Advocacy Visit to Kwadon District in Yamaltu Deba LGA

The importance of traditional rulers in our communities cannot be overemphasized. Their roles as community heads, rulers and leaders ensure the continuity of customs within cultures, safety of members/indigenes and serves as a channel of governance within the government structure of Nigeria at the grassroot level.

Harnessing their role as traditional rulers in delivering key messages to their subjects on better healthcare services and practices within their communities, create an avenue whereby behavioural changes to existing practices or beliefs which are unsafe and outdated, can be reversed. The advantages of this, is the dissemination of health promotion contents and key health messages etc. to subjects who may not be literate, do not have access to digital media communication /means and are unaware of safer and healthier practices for better healthcare.

LISDEL under the Strengthening Government Partnerships and Advocacy for Primary Health Care (SPAG) Project, through Gombe State’s RMNCAH+N champions, initiated advocacy visits to various traditional rulers, to engage and orient them on the need for their subjects to access available healthcare services within their community. These services are Antenatal Coverage, hospital delivery and birth care services, immunization of children, family planning (FP) and child spacing commodities, breast feeding etc.

On the 10^th of February 2023, RMNCAH+N champions paid an advocacy visit to Alhaji Sani Abubakar, the traditional leader of the District head of Gombe in Yamaltu Deba LGA. They stated that the expected outcome of the visit was to see a collaborated effort of stakeholders drive an increase in the uptake of Family planning commodities, attendance of ANC by expecting women, hospital deliveries and a reduction in maternal mortality and morbidity. They highlighted how his influence as a traditional ruler will spur adherence to health-related messages because of his community’s respect for him. This now necessitates the need to have traditional rulers onboard as informed stakeholders in the implementation process. They elicited commitments from the traditional leader, Alhaji Sani Abubakar, who pledged to sensitize his subjects on the benefits of accessing health services available in the PHC and encourage them to access and demand for such services in the Ward.  

They agreed that coalition efforts of the Government, State and non-State actors, in addressing the challenges of the Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child, Adolescent and Elderly Health, and Nutrition (RMNCAEH+N) Program in the State will improve healthcare and further accelerate Gombe’s progress towards attaining Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

The advocacy visit had the following RMNCAH+N champions in attendance: Hon. Asmau Iganus, Member State House of Assembly and RMNCHAE+N Champion; Dr. Maryam Abubakar, Director Community and Family health SPHCDA and RMNCHAE+N Champion; Alhassan Yahaya and Zainab Mohammed D. from GOSAM, and Sarki Abdu Yakubu and Sarah Bala from LISDEL.

By Eruemolor A | LISDEL

Juliana Abude-Aribo | Editor | LISDEL