By Folasade Akpan
The Chairperson, Senate Committee on Women Affairs, Sen. Ireti Kingibe, has called for stronger accountability in Nigeria’s health system, saying every maternal death from preventable causes represents an institutional failure.
Kingibe said this at the fifth anniversary symposium of Seconds for Good Charity Initiative (S4G) in Abuja on Friday.
Represented by her aide, Ms Becky Ephraim, Kingibe warned that maternal health commitments must move beyond policies and budgets to measurable improvements in the lives of women.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that at about 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births, Nigeria accounts for about 29 per cent of maternal mortality rate, making it one of the highest globally.
She said maternal mortality should not be reduced to statistics, as every death left families and children to bear consequences that could last a lifetime.
“Too often, policy discussions reduce maternal deaths to sterile statistics, ratios and trends, but a statistic does not capture the void left in a home when a mother passes,” she said.
Kingibe said maternal health was not an isolated medical issue but a fundamental matter of women’s rights, equity, national development and human dignity.
She said governments at all levels must work together to ensure that primary healthcare facilities function effectively.
“A woman experiencing labour complications does not stop to analyse the constitutional division of powers between the Federal Government, the state and the local government area,” she said.
Kingibe said the National Assembly had a duty to ensure that health commitments did not remain on paper, pledging stronger legislative and financial oversight of health funding.
She said lawmakers must go beyond approving budgets to tracking the disbursement and real-world impact of funds at the primary healthcare level.
The senator also called for stronger legislative frameworks to expand social health insurance and financial protection.
“Poverty should never become a death sentence for an expectant mother.
“We do not need another strategy document to gather dust. We need execution. We need coordination and we need uncompromising accountability,” she said.
Kingibe said there were also “seconds lost” in governance between identifying systemic failures and taking action, or between approving healthcare budgets and releasing funds to health facilities.
She pledged to support efforts to bring relevant stakeholders together to develop an actionable roadmap for improving maternal survival and primary healthcare.
The Director, Board of Trustees of S4G, Dr Uche Okorocha, said the organisation was founded on the conviction that no woman should lose her life while giving life because she could not access the care she needed.
Represented by the organisation’s Strategic Adviser, Mr Nnanna Ude, Okorocha said the anniversary was both a celebration of the organisation’s work and a reminder that more action was required to end preventable maternal deaths.
He said the organisation’s five-year impact report would provide evidence from communities and health systems to stimulate partnerships and support better maternal health decisions.
Earlier, the Founder and Executive Director of S4G, Ms Maureen Ideozu, said the organisation’s interventions were informed by evidence gathered from communities on the barriers preventing women from accessing maternal healthcare.
Ideozu identified poverty, cultural practices, inadequate financial protection and weak primary healthcare infrastructure as some of the barriers.
She said some women were forced to choose between paying for antenatal registration and feeding their families, while others avoided hospitals because they could not afford delivery costs.
“N1,000 should not be the reason why a woman lives or dies,” she said.
She said the organisation had provided free maternal health services, laboratory tests, essential medicines and delivery packs to women in underserved communities.
She added that through its intervention, S4G had facilitated the registration of 262 community members to be enrolled under the FCT Health Insurance Scheme Pro-Poor Programme.
According to her, S4G has also supported about 400 women with livelihood and climate-smart agricultural skills, recognising poverty as a major barrier to healthcare access.
She called for maternal-ready primary healthcare centres, improved emergency referral systems, better-equipped frontline health workers, removal of financial barriers and stronger accountability.
Ideozu said the organisation’s approach was based on listening to communities and linking evidence from the grassroots to policymakers.
“Evidence becomes powerful when it connects with decision-makers,” she said.
Community leaders at the event commended the organisation for its maternal health, livelihood and women empowerment interventions.
Chief Zakwoyi Dogo, Village Head of Pigba Sama Community in the Federal Capital Territory, commended the organisation for its interventions in the community, saying its support had made a difference in the lives of residents.
Dogo expressed appreciation for the maternal health and other interventions in the community and prayed for greater support for the organisation to expand its work.
NAN reports that the anniversary featured award presentations and the inauguration of the organisation’s five-year impact report titled “A Matter of Seconds”.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Funmilayo Adeyemi
