The meeting was supposed to last an hour. It ran past three. Once the first trader spoke about her sister, the room did not stop.
The same story came back in different forms. A health centre that opens when there is a nurse and stays shut when there is not. A delivery that had to be made at home because the journey to a working hospital was too far and too expensive. Medicine bought from a table by the roadside because there was nowhere else to buy it.
Insurance almost nobody had
Health insurance came up again and again. Almost nobody in the room had it. Most people assumed it was for civil servants and company staff, not for a woman selling pepper in the market or a man repairing generators.
That assumption is out of date. The National Health Insurance Authority, which replaced the old National Health Insurance Scheme, is meant to widen coverage to exactly these workers. The mechanism exists. What has been missing in Ogun East is anybody in Abuja pushing for it to actually reach here.
What went into the manifesto
Four commitments came out of that afternoon and others like it. Federal support for the rehabilitation, equipment, and effective operation of primary health centres across Ogun East. A bill guaranteeing maternal and child health funding for rural and riverine communities. A federal medical outreach programme aimed at the communities that have been left out. And work with the National Health Insurance Authority to widen affordable cover to market women, artisans, and self-employed people across the district.
None of this is charity. These are women who pay tax, run businesses, and keep their families standing. What they have not had is a federal representative who treated their health as federal business.