 |
| Mrs. Aisha Muhammadu Buhari |
By Adewole
Kehinde
“Our
children are our future. Education of our children is the best way to secure
the future of our country” –
Aisha Muhammadu Buhari
“Volunteerism
is selfless service to humanity, service above self, giving the best one can in
terms of knowledge, skills, talents, care, professionalism, resources (money,
provisions or/and otherwise) to better the lives of the Less Privileged, the
down trodden and the poorest of the poor members of the civil society without
expecting a favour or reward in return” Prince
Goodluck OBI, United Nations Volunteer Ambassador, speaking @ United Nations
Volunteer (UNV) Day, Dec. 5, 2000. Prince Obi is also the President, United
Nations of Youth Network Nigeria (UNOY) & Global Alert for Defence of Youth
& the Less Privileged (GADLYP)
Nigeria
is among the countries of the World with the worst maternal and child health
profile. With a Maternal mortality ratio of 814/100,000 live births, and Infant
mortality rate of 201/1,000 live births, the country ranks 5th in the World
next to Angola, Central Africa Republic, Sierra Leone and Chad in the latest
estimates of Infant Mortality Rate (World Bank 2015).
More
disturbing is the failure to influence the trend towards a faster downward
trajectory in the last two decades and unsurprisingly, the country is not on
course to achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets for Goal
4; improve child survival and Goal 5 maternal health.
Impelled
by the need to swiftly improve the current poor health outcomes of women and
children in Nigeria, Hajia Aisha Buhari has committed to being an advocacy
enthusiast to stimulate the support of women, women groups and other
stakeholders towards a coordinated and results driven action on maternal and
child health.
Nigeria
was named as one of the countries for the newly launched Global Financing
Facility (GFF) for every woman, every child at the September 2015 Financing for
Development Conference held in Addis Ababa. The Global Financing Facility
presents an opportunity for Nigeria to accelerate efforts to end preventable
maternal, new born, child & adolescent deaths & improve the health and
quality of life of women, adolescents & children thereby preventing the
deaths of the nearly one million lives of women and children that occur every
year in Nigeria.
In May
2015, on the side lines of the Global Women Conference held in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, Hajia Aisha Buhari stressed the need for Nigerian laws that will
protect the women from forced early marriages, sex trafficking and other issues
Nigerian girls and women contend with. She raised concerns on Child sexual
abuse in Nigeria, sex trafficking and the need for Legislation against early
marriage.
Hajia
Aisha Buhari founded the Future Assured to continue her advocacy work for the
health and well-being of women and children through community mobilization and
health promotion. She was prompted by the need to rapidly improve the current
poor health outcomes of women, children and other vulnerable groups of the
Nigerian population, she reaffirmed her commitment to continue working towards
achieving the desired objective of improving the health and well-being of the
citizens of this country at a stakeholders meeting held at the Presidential
Villa and a Public launch of Future Assured programs at the side lines of the
United Nations General Assembly held in New York on the 29th of September 2015.
The
situation in the country in terms of the poor health conditions of women and
children in the country motivated Hajia Aisha Buhari into embarking on advocacy
towards improving their well-being and to achieve this, she had organized
outreach screening programmes in all the six geo-political zones across the States
under her Future Assured Initiative and several other interventions.
Hajia
Aisha Buhari ‘s Future Assured Initiative provided medical services in form of
blood pressure checks, blood sugar checks, breast examination and cervical
cancer screening.
The Future
Assured Initiative is among others aimed at complementing government’s efforts
in providing healthcare services to the citizenry, in addition to the health
benefits, the exercise is also intended to raise awareness on the importance of
regular medical check-ups, which would contribute to the attainment of the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) towards ensuring healthy living and
promoting the well-being of the people.
Hajia
Aisha Buhari had called on all stakeholders in the provision of healthcare services
to ensure availability and accessibility to the services. She believes that the
health of women is not just a gender issue rather it is a major developmental
issue.
Hajia
Aisha Buhari must be commended for ensuring that Nigerians have access to essential
healthcare services as well as for her passion for health and welfare of women
and children.
On April
14, 2016, she donated proceeds from her book “The
Essentials of Beauty Therapy: A Complete Guide for Beauty Therapy” to
parents of the Chibok girls, the Buni Yadi boys murdered in 2014 and children
suffering from malnutrition.
She is
currently working with Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria which as a
result of the Boko Haram insurgency that has plagued the country since 2009.
She set up a Committee to deal with the distribution of relief materials after
a visit to an IDP camp in Borno Northeast Nigeria.
In the
past 16 years of our democracy, we have witnessed many pet projects carried out
by First Ladies but as at today, I can’t really point to any discernible project
as they turned out political jamborees and pass away with the initiators.
The
justification of the humanitarian services and success of Her Excellency, Hajia
Aisha Buhari can be confirmed by the immortal quotes of Stephen Grellet when he
said "I shall pass this way but
once, whatever good I have to do or any kindness I have to show to my fellow
human being, let me do it now, let me not defer it nor neglect it, for I shall
not pass this way again"
In the
words of Mother Teresa “I am not sure
exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time
for God to judge us, he will not ask, 'How many good things have you done in
your life?' rather he will ask, 'How much love did you put into what you did?”
When the
stock of the few Nigerians living or dead are taken in respect of eloquent
testimonies on humanitarian and voluntary services, going by the above
monumental achievements, and many more, it is obvious that Her Excellency,
Hajia Aisha Buhari's name will not only be written in solid granite but also in
Gold.
In 2015, UNICEF
gave a scary statistics of 2.5 million malnourished Nigeria children and annual
death of 500,000 of such children. Will those over 2.5 million malnourished
Nigeria children at Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the country ever
forget Hajia Aisha Buhari from lifting them away from malnourishment? No.
Her
kindness to Nigerian women and children reminds me of Mother Teresa when she
said “Let no one ever come to you without
leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness:
kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”
I
therefore appealed to all other well-meaning Nigerians and organisations to
rise up to the challenge and support the programme of Hajia Aisha Buhari in
order to eradicate completely this ugly trend.
No comments:
Post a Comment