By Ozioruva Aliu

BENIN CITY – STAKEHOLDERS from the medical, education, judiciary and other sectors of the society on Thursday lamented the continued underfunding of the health sector despite legislations to the contrary, a situation they lamented has led to many Nigerians paying from their pocket for their health needs which they said is an aberration.

The said the funding has forced Nigerians to access cheap healthcare services which has led to negative implications for their health needs.

These positions were taken at the Dr. Osahon Enabulele Foundation (DOEF) 2026 Roundtable and One Year Anniversary held in Benin City with the theme “Citizens right to healthcare and attainment of SDGs in Nigeria: A myth or reality.”

Enabulele set up the Foundation shortly after his tenure as the President of the World Medical Association (WMA).

Addressing a press conference before the event, Enabulele lamented that the one percent from the Consolidated Revenue Fund which ought to be dedicated to the health by the National Health Act has been implemented in breach.

He said “Millions of Nigerians are currently struggling and battling to have a meal a day.

“The National Demographic Health Survey, the latest report of 2024 has nothing inspiring about access to care, has nothing inspiring about the issue of health insurance and health expenditures.

“Lots of Nigerians still undertake health expenditures from their private pockets. What we call out of pocket expenditures. The out of pocket expenditures just now in Nigeria is hovering over around 75 percent of total health expenditure and that means you are training a lot of people into poverty.

“People can no longer access quality care and little wonder you find complications emerging or coming to the hospitals because all they do is to consult other less unorthodox results. And so we said as a foundation we also needed to engage this.

“As at 1999, there was a commitment to ensure that the minimum funding requirements for health is met in terms of 15% of the national budget. But as I speak to you today, Nigeria’s total health budget averaged in the last nine to 10 years has not been more than 5% of the national budget.

“We saw very unappealing gaps in terms of huge gaps in access to quality healthcare, huge gaps in access to quality education, and of course very huge deficits in leadership and governance, which of course has impacted negatively on development and thrown millions of Nigerians into a miasma of hopelessness and a very high level of disillusionment.”

The chairman of the occasion, former Chief Judge of the state, Justice Cromwell Idahosa (rtd) lamented that the government had become “busy” that it failed to do many things including necessities like health for the people that groups like DOEF have not made it their responsibilities to do the role of the government.

He commended Enabulele for the initiative saying he was sure the Foundation would outlive the founder and achieve the aim for setting it up.