‘Why abandoned newborn baby was named after Gov Ayade’
The government of Cross River State has named an abandoned baby after the state governor, Prof Ben Ayade. This is because it took the effort of Ayade’s officials to discover the day-old baby which was abandoned at a private medical facility on March 20. The hospital could not readily disclose the name of the mother, whom they said could not be older than 16.
The Director General of the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Betta Edu, said she had to name the baby boy Anderson Ayade because the facility where he was born is called Anderson Primary Healthcare Center Calabar, and because the state government would henceforth cater for the baby.
The chief community health officer, Mrs. Elizabeth Offiong, explained that when the teenage mother came, she had lamented the ordeal she was facing and threatened to dump the baby afterwards.
Offiong said, “After giving birth, the girl refused to undergo series of tests as she out rightly rejected the food bought for her. She refused all our offers to treat her and rather insisted that she didn’t want the child.
“She threatened to dump the baby in the gutter if government would not take him. All efforts to persuade her to receive treatment were unsuccessful as she ran away and abandoned her newborn baby.”
Speaking after naming the baby after Gov Ayade, Edu blamed the situation on rampant, promiscuous and carefree attitude of young people these days, which result in unwanted pregnancies.
Dr. Edu thanked God that the teenager managed to access the health center to deliver the child rather than delivering at home and dumping her in a toilet or bush, which probably would have led to the death of the baby.
She noted that the Ayade administration “believes that every child deserves to live, and every child should be wanted and be planned for. If you don’t want to have children then take up family planning.”
While assuring that government would take over the support of the child until proper adoption is done, Edu said the sensitization campaign by her agency against promiscuous living and drugs had somehow helped.
“We are also going from house to house to convince them to take up family planning but many have rejected it,” she said.