Who caters to Nigeria’s over 200 million population when less than half of registered doctors practise in the country and the larger percentage have migrated to greener pastures? Worse still, there is less investment in healthcare infrastructure. Who bears the brunt of the exodus more?
Aisha Isah, 54, wife of Shakwata’s village head, is a traditional birth attendant and a mother of seven children. The primary health centre in SHE village, Shiroro LGA in Niger state, is also manned by health extension workers. Hadiza Shehu, a birth attendant at the centre, said women in the village rarely visit the facility since they do not get the services they need.The sorry state of the primary healthcare centre at SHE village… Photo credit: Taiwo Adebulu
Alheri has resorted to herbs since drugs are always unavailable at the health centre… Photo credit: Taiwo Adebulu At Babangida She village in Shiroro LGA, when the situation became dire and help came from nowhere, the women started contributing money to make the health centre work, but now they are tired. Abarah Saleh,of the village, said it is stressful to make sure their families don’t go hungry and still be worried about them falling sick because of the poor state of the facility.Zainab, Saleh’s wife, said the women are often scared of emergency health crises.
Other times, it is more than the prayer that makes the mission houses attractive. At government hospitals, the waiting time is usually long because there are just a few medical personnel attending to many women, some of whom are heavily pregnant. When a doctor or nurse eventually attends to you, it is brief, and they quickly move on to the next person.
A senior worker at Doka Model Primary Healthcare, Tofa LGA, who didn’t want to be named, said some mothers-in-law also stop many women from delivering their children at the hospital, claiming that strong women give birth at home. In some cases, their husbands stop them. “We have improved from one or two women per day to 20–25 women per month. So, this is a great improvement. I can say that 50 percent of women from the community now attend antenatal. Women from the nearby towns also trek to this place for medical assistance,” Mu’awiyya said.
In April, Abubakar Yusuf, commissioner for health in Kano, said the state is committed to ending maternal mortality.