Ruby Rabiu
28 August 2007
Abuja — The Federal Government says about N250m from stolen but recovered funds stashed outside the country by former leaders have been expended to resuscitate healthcare services in the country.
The Head of Hospital Services, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Julius Adetunji, made this known in Abuja yesterday at the presentation of a 10-information technology equipment to the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria by IPAS.
Dr. Adetunji, who said maternity care in Nigeria had drawn international interest due to bad record got from rec-ent statistics, said the major reason why the loot was released was for the purpose of enhancing healthcare as it relates to women and children.
He said the monies were spent between 2006 and 2007, adding that more funds would be released as the issue of women and children was close to the heart of the admi-nistration concerned over the high rate of maternal mortality.
Adetunji described as unacceptable, the high mort-ality rate among pregnant women and small children, which he said has risen to 1,500 despite efforts put in to arrest the situation.
While commending the Nursing and Midwifery Cou-ncil of Nigeria for its contribu-tions in the area of providing care for women and children, Adetunji attributed most deaths to haemorrhage, which he said was quite embarrassing to the health sector.
"With the level of develo-pment, it is heart breaking for one to hear that a person died while with pregnancy. It is unacceptable for such a thing to be ravaging our women. This is quite painful.
"All and sundry must come together to checkmate the situation. For Lagos to have a mortality rate of 1000 while other states are head-ing toward 2000 sets a bad record for the country. All hands must be on deck to reverse the figures," he said.
Adetunji said the Mille-nium Development Goals (MDGs) put in place by government was solely on providing health care for women and children. He said other efforts of the govern-ment were the setting up of blood transfusion centres to provide safe blood for Nigerians.
While commending IPAS for donating the IT equip-ment, he said it would go a long way to assist the Council to monitor the movement and deployment of staff.
He called for the reorgan-isation and update of the data of the council, saying it would boost the financial base of the council.
Earlier, the country dire-ctor of IPAS, Dr Ejike Oji, who said the Post Abortion Care Scheme was a success, said 17 sites had been operating with 11 in the North and 6 in the South.
He said because of the success of the scheme, IPAS had decided to expand its site to 19 so as to boost the serv-ices being provided to women.
These states include Kano, Sokoto, Kebbi, Borno, Zamfara, Katsina, Adamawa, Taraba, Kaduna, Jigawa, FCT, Lagos, Rivers, Anambra, Bayelsa, Imo and Abia.
He commended midwives for their various contribu-tions, saying that the 75% success recorded in the proj-ect was due to their hard work.
IPAS concentrates on preventing unsafe abortion, treating its complications, reducing its consequences and increasing women's access to a broad range of reproductive health.
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