HOME FRONT Stop dumping your children, commissioner tells Kaduna women
The Kaduna State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Rabi Abdulsalam, has admonished women in the state against abandoning or dumping their children, saying they are a blessing from God and should be treated as such.
She gave the warning at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Kaduna when she paid a working visit on the management and also checked on a mentally retarded young man who was dumped in front of a house.
Daily Trust learnt that the young boy was picked up by a Good Samaritan, one Ali Kote, in August last year who took him to the psychiatric hospital before calling on the attention of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.
“It doesn’t matter whether a child is an imbecile, deformed or has a health challenge, it is God’s blessing and God has a reason for everything He allows to happen. Women should desist from dumping their children, whether infant or adult at refuse dumps or in any other place.
“Any woman who throws her child away for any reason, obviously does not have the heart of a mother and lacks motherly love,” she said.
Hajiya Rabi therefore called on women to rise to their responsibilities as mothers, caregivers and custodians of their children, irrespective of their form or challenge they are faced with.
“We must also work towards bringing peace back to our homes and the society at large so that we can all enjoy peace,” she also said.
While commending Kote for picking up the young man who appeared to be in his early 20s and for informing the state about his plight, she assured the hospital that the ministry would foot all the bills incurred in the treatment and welfare of the patient.
She also disclosed that talks were ongoing with an orphanage in Zaria where the young man would be taken to when he leaves the hospital.
The head of Clinical Services, Dr. Folorunsho Nuhu, who represented the medical director of the hospital, Dr. Taiwo L. Sheikh, commended the state government for its efforts and support in ensuring that the patient is rehabilitated.
He noted that the patient would need support for a long time or even forever.
He decried the abandonment of patients in the hospital by relatives who neither paid medical bills nor catered for their welfare.
Dr Nuhu also urged the state government to come to the aid of the hospital on the issue. “Oftentimes, we have taken patients to as far as Nasarawa State. We need help so as to be able to cater for indigent and abandoned patients because it is difficult for us to cope with,” he said.