The pioneer Provost, School of Medical Sciences, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Prof. Kabiru Sabitu, has attributed high rate of infant and maternal mortality in Nigeria to abysmal failure of Primary Health Care (PHC) delivery system.
Kabiru spoke at the third annual lecture of Newgate College of Health Technology, Minna.
He lamented that poor financing by the government has been the bane of achieving successful health care in Nigeria despite help from donor agencies.
“Infant mortality ratio in Nigeria is 69 per 1000 live births while maternal mortality ratio is 840 per 100, 000 live births. It is also of serious concern that the ratio of doctors per 1, 000 population is 4 to 0 ration”, Kabiru pointed out.
He said that the government at all levels continued to allocate below 5% of their annual budget to education despite the Abuja Declaration that stipulated that 15% of annual budget be channeled to the health sector.
Kabiru therefore called on the federal government to commence the implementation of the Primary Health Care Act which spelled out sources of funding for the health sector as passed by the National Assembly and assented to by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
(nigerianewsflight.com)
