By Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse

The Jigawa state Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Accountability Forum (JiMAF), has appealed to the state governor, Malam Umar Namadi to release N1b approved under Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHPF) programme.

The said amount is for the additional 149,240 poor and less privileged persons enrolled in the programme recently.

This was contained in a communique issued after a two day review meeting organized by JiMAF supported by Lafiya UK Program at Hasina Confectionary and Restaurants signed by the JiMAF secretary, Comrade Isah Mustapha.

The communique demanded that the new enrollees should started enjoying the free healthcare services across 287 political wards of the state.

In the communique, JiMAF urged the governor to speed up the release of the money for the enrollment exercise to enable the targeted beneficiaries 149,240 persons start gaining access to healthcare services.

According to the communique “We believe these will enhance state government’s commitment toward achieving the universal health coverage”

The communique also commend the governor for approving the sum of N1b for the enrollment of additional 149,240 poor and less privileged persons across the 287 wards and allocating 12.1% of its 2024 annual budget to the health sector.

“The Organizations is using this medium to appreciate the State Government for the passage of the revised Jigawa State Primary Health Care Dvelopment Agency bill into Law.
“We believe this will strengthen the Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) and promote equitable distribution of human resource for health and improve service delivery”.

The communique disclosed that an analysis of the first quarter of this year’s budget performance by JIMAF has revealed an abysmal budget performance across the MDAs in the health sector.

“This is affecting the state government desire to make basic healthcare services accessible and affordable for all people irrespective of their economic and geographical locations”.

The communique expressed the need to improve budget releases across the sector.

JIMAF commended all the development partners for supporting the state towards improving the health indices and called on other stakeholders to support in monitoring and ensuring judicious utilization of the fund when released.

The participants in the review reaffirmed that JIMAF will continue to collaborate with government and other partners towards the overall development of the state.

JiMAF is a conglomeration of different Civil Society Organizations, Media and Government representatives working to facilitate the reduction of maternal and child morbidity and mortality to the barest minimum.

From Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse

Ahead of the forthcoming Polio Immunisation exercise, the Jigawa state primary healthcare development Agency (PHCDA) in collaboration with UNICEF have set the target of 1.2 million children to be vacinated against Polio.

This was disclosed by the permanent secretary in the state Primary Healthcare Development Agency, (PHCDA) Dr Kabiru Ibrahim in an exclusive interview

The permanent secretary explained that “All is set for the Jigawa state government through PHCDA to vaccinate 1.2million children of 0- 5 years against Polio across the 27 local government areas of the state”.

Dr. Kabiru Ibrahim explained that the agency recruited over 9,180 ad-hoc staff who were grouped in to 3060 teams and spread to 287 political wards of the state to conduct the exercise.

According to him “The exercise would be flagged-off on Saturday and it would last for five days. Four days is for the real exercise and one day is designed for mop up to ensure no single children is left behind”.

According to him, “We have enough dosage of the vaccines which have been despatched to all the 27 local government areas with all necessary materials for the kickoff of the exercise all over at the same time”.

“The permanent secretary noted that Jigawa and Nigeria have been polio free for years. But the immunization exercise followed a discovery of an environmental polio sample in some states neighboring to us (Jigawa) who are also conducting this same exercise.
That is why we (in Jigawa) also conducted the same exercise to provide additional protection against the polio disease on our children”.

He added that they have constituted 3060 teams with three persons in each of the team that would be going from house to house in addition to some designed centers and all public health facilities in the state to immunize the targeted 1.2 million 0-5 years children in the state”.

He therefore warned people to avoid coming up with any condition before accepting any immunization be it polio or the routine immunization.
He also called on parents and care providers to bring their children out to receive the vaccines to improve their protection against the disease.

Our reporter in the state gathered that there are over 556,750 children who have not received one single dose of vaccination they were expected to have received, these are referred to as zero dose children.

This was contained in a paper presented by Mr. Michael Banda, Officer-in-Charge, UNICEF Field Office Kano at a day Media/QAP briefing and Orientation on polio campaign organized by UNICEF Kano field office for journalist of Jigawa, Kano and Katsina state.
The paper indicated “such children inexorably are vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases, including poliomyelitis. This is unacceptable and must be tackled frontally”.

Mr Michael Banda maintained that “Not only is polio vaccination crucial, but all routine vaccinations are also critical for children’s survival. “We must all work together to strengthen routine immunization services and ensure that all children under five receive all vaccines, including the polio vaccine”.

“If all children get vaccinated and receive all the vaccines they need to receive, they would no longer be at risk of contracting polio, with attendant debilitating consequences, but they would rather have received the immunity which will protect them against vaccine-preventable diseases. Immunization has been proven to be the most cost-effective protection against vaccine-preventable diseases”, Banda emphasis.

By: Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse

Jigawa State governor, Malam Umar A Namadi, has suspended the commissoner for commerce, Alhaji Aminu Kanta over alleged financial scandal from Ramadan free Feeding bankrollrd by the state government.

The suspension was contained in a letter signed by the Secretary to the State Government Malam Bala Ibrahim.

The statement indicated that a member of the state executive council Alhaji Aminu Kanta has been suspended following his alleged mishandling of iftar feeding programme fund for his home local government.

According to the statement “Alhaji Aminu Kanta who is the Commissoner, Ministry of Commerce and member of the State Executive Council has been suspended pending investigation into the Iftar feeding programme in Babura Local Government Area”.

The statement explained further that the action is part of the Malam Umar Namadi’s led government’s commitment to ensure financial accountability and prudent management of public funds.

According to the statement, the “Governor directed his suspension in a letter, conveyed by the Secretary to the Jigawa State Government, Malam Bala Ibrahim. The suspension is with immediate effect.”

National Update in the state gathered that the suspended commissoner is a childhood friend to immediate past governor of the and now minister of defense, Alhaji Muhammadu Badaru Abubakar.