Professor Cheluchi Onyemelukwe of the School of Law and Security Studies, Babcock University, has posited that Nigeria needs practical and enforceable health laws to manage emerging health threats and to hold governments accountable in their policies regarding health funding and management.
Onyemelukwe, Professor of Health Law and 2021 winner of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Prize for Literature for her novel ‘Son of the House’, said this on Thursday at Babcock University in Ogun State while delivering the 52nd inaugural lecture of the university, titled: ‘The law as compass, lever or stumbling block? Harnessing the power of law to reify and realise the right to health’.
The law don, who is also the founder of the Centre for Health Ethics Law and Development (CHELD) as well as the managing partner at Health Ethics Law and Consulting (HELC), began her lecture by speaking on the demerits of Nigeria’s dependency on foreign aid for health interventions, which she said was no longer sustainable, given the recent withdrawals of such aids by the United States and other countries.
She revealed that matters relating to the right to health, which formed the basis of her research, have led her to interrogate and reconstruct the function of law in health systems design and arrangement, and to question the limit of the law and the possibilities of extending its frontiers to achieve the goal of human development.
“It is time, in my view, that we amended our Constitution, removing our current narrow construction of the right to health from non-justiciable and aspirational to enforceable fundamental human rights,” she said.
She further added that a constitutional right to health, with all of its core components, would provide the compass, the why and how we ‘do health’, and strengthen the enforceability of this right.
On the other hand, she emphasised that beyond public health emergencies, there is a need to understand the benefit of law for managing health security challenges more broadly.
Professor Onyemelukwe stated that when underpinned by the right to health, the law is a powerful tool for organising health systems, advancing health goals, providing force for good policies, and supporting improved health outcomes, adding, “A commitment to redefining the basic minimum package of health services provided for under the National Health Act towards comprehensiveness of coverage and inclusion is critical.”
Speaking on the role of governments and politicians in the right to health, the law health professor noted such roles necessitate accountability, which comes in different forms, adding, “Legal accountability requires the active use of the courts in ensuring that recent legislation is given life.”
In conclusion, she recommended, among other things, that consistent dialogue with key public and private stakeholders in the legal community, legislators, health lawyers, regulatory bodies, judiciary, civil society organisations, and the general public can help to ensure that the law continues to support the right to health.
The Chairman and Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Ademola Tayo, in his remarks, stated that inaugural lectures are a rich academic tradition observed in universities across the world.
Vice-Chancellor Tayo noted that Professor Onyemelukwe’s lecture was apt and topical because of the contemporary health situation in the country. He added that the recommendations for the lecture would benefit governments, people of the bench, and other stakeholders in the legal and health professions.
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