Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe
The advocacy working group working on Child Spacing programme in Gombe State has called on the State Government to ensure the release of budgetary allocation for the State to achieve the 20 per cent projected goal Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) in the State by December 2020.
The call was made by the chairman of the group, Malam Alhassan Yahya, in an interview with Daily Sun on Tuesday in Gombe. He said according to the NDHS (Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey) 2018, the CPR for Gombe is currently at 16 per cent.
‘Our indices for CPR has increased from 4% in 2013 to almost 17% in 2018 and I believe that by the time we are able to get the release of funds allocated in the budget no doubt we are going to do more and achieve our goals,’ Alhassan stated.
He added: ‘Our CIP has a projected 20% CPR by December 2020 and December 2020 is around the corner and I believe likely we may achieve that because we have been doing well with the help of our stakeholders both the media, CSOs and religious and traditional leaders.’
Yahya further stated that the improvement recorded in the CPR has helped the State in reducing the number of maternal mortality: “With the off-take of the child spacing we have saved many women from dying as a result of complicated issues relating to pregnancy and delivery.
‘This improvement means a lot for Gombe State, it means that women of childbearing age are subscribing to child spacing, it means that we are reducing maternal mortality through child spacing, I think this calls for commendation and for the State to do more in achieving the desired goal.’
While lamenting the national outlook of the acceptability of child spacing, Yahya said: ‘The trend regarding child spacing in the country is encouraging and think we need to work as a nation in addressing the issue.
‘I know a lot of states that are not doing well and this contributes to what we are having at the national level.
‘As I am talking to you many of those states don’t even have a budgetary allocation for child spacing in their physical year budget and without budgetary allocation, there is no way the ministry or any agency can raise a memo requesting the release of funds to run such programme. So, I think for the success recorded in Gombe to be universally celebrated there the need for those states to start by advocating for the creation of a budgetary allocation for the government to use in running child spacing activities.
They should also work in getting the political will and passion because child spacing programme required a lot of passion and will without such you might start and end up at nothing,’ the chairman stated.