Essential Health Products Should Never Become Luxury Items
A Public Health Advocacy by Maria Celina Onwughalu Foundation (MCOF)
The Maria Celina Onwughalu Foundation (MCOF) is calling for urgent attention to the rising cost of sanitary pads, condoms, and inhalers in Nigeria.
These are not luxury products. They are everyday essentials connected to health, dignity, safety, and survival. Yet, they are slowly becoming too expensive for ordinary Nigerians, especially students, low income earners, young girls, and struggling families.
At MCOF, we believe no girl should have to use old clothes, tissue paper, or unsafe materials during her menstrual cycle simply because she cannot afford sanitary pads. Sadly, this is still the reality for many girls today. What should be a basic hygiene product is gradually becoming inaccessible, exposing many young girls to infections, discomfort, embarrassment, and long term health complications.
We are also deeply concerned about the cost of condoms. Condoms remain one of the simplest and most accessible ways to prevent sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies. When these products become expensive, many people are pushed toward unsafe decisions, and the consequences eventually affect families, communities, and the healthcare system as a whole.
The situation with inhalers is even more painful. For asthma patients, an inhaler is not a convenience. It is survival. Nobody should struggle to breathe because the medication they need has become unaffordable.
What makes this crisis more dangerous is how easily society is beginning to normalise it. Once products become associated with celebrity branding, social status, or “premium quality,” prices continue to rise and companies follow the same pattern. In the end, the people who suffer the most are ordinary citizens trying to survive daily economic hardship.
While many NGOs and charitable organisations continue to distribute sanitary pads and healthcare supplies to schools and communities, temporary donations alone cannot solve this problem. Once the children finish using the few products they received, many of them return immediately to the same dangerous conditions they were rescued from.
The problem is bigger than occasional outreach programs. It requires deliberate action and serious public policy.
This is why the Maria Celina Onwughalu Foundation is calling on the Federal Government, consumer protection agencies, and the Ministry of Health to rise to their responsibilities and protect Nigerians from the growing inaccessibility of essential healthcare products.
There must be stronger regulation on pricing, better support for local production, reduced costs of distribution, and proper subsidies that make sanitary pads, condoms, and inhalers affordable for the average Nigerian.
Health should never become a privilege for only those who can afford expensive living. Basic healthcare products should remain accessible to every citizen regardless of social class or income level.
Nigeria does not need temporary sympathy on this issue. What Nigerians need is a lasting solution.
A total end must be put to this problem.