Scientific research plays a significant role in improving healthcare delivery by providing evidence-based solutions to the high burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. This year’s World Health Day is being celebrated with a focus on the role of science in shaping the future of healthcare. For a country confronting both longstanding and emerging health challenges, the path to a stronger, equitable healthcare system will be paved by the power of science, NKECHI ONYEDIKA-UGOEZE reports.

Medical research plays a crucial role in advancing healthcare and improving health outcomes. Through rigorous scientific inquiry and innovation, it contributes to the development of new treatments and to advancing understanding of disease.

Sadly, discoveries and innovations from healthcare research in Nigeria are far below expectations. With many research projects conducted in the country each year, their findings remain unused or are archived.

Indeed, studies have shown a significant gap between the production of health research and its application to solving local health problems in the country. Although many health professionals engage in research, studies suggest that less than 30 per cent of these findings are adopted to influence local medical practice or policy.

Despite having hundreds of universities and 45 medical schools, Nigeria is still unable to address the immediate health problems facing its communities from the abundance of its health research.

Experts blame the situation on poor funding for research institutions, poor infrastructure, limited opportunities for research grants, low research literacy among health workers, weak institutional support, and a lack of collaboration between policymakers and researchers, among other factors.

World Health Day, celebrated every April 7, is meant to highlight the importance of good health and to draw attention to specific health issues that concern people worldwide.

The 2026 theme, ‘Together for health: Stand with science’, is not only a reminder that science is central to protecting public health but also highlights the essential role of scientific research and collaboration in tackling global health challenges.

Presently, the country’s health sector faces numerous challenges, including underfunding, inadequate infrastructure, workforce shortages, and unequal access to care.

However, available data show that the total yearly budgetary allocation for research in Nigeria is about 0.3 per cent of GDP, far below the 5.8 per cent recommended by the National Science Policy for research funding.

Shedding light on the low application of research findings in clinical practice, a Professor of Virology and a former President of the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS), Prof. Oyewole Tomori, said that some of these research works are not relevant to the needs of the people, stressing that even when they are relevant, they are hardly commercialised.

The virologist emphasised that scientists must consider the needs of the people, adding that Nigeria has the local research capacity to address its unique issues, but researchers lack the enabling environment to function effectively.

“Also, our society and private industries are not interested in investing in research. The average Nigerian businessman wants to buy and sell. He doesn’t want to invest in something that will yield something later. So, if you are not bringing something that people will need, then the businessman is not going to get involved.”

Tomori stated that science and research in other parts of the world drive the economy and improve social welfare, but Nigeria has never used science to tackle its indigenous problems.

“Science is applicable in every aspect of life, ranging from the kind of houses that we live in, the environment, and the food that we eat. All those are part of science. But we’re not making use of all of that to improve our country’s health. Other countries are using it. We have the raw materials, we have the raw facilities, but we’re not putting our science to work to see how we can use them to benefit our people.

“That’s why I was quarrelling about Nigeria signing an agreement with America to send pathogens. What did they do with it? When you get your pathogens, they research them through their science and make treatments, drugs, and vaccines, which they sell to us.

That’s what science is all about.”

Commenting on the theme of the celebration, Tomori said: “If you say we are sitting for science, we’re deceiving ourselves. We are sleeping for science. So, in Nigeria, it is telling our government to wake up from its slumber against science. Let the government take the first step that will be required for Nigeria to use science to improve health in the country.”

A researcher and infectious disease expert at the Department of Microbiology, Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, Dr Oladipo Kolawole, told The Guardian that the country’s health sector faces critical gaps in research capacity, funding, and the translation of evidence into practice.

He stated that despite the proliferation of tertiary institutions and medical schools, there is a lack of mentorship and career development pathways for young scientists, while skilled professionals often migrate abroad due to better opportunities, leaving gaps in expertise.

Kolawole, who decried the country’s weak research infrastructure, noted that many universities and teaching hospitals lack modern facilities for biomedical and public health research.

According to him, poor data systems pose a significant challenge, as health information management is fragmented, making it difficult to track disease trends and evaluate interventions.

He said: “There is low government investment in health research; Nigeria spends less than five per cent of its GDP on health, far below the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations.

Most large-scale health research projects are donor-driven, which can misalign priorities with local needs.”

Also speaking, the President of the Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, Dr Terfa Kene Kene told The Guardian that there is a disconnect between academic research and implementation science in Nigeria and argued that it is when you conduct research that disrupts a knowledge entity and, proves a new point, that we talk about implementation but if there is no connection between the academia and the practitioners, it becomes difficult to translate the research into action.

He said: “In Nigeria, the investment in research is minimal, so it’s not attractive. When you see people conducting high-level research, there is funding involved. So, imagine someone who is struggling to pay his children’s school fees being asked to buy reagents for research that will cost millions of naira. How do you achieve that? So, you end up seeing people doing original research on knowledge, attitude, and practice, which does not, in any way, translate into much impact on society. In other places, you see people going and doing groundbreaking research because funds are there.”

Kene maintained that the Japa Syndrome is affecting scientific research and healthcare delivery in the country, adding that most hospitals are overwhelmed with patients, while health workers who are expected to engage in research are suffering from severe burnout.

He lamented that as many health workers are leaving the country, they leave not just with their intellectual capabilities; they leave behind gaps that are hard to fill in terms of patients to care for, and once the number of patients to care for increases, it’s difficult to get health workers focused on research. It is someone who has time after work who will engage in research. The quality of time dedicated to research decreases when the best learners are overloaded with patient care. If you don’t have time, definitely concentrating on research becomes a problem.

“A professor in a university is supposed to supervise just two theses, but they are supervising several theses at the same time. So, paying attention to that and focusing on his research work becomes difficult. Now, I am not talking about a professor who is a medical doctor. We have local capacity. I’m the president of over 8,000 medical physicians across Nigeria. We have academics who are global scientists. So, capacity refers to intellectual capabilities. The challenge is beyond our intellectual know-how. What are the resources that are needed in terms of money?”

Also sharing his perspectives, the Director General of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), Dr Obi Peter Adigwe, stated that one of the biggest weaknesses in our academia is the penchant for publishing for promotion rather than for impact.

Adigwe noted that, in a bid to address this, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare issued a directive for health research institutions to work with the best in the world to bridge this gap.

He said: “Last month, we hosted colleagues from Stanford University for a one-week bootcamp where scientists from all over Africa came with projects to participate in a hands-on engagement in translational research. We aim to replicate the Stanford-Silicon Valley ecosystem that yielded giants like Nvidia, Gilead and Microsoft. As we speak, a call has just been put out for those who participated in the February bootcamp to apply for an opportunity to translate their research into impactful therapies via a product development residency in a Stanford-affiliated centre.”

Adigwe observed that NIPRD has been the strongest proponent of Artificial Intelligence adoption in contextual healthcare, adding that the argument was premised on the institute’s preliminary identification of key drivers such as expanding technological capacity, youthfulness of Nigeria’s population, and an emergent entrepreneurial dynamism.

He lamented that the health sector has been slow to engage with empirical advocacy, unlike other sectors, such as Fintech, which, at the same time, have generated the highest number of unicorns in Africa.

“In our seminal publication in the Frontiers for Artificial Intelligence, we explored the matrix and our novel findings identified key sectors, populations and opportunities for implementation. Given this administration’s renewed prioritisation, opportunities still exist to leverage Artificial Intelligence to leapfrog traditional methodologies for critical interventions in health security, drug development, diagnostics, access optimisation, and health promotion.”

On how Nigerian researchers and policy-makers can bridge the gap to ensure research findings directly inform health policies, Adigwe said: “Many are unaware that Nigeria’s century-old vaccine manufacturing capacity was critical to the world’s eradication of two deadly diseases, rinderpest and smallpox. Poor policy decisions, however, degraded those capacities and left us naked during the last pandemic. Leveraging renewed policy prioritisation, NIPRD has secured groundbreaking grants to once again secure Nigeria’s leadership in Africa.

“Our roadmap has led to the European Union’s biggest grant for vaccine research, development and manufacturing (€18m) in Africa. Similarly, our proposal secured the better part of a million dollars for Africa’s first Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) grant from a multilateral DFI. These are just two examples of several areas that we have leveraged friendly policymaking to progress research for impact.”