Family planning has continued to win more converts in Abia State following an intervention programme, Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which targeted the private sector health providers for capacity building.
I am very excited, albeit cautiously, because the Federal Government has vowed to tame that monster called child marriage. But I am cautious because the forces government will confront, even if the willpower is there, to win this battle are monstrous. Some of these forces are within government circles. But win we must because there is nothing good about child marriage. In fact, child marriage is paedophilia dressed in legitimate robes.
The Taraba government on Friday rounded off the polio outbreak response campaign with five successful rounds of immunisation for under-five children.
Gov. Darius Ishaku, who inaugurated the final round at Lankaviri near Jalingo, expressed satisfaction that the last four rounds of the exercise recorded 100 per cent success in the 168 council wards of the state.
The governor said the campaign was imperative given the nearness of Borno which recorded new cases of wild polio virus recently.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has launched a nationwide campaign to end to end child marriage, making Nigeria the 16th country to join an African Union campaign to end the practice by 2030.
Nearly one out of every two girls in Nigeria is married off under age of 18, making Nigeria the country with the world’s highest number of child brides.
Nigeria committed to ending all forms of harmful practices, including child marriage, against women and girls at an African Union summit in 2014, in line with Sustainable Development Goals.
With Nigeria accounting for 300, 000 out of 100 million deaths arising from Malaria complications worldwide annually, the Dangote Foundation is set to launch a private sector policy documents aimed at reversing the trend.
The Dangote Foundation said it was championing the total eradication of Malaria in Nigeria because the malaria deaths cases recorded yearly makes Nigeria the country with the highest number of malaria casualties in the world.
