Anastasia Oniah-Ashi, professor of Public Health at Emmanuel University in Raleigh, North Carolina, has urged the Nigerian government to strengthen national security as part of efforts to address the country’s maternal health challenges.
The United States-based professor made the call during her inaugural lecture and teaching tenure in Abuja, which was also broadcast via Zoom on Saturday.
She expressed concern over the rising cases of infant and maternal mortality, noting that insecurity remains a major barrier preventing women, especially in rural areas, from accessing timely medical care.
“We are looking at the social determinants of health. Most of the time, people treat diseases, but the most important thing, as I said in my lecture, is prevention and this insecurity is one of the social determinants.
“If there is no security, maternal health is really a problem because women in rural areas sometimes want to give birth, they cannot access health services and that leads to maternal mortality. So those are some of the things we are trying to address. That is why we are looking at systems, policies and willpower,” she said.
He advocated for the provision of basic social services and urged leaders to find lasting solutions to insecurity.
“Advocate for the provision of social services to provide security to the people by the leaders. That’s why we are talking about strengthening the system, because if the system is poor, there is insecurity. It affects overall health. So, these are some of the things that we hope that leaders can address and we find it difficult to raise awareness so that people know that the causes of diseases are not just biological, as I said, they are structural, they are political. If we have leaders who can address the determinants, we will go a long way to address the problems of health.
Professor Oniah-Ashi noted that similar challenges persist across sub-Saharan Africa, leading many citizens to seek healthcare abroad despite the availability of facilities in the country.
“What is happening in Nigeria is also happening in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. That is why our system is poor. You will see people traveling abroad to access health treatments, it is not that we don’t have them here, we have these facilities, we can do well with them, but the system is poor, but if we can get our direction, this will work well.”
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