State violence and health in Nigeria

Discussions of health in Nigeria are often restricted to morbidity and mortality statistics, the political economic character and causes of which hardly enter the equation. Yet, morbidity and mortality indices exist within, and reflect, a specific political economic reality, including the State apparatus. It is contended here that beyond overseeing the political economy within which it exists, the State in Nigeria produces and promotes ill health and death through economic policies which invariably influence conditions of material existence and more overtly, through active violence. Specific instances of the latter are discussed.