By Donald Ugwu
Abuja – The Wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, on Monday called for an improved healthcare system in the country.
Mrs Buhari made the call at a stakeholders meeting on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH and N) in Abuja.
“I am happy that the MD of Aso Clinic is here. Dr Manir.
“As you are aware for the past six months Nigeria was not stable because of my husband’s ill health.
“We thank God that he has fully recovered now.
“If somebody like Mr President can spend several months outside Nigeria you wonder what will happen to a common man on the street in Nigeria.
“Few weeks ago I was sick as well; they advised me to take the first flight to London; I refused to go.
“I said I must be treated in Nigeria because there is a budget for an assigned clinic to take care of us.
“If the budget was maybe N100 million, we need to know the way the budget is spent.
“And along the line I insisted; they called Aso clinic to find out if their X-ray machine was working they said it was not working; they didn’t know that I was going to be at the clinic at that very time.
“I had to go to a hospital established by foreigners100 per cent.
“What does that mean?’’
“I think it is high time we did the right thing.’’
The Wife of the President noted that if something like that happened to her at the highest seat of government which was the presidential villa, there was no need to ask the governors wives what the situation was in their states.
Mrs Buhari acknowledged that Nigeria had very good policies that made it the best in Africa, but said that the implementation of such polices had always been a major challenge.
“Yes of course we have (policies), but implementation is always the problem.
“So we need to change our mindset and do the right thing.
“There is a lot of construction work going on in that hospital, but there is no single syringe there; what does that mean? Who will use the building?
“So we have to be good in reasoning; you are building and there is no equipment, no consumables in that hospital and the construction works are still going on?,’’ she asked.
The meeting witnessed the inauguration of the Governors Wives Advocacy Group (GWAG) on reproductive health in the country.
Mrs Buhari expressed appreciation to the wives of the governors and other stakeholders for attending the meeting.
She said their presence at the meeting was an indication of the importance they attached to the issue of maternal and child health.
She said that it was worrisome that Nigeria’s health record for children and women was yet to reach the height it was supposed to have attained in spite of the efforts that had been made.
Mrs Buhari added that the Future Assured Initiative started by her two years ago was established to champion the well-being of women and children.
“We are here today to build our alliances that will help strengthen our advocacy for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, adolescent health and nutrition at the state level.
“By creating a strong coalition, we will increase awareness on the importance of improving RMNCAH and Nutrition, promote advocacy for better service delivery and increase the utilisation of RMNCAH and Nutrition services,’’ she noted.
She expressed optimism that the Governors Wives Coalition inaugurated at the event would provide a platform for them to push for improved health for women and children in the country.
Mrs Buhari urged the governors’ wives to advance RMNCAH and N programmes in their various states.
The wite of the President donated a floor of the three-storey building of the Future Assured Centre in Wuse, Abuja to the women for the purpose of the advocacy.
She called on development partners to support the coalition to achieve better health outcomes for Nigeria and pledged to commit all platforms available to her as wife of the President and as champion of RMNCHA and N to continue to support the cause. (NAN)