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Niger Speaker backs call for 6-month maternity leave

August 21, 2020

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By Tina George, Minna

The Speaker of the Niger state House of Assembly, Abdullahi Bawa has joined the league of supporters for six months paid maternity leave for nursing mothers in the state.

The Speaker stated this during a 2-day review meeting on allocation, releases and utilization of nutrition budget, with key stakeholders from the Legislature and Nutrition Line Ministries, organized by the Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria, CS-SUNN.

Partiipants at the 2-day review meeting on nutrition budget

According to him, the paid maternity leave would encourage mothers to get involved in exclusive breastfeeding as the current 3-month period does not encourage exclusive breastfeeding.

“The six months maternity leave will address the serious issue of malnutrition in Niger state. Six months maternity leave is worth it, in view of the very serious situation of malnutrition in the state, the malnutrition rate is very alarming.

“The six months of maternity leave will ensure that breastfeeding mothers will have enough time for exclusive breastfeeding. If there is a need for the policy to be approved, we will give the backing for that,” he said.

The Speaker also called for approval of the multi-sectoral Action Plan on Nutrition in the state, saying malnutrition needs a multi-sectoral approach to eradicate it.

He stressed on the need for everyone to join hands in the battle against malnutrition, adding that the society will suffer if the current malnutrition situation is allowed to degenerate.

“We need to join hands to ensure that we bring up children that are not malnourished. Because if we allow the situation to continue to degenerate, society will suffer for it,” Wuse added.

He further called on government at all levels, to increase awareness and sensitization about malnutrition because many people in the state do not know what it is all about.

“There is a need for increased awareness and sensitization because a lot of people are not even aware of this issue. There are a lot of policies by the government that will improve the lives of people that people do not know. I appeal to Nigerlites to key into programmes and policies that are meant for them for the development of the state,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary of the Niger state Planning Commission, Hajiya Ramatu Umar explained that the pre-budget review meeting is meant to analyse the nutrition situation in the state, review the 2019/2020 budget performance and the 2021 nutrition sector budget proposal.

“The meeting provides space for sharing the nutrition achievements, challenges, solutions and identifying the support we need in accelerating efforts to achieve better results in malnutrition especially during this trying time of COVID-19.”

The Project Manager of CS-SUNN National, Okonkwo Sunday stated that one of the critical challenges that drive malnutrition is lack of funding which the pre-budget review meeting seeks to address.

“The truth is that allocations are made but they are not released as at when due and even when little resources are released, sometimes, they are not usually used for what they are supposed to be used for, we are here to look at some of the challenges, proffer solutions, and push that whatever decisions are made should be implemented.”

He said that the objective of the meeting is to resolve on the best way to move forward and eradicate malnutrition in the state totally.

“We all known that 2020 is an awesome, strong and challenging year, but the truth is this, things stopped but malnutrition did not stop.

“This period escalated the problem, more children were denied the resources of the food they eat, the quality meal, so we had more challenges, even in a crisis situation, the government should not stop giving solutions because the challenge will keep up increasing every moment.”

The Niger State Nutrition Officer, Hajiya Asmau Mohammed noted that for the fight against malnutrition to have much success, close cooperation and support is essential between community leaders, volunteers, health facility staff, and caregivers.

She then expressed dismay that the state should not have any problem in combating malnutrition especially as it is the food basket of the nation and has all classes of food available.