Life Expectancy In Nigeria

The ability to enjoy a long life is a fundamental aspect of human development. Despite the substantial gains in longevity, survival prospect in Nigeria continues to lag far behind other countries. Healthcare service delivery is among the major indicators for measuring development of a country’s economy; for the reason that “a healthy nation is a wealthy nation.” However, despite the importance of health to the development of a nation. National health indicators in Nigeria are possibly among the lowest in the world for almost all measurable indices (WHO, 2012; Jamo, 2013). For instance, life expectancy measures overall quality of life in a country and summarizes the mortality of all ages. It can also be thought of as indicating the potential

The second democratic regime as represented by regime type 11 in the table above which started in 1999 and lasted to 2013 as the study specified gained improvement in life expectancy in Nigeria due to some health reforms and policies. For example, in 1999 life expectancy stood at 47.07 and in 2013, it has improved to 52.82 as the table above indicates. Arguably, this shows that democratic regime has a better impact on health service delivery when compared to its military regime counterpart. The figure and analysis above dose not in anyway hold a view that life expectancy in Nigeria is encouraging but the analysis shows that democratic regime is better at health service delivery than military regime. Put differently, while maternal mortality rate Nigeria was 800 deaths per 100,000 in the 1988 according to UNICEF Report, the World Bank figure was 1500. In her 2014 Report, the maternal mortality rate in rise stands at 1,100 deaths per 100,000. (WHO, 2012). The statistics shows that in a country like Nigeria with a population 150 million, 53,000 women die from pregnancy related complications every

It is not about making correct decisions, but about the best possible process for making those decisions. Thus, good governance is accountable, good governance is transparent, it follows the rule of law, it is responsive, it is effective and efficient and more importantly, it is participatory. Kofi Anan (1998) succinctly argued that good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting economic development (Adeosun 2012:4). Since independence, Nigeria has struggled to record progress in the area of good governance. There was a death of good governance throughout the period of military regime in Nigeria. During this period that lasted over two decades, Nigeria witnessed a high level of subversion of rule of law, lack of accountability and transparency, military dictators were not responsive to the plight of the masses, public officials are not efficient and effective and more importantly, the masses did not participate in the decision-making process. This scenario created economic backwardness throughout the military regime. Nigeria return to democratic governance gave strong hope and promise as regards to good governance due to strong synergy democratic regimes have with good governance. After over decade of democratic practice in Nigeria, the hope and promises seems to have eluded Nigerians because a critical look at the Mo Ibrahim Governance