Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Nigeria has called on the European Union (EU) to support health equity in the ongoing global pandemic agreement negotiations.

This, it said, would ensure that vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments were equitably and fairly distributed among countries, including the global South, in future global health emergencies to avoid a repeat of the COVID-19 experience.

AHF warned that as the May 2026 deadline for the ratification of the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) Annex approaches, failure to secure a binding agreement risked delaying ratification of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Pandemic Agreement and might bring a repeat of the inequities, injustices and undermining efforts to build regional manufacturing capacity and genuine health sovereignty in low- and middle-income countries.

Country Programme Director of AHF, Dr Echey Ijezie, who made the call at a press conference on WHO Pandemic Agreement and PABS Annex Negotiations, organised by AHF Nigeria in collaboration with other CIvil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Abuja, urged EU leaders to stop blocking equity provisions and align its position with the values of solidarity and fairness by supporting mandatory benefit-sharing, legal certainty, and real accountability in the agreement.

Also speaking, the President, Lawyers Alert, Romy Mum, insisted that the global pandemic framework should not be ratified until the annex was made equitable to all, including the global South, considering that the extraction of the pathogens that are used in developing the drugs and vaccines is from all over the world.

On his part, National Secretary of the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), Martin Egbanubi, emphasised the need for the government to come up with strategies for tackling health emergencies.

Egbanubi urged the government to invest in local production of vaccines instead of relying on the Western world, adding that this would help the country to effectively tackle health emergencies.

In his contribution, the Vice President, Zone D, Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Mrs Chizoba Ogbeche, stressed the need for the government to have a harmonised position on important issues like the PABS and expressed the commitment of the media to advocating for equity to promote inclusivity, diversity and justice in every sector.