Dr. Ejike Oji is the Chairman of the Association of the Advancement of the Family Planning (AAFP). In this interview with OBINNA ODOH, he discusses the outcome of National Conference on Family Planning, including how to explore success stories and challenges faced in the advancement of Family Planning in Nigeria.

 

What is the current situation with the use of family planning in Nigeria?

 

What we realise is that with the little investment that we have made so far in family planning, FP, we have not done so much or achieved much. We have only moved to 14 per cent instead of 10 per cent.

 

The key issues that were highlighted are inadequate funding. In year 2012, Nigeria participated in conference called Family Planning, FP2020 where the world agreed that by 2020 additional FP services.

 

On the side of Nigeria, the federal government agreed that they are going to put $3 million dollars every year for family planning commodities and also $8.3 million dollars for reproductive health technologies in the budget line.

 

So far, Nigeria has not been doing well in releasing the money. The first year, they released $1 million dollar, the second year $2 million dollars and the third year $1 million dollar.

 

So, we reiterated it in this meeting and the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole was there too. He promised that in this fiscal year (2017 Budget) that they will increase it to $4 million dollars.

 

Later on, the Chairman, House Committee on Health, Chika Chike Okafor affirmed what the minister said. Furthermore, Okafor said that they will make sure that they appropriate $4 million dollars for FP commodities in 2017 fiscal year.

 

Not only that, he claimed that the National Assembly will make sure that the money is released on time and used properly.

 

Previous years under review

 

Were those money released used judiciously?

 

That’s what we don’t know whether it was actually used but we know it was released but the use is what we are not sure of because the problem is not just buying the commodities.

 

There is another components in family planning services. The use of consumables, supplied to make the services complete. Even though the federal government is paying for those commodities, they are not paying for the logistics.

 

So, it is the responsibility of the states and local governments to do that, i.e pay for logistics. Most states are not doing that and that is why we are also asking the federal government to do that because what is worth doing is worth doing well. Also, federal government should make sure that it provides money for the logistics.

 

Similarly, there was a session on resource mobilisation, a Global Fund session aimed to get more international donors to support family planning commodity purchase. We also looked at local resource of getting money, too.

 

Do you have local sponsors that are funding family planning in Nigeria?

 

Federal Government commits some money but for individuals, organisations and private institutions we are trying to mobilise them because some international donors are withdrawing support currently.

 

Sir, for people that may not know, is Family Planning about population control?

 

No! What we are saying is that FP is so key in terms of child’s survival and women’s health. What we are saying is that women should be able to space their children appropriately, limit the number of children they want and also not start their reproductive health production too early.

 

Research shows that the greater number of women that died during child birth is below 18 years. In fact they have the second highest number of deaths from pregnancy and pregnancy related cases.

 

About 70 per cent are young women bellow the age of 18. That is, we shouldn’t allow our children to start having babies until they are more than 18 years.

 

What is the percentage of women who die as a result of pregnancy or pregnancy related cases in Nigeria?

 

Yes, now 576 deaths per 100,000 life birth and then it translates to about 40,000 women dying every year in Nigeria. The country with the highest number of death is India.

 

Remember India’s population is about 1.2 billion but we are just about 183 million people. You can see the gross disparity and that is why we are saying people should embrace the use of FP.

 

If you look at the resource we have, the doctors-patients ratio and the nurses-patients ratio, we are even better than most countries that are doing better than us. So, what is the issue? So that is one of the things we looked at during the meeting and the key highlights came, of course – lack of proper funding and inefficient use of the resources we have.

 

And then also the barriers that are making women not to take services. Even though there is very high unmet needs like women wanting to access services but they are not getting it.

 

What are some of those barriers?

 

Some of the barriers! The most important barriers that we have seen are misconceptions. People feel that when they take family planning they won’t be able to have babies again or that something will happen to them.

 

The other one is societal norms like being religious and traditional beliefs. Those are some of the major barriers and that is why we centred the interfaith in discussing that.

 

They also agreed that they will go back home to make sure that they talk to their legislators and governors one on one to make sure that they fund family planning.

 

We have a lot about issues like negative reaction of family planning use in some women. For instance some women after taking will experience protruding tummy. What do you think is responsible for that?

 

Family planning is such medical services that are personal. What is good for you might not be good for the next person and that is why we are saying that practitioners must be properly trained to provide services.

 

You shouldn’t just go somewhere to access family planning. You must be properly counselled. The reason is that what is good for you might not be good for the next person. There are so many methods.

 

It is during the counselling that practitioners will identify the one that is good for each person. And give that one that is specifically for you and you won’t have any problem.

 

Some complained of not being able to conceive again after stopping to use family planning especially when they want to start having babies, why?

 

None of the family planning methods give you long term infertility once you stopped. In fact once you stop it you will return to full fertility.

 

Read more at https://newtelegraphonline.com/state-governments-not-paying-family-plann...