Alhaji Saad Abubakar, the Sultan
of Sokoto, on Tuesday tasked government at all levels on adequate construction
and equipping of health facilities to help in the effective healthcare
delivery.
The Sultan made the call while
declaring open the first quarter review meeting of Northern Traditional Leaders
Committee(NTLC) on Primary Health Care, which centered on an update on Kaduna
State.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
report that the major focus of the meeting was to receive update on Community
Health Influencers, Promoters and Services(CHIPS) initiative launched by
President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018.
The CHIPS initiative is aimed at
using community based women to improve maternal and child health care, part of
which includes educating women on importance of visiting health facilities when
the need arises in order to avert deaths from preventable diseases.
Abubakar, who decried the deplorable
status of health care facilities in the country said, “I will like us to talk
about the position of our healthcare facilities across the towns and villages.
“You can’t come around with such
programme, CHIPS, advocating about going to clinics for antenatal and you don’t
have the clinics. There are so many buildings across the villages in the name
of clinics, but there’s no nurses, nothing.
“So, we will want to see states
and Federal Government embark on construction and equipping of full healthcare
facilities across the villages and towns where we have large population of our
people,” he said.
He assured that traditional
leaders in the North would do everything humanly possible in ensuring that new
born and mother’s live healthy.
He said provision for manpower,
drugs and shelter are very paramount in ensuring adequate and effective
healthcare delivery.
The Sultan assured Nigerians
that, “we will not relent until we have a total and healthier society, because
without a healthy society you cannot do anything, so health is very important
to all our people.
“We have talked about polio, but
there are also killer diseases and other diseases ravaging our communities, so
it’s our responsibility to continue this serious work in a much stronger
capacity.”
The Sultan, who admitted that the
traditional leaders in ten years have recorded tremendous success in the Polio
eradication programme, however, noted that the disease was not the only health
challenge bedeviling the country.
“We also have so many other
diseases and one of them is hunger.
“We will continue to work
strongly with stakeholders and government at all levels until we achieve total
health coverage in all our communities across the Northern states in
particular,” he said.
Earlier, the Executive Director
of National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, said the
meeting was to focus on how the traditional rulers can use their unique
position as custodians of heritage and culture to mobilise people in
communities for improved Primary Health Care, especially on CHIPS.
Shuaib said the traditional
leaders have recorded success in polio eradication programme and such success
can be replicated in the CHIPS initiative.
According to him, the point to note
is how they have been able to provide leadership in all ramifications towards
polio eradication, especially as they have assisted in casting away doubts on
polio vaccines and immunisation.
“When community members saw their
leaders are advocating for immunisation and vaccines, they came out and started
receiving it. As you can see, we are just five months away from been declared a
polio free nation. This is significant,” he said.
He added that the first quarter
meeting was aimed at expanding the horizon of the traditional leaders in terms
of what they would be engaging in.
“Moving forward, they will be
taking up the role President Buhari asked them to take —which is providing
leadership around CHIPS programme.
“President Buhari has put in
place and laid a solid foundation for a day in future where no Nigerian will be
denied access to health care because they can’t afford it,” Shuaib said.
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