My People are practicing child birth spacing – Emir of Rano
By: Yemi Shola, Kano
Emir of Rano in Kano State, Alh Muhammad Isa Umar, has disclosed that his people have accepted the practice of child birth spacing having understood the health benefits associated with the practice.
Mohammad Isa Umar was speaking during an interaction with Journalists who visited his Palace on Friday as part of Solution Journalism field trip organised by Nigeria Health Watch in collaboration with the MSI Nigeria, Reproductive Choices and Family Planning News Network.
On the issue of child birth spacing, he expressed happiness that people in his domain have since embraced the various methods thereby increasing the healthy nature of the women after child birth.
According to him, “Our men have embraced the various methods of child birth spacing which has reduced giving birth to children more than a household can effectively manage. Our people are accessing the methods that best suits them.”
The traditional ruler stressed that, “On Fridays, our Islamic preachers use to tell the people of the importance of child birth spacing. They have seen the importance of the process as children that have spaces between them are looking healthy and living fine than those that did not have spaces between them.”
He commended the MSI Nigeria and others involved in the family health issues for providing the commodities to the people of the Emirate calling on them to ensure prompt supplies for availability and accessibility.
He stressed that, “We always ensured that we create awareness on health issues as soon as we received information from the concerned agencies.”
On the role of traditional institutions in healthcare delivery, he said that, “We fully and deeply involved in awareness creation, we engage in sensitization of the people on the need to access healthcare services.”
He added that, “We engage the District and Village Heads as well as the Jauros (Fulani leaders) in the awareness creation, this is because people trust and believe traditional institution. We are doing good in that direction, here in the Emirate.”
He however called for more health facilities in the Emirate in order to bring healthcare services to the community.
The Emir, who stressed the importance of primary healthcare to the well-being of the people, observed that, as it is now, his Emirate is not having enough spread of the facilities.
The Emir stated that, “We have Primary Healthcare Centres in the Emirate but they are not enough, there a large number of people who are finding it pretty difficult to access the health facilities available due to distance.”
He lamented that due to the far distances between the facilities and the community, many avoidable deaths have occurred before the patents get to the facility.
The Traditional ruler however stressed that those who are close to the facilities are enjoying effective and efficient service delivery as the health workers are doing their best to attend to the patients.
He added that the General Hospital in Rano is always filling the gap as a secondary health institution but stressed that there are needs to have more Primary Healthcare Centres in the Emirate in order to attend to more people considering that more people are familiar with such facilities.
About Author
