By Olaitan Osola
The Nigerian media has been charged to rise up to their responsibility of making the government accountable to the citizens.
This call was made by Mrs. Chioma Kanu, an official of the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health {PACFaH} during a courtesy visit of the team to The Nation Newspaper on Thursday, January 28.
According to Kanu, it is very important for the media to support civil society groups in making sure that government fulfill it promises to the people especially mothers and children.
Kanu revealed that the essence of the team’s courtesy visit is to mobilize the media in the country to support the group and represent the society well.
Dr. Ejika Orji, Chairman of Advocacy for Family Planning in Nigeria who is also a member of PACFaH revealed that the rate of family planning support is 10% for over 20-30years and there is a need for the media to convince the government to make adequate budget for it.
Orji disclosed further that meager money released by government doesn’t even get to the right source. In his word, “ money released doesn’t get to right recipient, 1.6% goes to federal ministry of health in the budget,” he said.
Ngozi Onoura, Project Director of Nutrition in Nigeria said that there are a lot of malnourished children across the country and there is a need for civil society groups to mobilize resources for nutrition with the support of the media.
Pharmacist Remi Adeosun who represented the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and a partner of PACFaH charged that timely reports of event as it relates to nutrition and giving priority to nutrition by the media is very important.
“ Editorial dedicated to children and family and capacity building of Civil Society of Nigeria are the key areas that the media can help,” Adeosun said.
The team urged the media to engage the government to generate fund to sponsor immunization vaccine for children and encourage family planning in other to help reduce child and maternal mortality rate in the country.
PACFaH is a social accountability project implemented through the strategy of partnership building of indigenous NGOs champions and activities to catalyze government at national and state levels in Nigeria to fulfill their commitment to child and family health.
