Lagos — Again, the United Nations International Children's Educational Fund (UN-ICEF) has raised an alarm on Nigeria 's increasing maternal and child deaths.

According to UNICEF Report launched by the wife of the President, Turia Yar' Adua, in Abuja recently, one Nigerian woman dies every 10 minutes from complications of pregnancy and child birth, while 500 newborns die daily in Nigeria. About one million out of about 5.9 million babies born in the country every year die before the age of 5.

However, alarmed by UNICEF's alarm, the First Lady and the Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili have argued that the above statistics are inaccurate and grossly exaggerated. Consequently, the Federal Ministry of Health has been mandated to carry out another study to ascertain the true statistics.

We see two big issues here. One, why did the Health ministry wait for this incident to update its records? Such studies and the keeping the reliable records therefrom should be part of medical administration.

Two, granting that UNICEF has exaggerated numbers, can we as a nation say with certainty that maternal and infant mortality rates are at acceptable standards. We do not believe that whatever rates we claim to have are acceptable, especially in the rural areas where residents have no access to health facilities. There, many people travel kilometres to the nearest available healthcare centres. There are many villages were mothers give birth the age-long primitive way.

As we have repeatedly echoed on this page, Nigeria 's increasing maternal and infant deaths mainly stem from poor primary health care and emergency obstetrical services associated with child birth. As the New Health Minster, Prof., Babatunde Osotimehin rightly observed at the occasion, many maternal and child deaths are quite preventable in Nigeria if there were high quality medical care services to meet the needs of our women and children.

We can therefore not be tired of calling on the government to urgently invest in functional primary health care system which includes access to sanitary delivery and clean birthing kit to prevent infection; access to skilled birth attendants; access to basic clean blood; access to basic and emergency obstetric care and repair and treatment of obstetric fistula.

Pregnancy and childbirth should be times of joy for parents and families. Women are the mothers of the nation. Even in the male-dominant society of ours, women form the nucleus. Also considering the varied potentials of human beings, it is regrettable for children to die avoidable deaths. Mothers and children deserve the best of healthcare. Children are our future. Any nation which toys with the destiny of its children is tottering on the precinct of collapse.

We note the deployment of an all encompassing Integrated Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (IMNCH) Strategy, the fast tracking of comprehensive action on evidence based on high impact intervention packages that address the main causes of maternal, newborn and child morbidity and mortality in an integrated manner by a committed partnership scale at all levels.

We also note the First Lady's support by galvanising the wives of the governors of the 36 States of the country for the adoption of the strategy in the states. As a result of this, the roll out of the IMNCH strategy has started in 15 states out of the 23 states that have asked for help from the Federal Ministry in starting the process of IMNCH implementation. This is commendable.

Like other vital social services, the country should move quickly to improve healthcare services. Health is wealth! Some appreciable progress was made with the extended programme on immunization and also the establishment of primary health centres. Existing facilities should be adequately equipped and the reach improved. This requires the participation of all tiers of government and supporting organisations.