THE Northern Nigeria Traditional Leaders Committee on Primary Health Care says they will adopt role modelling and sensitization to boost routine immunisation coverage and uptake of family planning services in the region.

The traditional leaders made the pledge during an emergency meeting of Northern Traditional Leaders on community engagement framework organised by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) on Monday in Abuja.

The Emir of Argungu in Kebbi State, Alhaji Samaila Mera, said they would adopt role modelling strategy to boost routine immunisation indices in the regions.

The emir said they would take their children to the vaccination centres and they would also volunteer to vaccinate other children to improve confidence in the system.

The emir noted that by doing so, it will generally motivate people to access the services.

Mera however lamented that a lot of communities don’t have access to Primary Health Care facilities.

According to him, the lack of access is due to distance or because the routinely needed medical officers were not available.

He added that availability of traditional means of providing care and cure to some ailments are some of the factors that inhibit some parents from accessing routine immunisation programmes in the region.

Mera therefore pointed out that the tradition in the north was that husbands were heads of families, as the as head of the families, they make decisions on behalf of every member of the family.

“Our first point of call was to talk to the husbands and try to change their attitude on routine immunisation and access to other primary health care services,’’ he said.

Earlier, the Shehu of Bama in Borno, Alhaji Kyari Elkanemi, said the meeting was commendable as it reflected the determination of the traditional institution to support government efforts to improve the health of the people.

Elkanemi, who is also the Chairman, Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on Primary Health Care, called on other traditional leaders to use the platform of community engagement framework to mobilise mothers and care givers for routine immunisation uptake.

Dr Faisal Shuaib, the Executive Director, NPHCDA, handed over the community engagement guidelines for traditional leaders as a guiding document across northern Nigeria bearing in mind that contest will differ across the states.

“Providing the document that shows how it should be done in general principles is what we are doing today; it is a working document that could be improved upon.

“We are very aware that the situation in southern Nigeria would be different from what we are doing today and southern Nigeria is our next point of call,’’ he said.

He added that the framework has described how the emir, the district head and village or community head could be used to strengthen routine immunisation and primary healthcare as a whole.

The executive director explained that most of the burden of routine immunisation coverage in Nigeria was high in the north that was why the agency was starting with traditional leaders of the region.

“We have seen historically that because the traditional leaders were engaged into polio eradication, we have move to 25 months now without any new case of wild polio virus in the country.

“Exactly, the same pathway we are taking with routine immunisation,’’ he said.

-NAN

BE

– Nov. 27, 2018 @ 9:55 GMT |