Public Health Activism and the Role of Civil Society in Good Governance: Some Reflections on the Nigerian Experience

Abstract

This paper examines public health activism and the role of civil society in good governance in Nigeria. Using historical method spiced with empirical observation, the paper attempt to establish that public health activism by civil society in the areas of tobacco smoking control, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Ebola Virus Disease impacted positively in engineering good governance by public health policy actors in Nigeria. The good governance catalyzed by civil society activism in the public health sector contributed to significant improvement in public health safety and the effective management of epidemics and health emergencies as evidenced in the cases of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and the containment of Ebola Virus Disease. Based on these findings, the paper concludes that civil society activism, if properly harnessed, holds the key to public accountability and good governance in Nigeria, and by extension, Africa’s emerging democracies.