Nigeria health indicators call for concern, says minister

Written by Gbola Subair,

Nigeria health indicators are a source of concern to the Federal Government and should be addressed by the three tiers of government if meaningful achievement is to be recorded in relation to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Minster of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu has said.

Professor Chukwu, while addressing participants at the national seminar on the presentation of the 2006 Census priority tables organised by the National Population Commission (NPC) on Thursday in Abuja, stated that maternal mortality and infant mortality rates in Nigeria when compared to the rest of the world, were too high and did not speak well of a country desirous of achieving the MDGs.

Saying that this called for concern, the health minister, who was represented by the Director, Planning, Research and Statistics in the Federal Ministry of Health, Mr Samuel Oluwole, declared that this very serious gap in health indicators must be addressed in the shortest possible time for any development to take place.

Professor Chukwu, however, stated that the task of addressing the health problem was not that of the Federal Government alone noting that state governments and all the 774 local governments in the country must brace up to the health challenges and achieve significant success in the MDGs.

In his keynote address, the NPC chairman, Chief Samuila Makama, contented that Nigeria was confronted with numerous developmental challenges such as pervasive poverty, infrastructural inadequacies in the health, education.

Energy, water, transport sectors, a situation which he said made improvement in the standard of living difficult.

http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/25865-nigeria-health-indicators-call-for-concern-says-minister