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She made the call in Lagos at the second run of ‘High,’ a contemporary stage play, which tackles issues surrounding drug and prescription medication abuse in Nigeria.

According to the Public Relations agency that made the statement available to newsmen on Wednesday, Mrs Saraki thanked the cast and crew – including the show’s director, Keke Hammond – for choosing to tell what she called an important story that highlighted what was a growing social problem.

“As a parent, I cannot begin to imagine what its like to be dealing with a child with a drug problem and I want to thank you for this. You have shown it to us in such a reality and I think this story should be shown around schools in Nigeria.

“I think that the first step to getting things right is shining a light on this issue and I will do what I can because the more we talk, the closer we will get to the solution,” Saraki was quoted as saying in the statement

She charged parents to look out for lifestyle changes in their children, wards and dependants, which might hint at a substance abuse problem – a theme which flowed through the play.

“I think that every parent should watch this play because just from watching it, I could see that it’s actually very subtle changes. It’s not something that jumps out and shows you that this person is on drugs or not on drugs,” she said.

In his remarks, Mazen Mroue, Chief Operating Officer, MTN Nigeria, said that everyone had a role to play in ensuring that we build healthy thriving communities.

“I think the story touches every one of us. We are fathers, and we have brothers, sisters and children and as the play reflects, substance abuse does not differentiate between classes, ages and all the differences that we have.

“At MTN, we believe everyone deserves the benefit of the modern connected life.

“Through the MTN Foundation, which is responsible for our corporate social investments, we believe that everyone deserves the benefit of a healthy life, and that is why we are here and are part of supporting this show,” he said.

He said that ‘High’, supported by MTN Nigeria, through the MTN Foundation, tells the story of a group of childhood teenage friends on holiday from boarding schools whose lives, as well as the lives of their parents and families, get dramatically upturned when one of them suffers a drug overdose.

He added that substance abuse remain a significant problem in Nigeria. In 2018, the BBC reported that about 3 million codeine-containing cough preparations are consumed daily in Kano and about 6 million bottles in the Northwest alone.

He said that as part of efforts aimed at addressing a growing national problem, the MTN Foundation, in collaboration with a consortium of professional and public policy stakeholders launched an initiative called ‘ASAP’ – the Anti Substance Abuse Programme – in December 2018.

“ASAP aims at increasing public awareness of substance abuse and addiction among youths, discouraging first-time usage and casual substance abuse nationwide, and providing access to resources for people in need of professional help,” he said.

Health care philanthropist and wife of Nigeria’s Senate President, Mrs Toyin Saraki, has called for more advocacy around substance abuse and support for mental health practitioners.

She made the call in Lagos at the second run of ‘High,’ a contemporary stage play, which tackles issues surrounding drug and prescription medication abuse in Nigeria.

According to the Public Relations agency that made the statement available to newsmen on Wednesday, Mrs Saraki thanked the cast and crew – including the show’s director, Keke Hammond – for choosing to tell what she called an important story that highlighted what was a growing social problem.

“As a parent, I cannot begin to imagine what its like to be dealing with a child with a drug problem and I want to thank you for this. You have shown it to us in such a reality and I think this story should be shown around schools in Nigeria.

I think that the first step to getting things right is shining a light on this issue and I will do what I can because the more we talk, the closer we will get to the solution,” Saraki was quoted as saying in the statement.

She charged parents to look out for lifestyle changes in their children, wards and dependants, which might hint at a substance abuse problem – a theme which flowed through the play.

“I think that every parent should watch this play because just from watching it, I could see that it’s actually very subtle changes. It’s not something that jumps out and shows you that this person is on drugs or not on drugs,” she said.

In his remarks, Mazen Mroue, Chief Operating Officer, MTN Nigeria, said that everyone had a role to play in ensuring that we build healthy thriving communities.

“I think the story touches every one of us. We are fathers, and we have brothers, sisters and children and as the play reflects, substance abuse does not differentiate between classes, ages and all the differences that we have.

One day in 1991, when I was 28 weeks pregnant with twins, I started retaining a lot of water and my blood pressure skyrocketed. Then I started to bleed. I didn’t know it then, but it was eclampsia, a life-threatening complication of pregnancy.

By the time I got to a doctor in Lagos, Nigeria, it was too late. One of my baby girls died. The other repeatedly stopped breathing and had to be revived; one of her heart valves hadn’t closed. My doctors were excellent, but their information was inadequate – they said all I could do was pray.

I did pray, promising God I would spend my life helping other mothers if my baby lived. Then I learned about an experimental drug in England called digoxin, and because I was economically privileged I managed to get some of it. My daughter’s heart valve closed and she survived.

I have worked to keep my promise ever since for the millions of mothers in Nigeria who are not as lucky as I was. Many are not aware that advance preparations can help prevent tragedy. Worldwide, some 800 women die every day from complications of pregnancy and childbirth – that’s one in every 31 women in sub-Saharan Africa. Four million newborns also die every year for the same reasons.

We know relatively easy and cost-effective ways to save most of those lives – family planning, prenatal care, trained attendants at delivery. One dollar invested in reproductive health care for women can save up to nine dollars in other development costs. Simply providing voluntary family planning to the 222 million women worldwide who want it but lack access to it would cut maternal mortality by 30% and infant mortality by up to 20%.

At first I didn’t grasp the dire situation in my country. My first charity, LifeStream, raised funds to send children with heart valve problems to a wonderful surgeon in Israel. In five years we sent 78 children, and the surgeries were a joyous success, but far too few in the context of Nigeria’s then-population of more than 150 million people. I still hadn’t seen the whole picture.

When my husband became governor of Kwara State in 2003, my duties included reaching out to people at major moments in their lives. I congratulated them on marriages and births and consoled them at family deaths. I realized that in an average week I was consoling more people than I was congratulating. Sometimes I would congratulate a woman for giving birth on Monday and on Wednesday she would be dead. I began to ask all new mothers about their blood pressure, the bleeding, the breathing – and I saw it was not just bad luck in a few cases but a terrible problem across my entire country.

How bad was it? We had no proper records of births, deaths, illnesses, marriages, so we didn’t know. Doctors were reluctant to fill out more paperwork, but without it how could we develop policies and target programs? The first project of my WellBeing Foundation Africa was to establish national Personal Health Record books that put in a pregnant woman’s hand a list of all available health services and the treatments and medications she receives from the beginning of her pregnancy until her child is five years old. This pan-African maternal health and well-being charity has reached 220,000 women and children with these books so far – still nothing in a country where six million women are pregnant every year, but we hope soon to digitize these records for cell phone use. When something goes wrong, we and the woman should be able to know why.

Hospitals and clinics in Nigeria always ask pregnant women to supply their own equipment for deliveries – a navel clamp, mentholated spirits, razor blades, plastic sheets for the bed. For lack of these simple things, many women give birth at home in unsanitary conditions, and their risk soars as a result. Now the WellBeing Foundation has a pilot program to provide “MamaKits” of those items to pregnant women through midwives, adding medications for blood pressure and prolonged delivery to kits given to hospitals. We are also organizing groups of pregnant women to set up 1,000-day savings accounts together, adding cash transfer programs, loans and insurance that give us regular contact with the women to provide information and monitoring.

I had a son in 1995 and another set of twins in 2000, again with complications but this time with much more knowledge about what could be done. My children are all well, and now I am engaged with Every Woman Every Child, a United Nations program sharing information worldwide on what works. Our hope is that even the smallest clinic will be able to adapt these best practices to its local circumstances. The program aims to save the lives of 16 million women and children by 2015.

Donor countries like the United States should support these and similar initiatives because women and their children are the greatest resource any country possesses. Investing in them is the best possible investment in global stability and security.

Wife of the Senate President, Toyin Ojora Saraki has emphasised that government investment in strengthening health insurance systems is paramount to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Nigeria and around the world.

Saraki who stated this while addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, noted that Civil registration and vital statistics systems must be implemented and strengthened to allow Governments to prepare for epidemics and allocate investment where it is needed the most.

According to Saraki, Investment in family, community and primary healthcare, along with hospitals where needed to bolster healthcare wherever people need it, in rural areas and urban, cities and villages.

She said, “Only two countries in Africa have met the Abuja declaration to pledge 15% of their government budgets to health. Meanwhile, tuberculosis kills more than 4,000 people every single day. This can be avoided.” She said.

“Too many people are plunged into poverty by health emergencies that they or their families experience. Non-communicable diseases kill over 41 million people every year” She added.

Saraki lamented the murder of young midwife and mother, Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa in Nigeria last week, saying that the incident must spur Governments and global institutions on to strengthen security provisions for frontline health workers, adding that their training and pay conditions must also be improved.

Mrs Toyin Ojora Saraki has sounded a warning bell as the United Nations General Assembly convenes in New York.

To commemorate this year’s International Day of the Midwife on Tuesday, Toyin Saraki, wife of Senate President, Bukola Saraki and UN Population Fund highlighted the important role that midwives play in the health sector as well as the need to provide better working conditions for them.

Dr Dienne Keita, Resident Representative, UN Population Fund (UNFPA), advocated for adequate policy framework and working condition for midwives to ensure enhanced maternal and neonatal indices in Nigeria in Abuja.

The country representative underscored the need to expand midwifery programmes, maintain high global standard and promote enabling environment to effectively serve the need of a woman and her family.

She noted that midwives have supported many women to exercise their sexual and reproductive health services.
Keita said the services help to ensure healthy, wanted pregnancy and safe delivery, but “yet far too many women die in Nigeria due to the lack of adequate access to reproductive health services’’.

“UNFPA strongly supports the training of midwives in more than 100 countries including Nigeria.

“In 2009 UNFPA in collaboration with partners support midwifery services and training in Nigeria. UNFPA also sends the National Midwifery Association to the training on how the association can enhance regular midwifery framework to ensure accountability,’’ Keita said.

She said the theme for 2018 is: “Midwife: Leading the way with quality care’’, resonates with UNFPA key midwife strategic direction of quality, equity and leadership.

According to her, UNFPA in collaboration with the National Association of Nurses and Midwives provided free medical outreach to hundreds of women and children in Gwagwa and Rigasa communities in line with theme of the event.

The benefitting communities were located within the Federal Capital Territory and Kaduna State, respectively.

Earlier, Mr Abdulrafiu Adeniyi, National President, National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, decried the lingering crises and industrial action within the health sector.

Adeniyi said the association would work to ensure that everything was put in place to prevent industrial actions in the health sector.

He therefore called on government and other key stakeholders to think proactively on the best way to keep industrial disharmony in health sector at bay.

Mrs Toyin Saraki, wife of the President of the Senate and Founder, Well Being Foundation, said the evidence shows that midwives can lead the way with quality and equity in healthcare delivery.

“We are not only celebrating the importance of midwives within the health sector but we are showing the evidence that midwives can bring the change we need to deliver quality care to people,’’ Saraki said.

She said the foundation had inaugurated a major WASH campaign in collaboration with global water 2020, WHO and other partners.

She added that the campaign aimed at taking hygiene to health facilities to wipe out sepsis and enhance the survival rate of women and children in the country.

Saraki noted that the expertise had shown that Nigerian midwives were key health professionals we can trust to take healthcare delivery to the grassroots.

May 5 is the internationally recognised day for highlighting the work of midwives.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) introduced the idea of the ‘International Day of the Midwife’ following suggestions and discussion among Midwives Associations in the late 1980s.

The ICM then launched the initiative formally in 1992.