The Executive Director of the National Primary Health-Care Development Agency, Dr. Ado Mohammed, on Thursday in Kaduna said that Nigeria accounted for 10 per cent of global maternal deaths.
Mohammed made the disclosure when a delegation of Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on Primary Health Care Delivery paid a courtesy visit on Governor Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna State.
The NTLC later converged for a meeting on polio eradication in the state.
Mohammed said: “Nigeria is one of the countries having the highest burdens of maternal mortality.
“Nigeria does not account for up to 10 per cent of the global population.
“We only account for about two per cent of the global population but we account for about 10 per cent of the global burden on maternal mortality.”
According to him, there is no reason why women in Nigeria should be dying while giving birth.
Mohammed said that the NPHCDA was determined to partner with traditional rulers to see how best to reduce the death of women during child birth.
He called on the traditional rulers to assist the government to mobilise women to participate in pre-natal care services to avoid complications during child birth and to reduce maternal deaths.
He said: “We want you to also extend the support beyond polio and routine immunisation while the issue of maternal mortality should be taken with necessary attention it deserved.”
Mohammed said that primary health care services catered for 70 per cent of the needs of the people as well as other health challenges.
The leader of the delegation and Shehu of Bama, Alhaji Kyari El-Kanem, said that traditional rulers were committed to improving the health status of the people by eradicating polio in the North.
El-Kanem said the committee would continue to fight the epidemic because it had left several victims crippled for life.
However, Yero assured the delegation of his administration’s commitment to eradicating polio as well as ensuring compliance with routine immunisation programmes.
The governor said that the meeting between the traditional rulers in the North would provide a platform for them to proffer solutions to challenges inhibiting total eradication of polio.
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