Health experts have called on the 36 state governments to strengthen their health security systems and end the “siloed approaches” to emergency preparedness, governance, and public health coordination.
The call was made on Monday in Abuja during the Socialization and Unveiling of the State Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) Plan, organized by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) under the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
The high-level event brought together state commissioners for health, development partners, and key stakeholders to launch the State EPR Plan — a strategic roadmap designed to strengthen epidemic preparedness, coordination, and health security across Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT.
The Director-General of the NCDC, Dr. Jide Idris, led the technical sessions alongside representatives from the World Bank, WHO, U.S. CDC, UNICEF, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They reaffirmed their commitment to supporting subnational health security reforms under the Nigeria Health Security Reform Implementation Initiative (NHSRII).
Dr. Samuel Anzaku, Director of Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology at the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, said Nigeria’s “silo mentality” continues to hinder effective coordination among sectors, weakening the country’s ability to prevent and control disease outbreaks.
“What works for State A may not necessarily work for State B. If we don’t move past this silo mentality, we will continue to face challenges that hold us back,” he warned.
Anzaku stressed that the One Health approach—integrating human, animal, and environmental health—must be institutionalized at the state level, where most outbreaks begin.
“Rabies is preventable; no one should die from it. But because of weak collaboration, we still record unnecessary deaths,” he said, citing Plateau as one of the states with the highest rabies-related mortalities.
In a session on Public Health Legislation and Governance, Dr. Oladipo Ogunbode presented key policy actions under the State EPR Plan. These include the establishment of State Health Security Steering Committees, EPR/PHEM Technical Committees, and the integration of EPR plans into annual State Health Operational Plans (AOPs).
Ogunbode also called for a review of state public health laws, the development of model legislation aligned with the International Health Regulations (IHR), and stronger alignment between state and national health security policies.
Presenting on State EPR Planning, Dr. Kitan Jinadu underscored the importance of state-level preparedness in strengthening Nigeria’s public health system. He noted that recurring public health events, such as flooding in Niger State, continue to disrupt livelihoods.
Jinadu explained that Nigeria’s preparedness score, based on the WHO Joint External Evaluation (JEE) tool, improved from 37 per cent in 2017 to 54 per cent in 2023, due to targeted investments and capacity building.
“We must continue to invest in state-level systems to prevent, detect, and respond to public health events, and ensure all states meet the required preparedness threshold,” he said.
In his presentation titled “Health Security – The Journey So Far,” Dr. Biodun Ogunniyi highlighted the NCDC’s progress in strengthening national and subnational health security systems.
Ogunniyi noted major improvements in infection prevention and control (IPC), laboratory capacity, and disease surveillance, including the deployment of Tata—an internet-based data mining tool for event-based surveillance—and the maintenance of the 6232 toll-free line for public reporting.
He added that the National Reference Laboratory now has the capacity to test for all epidemic-prone diseases and continues to expand its genomic sequencing capabilities for early detection and response.
Meanwhile, NCDC DG Idris emphasized the importance of state ownership and community-based preparedness, noting that outbreak response should begin at the subnational level.
“Outbreaks start within communities. If we build capacity at the subnational level, states can mount initial responses without necessarily waiting for NCDC. Health security is a shared responsibility,” he said.
The commissioners and experts collectively agreed that states must take coordinated and collaborative action at both inter-state and intra-state levels.
They stressed that achieving a resilient national health security framework would require reforms to address systemic issues such as poor funding, infrastructure decay, and workforce shortages.
