By Bafuere Treasure Dio
Infant mortality simply means the probability of a child dying between 0-5 years of age
The mortality rate among Creek dwellers is at the peak and is gradually becoming a man made “natural occurrence” due to lapses of our leaders in the mangrove region of Niger Delta
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There are several avoidable man-made factors that have contributed to such tragedies among the dwellers of our mangrove Savannah region (Creek).
One such factor is the lack of basic healthcare facilities in the creeks as a result of leadership failure by our so-called self-centered representatives in different political platforms within and outside the state
The lack and inadequacies in basic primary health care facilities in our Creek are alarming and our so-called representatives have turned deaf ears to the gospel of the “town crier” who heard the wailing and sobbing of a mother who just lost her child.
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These occurrences have led to a number of avoidable deaths among pregnant women, it seems a norm and a way of life when the death of an infant is announced among the rural dwellers in our creeks at the point of birth or during infancy.
It is so bad that a mother giving birth successfully to her child is considered a “50-50” percent probability. What a good time to stake a bet among the gamblers, for winning is always assured.
Some communities within our creeks that were privileged to have a government-commissioned “four corner” house built and named a primary health care center as part of their constituency projects by their self-centered representatives in The Creek most times do not have them equipped with drugs for dispensation, state of the art equipment/facilities, medical lab nor qualified personnel to manage such caricature primary healthcare centers.
The goal of such projects embarked on by the so-called representatives is defeated in the sense that they lack the minimum structural requirements to be term primary health care facilities, talk more of equipping it with the state of the art facilities to make it standard like seen in the city.
Don’t get me wrong, appropriate budgetary allocations were made for such projects, but due to the greed of our representatives, they spend less than %20 of the total sum for such projects while the rest goes to their individual pockets in other to massage their ever none ending glutton and blotted ego.
After all, they and their families have unfettered access to world-class medical facilities in the cities, so they don’t feel the pains of their subjects unless in pretense during the electoral periods.
An independent study carried out in our creeks shows that over 70 percent of pregnant women don’t have access to basic primary healthcare facilities, nor do they even know the meaning of antenatal care or its advantages.
The majority of the so-labeled primary health care facilities can only boost Paracetamol and a few pain relievers as inventory in their stores.
It may also interest you to know that the majority of such facilities lack the minimum required manpower to handle the day-to-day running of the centers.
Some of the personnel posted to mount such facilities have turned into ghost workers and continue to receive salaries from the government albeit, AWOL.
When our representatives don’t have good monitoring systems in place, such workers find pleasure in being posted to the creeks and take advantage of the porosity of the system in place. Some report just once and spend the rest of their time in the city enjoying the dividends of democracy. Like they do say, “Government work no be my papa work”
There have been cases of infants and pregnant women being rushed to those primary health care facilities in the rural area and giving up the ghost just because there is no personnel on the ground to attend to their immediate emergency. The majority of such deaths could have been avoidable if only there was sanity in the system.
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It may also interest you to know that beyond the outward beautification and inscription of the word primary healthcare center on the “four corners” buildings in the creek, the majority of them don’t even have a common first aid box, not to talk of a functioning lab or beds to lay on.
Most of them lack even clean potable water and sanitary systems or power to bring life to the facilities.
What is the way forward you may ask?
First, we have to hold our leaders and representatives accountable. Let’s start to choose leaders based on character, knowledge, and understanding of the plight of our mothers and children, with known past achievements and commitment toward the growth of our creeks.
It’s high time we provide social amenities to our creeks so it can be in pair with other urban facilities so when personnel are posted to our creeks, they will feel at home to discharge their duties
Let our representatives make provision for residential quarters for the needed manpower to mount such facilities
We should make it a habit of executing standard projects as awarded in the MoU of contracts and not use our office to shortchange our subjects just as is been witnessed now among our so-called representatives
Our representatives need to put in place good monitoring policies to see that the government assets are well utilized and help to offload those who intend to shortchange and play with the innocent lives of our creeks dwellers in the name of becoming ghost workers when posted to man such facilities. We should look inwardly in terms of local content when it comes to the provision of manpower.
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There should always be continuous training and retraining, of staff, creating of awareness and sanitization programs among nursing mothers on the importance of antenatal care before childbirth, basic knowledge on health-related sicknesses such as malaria, typhoid, and possibly ways to prevent them since most deaths among our creek dwellers are also attributed to them.
If all hands are on deck, with the right set of mind and representatives who do not only remember home only during the electioneering period, we all can play a role in bringing an end to this ugly trend of high child mortality rate witnessed in our creeks.
I am Bafuere Treasure Dio, let the fluid of my pen never run dry as I whisper my echo from the creeks which I call my home.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Daily Report Nigeria.
