By Joyce Ekeh
As Nigeria’s burden of chronic and non-communicable diseases continues to rise, health experts at the third D’Bio Wellness and Self-Care Summit have challenged Nigerians to take greater responsibility for preventing illness, detecting health risks early and using medicines safely.
The experts said Nigeria could no longer depend largely on hospitals to manage diseases that could be prevented or better controlled through healthier lifestyles, early screening and informed self-care.
They called for a shift from a hospital-centred model of “sickness care” to a prevention-driven system in which individuals, families, healthcare professionals, communities and government share responsibility for keeping Nigerians healthy.
Delivering the keynote address at the summit in Lagos, Pharm. Olayinka Subair said the growing pressure on the country’s healthcare system made self-care an urgent national health strategy.
According to him, Nigerians must move from waiting until they become sick before seeking help to taking deliberate steps to prevent disease in the first place.
“We are going to flip the discussion today from the hospital to you, to me, and focus on how we help ourselves,” Subair said.
He identified nutrition, physical activity, mental health, rational use of medicines and risk avoidance as the five foundations of self-care.
“What you eat, how you move, how you manage stress, how you use drugs, supplements and services wisely, and how you avoid risks like smoking, unsafe practices or skipping screening” are central to staying healthy, he said.
Subair said making self-care a bigger part of Nigeria’s health strategy could reduce preventable complications, lower treatment costs for families and ease pressure on overstretched healthcare facilities.
“An approach that empowers people, reduces preventable complications and eases the burden on healthcare services is critical. When we support self-care intelligently, we improve outcomes, reduce the cost of treatment and strengthen the community,” he said.
He also urged government to make healthy choices easier and more affordable for Nigerians, including policies that would discourage excessive sugar consumption while improving access to fruits and vegetables.
“Let’s begin to tax sugar, increase the tax of sugar so that people will be forced to use less of it. Subsidise fruits and vegetables for people,” he said.
On physical activity, Subair urged Nigerians to incorporate movement into their daily routines, recommending at least 30 minutes of exercise five days a week.
“Eat to prevent, and move to prevent,” he said.
He also placed mental wellbeing at the heart of the self-care campaign, describing a healthy mind as essential to sustaining other healthy behaviours.
“A healthy mind is the engine of all other self-care,” he said.
Subair called for mental health to be integrated into school and workplace programmes and urged faith and community leaders to recognise when individuals require professional mental healthcare rather than attributing every mental health challenge to spiritual causes.
“Stress is a major cause of disease and sicknesses,” he said.
Beyond lifestyle, he said safe and rational use of medicines must remain central to self-care, warning against inappropriate use of antibiotics and other medicines.
He urged pharmacists to strengthen their role as accessible health professionals by counselling Nigerians on appropriate use of over-the-counter medicines and helping them monitor basic health indicators such as blood pressure and blood glucose.
“We are counsellors. We help you choose your OTC carefully, avoid antibiotic misuse, and we teach you to monitor vital things like your blood pressure, your blood glucose,” he said.
He advocated greater recognition of pharmacies as part of the primary healthcare system, saying their accessibility placed them in a strong position to provide health education, early intervention and referral.
“Clinical care has a place, but not the centre. Your role as healthcare professional is to enable self-care,” Subair said.
He said doctors, nurses, pharmacists and community health workers must work together to equip Nigerians with the knowledge and support needed to prevent disease, adhere to treatment and seek professional care when necessary.
“Hospitals will become for emergency and the community will be for prevention,” he said.
The convener of the summit, Dr. Monica Hemben Eimunjeze, said the growing burden of conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol made self-care increasingly important.
She, however, stressed that self-care should not be interpreted as managing serious illnesses without professional medical assistance.
“Self-care is important for everybody. It helps us to prevent disease, to promote wellness and to make sure that we intentionally do those things that will help us have positive health outcomes,” Eimunjeze said.
She urged Nigerians to become more deliberate about what they eat, physical activity and adherence to prescribed medicines.
“You have to be intentional. You have to be deliberate. You have to embrace those things that will help you — what you eat, how much you eat, whether you are exercising and whether you are compliant with your medications,” she said.
However, President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN, Pharm. Tanko Ayuba, warned that the growing interest in self-care could expose Nigerians to another health risk if they relied on unverified information, fake testimonials and counterfeit medicines.
Ayuba particularly cautioned against health products promoted through social media, saying sophisticated digital tools were increasingly being used to make false medical claims appear credible.
“Most of the social media products are misleading. Very misleading,” he said.
He alleged that artificial intelligence was being used to manipulate the identities and voices of prominent Nigerians to promote purported treatments.
“What they do, the dangerous thing is that they will get a prominent Nigerian and use AI to put words in his mouth,” Ayuba said.
He urged Nigerians to question dramatic health claims and testimonials encountered online.
“We should all be alert. And whenever you see something, we should not be gullible. There are some things we say: if it’s too good to be true, then it is too good to be true,” he said.
Ayuba also warned that counterfeit medicines could be difficult for untrained consumers to distinguish from genuine products, stressing the importance of obtaining medicines through legitimate distribution channels.
“They clone them. But if we get our distribution system right, you can pick it from the point of where you are buying the drug,” he said.
He clarified that while PSN is the professional body for pharmacists, regulation and enforcement in the pharmacy sector are the responsibility of the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, PCN.
The summit ended with a call for Nigerians to make prevention and responsible self-care part of everyday life, while government and health professionals create an enabling environment for healthier choices.
The experts said such a shift would help Nigeria confront its rising disease burden from the community upward — making prevention, rather than treatment after illness, the first line of defence.
