…………..Unveils 149-Bed Mother, Child Centre In Lagos

Benjamin Omoike

Wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, on Thursday said the Federal Government’s  zero tolerance declaration for maternal deaths in the country has paid off, saying the welfare of women and children is currently being given priority attention by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.

The first lady of Nigeria stated this in Lagos at the official launch of the 149-Bed Maternal and Child Center located in Alimosho area of Lagos, stressing that the need to consolidate informed why the healthcare facilities were currently being replicated across the country.

Mrs. Buhari, who was represented by her Senior Special Assistant on Administration Dr. (Mrs.) Hajo Sani, said there is a strategic intervention between the Federal and Lagos State Government in the nation’s health sector. 

She said, ‘’In order to compliment what government is doing and to encourage others I have decided to construct maternity complexes across the country. The essence of this is to ensure that women receive attentions while they are pregnant, when they deliver their babies in most hygienic environment.

‘’I have already constructed and furnished two maternity complexes in Daura in Katsina State as well as in Yola in Adamawa State hundreds of women are benefiting from the facilities every week and I am therefore happy that women will benefit from the facility being commissioned today. I therefore encourage the women in Alimosho and it’s environ to put the landmark project to good use. “

Also speaking, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said the state government does not pay lip service to issue of quality health care delivery in the state. 

He said the facility nestled in the biggest Local Government in the country will serve the population very well.

Sanwo-Olu said, ” For us as a government what we are also doing here falls in tandem with our policy thrust of our. Which we have christened the T.H.E.M.E.S agenda in which the second part speaking about Health and Environment.  We commission this kind of facilities in series. Just three weeks ago we commissioned a 110 Health care facility in Eti-osa now we are here. It is heart- warming and befitting.”

The governor reiterated the commitment of his administration to work on the various indices aimed at taking people out of poverty.

Earlier, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs), Princess Adejoke Orelope- Adefulire, said the facility will help to reduce maternal and infant mortality and morbidity rate and general improvement in all maternal and child health indices in Alimosho Local Government Area. 

She added that the ultra- modern facility which is part of the mandate of ensuring the attainment of the sustainable Development Goals will complement the existing Maternal and Child Centre as a secondary referral centre to the primary Health Care centres and private hospitals.

In his address, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Akin Abayomi, said the commissioning was another milestone in the state’s efforts towards improving the health indices of its citizenry.

He said, ‘’By commissioning this second Maternal and Child Centre at Alimosho Local Government which was built by the Federal Government to aid the attainment of our overall goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage for the good of the people of Lagos and also reduce to the barest minimum the unacceptably high morbidities and mortalities in our pregnant women and children especially the under five children.

‘’While we are declaring zero tolerance on pot holes and power outages, it is only natural that we also declare zero tolerance on unnecessary deaths in our pregnant mothers and children.

“As one matriarch told me the other day, and I quote, “I don’t see why I should lose my life as a woman in the an effort to bring forth the lives of my children” So we take these sentiments like this seriously after all we are in the modern age of conventional and complimentary medicine.’’