President Bola Tinubu has moved to surgically restructure the governance of Nigeria’s federal health institutions, transmitting 24 separate bills to the Senate in a bid to dismantle what the Presidency terms "over-bloated" administrative boards.

The legislative package, which landed on the desk of Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Tuesday, represents one of the most significant overhauls of the health sector’s legal framework in decades. Citing a comprehensive review by the Attorney-General of the Federation, the President’s directive is clear: the era of large, unwieldy boards draining resources meant for patient care is over.

Streamlining the Bureaucracy

The proposed laws target a wide array of critical institutions, including the National Hospital for Women and Children in Abuja, the National Eye Centre, and the National Ear Care Centre. By amending the establishing acts of these bodies, the Presidency aims to reduce the statutory number of board members, a move projected to save billions of Naira in allowances and administrative costs annually.

"These boards have become patronage mills rather than governance structures," a source within the Ministry of Health confided. "You have teaching hospitals with board memberships rivaling small parliaments. It is unsustainable, and it distracts from the core mandate of saving lives."

• Key Institutions Affects: The reforms sweep across the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
• The Objective: To create leaner, more agile decision-making bodies that can respond faster to public health crises.
• The Review Process: The bills are the product of a collaborative review between the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, subsequently approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

"Efficiency Over Patronage"

In his letter to the Senate, President Tinubu emphasized that the goal is to "improve efficiency, effectiveness, and service delivery." The move aligns with the administration's broader cost-cutting measures, coming on the heels of directives to reduce official convoys and travel delegations. However, the political cost of slashing board seats—often used to reward party loyalists—remains a potent variable.

The bills also introduce forward-looking legislation, such as the Records Officers Registration and Digital Health Bill 2025, signaling a shift towards the digitization of Nigeria’s archaic medical record systems. As the Senate prepares to debate these bills, the focus will likely shift to the specific numbers: how many seats will be cut, and whose political constituencies will lose out?

For the average Nigerian patient navigating a system plagued by strikes and shortages, the boardroom politics matter less than the outcome. If these bills succeed in freeing up funds for drugs and equipment, it will be a victory. If they merely shuffle chairs on the deck, the "national catastrophe" of the health sector will continue unabated.