In a public presentation of a report on government spending on public health institutions in Kano State, Nigeria, by Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), titled; ‘Towering Hopes and Aborted Dreams: Assessing the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Government Spending on Maternal, New-born and Child Healthcare in Kano State’ brought out revealing facts, emotions, pains among the gathering of women and men at the Chilla Luxury Suites venue of the event on Saturday, February 22, 2020. The research work was done by some experts at CHRICED and outside, sourced by the organization to look into how the spending of funds on maternal care affects the women and new born. It is a report many appreciated and recommended for our Governments health institutions both at the Centre, States and Local Councils to embrace, study and make use of the solutions therein to save lives.
One of the speakers, Alhaji Musa Garba, the Chairperson of the Advocacy Committee on Maternal Health and former Permanent Secretary Ministry of Information, Kano State, expressed anger at the way men treat women generally and during pregnancy. They deny their wives affection and care, then why marry her he queried? They hardly assist the woman in home chores, allow their wives go through stress why carrying their babies. Since we (men) enjoy sex, he continued, let us also enjoy caring for the women who give us this sex. ‘These women are our mothers, sisters, daughters, we should show them love and care, not only when we are on top of them moaning and making empty promises.’ Marriage is sweet when the man and woman understand, and are there for themselves, know how to play the game and carry themselves along. There cannot be sweet marriage when there is no romance, and romance includes showing care, providing a shoulder, giving the woman a helping hand, identifying with your partner at every moment. Any man who treats the wife with levity, especially when she is pregnant, such a man is certainly not man enough and requires his head re-examined.
Hajia Sa’adatu Maldi, executive director WRAPA, who chaired the occasion, in her remarks argued that men must understand the women. There is no time the women are advocating for equality with men but rather, women must be treated with respect and dignity as they are also human beings created by God. She emphasized that all the men gathered in the hall are products of women, men love their mothers, daughters, sisters, can die protecting them but disappointingly they cannot give such measure of sacrifice to their wives.
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The keynote speaker, Amina Salihu, Ph.D., a women’s rights advocate, development worker, who titled her paper; ‘A Haermorrhaging Nation: Tackling the Menace of Maternal and Child Deaths in Nigeria’, made, no doubt, a wonderful presentation that charged participants at the fully occupied hall. She began by positing that part of the problem is lack of investment from the authorities concerning development issues, “with a little investment many lives would have been saved in this country.” She declared that from research around the globe presently, ‘Nigeria is the most unsafe place to be a woman.’ And that is enough to give the men, leaders in Nigeria headache. The decision to seek for medical care, even that which is strictly for women, is in the hands of men, very unfortunate. There is no dignity for our women in the hospitals, they just have to accept their faith.
The Nigerian masses, groups such as CHRICED must not rest on their oars but continue in their quest for sensitization and advocacy in achieving their goal, as they are powerful tools in demanding for change. They must push forward in their demand for openness, transparency and accountability, these are all ingredients of saving a life. When we put governments on their toes, they have no other choice but to perform creditably to our advantage, we may be far from there but we will get there. The health seeking behavior of a people must be factored into solutions. It is solution that tackles problem and the moment solutions are discovered, problems disappear.
Education is still the root of the change we seek. Our people, both literate and illiterate need to be educated, exposed, we need to bring light to their mind and heart. There should be emphasis on girl-child education, that would help them with basic self-care and awareness that would require them seek medical attention when the need arises. When married they would take proper care of themselves, understand the value of child spacing and be responsible mothers and partners.
Dr. Salihu accused our leaders of deliberately ignoring our institutions for it to suffer decay and rot. Part of the problem we have at our public health care institutions is because our public servants do not patronize them. Not until our public servants begin to use our public institutions, it is not going to get better. We can only take proper care of something we are part of, it is just a simple fact of life. She advised the coming together of the traditional and orthodox medicine as both will gain from either side. There are several countries still patronizing their traditional health methods and we have a responsibility to promote this in Nigeria.
She encouraged CHRICED to work together with government, health institutions and other interested groups to stem the hemorrhage. She praised the group on this research and public presentation of its findings to help tackle the menace of maternal and child deaths in Nigeria.
*** Written by Uzodinma Nwaogbe / 0708.438.1845.
