Wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, has said that the federal government’s zero-tolerance declaration on maternal deaths in the country has paid off, pointing out that the welfare of women and children was currently being given priority attention by President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
Mrs Buhari stated this on Thursday in Lagos while speaking at the official launch of the 149- Bed Maternal and Child Center located in Alimosho area of the state, saying the need to consolidate informed why the healthcare facilities were currently being replicated across the country.
The First Lady of Nigeria, who was represented by her Senior Special Assistant on Administration Dr. (Mrs.) Hajo Sani, described the initiative as a strategic intervention between the Federal and Lagos State governments in the nation’s health sector, even as she noted her own efforts at complementing the government in the same direction.
“In order to complement what the government is doing and to encourage others, I have decided to construct maternity complexes across the country.
“The essence of this is to ensure that women receive attentions while they are pregnant when they deliver their babies in the most hygienic environment.
“I have already constructed and furnished two maternity complexes in Daura in Katsina State as well as in Yola in Adamawa State, hundreds of women are benefiting from the facilities every week and I am, therefore, happy that women will benefit from the facility being commissioned today. I, therefore, encourage the women in Alimosho and it’s environ to put the landmark project to good use,” she said.
Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in his remark, said the state government does not pay lip service to the issue of quality healthcare delivery in the state, expressing the belief that the facility sited in the biggest local government in the country would serve the population very well.
“For us as a government, what we are also doing here falls in tandem with our policy thrust which we have christened the T.H.E.M.E.S agenda. We commission this kind of facilities in series. Just three weeks ago we commissioned a 110 Healthcare facility in Eti-Osa now we are here. It is heartwarming and befitting,” he said.
This was just as he reiterated the commitment of his administration to work on the various indices aimed at taking people out of poverty.
Earlier, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs), Princess Adejoke Orelope- Adefulire, said the facility would help to reduce maternal and infant mortality and morbidity rate and ensure general improvement in all maternal and child health indices in Alimosho Local Government Area.
She added that the ultra-modern facility which is part of the mandate of ensuring the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals would complement the existing Maternal and Child Centre as a secondary referral centre to the primary Health Care centres and private hospitals.
In his address, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr Akin Abayomi, said the commissioning was another milestone in the state’s efforts towards improving the health indices of its citizenry.
“By commissioning this second Maternal and Child Centre at Alimosho Local Government which was built by the Federal Government to aid the attainment of our overall goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage for the good of the people of Lagos and also reduce to the barest minimum the unacceptably high morbidities and mortalities in our pregnant women and children especially the under-five children.
“While we are declaring zero tolerance on potholes and power outages, it is only natural that we also declare zero-tolerance on unnecessary deaths in our pregnant mothers and children.
“As one matriarch told me the other day, and I quote, ‘I don’t see why I should lose my life as a woman in an effort to bring forth the lives of my children.’ So we take these sentiments like this seriously, after all, we are in the modern age of conventional and complementary medicine,” the commissioner said.
