The World Bank was quick to recognise the potency of the initiative. According to the organisation, the Abiye Safe Motherhood Programme of�the Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, is a panacea to the high mortality rate in the African continent.
Shortly after its introduction, the financial body sought to adopt the safe motherhood programme as a model for achieving the targets of the Millennium Development Goals on maternal health within the African continent.
Abiye, the brainchild of the Governor Olusegun Mimiko administration was to later receive glowing tributes from the global financial body in Washington DC, in the United States after a presentation of a comprehensive report on the project by the governor.
World Bank African Region Vice President, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, remarked that �Ondo State has provided a role model and benchmark for the African continent in tackling infant and maternal mortality rate.� The financial body went ahead to recommend that�the Abiye programme be adopted as a model for achieving MDG-5 throughout Africa.
Goal 5 of the MDGs adopted in 1990 by Nigeria and all member-bodies of the United Nations sets two targets � one, to �reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio�, and two, to �achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health�.
Nigeria currently accounts for more than 10 per cent of the world�s maternal and infant deaths but through the Abiye programme, Ondo State is recording significant progress in maternal and infant health.
Urging other States of the federation to adopt the Abiye strategy and the federal government in particular to replicate the same throughout Nigeria as �a sure and fast means of combating infant and maternal mortality challenge,� the World Bank had �admonished other African countries to learn from the experience, even as it expressed commitment towards providing assistance to help expand the initiative in tackling global infant and maternal mortality.
Not oblivious of the gains inherent in the implementation of the initiative, a nine-man member of Committee on Health from the�Sokoto House of Assembly recently arrived in�Akure, the Ondo State Capital on a two-day working visit.
The purpose of the visit was to understudy the Abiye Initiative of the Ondo State Government with a view to adopting it to find a lasting solution to the high maternal death rate in Sokoto State.
The Sokoto lawmakers have every reason to seek urgent solution to what they labelled a high mortality rate in the state.
On arrival, the visiting team headed for the State House of Assembly where the leader of the team, Alhaji Abubakar Magaji said they came to find out details and understudy the law that makes provision for the confidential enquiry into maternal deaths in Ondo State.
According to him, Ondo State is at the threshold of making history through its various laudable programmes, adding that Sokoto State would replicate the Abiye Safe Motherhood Initiative of Dr Mimiko after a thorough study of the law establishing it.
Reacting to the request of the visiting legislators, Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Hon. Samuel Adesina commended the visiting lawmakers for coming to Ondo State regardless of the party difference.
He described their action as a right step in the right direction.
�I commend the commitment of our colleagues who are desirous at putting in place a legal framework that would enable the Sokoto State Government to operate a health system that would better the lot of the good people of Sokoto State.�
The Ondo Speaker said the law of maternal mortality reduction came into being in the state in 2010 following its unanimous passage by the House of Assembly.
Establishing that a lot of positive results have been recorded in the state since the passage of the law, the speaker explained that the people of Ondo State would continue to appreciate the Dr Olusegun Mimiko government for providing qualitative and robust healthcare at all times.
Speaking in the same light, the Ondo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Dayo Adeyanju said the mortality rate had reduced by 50 per cent since the establishment of the mother and child hospitals.
Insisting that pregnancy is no longer a death sentence in Ondo state, the Health Commissioner said �Abiye safe motherhood would continue to receive accolades from within and outside the country.
Commending the legislators for exhibiting the traits of genuine leaders�who want the best for their people, the Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Hon. Kayode Akinmade �also described the legislators as sincere leaders who have not allowed politics to come between them and the good they can offer their people.
�You deserve to be commended for this noble step you have taken to prevent pregnant mothers in your State from avoidable death. Yours is robust politics, devoid of sentiment. You are a blessing to your people� Akinmade said of the legislators.
At his initial presentation of the initiative to the World Bank, �the Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko had stressed the uniqueness of the Abiye Programme�s tripartite structure, involving pregnant mothers and young children up to age five; health centres or clinics near them and the Mother and Child Hospital (MCH) initiatives, all linked via the Health Rangers, communication tools, and various types of transportation. There is also a high degree of professionalism and comprehensiveness in project design and execution.
Prof Niyi Akinnaso, a lecturer of Anthropology and Linguistics at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA, said the Abiye programme was summed up as essentially focusing on tackling four major factors which predispose pregnant mothers and infants to death.
�These include the three delays in seeking care when complications arise, reaching care when decisions are taken to seek care, accessing care on arrival at a healthcare facility; and in referring care from where it is initiated to where it can be completed.�
According to Akinnaso, the Abiye Programme was designed to combat these factors, with specific strategies developed to ameliorate or even block particular delays, through establishment of Health Rangers, specially trained community health extension workers equipped to take care of pregnant mothers and infants up to age 5.
�As of June 12, 2011, barely 15 months into its operation, 26,150 patients had been treated and 5,879 babies had been safely delivered, 905 by Caesarian Sections.
A comparison of maternal mortality rates with major medical facilities in four different states indicated that the Abiye Programme had the lowest maternal mortality ratio during its first year of operation.�
Source: The Sun
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