Buhari’s wife seeks improved healthcare for women, children

The First lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari has enjoined wives of southwest governors to address issues of maternal and child mortality in their states.This, she said, was necessary to reduce the high rate of deaths among women and children.She made the call in Abeokuta, at a three-day training workshop for South West region.

The theme of the workshop was: “Advocacy for reproductive maternal newborn child, adolescent and nutrition (RMNCAH-N).”She warned that things would get worse, if issues of maternal mortality and child morbidity remain unattended to.

The wife of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Gimbiya Dogara, represented the First Lady.She explained that the event was in fulfillment of her promise during the stakeholder’s meeting, held last October in Abuja, to support the governor wives to facilitate the process of RMBCAH-N.

According to her: “We cannot leave out the uniqueness and peculiarity of each population, that is why we have chosen to come down to the zones, where we can find more common grounds to address maternal and child mortality.”Applauding the renewed commitment of the governors’ wives to champion RMNCAH-N in their states, she disclosed that southwest was the third zone for the training.She said that the northwest and north central had been covered towards the end of last year.

The wife of the Governor of Ogun State, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun explained that the advocacy training was part of Mrs Buhari’s Future Assured Initiative.Amosun stressed that no woman should die in the process of childbirth, neither should any child die in the process of coming to life.

She enjoined all stakeholders to strive towards attaining the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goal 3, to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 percent.She commended the governors’ wives for their support and active participation in the reproductive maternal, newborn child adolescent health and nutrition advocacy in their various states.