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Why Govt Needs Another Look At Family Planning

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Thirty five years old
Jemina died recently while giving birth to her 8th child. Her husband, Sobomate, 42, a fisherman, could not bear the loss because, according to him, she was his favorite and the eldest amongst his three wives, all of whom were cohabiting with him in a fishing settlement.
As he lamented, in almost all his utterances, one sentence he kept repeating was “I told her not to get pregnant again, but she refused. She said she only feels my love when she is pregnant”.
He explained that he already has seven children with her, and that their first child, a girl, is 14, and that the 7th child by her just turned one.
Mr. Sobomate said he has eight other children with two other women (five by the second wife and three by the last wife). All of these children are less than 14 years.
From the explanations he gave, shortly after he impregnated his second wife, the late Jemina started complaining that the only time he treated her as a woman was when she was pregnant.
She therefore decided that she will continue to get pregnant as much as she can so he will not have the time “to look at other women”.
The result was that Jemina started getting pregnant almost yearly, even after she was warned after her 6th birth by an experienced Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA) that she was endangering her life.
According to him, all his pleas fell on deaf ears as she later had her 7th child and got pregnant for the 8th, which led to her death.
A critical analysis of the events leading to the death of Jemina revealed that one major cause of her death was that she patronized TBAs rather than health facilities, where she would have been counselled on the implications of not spacing her children, and the need to enroll in family planning programmes.
Family planning (FP) refers to the conscious efforts by a couple to limit or space the number of children they have through the use of contraceptive methods.
It is also described as a practice that helps couples to avoid unwanted pregnancies, bring out wanted births, and ultimately determine the number of children in the family.
The United Nations Conference on Human Rights at Teheran, Iran, in 1968 recognised it as a basic Human Right and as a concept beyond just birth control.
Family Planning has been added to the 5th Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as an indicateor for tracking progress in improving material health.
Modern contraceptive methods include male/female condoms, female/male Sterilization, the pill, the intra-uterine device (IUD), injectibles, implants, the diaphragm, foam/jelly, lactation amenorrhea (LAM) and emergency contraception.
The traditional methods include Rhythm (periodic abstinence) and withdrawal methods. Modern contraceptives with short-term and reversible features such as pill, injectible and male condoms are more commonly found in Africa and Europe than elsewhere in the world.
The long term methods such as IUD or sterilization, on the other hand, are more common in Asia and North America.
The most common contraceptives in Nigeria include injectibles, male condoms and the pill. Other modern methods used by some women include IUD, implants, diaphragm and emergency contraceptives.
Family planning can also reduce maternal mortality by 20 per cent or more, and infants are twice more likely to survive if the previous birth interval is at least two years.
Access to family planning services can bring about a drop in unintended pregnancies by 77 per cent. This can lead to a corresponding reduction in the number of women requiring medical care from complications of unsafe abortions.
This will result in important health benefits to individuals, families, and the nation at large. It will subsequently contribute towards the control of population growth and the achievement of the MDGs.
The implacable from the case of Jemina, is that when family planning services are provided and made easily accessible, it will reduce maternal mortality.
In the same vein, if Jemina had accessed family planning, she would have been counseled by health care providers on the dangers of getting pregnant almost yearly. Now, she is dead, her case may be just one of a considerable number of women, whose cases were not noticed.
To ensure quality family planning, palladium, a United States-based organization that works towards improving livelihood and economies of countries, especially developing countries recently inaugurated the advocacy working group on family planning in Port Harcourt to increase its contraceptive prevalence rate in the state.
According to the Adviser, Health System Strengthening, Health Plus Project, Palladium , Dr Emeka Nwanchukwu “one of the objectives of the inauguration is rally support for family planning issues among political leaders and various stakeholders to improve on budgetary allocation for family planning communities in the state”.
As part of efforts to ensure improved family planning services, according to the Rivers State programme officer, Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN), Emmanuel Owor, “you must have very good work force”.
For this reason, he said, the PPFN in the state has made man-power development in family planning an annual priority.
According to him, in 2015 the PPFN trained 50 family planning services providers in the state. They include Doctors, midwives, and pharmacists. Due to the economic crunch, however, the organisation has been able to train only 25 personnel’s this year. These trainings, he noted, commenced in 1979, a year after establishment of the PPFN.
Towards enhancing effective family planning service delivery, Owor said a project called “Cluster Model”, by PPFN also ensure that private clinics are brought in as partners with relevant memoranda of understanding (MoU) signed.
Staff of such clinics are then trained to provide family planning services accordingly, under the close supervision of the PPFN.
From these private clinics, the PPFN gets monthly records of those accessing family planning services.
Investigations reveal that so far, the government is mainly involved in the provision of health facilities and man-power, and because most of these health facilities are situated in the urban areas ,family planning services are mostly concentrated in the urban areas.
The rural, especially hard-to-reach areas are virtually cut-off from accessing the family planning services. This explains why most key cases such as that of Jemina occur in the rural areas.
Even when family planning services are available in the urban areas, there is as much ignorance and or negligence as there are people of productive age who find it extremely difficult to access good health, due mainly to economic down turn.
For the government to be able to reasonably check maternal mortality and neonatal death in this wise, it has to go beyond merely provision of health facilities and manpower development.
The government needs to come up with more equipped health facilities and free family planning commodities in all communities, as well as institute relevant legislation that would make it mandatory for every adult to access family planning services when the need arises.
This also means that it behoves of the government to provide a conducive environment, such as increased budgetary allocation to family planning, improved man-power development and ensure accessibility by the lowest class of the citizenry.

 

Sogbeba Dokubo

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Women

The Desire Of Every Woman In Marriage

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A woman needs a man that is honest,  trustworthy,  nice,  loving and financially stable.
There are no two ways about finance in marriage. No matter the level of love, If there is no money,  it is always difficult.


Referring to the Biblical belief in Genesis 3:Your desire  shall be unto you……..
That is one aspect  the woman expects her husband to take care of.
A woman wants a husband that is not lazy,  at least helping to do one or two things.   A man that is educated and intelligent.
She knows that there is a trait that her husband has.  Traits of taking care of people,  giving freely to people and caring for her family.
A woman wants to love a husband that has family interest at heart. A man that spends time with his family,  remembering his family even as he is away from home.
A woman should not antagonise her husband because of one error or the other. No matter the level of offence he may have committed, you still show some love.


According to the Scripture, it is with wisdom that the women builds her home.
It is not as if the woman will not monitor her husband, but to certain limit.  Don’t be a monitoring spirit.  Don’t allow anything to take your joy.
Don’t loose trust in your husband.
The idea of checking your husband’s phone should be discouraged. The more you check your husband and his phone, the more you loose your joy.


The home should not be a battle ground for a woman and man.  A woman should be able to ask herself if the check on her husband will pay her any good.
Draw a line to a point where you checkmate your husband’s activities.
A woman wants a man that will love her and telling her you love her will be all she desires.

Eunice Choko-Kayode

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Women

What Women Want In Yet-To -Be Husbands

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What women want in their yet-to- be husbands matters a lot as far as marriage is concerned.
A woman desires a good fnancial prospect. Interestingly, some modern women place a man’s financial potential as more desirable than they have in the past.
Many decades ago, women ranked it lower on the list. It still comes in after items like love and maturity, but perhaps today’s women realise that a good economic partner is good husband material.
Good health has been an important characteristic for women through the 20th century and remains so these days. One might argue that because we’re living even longer, health plays a huge role in the success of a marriage. Women are anxious to know that their partners are healthy to be able to run the family together.
You discover that in most faith based organisations, would- be couples are mandated to go for medical tests to ascertain their health status as it concerns HIV/AIDS, Genotype and other related ones. This according to stakeholders is to ensure that couples raise healthy families.
Ambition has become less important to women over time, though it still being considered even if women nowadays are thriving in the workforce competing with the male folk. It may be because more women are thriving in the workforce, they want a husband who has earning power but are not looking for him to be the sole provider.
More women want husbands with pleasing disposition. They may not want a man who is always moody. A man who is always cheerful is whom they desire.
Surprisingly, a man’s likes do not rank as high on women’s list of wants as it used to. Until recently, women are more willing to accept a man for who he his, despite the inevitable mood he may be.
Sociability from both men and women rank very high on their marriag material list. And for both sexes, it has been steadily moving up the list for many years. The rise of the “love marriage,” a partnership based on attraction rather than practicalities (like wealth or status) might mean that married couples are more likely to be friends and have mutual circles of friends.
A lot of couples want to associate with others and then socialise. Attending parties of other friends forms part of their marriage requirements.
Women have placed education and intelligence top making it one of their most desirable male traits for decades. This timeline coincides with more and more women receiving college education themselves. Once education becomes important in women’s lives, it is a more attractive trait in potential husbands.
Of course when a woman is educated, she is likely to go for an educated man. When they are gainfully employed, their income boost the family affairs faster.
Today, women are much more attracted to men who are interested in home and family than they ever have been. Men who have desire for their home and children is whom they desire.
After a days job, a man will come home to ensure that his children are comfortable. Because most women today are expecting to be in dual-earner relationships, they want husbands who will be happy and willing to contribute at home. More women today even report that they hope he will take the lead at home.
A woman wants a man who is emotionally stable and mature. Growing big physically is not the issue but maturity in the heart.
Men, too, place a heavy emphasis on a potential wife’s emotional maturity, signaling that it is a key quality for a stable partnership. Women seem to look past appearance to the heart of the matter.
A woman wants a man who is not easily provoked. Dependable character is what some women want in marriage.
Women want husbands that they can count on, and this has not changed in recent years. Yes, women look to their spouses to be lovers and friends, they also want them to be supportive and trustworthy. They want to know that their husbands will be there and remain loyal. Men, too, desire dependable character from their yet-to be wives.
Mutual attraction and love from the first appearance is what they want till they become old.
The highest-rated characteristic women seek from men is mutual attraction and love. Some no longer look for a man who will provide everything, afterall they are also educated and are gainfully employed, they want to be in love.
For some women, even when the man do not provide household needs, the love shown on her is enough. When women had no job prospects and needed to marry, they desired love . The women’s movement has not only helped women pursue careers, it has also given them more choice in love.

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Women

Echoes Of IWD : Need To Invest In Women

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As this year’s Internatinal Women’s Day (IWD) has come and gone, there are calls from different quarters on the need to invest in women so that we can achieve accelerated growth.
It was, indeed, a thing of joy when Rivers Women Unite For Sim, took delivery of large quantities of sanitary towels and some bags of rice provided them for this year’s celebration.
Many young women expressed joy that they got such gesture since some of them have financial problems getting sanitary towels whenever they are on.
Some secondary school students were also lucky to have a share of the benefits. They also got some sanitary towels.
The Rivers State Commissioner for Women Affairs organised a platform to celebrate and honour the women for the remarkable jobs they perform in their homes and society.
Addressing women on the occasion, the Hon. Commissioner for Women Affairs, Dr. Roseline Apawari Uranta, noted that women from time immemorial have been great pillars in achieving remarkable heights and stressed that IWD across the globe is pivotal all women for the roles they play in bringing, nurturing and sustaining life.
Dr. Uranta said that IWD, which started in 1911 and celebrated annually on March 8, is a global day that provides women a platform to address economic inclusion, participation in political and public life.
She said the day was set aside to look into lack of access to education for the girl-child, gender-based violence, child marriage, child trafficking, harmful cultural practices as well as other challenges facing women around the globe.
The Hon. Commissioner, who described March 8 as a day to celebrate the socio-economic, cultural and political achievements of women, emphasised that it is a day that offers women the opportunity to reflect on progressive achievements.
Noting that it is an opportunity to call for change, she stressed that it is also an opportunity to celebrate acts of courage and every achievement made by ordinary women who did extraordinary things and are remembered in history.
She noted that the IWD2024 theme:”Invest In Women, Accelerate Progress”, is timely and apt because according to her, to achieve gender equality, we must ensure that the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women do not elude them.
Her words: ” We must see investing in women as a human right issue and consider investing in women as a social tool to eradicate poverty since women are helpmeet in the homes while a handful are breadwinners in their respective families”.
The commissioner urged women to uphold the deliberate act of investing in themselves, be it furthering formal education, developing a new skill as well as learning a trade.
“Shun idleness, always find something positive and productive to do, regardless of your age, social status and financial capabilities”, she said.
In a paper presentation, Dr. Dabota God’swill Jumbo, reiterated that investing in women would attract good and positive dividends to herself and the society at large and noted that it is essential in addressing poverty, hunger and climate change.
The guest speaker said women need more opportunities in elective and appointive positions, hence the need to encourage and support them in politics.
According to her, when you invest in women, they will be able to create safer environment devoid of gender-based violence.
In a goodwill message, the spokesperson, Rivers Women Unite For Sim, Mrs Charity Deemua appreciated the organisers for making it possible for women to gather and celebrate themselves.
She commended those who created a day like March 8 of every year to celebrate women and regretted that the girl-child was seen as a second-class person decades ago.
The former commissioner, Rivers State House of Assembly Commission, described those who taught it wise for women to celebrate as conquerors, tough and strong.
International Association of World Peace Advocates, a world-class organisation with the United Nations, honoured different categories of women.
In Cross River State, 150 women were empowered with about N15m to boost their small and medium scale businesses.
According to stakeholders, the women empowerment is vital in addressing social, economic and political challenges and will make them self-reliant.
An NGO, Association of Professional Women Engineering Technologists (APWET), said it’s aim is to promote professional excellence among engineering personnel, advocating for women and girl-child education.
With what we saw in terms of response to women’s call on issues affecting them from relevant authorities, we are optimistic that the women will do better whenever they are empowered.
If we must kick out cervical, breast and other forms of cancer in women, underage marriage, prostitution, we must invest in women.
There were goodwill messages from National Council for Women Societies (NCWS), International Federation of Female Lawyers (FIDA), Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN), Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC, Nigeria Association of Female Journalists (NAWOJ), among others.

By: Eunice Choko-Kayode

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