In addition to improving health care facilities especially in rural areas, the Kano state government has revealed plans to eradicate the menace of VesicoVaginal Fistula (VVF).
The Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, expressed worry over the increase in number of reported VVF cases in the state.
Nkemdili Okeke (not real name) is a secondary school certificate holder who got married in 2011 at the age of 25, to a wealthy businessman in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria.
Five years after marriage, she was yet to conceive. She was subjected to dehumanising treatments by her husband’s family.
Nkemdili’s mother-inlaw suddenly became a thorn in her flesh, daily raining abuses on her, calling her all sorts of names, and even accusing her of being a witch that eats up the babies in her womb.
That’s not all.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has identified early marriage and adolescent pregnancy as some of the socio-economic factors responsible for high rate of maternal and child mortality in Nigeria and other developing African countries.
The UNFPA Executive Director, Professor Babatunde Osetimehin, disclosed this during an advocacy visit to Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai.
President Muhammadu Buhari has decried the poor performance of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, which was introduced by the Obasanjo administration to assist Nigerian workers and their families have access to quality healthcare.
The President spoke when he flagged-off the Primary Health Care revitalization programme in Kuchingoro, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory.
Nigeria is committed to achieving the 36 per cent target in Family Planning (FP) Contraceptive Prevalence by 2018, Director and Head of Reproductive Health Division, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Kayode Afolabi, has said.
Dr Afolabi, who disclosed this in Abuja at the FP Watch final dissemination event, said notwithstanding this year’s prevalence rate of 16 per cent, the 2018 target of 36 per cent is achievable as Nigeria forms part of the global movement on Family Planning-FP 2020.
The Federal Government’s advocacy on the use of contraceptive among sexually active women in Nigeria for the prevention of unwanted pregnancy and abortion is beginning to yield positive results as more women are recorded to be embracing the method.
Compiled data from the 2015 report of the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, on health shows that contraceptive use among sexually active women of child bearing age increased by seven per cent compared to 2014.
Every woman shivers in fear when she is diagnosed with fibroid tumour. But experts say there is little to fear. Research shows that in more than 99 percent of fibroid cases, the tumours are benign (non-cancerous).
The wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, has reaffirmed commitment to use her NGO, the ‘Future Assured initiatives,” to mobilise resources to improve the lives of women and children in Nigeria.
A girl who goes to school and stays in school till about 18, according to Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), “is a better mother than a girl who has a child at 10.” Osotimehin, a former Health Minister in Nigeria, spoke last week when he took his public enlightenment campaign against child marriage to Kano “so that the age for marriage is shifted at least to 18.” He found a listening ear in Governor Umar Abdullahi Ganduje.
Latest survey assessment the availability of family planning commodities across Nigeria has found that for every one public health facility able to provide family planning service, three private outlets do the same.
The survey suggests government distribution of family planning commodities and services could be better done through private outlets.
The FPWatch survey of more than 2500 outlets found private sector accounted for 86% of outlets stocking contraceptives or providing services in Nigeria.
