By Akanji Alowolodu, Bauchi
Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Board in collaboration with International Development Partners (IDPs) on Saturday organised a road walk to commemorate the 2026 World Contraceptive Day to create awareness on the need for utilisation of family planning activities to promote quality family health.
The road walk commenced from the headquarters of the Board through Bakin Kura to Bayan Bata to the Emir’s Palace and terminated at the Bayan Fada PHC.
Speaking at the commencement of the commemoration, Executive Chairman of the Board, Dr Rilwanu Mohammed, said that the exercise was aimed at letting the people know the importance of family planning activities.
Represented by Director, Primary Health of the Board, Dr Sufiyanu Jibrin, the EC lamented that the North-East subregion, is battling high maternal mortality and infant morbidity in the country just as fertility rate is extremely high in the country.
He added, “Well, however, all we are talking about is not about stopping birth, no, no, no. But we want to have a planned controlled delivery of quality children, so that the number of people that are productive will be developed, children that are healthy and productive, in schools to learn and become useful to the society.”
He added,”We don’t want to have children without doing anything, so thst creating menace to the society will be reduced. We are not talking about the almajiri. It’s not the religion or the Islamic religion. No, no, no, no. We are talking about making it in such a way that we have a quality kind of education. These people should be productive. These people should have a quality life like any other person has.”
“And when we talk about contraception, it’s so amazing that the closest one that we think about is abortions. And when you talk about abortions, these are as a result of unplanned pregnancies. And let me say surprisingly to the society, that unplanned pregnancies occur more in marital homes than outside the marital homes. We are in the hospitals. We see them. They come that they want to see that they want to abort. They want to see that they terminate the pregnancy, and it happens commonal within them,” he lamented.
He added, “So this kind of reminds us that there are ways that you can have pregnancy as a gift of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. If every pregnancy is a gift of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala, why should you terminate it? If you have it planned between the husband and the wife, so there is no need for you to terminate it.”
According to him,”So, I think when it comes to termination, it’s where we encounter quackery, where we encounter all sorts of things that are done illegally. Abortion is not legally allowed in the country. Policy-wise, we don’t abort children. Children are gifts of God. Pregnancies are only aborted if there are indications for forced abortion. When we say the life of a mother is at risk, of course, this is a reason whereby the pregnancy can be aborted.”
Rilwanu Mohammed added, “The knowledge is there, but the most important thing is for us to have a planned pregnancy. So by so doing, you realize that when we do a lot of abortions in places that are not meant for that, you realize that complications will arise. There are complications of hemorrhage, in the first place. There are complications of infections in the second place, and infections can lead to sepsis, and sepsis can lead to death.”
He added,”So many reasons why this Commemoration. So, actually this programme is calling people’s attention that at the facility, not far from where they are, primary healthcare centers as well as the secondary facilities, you can access these services, and these services are mostly free. And we have to say at this juncture that we appreciate all our partners.”
“You can see in such a day like this that they have all contributed to see that we move the state forward, that people are aware, that people take cognizance of this, and people know where they can access services. So certainly the services are available. We have partners that assist us in so many ways. There are partners that support us with commodities. It’s obvious here. We can see commodities,” he added.
The EC concluded, “I can say, I appreciate all our partners within the family planning unit. I appreciate UNFPA. I appreciate Society for Family Health, I appreciate LIFE, I appreciate MSI. We are even wearing the T-shirt, and PPFN. We all appreciate them. We really appreciate what they are doing, and we hope they will keep to support us and we keep seeing that this high fertility rate in the North-East, out-of-school children, fit people living in the society.
Also speaking, the Family Planning Focal Person in the Board, Maryam Dahiru, said that the exercise was put together to ensure that members of the public are reminded of the importance of family planning services.
She stressed that FP services across the Primary Healthcare Centres across the State are provided freely to all categories of clients.
Maryam Dahiru commended the Development Partners for supporting the State in ensuring the sustainable service delivery through availability of various FP commodities.
