Traditional rulers from Northern Nigeria have renewed calls for stronger community engagement, improved immunisation coverage, and accountability in Primary Health Care (PHC) delivery, as concerns persist over circulating variants of the poliovirus in parts of the region.
They made the renewed push at the quarterly review meeting of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee (NTLC) on PHC Delivery held in Abuja on Tuesday.
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The meeting, organised by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in collaboration with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), brought together traditional rulers and development partners to review progress on routine immunisation, maternal healthcare, and community health interventions.
The Chairman of the NTLC and Emir of Argungu Kebbi State, Samaila Mera, said PHC remains the foundation of an effective and equitable healthcare system, especially for women, children, and vulnerable populations in rural communities.
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Mr Mera said the meeting was convened to review activities carried out between August 2025 and April 2026, including the latest immunisation round conducted in April.
“We are going to listen to every state present at this meeting as to what they went through, what they did right, what they did wrong, and what the challenges are. We will be taking the lessons we can learn from each other and noting the mistakes from different states and flowing them back into what we do back home,” he said.
He added that the government is now paying closer attention to households where children missed vaccination sessions or did not receive routine immunisation.
Engagement with traditional rulers
The meeting comes within the framework of President Bola Tinubu’s recent mobilisation of traditional and religious leaders into Nigeria’s health sector reforms aimed at achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Mr Tinubu formally integrated traditional institutions into the implementation framework for PHC strengthening, immunisation uptake, and maternal and child health interventions.
The initiative positions the rulers as key actors in driving demand for healthcare services at the community level, particularly in rural and underserved areas where trust in formal health systems remains fragile.
The initiative also forms part of the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (NHSRII), which seeks to improve coordination across federal, state and local governments while expanding access to quality healthcare services nationwide.
Concern over polio cases
In his remarks, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative in Nigeria, Pavel Ursu, said that although Nigeria was declared free of the wild poliovirus in 2020, the country continues to battle circulating polio virus cases, particularly in the Northwest.
Mr Ursu noted that Nigeria recorded 87 cases in 2025 and 28 cases so far in 2026, with more than 70 per cent occurring in the Northwest region.
He identified Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states as critical to Nigeria’s efforts to end vaccine-derived polio transmission.
“What happens in these states will really determine the eradication of polio,” he said while also praising traditional rulers for helping to build public trust in vaccination campaigns and urging them to sustain efforts at mobilising communities and countering misinformation.
In his goodwill message, the Nigeria Country Director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Uche Amaonwu, also said traditional rulers played a decisive role in Nigeria’s earlier successes in the fight against wild polio.
Mr Amaonwu, who was represented by Shina Aladeshewa, senior programme officer at the Gates Foundation Nigeria Country Office, warned that non-compliance remains a challenge in some communities and urged traditional rulers to intensify mobilisation efforts ahead of future vaccination campaigns.
“The effective count of transmission numbers is not acceptable at this point. Rather, it is a clear signal that we are close to the end and we need to push harder,” he said.
Reforms
In his keynote address, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, described the NTLC platform as one of the strongest and longest-running community engagement structures in Africa since its inception.
Mr Pate said the federal government is implementing reforms to strengthen PHCs and expand access to quality healthcare services, while stressing the need for stronger community accountability in the use of healthcare resources.
He added that the government is expanding insurance coverage, improving health infrastructure, increasing access to essential medicines and vaccines, and revitalising primary healthcare centres nationwide.
Speaking on the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), he noted that traditional rulers have a responsibility to encourage and flag when public resources are not being used for their intended purpose.
Mr Pate added that the government is prioritising maternal and child health interventions, nutrition services and emergency healthcare delivery, disclosing that more than half a million women had already been enrolled under the MAMI programme.
“No nation can prosper when mothers and children continue to die from preventable causes,” he said.
On nutrition, he explained that the government had approved a Community-Based Social Action Fund to support local organisations through a decentralised procurement platform approved by the Bureau of Public Procurement.
He acknowledged persistent challenges, including vaccine hesitancy, malnutrition, insecurity-related disruptions, outbreaks of measles and cholera and the uneven distribution of health workers.
Progress and challenges
The Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of NPHCDA, Muyi Aina, said Nigeria recorded 30 circulating variant polio cases as of week 19 of 2026.
Mr Aina said 27 cases involved circulating variant poliovirus type 2, while three involved another variant strain.
He added that the agency had, however, recorded improvements in the quality of recent immunisation campaigns and noted progress in states previously identified as high-risk areas.
“Katsina and Kaduna states have both recorded zero cases this year,” he said, adding that Borno also recorded a significant reduction in cases.
He disclosed that over 28 million children received the novel oral polio vaccine during the April immunisation campaign, while more than 65,000 cases of non-compliance were recorded across 15 states.
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He also said the agency had introduced stricter accountability measures for vaccination teams and supervisors.
“Of the almost 5,000 teams that went house to house during the March campaign, 1,166 recorded sub-optimal performance. Some of them were blacklisted and removed depending on how outrageous the offence was,” he said.
On the revitalisation of PHCs, he said over 4,100 have been revitalised nationwide, while direct funding to facilities under the BHCPF has increased.
He also added that over half a million women had been enrolled in the MAMI maternal health programme across several states.
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