Maternal Child Health: Women in Kaduna Community Gets Sensitization

A group under the auspices of Amana Hope and Care Initiative, (AHCI), on Wednesday sensitized women in Kurmin Mashi, Kaduna South Local Government Area on Maternal child health and Covid-19.

Speaking during the event, Chief Executive Officer, of AHCI, Farida Abubakar, said the event is aimed at addressing maternal and child healthcare; identify challenges faced by pregnant women, and why they fail to access antenatal care during and after delivery.

According to her, the organization realized that one of the major causes of death during child birth in women is their failure to attend antenatal care during pregnancy.

She added that ignorance has been identified as a challenge, as some of the women are not sensitized and aware, of how to access antenatal care.

The AHCI boss expressed concern over the attitude of healthcare providers which she said discouraged pregnant women leading to poor turn out of acces to antenatal; and called for attitudinal change on the part of the care providers.

A medical practitioner, Dr. Ja’afar Danbazau Bello, who spoke at the event explained that the event besides sensitizing pregnant women on the importance of accessing ante natal care, is also to educate them on the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to him, Africa is fortunate not to have recorded high number of the pandemic, which he said could probably be due to temperatures.”Yet we do have some spike and we hope with introduction of the vaccines we would see a downward trend in the continent,” he added.

Dr. Bello said that it was important to inform the general public on how to protect or prevent the spread of the disease, and that was the essence of the event.

A Deputy Director in the Kaduna State HIV/AIDS Control Agency, Ramatu Garba, said participants at the programme will serve as ambassadors who are expected to go back to their various communities and sensitized the women on the need to attend antenatal care during and after pregnancy.

She said after 2 months, the organization will return to the venue to see the impact of today’s programme if there is increase in the number of its antenatal attendance; pointing out that this is the strategy the organization will apply to other Local Government Areas.

Also, the Sarkin SabonLayi, Kurmin Mashi, Alhaji Rabo Abdullahi, commended the organizers of the event, urging the participants to carry what they have benefitted to other women in their various communities. 

A participant, Mrs Blessing Ibe, commended the organzers and said the programme has increased her knowledge in Covid-19 and it protocols. She urged other pregnant women to avail themselves for antenatal care to ensure safe delivery.

The In-charge of the Primary Healthcare Centre, Hajiya Turai Bello, thanked AHCI for the sensitization programme.
She said though antenatàl attendance is still an issue at the facility, but she is hopeful after the programme more women will access the facility.

She however lamented over lack of HIV Testing Kits in the facility, and called on the Government to provide this consumables. “We refer our women to Yusuf Dantsoho Memorial Hospital in Tudun-Wada and the 44 Army Reference Hospital for test, and later bring back the result,” she added.

​NLC calls for renewed commitment in war against terrorism, banditry

The Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) has called for a renewed commitment in the war against terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and others vices in the country.

The NLC President, Mr Ayuba Wabba, made the call at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Thursday in Abuja.

Wabba said that the incessant increase in the current state of insecurity in the country had become very worrisome.

He said that the union could not fold its hands and watch Nigerians engage themselves in ethno-religious squabbles stressing that “the dangers are too significant to ignore.

“When the security situation in the country started getting out of hands, we called for a `rejig’ of the leadership of our national security apparatus.

“Now that we finally have new sets of service chiefs in play, we demand that the lapses of the old be identified and corrected.

“We call for a new verve of zeal and commitment in the war against terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, communal unrests and clashes.

“We must never get to that point where we surrender the initiative and paraphernalia of sovereignty to autonomous state actors and to forces of state capture, ” he said.

He said that going forward, the NLC would revisit the resolutions of the last Delegates Conference that called for strong proactive steps by Congress to promote the security of lives and property particularly those of workers and their families.

He also noted that the Nigerian economy had continued to go through the challenge imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic as a result global lockdown of economic and social activities.

“For Nigeria, the story is a tale of mixed fortunes. While the increase in the demand for crude oil has occasioned higher prices in the international commodities market.

“Leaders of our movement, as we all know, we had engaged government each time they went contrary to our agreement and increased the prices of petrol or hiked electricity tariff.

“We had successfully forced the hands of government on those occasions to reverse, suspend or reduce the pains they had brought upon Nigerians.

“While we look ahead to a better year for Nigerian workers, the current economic indicators point otherwise, ‘he said.

Wabba, therefore, called on government to revamp the refineries in the country.

The NLC president also noted that there were some states that were yet to implement the National Minimum Wage of N30,000, signed into law since April 18, 2019.

“Unfortunately, the worse violators of the national minimum wage law are employers in the public sector especially state governors.

“We should consider the use of the court of law to assert the sovereignty of our laws and compliance to same.

“We are also mindful of national minimum pension for our pensioners. Section 173 of Nigeria’s Constitution demands review of minimum pension every four years. This must be dutifully complied with.

“By this time, it is expected that all the states in Nigeria should have concluded negotiations on the consequential increase in salaries owing to the new national minimum wage ” he said.

He urged all state councils yet to reach a negotiated agreement on consequential salary increases of the new national minimum wage of N30,000 to do so as workers were not going to wait forever.

​Open grazing ban: World Igbo Congress demands S-East enforcement team

The World Igbo Congress, WIC, has asked the south-east governors to establish and enforcement team that will help implement its ban on open grazing in the region.

The diaspora Igbo group also suggested that the governors could also transfer the enforcement contract to the Eastern Security Network, ESN, at no cost.

Public Relations Officer of WIC, Basil Onwukwe, said that there was no wrong way of doing the right things, noting that the South-East must support ESN “because volunteering to serve is an immeasurable gift to our nation and they must not be discredited or undermined by anyone.”

Onwukwe said the decision was reached after Igbo Leaders across the world met last weekend under the auspices of the World Igbo Congress hosted by the Board Chairman, Prof Anthony Ejiofor.

WIC applauded steps the governors took to ban open grazing in their states, stating that It was now time to match words with action by establishing an enforcement task force that will prosecute the open grazing offenders and declare the use of bushes for human habitation a crime.

“We want to see Open Grazing Prohibition Task Force that will enforce the anti-grazing rules established in the states.

“There is an existing law against the destruction of farm produce in the ministry of Agriculture and the governors need to enforce the law by establishing the task force. The government may transfer ban enforcement to ESN at no cost.

“It was agreed that the action will eliminate the herders /farmers clashes and bring an end to the use of bushes as a criminal hideout.

“World Igbo leaders also called on the Eastern governors and political leaders in the southeast to embrace the activities of the ESN for the protection of lives and properties of our homelands.

“All hands must be on deck now to ensure that the rate of killings, kidnappings, banditry, armed robbery, and other hideous crimes caused by Fulani Herdsmen in the south-east are reduced drastically,” Onwukwe said.