FOR Nigeria to attain the millennium Goal in health and reverse the prevalent high mortality rate amongst mother and child, it must adopt with immediate dispatch, the Ondo State Abiye maternal health program.
This was the verdict of health experts from around the globe, including the World Bank and representatives from the United States government who spoke in Washington DC during a presentation by Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko on his health program in the American capital city on Thursday.
Mimiko, whose innovative mother and child health model tagged Abiye (safe Motherhood) had received world acclaims and had been dubbed as a benchmark for Nigeria and a template for Africa by international organizations such as the World Health Organization and the World Bank Dr Mimiko was the guest of the prestigious Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC where he presented a paper on the Abiye model.
Experts in maternal health who were enthralled by Governor Mimiko’s achievements in the health sector, for which he has reversed the hitherto high rate of maternal and child mortality in the state to become the best-managed program by any government in Nigeria, recommended it for Nigeria if it must achieved the Millennium health goal and be deemed serious in the health sector.
They lamented a situation in which mere lip services were being paid to healthcare delivery by successive administrations as well as the low level performance of some of the nation’s program such as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) which they put at an abysmally low performance ration of below 5%.
Speakers at the event including Jennifer Cooke, CSIS Director, Africa Program, Dinesh Nair, Senior Health Specialist at the World Bank and Mohammad Murtala Mai, Senior Technical Advisor, Pathfinder International rued the sad fact that Nigeria today remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for a woman to give birth; they however enthused that there were signs of growing opportunities in the nation currently.
While pointing to the fact that in recent years, the federal government had devoted greater policy attention and resources to maternal health than previously, they noted that a handful of state governments were also beginning to tackle the challenge in a strategic and comprehensive way.
They noted that in Ondo State, the Abiye (Safe Motherhood) program was winning praises as one such promising models, creating incentives for expectant mothers to seek care and for health providers to deliver quality services. They equally commended the efforts of the State Government under Dr Mimiko for his pioneering initiatives and zeal in Ondo state at reducing maternal and child mortality.
Speaking with reporters after the presentation which was graced by the Nigeria Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency, Ade Adefuye who led a large retinue of Nigerians in the United States to the occasions as well as public health experts, policymakers, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations, Dr Mimiko expressed appreciation that the efforts at arresting the high rate of mortality prevalent amongst mother and child in Ondo State had received so much commendations from far and wide.
According to him, pregnant women are particularly vulnerable, thus it was the responsibility of government to put in place mechanisms that would ensure that health care was universally accessible for them
“The peculiarity for a pregnant woman is that when she needs help, she needs it and it is critical as a mere three to ten minutes might make difference whether she lives or die.
“So there must be a framework, a policy in place. There must be a service machinery in motion that would address the emergency needs of pregnant women and that is why we have in the last four years invested a lot of thought and resources on safe motherhood in Ondo State,‘‘ he stated.
Mimiko further noted that our mothers deserved special attention owing to their pivotal role in nation building; a realisation which he disclosed, had made him to be putting in place projects that would impact positively on their lives in Ondo State.
“If we help our mothers, we are helping ourselves; we are helping our State and our country. Because most of them are practically the bread winners of their families; our mothers are nation builders and we cannot allow them to die when we can reverse the trend; that is what we have been doing in Ondo State and we shall continue to do it, “he added.