UNICEF Warns: Lack of Medical Oxygen Denies Nigerian Children Their Right to Survival

A Fundamental Right Under Threat

The right to life, survival, and development is guaranteed under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Nigeria’s Child Rights Act. It is also reinforced by the right to the highest attainable standard of health.

When medical oxygen is unavailable, inaccessible, or unreliable, these rights are effectively denied.

Oxygen therapy is not a luxury intervention. It is considered an essential medicine by the World Health Organization. For children suffering from pneumonia, sepsis, birth asphyxia, asthma complications, and other severe conditions, oxygen is often the difference between recovery and death.

When a child dies because oxygen equipment is faulty, unavailable, or unaffordable, a preventable rights violation has occurred.

How the Protection Gap Emerges

Across parts of Nigeria, oxygen supply systems remain uneven. In some facilities, oxygen plants have been installed. In others, cylinders are scarce or power supply is unreliable. Maintenance systems are often weak. Rural health centres are especially vulnerable.

These gaps create silent risks.

Children from low-income families are disproportionately affected. When hospitals lack oxygen, transfers to better-equipped facilities may be delayed. In remote areas, such transfers may not be possible at all.

As a result, survival outcomes are determined not by medical need alone, but by geography, poverty, and infrastructure.

This situation undermines the principle of non-discrimination, another core child rights standard.

Why This Is a Safeguarding Issue

Child safeguarding extends beyond protection from violence and abuse. It includes protection from preventable harm caused by systemic neglect.

When health systems fail to provide essential care, children are left exposed to avoidable suffering. Untreated hypoxia can lead not only to death but also to long-term developmental complications. Brain injury, learning difficulties, and chronic health problems may follow.

In this context, strengthening oxygen access becomes an act of safeguarding.

Preventive health systems are required to protect children before harm occurs. Emergency responses alone are not sufficient.

Efforts Toward Restoration

Positive steps have been reported. Oxygen plants have been expanded. Liquid oxygen systems have been introduced in several sites. Solar-powered solutions have been deployed to address unstable electricity supply.

The National Strategy for the Scale-Up of Medical Oxygen (2023–2027) has also been launched to strengthen nationwide access.

However, sustainability remains critical. Equipment must be maintained. Supply chains must be secured. Health workers must be trained. State-level ownership must be strengthened.

Most importantly, children must be deliberately included in oxygen planning. Pediatric needs differ from adult care. Equipment sizing, dosage protocols, and monitoring systems must reflect this reality.

Restoring the Child’s Right to Survival

To fully restore the right to health and survival, several measures are required:

• Oxygen access must be treated as a core component of primary healthcare, not an emergency add-on.

• Budget allocations must prioritise oxygen infrastructure and maintenance.

• Rural and conflict-affected areas must be specifically targeted to reduce inequality.

• Monitoring systems must track pediatric oxygen availability and outcomes.

• Accountability frameworks must be strengthened to ensure implementation.

When oxygen is consistently available, accessible, and affordable, a child’s right to survival is protected.

The call made in Abuja is therefore more than a technical recommendation. It is a reminder that child rights are not abstract commitments. They are obligations that must be fulfilled through functioning systems.

For Nigeria’s children, the steady flow of oxygen represents more than medical support. It represents the fulfilment of a basic promise: that every child will be given a fair chance to breathe, to survive, and to grow.