The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has blamed the inability to complete the highly ambitious N85 billion project to construct 774 inclusive health centers in the country on constant judicial intervention by the Nigeria Governors Forum and other players.Â
According to Nairametrics, court papers show that 584 health centers were completed while 190 were in progress owing to what the CBN has termed “constant litigations” by some interests and stakeholders.
The court struggle began in a 2007 agreement. The Federal Executive Council had previously agreed to an offer by the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) to construct health centers for the entire area councils and local government areas on a public-private partnership agreement. At the CBN’s tail end, they consulted with all the councils of local governments, and they agreed that the project cost would be charged against their statutory allocations.Â
Two lawyers, however, Onabe Wilfred Ewoh and Fayenengigha Israel Jacob, recently approached the courts for redress. They went to the Federal High Court, Abuja, claiming an injunction stopping the CBN and other federal agencies from making further deductions. As far as they are concerned, no such legal authorization was ever taken from the democratically elected chairmen of the local government councils. The plaintiffs also claim that they are suing on behalf of Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State and Boki Local Government Area of Cross River State, and that none of them ever had a health centre constructed in their locality, and that the approval for deducting the funds was illegal.
They want the court to stop future withdrawals and pronounce the contract null and void based on a lack of proper consultation. In what appears to be a strange turn of events, elected chairmen of affected LGAs also provided affidavits repudiating the plaintiffs and stating that they never granted permission for the litigation.
In their response, the CBN reasserted that plaintiffs are not elected politicians and possess no mandate to represent the so-called LGAs. The bank contended that the agreement was signed lawfully and backed by massive consultations. In an affidavit that was filed, Nwabuko Catherine Omoh, an official of the CBN one of them, averred that the deductions were done on consensus and that only legal matters have put the remaining 190 health centers in limbo.
The attorney for the apex bank, Tairu Adebayo, also made an application, praying that the court would dismiss the suit on the grounds of absence of merit and substance. He also prayed that the court award punitive costs against the plaintiffs for abuse of the court’s process. Furthermore, the project contractor, Mathan Nigeria Limited, represented by Wale Balogun SAN as its legal representative, has also prayed that the suit be dismissed since the plaintiffs lack legal standing and any real harm.
This case has once again brought to the forefront Nigeria’s age-old challenge of health infrastructure and the bureaucratic jam that generally holds up signature public health initiatives. It also raises the question of state and local government control over federal development initiatives and whether political interference still withstands the test of critical intervention within the health system.
Firstly, the Tinubu administration has committed to equipping over 900 primary health care facilities through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency. Other plans include rehabilitating nearly 3,000 other health facilities so that all Nigeria’s wards are equipped with basic care. Although the destiny of this court case is uncertain, it is a significant test of whether coordination and potential competition between national and local institutions can break or make public provision.
The case will be heard on July 3rd, 2025, by Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court. The ruling could make it simple to complete the behind-schedule health centers or keep the project stuck, keeping people in 190 LGAs waiting to access basic healthcare that was promised nearly two decades ago.
