The federal government of Nigeria is planning to carry out free surgery and laboratory services for all fistula patients in all Federal Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres in the country. This was announced by Nigeria’s health minister, Prof Isaac Adewole. The minister announced this while speaking at the National Stakeholders Meeting on Obstetric Fistula in Abuja.
Sultan of Sokoto and President-General, NSCIA, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III on Thursday lamented the growing trend of drug abuse among women and youths, challenging the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) to use its platform in reversing the trend.
Speaking at the formal opening of SOGON’s 51st Annual National Conference in Sokoto, Abubakar who was the chairman of the occasion expressed serious concern over the ugly trend that is fast affecting public morality.
A league of civil society organisations has revealed plans to launch a family-planning methods for the “visible but hard to reach” groups—mainly teenagers—in efforts to reduce high rate of unwanted pregnancies among teenagers and secure their future.
Up to seven in every 10 women who die from pregnancy related complications are teenagers below age 18, latest research shows.
He said that each year of education of the adolescent girl delivers an additional 11.7 percent increase in wages in later life for girls compared with 9.6 percent for men. Yet, 16 million girls between ages 6 and 11 will not start school twice the number of boys, he stated.
Osotimehin added, ”An educated mother is more likely to access sexual and reproductive health services including family planning as means of prevention of the detrimental consequences of early pregnancies such as fistula.
The Niger Child Right Protection Agency has warned parents against forcing their children into early marriages due to the bad consequences associated with such practice.
Hajiya Mairam Kolo, its Director-General, gave the warning on Wednesday in Minna, while distributing relief materials to victims of communal clashes in Lamba village of Paiko Local government area of the state.
She defined early or child marriage as any marriage involving a child that is less than 18 years old.
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.
