The West African College of Physicians, Nigerian chapter, says that Nigeria’s Crude Death Rate (CDR) as of 2019 was 12 per 1,000 of her 210 million population, making it the fifth-largest highest death rate in the world and second highest in Africa, slightly better than Lesotho.
The national chairman of the association, Professor Aboi Jeremiah Madaki, said Nigeria’s poor health indices, over the years, portrayed the declining health status of the country when compared to regional and global standards.
“Life expectancy at birth, another good indicator of the general health status of the people is equally not favourable in Nigeria. Nigeria has a life expectancy of 54 years (2017), but dropped to 52.2 years in 2019 (NPC 2019) compared with Mozambique at 59 years putting us only better than the Central Africa Republic with 52 years and one of the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa and 3rd lowest in the world,” he said.
Madaki said factors responsible for Nigeria’s poor health indices included high prevalence of diseases both communicable and non-communicable, deteriorating socio-economic infrastructure and poor access coupled with inefficient healthcare services.
“According to UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Nigeria is adjudged the deadliest country in Africa and accounts for 32% of all organised, armed conflict-related fatalities in Africa with about 10, 000 deaths in the last seven years,” he said.
The physicians urged Nigeria’s leadership to take urgent steps to reduce preventable deaths and improve the quality of life of citizens.
