A report by BudgIT, a civic-tech organisation advocating fiscal transparency and accountability in public finance has identified the influence of rich Nigerians and lack of trust for government as major drivers of inequity and inequality in healthcare delivery across the country.

The report, themed ‘Strengthening Partnerships for Accountability and Equity,’ focused on
enhancing partnerships for accountability and equity in a post-COVID-19 landscape.

It noted that, Nigerians are sceptical about government policies and interventions, especially relating to health and vaccines distribution due to an unaddressed lack of trust in the government.

The report which acknowledged that inequity and inequality in health services were not new to the continent, nor to Nigeria, cited the hoarding of COVID-19 palliatives by government and politicians as an act that led to mistrust for government.

The report urged government to restore trust to ensure cohesion and participatory outcomes.

It noted: “Restoring trust is challenging but the gains to government legitimacy and policy implementation would be immense. This would ensure cohesion and participatory outcomes.

“Funding is still a challenge for the government at federal and state but the difficulty is ensuring state governments commit to a quantum of health spending every fiscal year.” It noted.

According to the report, inequity was evidenced in the fact that certain states did not have the financial resources to deliver vaccines to their ward and area councils during health emergency.

Presenting the report on Wednesday in Abuja, Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst at BudgIT, Vahyala Kwaga recalled that some Non-Governmental Organisations (NG0s) reported discrepancies in distribution of vaccines, with politicians and the rich having first access to the vaccine as of early 2021.

In addition, Kwaga regretted that there were also discrepancies in the treatment of victims in some health centres, with richer Nigerians being given priority in the distribution of oxygen and respirators.

According to him, the biggest cause of inequity is the hesitancy by Nigerians to take the vaccine, maintaining that the challenge is not just with the government but the willingness of Nigerians and identified mistrust of government as a major driver of hesitancy.

He said: “Mistrust of government strongly correlates with Vaccine hesitancy.

“Barring conceptual and theoretical issues, it is plausible that persons who do not trust their government like President, Ministers, Parliament and Judges, would be less likely to agree to take actions on the latter’s insistence.

“However, there are other factors which affect the potential and rate of vaccine uptake that range from low testing rates to poor access
to health facilities, to a country’s history with communicable diseases, to infection fatality ratios.

Kwaga who further identified misinformation as another driver of hesitancy, opined th at, when misinformation is simple to assimilate, corresponds with existing political views and is not subject to any rigorous vetting, the information will probably be taken as truth.

He suggested, a premium be placed on targeted communication and information dissemination
and urged for support for the growing role of fact-checkers.