By Yunusa Isa, Gombe

The Gombe State Government has expressed commitments to sustain the achievements recorded by The Challenge Initiative (TCI) under its family health project in the last three years.

The commitment was made known by the State Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya during the state’s graduation ceremony from the TCI intervention on family health.

The governor underscored the importance of child birth spacing in enhancing a population especially women and children pointing out that his administration will continue to ensure rapid response to health issues for the overall wellbeing of the people.

Represented by his Deputy Dr Manassah Daniel Jatau, the governor said the TCI intervention came at a time when population explosion is overwhelming the available limited resources.

Governor Yahaya noted that “An unplanned productive population is a challenge and a threat to the society”, which he said is the situation bedeviling developing countries including Nigeria.

He said “The coming of TCI Project to Gombe three years ago is not unconnected with the realisation of such challenges and the government of Gombe State welcomed the initiative towards enhancing maternal health in the state”.

The governor maintained that a planned productive population is an advantage to a nation, while the converse is a challenge, threat and out-growth of the society.

“Lamentably, this is what is facing most least developed countries, Nigeria not being an exception. Acknowledged or not, The Challenge Initiative is poised to address the above adverse effects of unplanned population”, he added.

He stressed that “This being the case, I wish to state that your coming to Gombe was a welcome development, and considered apt, germane, necessary and inevitable”.

He said child birth spacing helped reduced maternal mortality and morbidity in Gombe State.

On his part, the State Commissioner for Health Dr Habu Dahiru who gave the synopsis of achievements through partnership with the TCI, said that before the coming of the TCI project, the uptake of birth spacing commodity was not encouraging, expressing satisfaction that TCI has changed the narrative with better policies that strengthen the health systems and fostered patronage across the state’s health facilities.

The commissioner said “Though the project has ended in Gombe state, sustainability plans have already been put in place to ensure that child spacing activities continue to thrive in Gombe State”.

In her address, the wife of the State Governor Hajiya Asama’u Inuwa Yahaya, represented by the State Commissioner for Women Affairs Asama’u Muhammad Iganus, described the TCI’s close-out as an extraordinary achievement in view of the level of patronage of child spacing services across health facilities.

While commending the Inuwa Yahaya-led administration for its steadfastness in ensuring availability of the birth spacing commodities, the governor’s wife equally commended the dedication of all stakeholders for promoting gender equality in the state.

She assured that as champion and an advocate of child spacing, she will continue to encourage women to access birth spacing services towards attaining tangible progress in maternal health.

Also speaking, the Country Director of the TCI in Nigeria Taiwo Johnson, congratulated the government and people of Gombe State for actualising the goals of the TCI, emphasising that Gombe has joined the TCI allumni through which other states will tap from their wealth of child spacing knowledge and practices.

She called for continued funding of birth spacing activities as a strategy for sustaining the services.

There were goodwill messages from partners led by the UNICEF Representative Dr. Jibrin Umar Muhammad and Rebecca Caleb Maina who spoke on behalf of the media working group. Maina commended the TCI and the state government for ensuring the success of the project.

In his presentation, the Executive Secretary Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Abdurahaman Shu’aibu, highlighted the activities of the ministry of health, his agency alongside the collaborative partners and the TCI.

He expressed appreciation for the support received from the State Government, community, religious and traditional leaders as well as the development partners, describing it as the reasons behind the success of the project.

The meeting featured the launching and dissemination of the chronicles of impact report, as well as the presentation of awards to some deserving personalities including the state Deputy Governor Manasseh Daniel Jatau, the wife of the State Governor Hajiya Asama’u Inuwa Yahaya among others.