50 © 2021 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. CITIZENS' PARTICIPATION AND PRIMARY HEALTHCARE POLICY IMPLEMENTATION IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA: AN EMPIRICAL AND SYSTEMS ENQUIRY Adeola I. Oyeyemi 1+ Daniel E. Gberevbie 2 Jide Ibietan 3 1,2,3 Department of Political Science and International Relations Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. (+ Corresponding author) ABSTRACT Article History Received: 13 October 2020 Revised: 21 December 2020 Accepted: 7 January 2021 Published: 2 February 2021 Keywords Citizens’ participation Health policy Integrated approach Nigeria Ogun State Policy implementation Primary healthcare SDG3. Health in its complete state of wellbeing is of utmost importance in the achievement, development and sustainability of societal goals, as envisioned in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, and joint efforts are required for its attainment. Studies have focused on the importance of citizen participation in diverse fields, including health care, but little attention has been paid to this in developing countries’ primary healthcare (PHC) systems, such as Nigeria. Thus, this paper seeks to ascertain the relationship between citizens’ participation and primary healthcare policy implementation challenges in Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted with a multi-stage sampling technique used to select 500 Ogun State citizens. Primary data were analyzed using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation to ascertain the relationship between the variables. Findings show that there is a significant positive and strong relationship between citizens’ participation and policy implementation (R-value: 0.696; p-value: 0.000), but there is no significant relationship between citizens’ participation challenges and PHC policy implementation ( R-value: - 0.105; p-value: 0.120). The study is premised on the political system theory that explains citizens’ participation with a holistic and integrated approach of involvement, empowerment and accountability in the healthcare system. The study, therefore, recommends an integrated decision-making process that is bottom-up, which would support a sustainable healthcare system with enlightened citizens’ input towards the actualization of an effective PHC system. Contribution/Originality: This study contributes to existing literature by providing a collaborative approach in PHC policy implementation, which is a radical departure from the stereotypical nuances and bifurcation of the top-down model, which characterizes parts of the policy process (formulation and implementation) in Nigeria. 1. INTRODUCTION Ensuring the health and well-being of all citizens through policies that are well-formulated and implemented in a bid to reduce, prevent and eliminate health issues rampaging the country, is a major responsibility of governments (Bath & Wakerman, 2015; Iyanda & Akinyemi, 2017; World Health Organization, 2017). This is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3. Achieving sustainable development nationwide is dependent on the health of the citizens because a healthy individual is economically and socially active and consistently contributes to the nation’s prosperity. Furthermore, it is critical to the achievement of universal health coverage that ensures access, quality, affordability of health, safety and availability of medications for all. These are deficient Humanities and Social Sciences Letters 2021 Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 50-57. ISSN(e): 2312-4318 ISSN(p): 2312-5659 DOI: 10.18488/journal.73.2021.91.50.57 © 2021 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved.