THIS is not your typical captivating news story. If it were, you would see gruesome imagery of Amidu Subair, 4, in painted words. You will see his sunken eyes, scaly skin and parched lips. You will see his distended belly strain with ribs that cut through it, like tyre tracks on Borno’s dirt roads.
The Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN), has disclosed that Kaduna State has the second highest rate of childhood death from Diarrhoea and Pneumonia related diseases.
The group stated this during a media dialogue with traditional rulers, religious leaders and faith based organizations held in Kaduna.
The Head of FOMWAN/PACFaH Project, Hajiya Farida Sada Yusuf said the diarrhoea rate in the state is 16 percent while pneumonia is 13 percent for children under 5 years.
The Partnership For Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH) says no fewer than 800,000 children under the age of five are dying in Nigeria annually.
Dr Remi Adeseun, the Project Director, Strategy, for the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN)-PACFaH, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to him, the major causes of under-five deaths include childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea.
For Africa, the road to prosperity must begin with investment in its most precious resource. Not its minerals, oil reserves or plantations, but something even more critical to Africa’s future: the health of its children. I don’t mean this figuratively; an investment in children’s health is precisely that. Compelling evidence now suggests that every dollar, shilling, pound or rand spent on preventing disease does not just reduce needless human suffering, but it also makes sound economic sense too.
Despite the worrisome high degree of maternal mortality in Nigeria, Dr. Danjuma Nehemiah has affirmed that the nation still give birth to a nation annually.
Dr. Danjuma, who is a Health Specialist, Sokoto UNICEF Field Office added that, no fewer than 7.5 million births is been recorded annually in Nigeria.
The internet has become part of human daily activities. Data and smartphones’ costs keep falling and are destroying the fetters of acquisition. But with the increasing challenge of parenting among career women and men, the mobile phone has become a kind of bridge among children in school, house maids and the kids. Experts give hints on how the kids can be protected from cyber predators.
After losing her fourth child during delivery at the house of her regular traditional birth attendant (TBA), 42 year–old Kemi Ariyo contracted spiritualists to get to the root of her problems. “I was widely accused to be a witch as a result of the demise of my babies,” Kemi said. “So I approached the spiritualists who pray for pregnant women and see to the delivery of their babies”.
Governor Olusegun Mimiko, of Ondo State has implored the incoming Rotimi Akeredolu administration to build on its Mother and Child healthcare policies so that pregnancy will not again be a “death sentence in the state.”
Mimiko gave this charge in Akure during the 2nd anniversary of the initiative, where he was lauded by stakeholders for the accomplishments made in the eight years of his administration, especially in the health sector.
Recent survey by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicates that malnutrition accounts for the death of 2,300 Nigerian children daily.
It also notes that more than 2.5 million children under the age of five are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and are likely to die if adequate funding is not provided to treat them.
Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, Mrs Toyin Saraki has said that Nigeria is in the midst of a national health crisis.
Mrs Saraki, who is the Chair of Nigeria's Primary Healthcare Revitalization Support Group, however added that the solution to the crisis is within the nation’s grasp.
