President Kashim Shettima made the call on Friday at a high-level event themed, ‘Building Africa’s Health Security Sovereignty,’ held on the margins of the 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Representing President Bola Tinubu at the summit, Shettima said the push for sovereignty in health systems has become imperative to shield the continent from the vulnerabilities of distant supply chains and shifting global priorities during crises.
He reaffirmed Nigeria’s readiness to collaborate with other African countries to build a continent capable of “healing itself,” stressing that true sovereignty would be measured not merely by declarations but by tangible outcomes such as functional laboratories, trained health workers, expanded insurance coverage and dismantled counterfeit drug markets.
“When history reflects on this generation of African leadership, may it record that when confronted with vulnerability, we chose capacity; when confronted with dependence, we chose dignity; and when confronted with uncertainty, we chose cooperation,” the vice president declared.
Shettima warned against the dangers of prolonged vulnerability, recalling Africa’s experience during global health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic when nations struggled to access vaccines and medical oxygen amid global competition and export restrictions.
While acknowledging the continent’s resilience, he emphasised that endurance alone is not a sustainable strategy for the future.
Describing health security as inseparable from national and continental security, the vice president noted that diseases and substandard medicines do not recognise borders, making collective preparedness and cooperation indispensable.
Highlighting Nigeria’s domestic efforts, Shettima said the Tinubu administration is prioritising local pharmaceutical manufacturing, expanding domestic health financing and strengthening regulatory oversight through initiatives such as the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative and the Presidential Initiative to Unlock the Healthcare Value Chain.
He disclosed that Nigeria had secured over $2.2 billion in health-sector commitments anchored on measurable outcomes, including plans to revitalise more than 17,000 primary healthcare centres, train 120,000 frontline health workers and expand insurance coverage within three years through reforms led by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
According to him, the country is also enhancing epidemic intelligence and emergency preparedness by expanding laboratory networks, strengthening genomic surveillance and reinforcing coordination through the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, while tightening regulatory enforcement against counterfeit and substandard medicines through the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
The vice president further underscored the role of the private sector, insisting that governments alone cannot deliver health sovereignty without strong partnerships with investors, innovators and healthcare manufacturers.
Earlier, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, commended the collaboration between Nigeria, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and the African Union Commission, noting that the partnership is designed to build long-term resilience across the continent and strengthen the health workforce.
Director-General of the Africa CDC, Dr Jean Kaseya, also praised Nigeria’s leadership in health sector reforms, particularly in immunisation and system resilience, while urging African countries to consolidate resources and reverse the trend of fragmented investments in healthcare delivery.
Health ministers from Senegal, Malawi and Ethiopia, alongside representatives of development partners, including the African Union Commission, GAVI and UNICEF, pledged support for coordinated continental action to strengthen workforce databases and community-level health systems.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the forum, African Ministers of Health and Finance called on AU Heads of State and Government to intensify political commitment and sustained investment in human resources for health and community health systems.
They specifically urged leaders to accelerate progress towards the continental target of deploying two million community health workers by 2030, elevate community health as a strategic pillar of primary healthcare and universal health coverage, and increase domestic financing to build durable and self-reliant health systems across Africa.
