Access to affordable healthcare is a basic necessity for ensuring healthy living and promoting the well-being of people in every society. Evidence abound that health status has direct relationship with a nation’s level of economic development. This explains the axiom, “a healthy nation is a wealthy nation”.

In Nigeria, health for all has become one of the major Socio- economic development goals by successive governments at all levels, aimed at achieving higher productivity, social well being and better life for all citizens.

To achieve this goal of health for all, Nigeria, through the Federal Ministry of Health, in 1985, introduced a comprehensive National Health Policy with a focus on Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs). It places high premium on preventive medicine and healthcare service at the grassroots.

Primary Healthcare Centres provide healthcare services in the areas of health promotion, illness prevention, care of the sick, advocacy and community development. It means that PHCs can cover majority of an individual’s health needs throughout one’s life, if well applied or implemented.

In Nigeria, provision of healthcare at Primary Healthcare level is largely the responsibility of local governments with the support of state Ministries of Health and within the overall national health policy. The right to health, as guaranteed in the Nigerian Constitution, states that “there are adequate medical and health facilities for all persons”.

Sadly, efforts to provide health for Nigerian citizens accordingly have been less than satisfactory.

Today, there are 30,000 PHC facilities across Nigeria, yet our society is still bedeviled with all manner of risks, ranging from ecological disasters, food scarcity, climate change, unemployment, air and water pollution and general poverty, which tend to increase the stress that reduces the lifespan of the citizens. Reports show that the five top causes of death in Nigeria today are such preventable diseases as lower respiratory infections, Neo-natal disorders, HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Diarrhea. According to WHO health index report, Nigeria accounts for about 19% of the global maternal deaths, with a maternal mortality ratio of eight hundred and fourteen per one hundred thousand live births

Again, top on the list of challenges facing the Primary Healthcare Centres in Nigeria are: poor staffing, inadequate equipment, lack of essential drug supply, poor distribution of health workers and poor condition of infrastructure among others. These have resulted to poor utilization of the PHC system and lack of confidence among the citizens.

The implication is that citizens prefer to patronize secondary, tertiary and private healthcare centres or even quacks for their health needs. The current global ranking of the healthcare index in the country places it at one hundred and eighty-seventh out of 190 countries assessed, showing the nations weak healthcare system, despite huge investments in the health sector.

It is against this backdrop that the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID), through its programme- Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL); a 5-year governance programme in Nigeria that supports governments and citizens engagement as well as  evidence based advocacy, supported an experience sharing and contextual analysis of the Primary Healthcare in the South East region of Nigeria. It highlighted the role of citizens, government and health workers as critical stakeholders to maximize the benefits of primary Healthcare..

It is only by these new approaches that the current weak and dysfunctional primary Healthcare system in the South East in particular and Nigeria at large can be addressed to minimize the high morbidity and mortality rates from preventable diseases in the country.

Again, only through a strong and functional PHC in the South East can the conception of human capital development through the provision of sound health delivery system, as the bedrock to economic growth and development, can be actualized.

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