The Nigerian government is receiving backlash for the inadequate health conditions prevalent in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps throughout the country. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of Nigeria estimates that 4.5 million Nigerians are considered internally displaced in 264 communities. While all residents of the IDP camps are affected by the lack of healthcare, pregnant women face the most dire consequences. Pregnant residents of the camps describe fearing for their lives and their children’s lives when giving birth in the camps. CNN reports there are insufficient facilities that are barely hygienic and women are faced with costs for necessary treatments to prevent birth defects, such as antimalarial medicines and folic acid, that they would not incur at their home hospitals. Midwives do not have consistent access to gloves and must use razor blades to cut umbilical cords. Residents of the camps and members of Pro-Health International, an African NGO that provides healthcare aid to the IDP camps, have called on the Nigerian government to make fundamental changes in policy and budgeting to help these women. 

The Nigerian Ministry of Health claims they are, “conducting a health need assessment in the IDP camps to learn what is lacking in the facilities.” However, women living in the IDP camps, as well as volunteer healthcare professionals, counter this claim. Nigerian women argue that the government makes empty promises and inflates the amount of aid that is sent to the camps. NGO officials corroborate the women’s claims. The majority of pregnant women continue to rely on the work of NGOs and their finances to piece together the resources they need during their pregnancies. 

The Nigerian government has not put together a consistent aid package to help their internally displaced citizens. The government has the financial means and the reach to diffuse aid throughout the country and to impact all its citizens. Correspondents must be sent to the camps to encounter the conditions in real-time. In addition to this, comprehensive work must be done with NGOs that have worked intimately in the camps for a decade. These health professionals can advise the government on how to best spend their healthcare budget to adequately aid the camps throughout the country. The government has lost the faith of its citizens by making false promises. This can be rectified if there is a consistent effort to listen to the people and provide aid to the camps. 

Nigerians have been internally displaced since 2008, according to the IDMC. The primary causes are disastrous floods in their home regions as well as violence from Islamist insurgents. Nigeria consistently holds the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world, a figure that is compounded by the high rate of internally displaced citizens, the third highest in Africa. Nigeria has the second-largest GDP in Africa and contributes $2.2 billion to its health sector. However, this only represents six percent of the country’s total annual budget which violates a 2001 pledge among countries of the African Union to spend at least 15% of total annual budgets on healthcare. This pledge represents the collective effort of African countries to resolve the significant healthcare discrepancies throughout the African Union and to mitigate the high rates of maternal mortality rampant throughout the region. 

The Nigerian government’s blatant disregard for the health of internally displaced citizens, especially those who are pregnant is a direct violation of the fundamental right to life and adequate healthcare to sustain this life. Women have lost faith in the ability of their government to protect them and solely rely on NGOs and themselves to provide the necessities to sustain themselves throughout pregnancy. The root of this issue is that women were displaced due to the threat against their security and peace within their home regions. This provides a complete sense of instability throughout the country and leads to distrust among the Nigerian population on the part of their government to rectify issues that affect such large portions of the country. The government must intervene to aid these pregnant women and in the process, regain the trust of their citizens.