The United Nations has encouraged the Federal Government to prioritize peace and healthcare to achieve real and lasting developments across the country.
It stressed that combined transparency, especially in its policies, the government, in collaboration with the citizens, needs to see the prioritization of healthcare as a veritable tool for fostering peace, stability, and economic development, and not just a consumption good.
The Country Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Walter Mulombo, spoke in Abuja during a health walk to commemorate the United Nations’ 77th anniversary, slated for October 24, 2022.
Mulombo, who spoke on behalf of the United Nations agencies, said: “The United Nations is an organization established to put mechanisms in place for lasting peace, solidarity, and cooperation so that all the nations will avoid what we saw in the second world war.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that if you continue to consider health as a consumption good, then we miss the point. Even during the Millennium Development era, health was posted as a prerequisite, means, and outcome.
“If we don’t position health in our policies, strategies, and interventions, as a requirement for all developmental efforts, then we are likely to face the same thing we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Health is a human right and not a privilege. This is one of the things the UN is doing by carrying along that message to the highest level so that leaders – Presidents and Heads of Government can understand that health is a priority. Not only the leaders but also the community in whatever they do. They need to realize that the real wealth is health and nothing else.”
