BY Mayowa Tijani
Mark Suzman, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), says there should be more debates for political candidates seeking office in Nigeria ahead of 2023.
Responding to questions from TheCable about the foundation’s progress in Nigeria before and during an election year, Suzman said the foundation does not dabble in political processes in Nigeria.
However, he added that “there should be much more discussion and debate among political candidates about their development priorities and outcomes because those are shared priorities”.
“When you say are we try not to be political. That’s true because we don’t think that goals of reducing child mortality and maternal mortality, or preventable diseases are in any way a political issue.
“National priority should be a national priority for any candidate of any party because you’re building in health and educational investments the human capital of the country for the long term and that is a critical foundation for any long term successful development.”
Suzman also added that Nigeria should prioritise health, education, and other aspects of human capital development despite significant fiscal pressure and campaign demands.
“In Nigeria specifically, we do work at both state level and with the Nigerian governors and at the federal level, again particularly focused on health, but also in some areas like financial inclusion,” he added.
“How do you expand the vaccination programs and the setbacks? And how do you have better overall primary health care access and treatments? And some of the digital tools I talked about, or primary health care and how you get some of the resources where they’re most needed are very important going forward and you know it.
“It is a challenge, Nigeria is also an example of a country that you know has had significant fiscal pressures as many African countries have. So how do you make sure that they’re still prioritizing expenditure in key areas like health even in the midst of political campaigns? So I wish there was a sort of easy answer, but in the end, it is about helping ensure a real political prioritization and then prioritization of actually the resources and the tools that go into areas like health and medicine where we are always ready to support.”
He asked that journalists should engage political candidates and debate the issues that are national priorities for Nigeria.
Suzman was recently named a member of the board of trustees at the Gates Foundation.
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