FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MUST INCREASE ITS INVESTMENT IN HEALTHCARE
Her Excellency, Mrs. Olutoyin Saraki, wife of the Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and former Governor of Kwara State; a Lawyer turned Healthcare Improvement Advocate, has created an indelible impression in the minds of many with her charity project, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, which has touched and changed many lives in immeasurable ways. Mrs Saraki, in a chat with Onikepo Braithwaite and Jude IgbanoÔi discussed the issue of Healthcare, which concerns us all; why she is unrelenting in her advocacy and desire to see a meaningful transformation in the health and wellbeing of Nigerians and Africans, especially women and children. In recognition of her relevance to humanitarian causes, she was accorded the rare privilege of being appointed as Centenary Ambassador of her alma mater, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS), which recently celebrated its Centenary in Lagos. Mrs Saraki spoke about important issues like Infant Mortality, the need for a good Primary Health Care System, Education in Nigeria and fighting Domestic Abuse in the Country
You are a lawyer by profession. Did you ever engage in the practice of law? Does being a lawyer come in handy in any way with the running of your Well Being Foundation? You are an alumni of School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London (SOAS) and one of its Centenary Ambassadors. What is the significance and function of a SOAS Centenary Ambassador?
Everything that I learned during my law degree at SOAS, my master's degree at King’s College and at the Nigerian Law School, has been hugely informative to me personally, and is always applicable to the goals that I set, and I am constantly evolving, for the Wellbeing Foundation Africa which I founded.
During my studies, I was particularly drawn to comparative issues of law, to conflicts of law, and to the co-relativities between culture, tradition and the Law. The organisation is built on empowering women and girls to know their rights, specifically their sexual and reproductive health rights. In Law School, you are taught the fundamentals of human worth and protecting that, and you understand the power of policy and legislation for not only changing countries, but also individual lives. As a Lawyer, I understand and mobilise people around causes that matter to human development indices like Gender Equity, Universal Health Care, Access and Retention In Education, Inclusive Financial Models, Civil Data and Birth Registrations, as the building blocks, or the very foundation of a rights-based approach to improving lives, because I essentially learnt that it is raising the quality of services rendered at a basic level, that determines democratic functionality to give an equitable start to every life. So for instance, I believe that unless we guarantee quality Primary Health Care, we can never achieve efficient referrals to the higher more specialised tiers of health when required to. My studies, and later experience equipped me to understand the intricacies of law and human rights better, and to translate these, beyond theoretical concepts into everyday actions, which I hope to change lives. All this, because of my legal background.
When my good friend and current director of SOAS, Baroness Valerie Amos CH PH, asked me to be the SOAS Centenary Ambassador, I was quite excited and happily accepted because of my time and experience at SOAS. My role as the SOAS Centenary Ambassador, is to advocate and promote the university through my global and national platforms. As the world's leading institution for the study of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, SOAS is at the centre of thought leadership in Africa, a place of vibrant researched debate, where diverse views are heard and new ideas are generated.
At SOAS, I learned how to ask questions, questions that elicit more questions, but perhaps, more importantly, generate the right answers from the right people, applicable to the right contexts. I saw also that SOAS had a hub of students and academics from across the world. In Nigeria, there is a large community of SOAS Alumni cutting across the generational divide. Did you know that 5 of our Chief Justices are alumni of SOAS? We also have a lot of lawyers practicing today who are graduates of SOAS as well. I think this is a testament to the quality of education and unique cultural experience one gets from SOAS.
SOAS Centenary celebrations came with a catchy segment, ‘Questions Worth Asking.’ What questions in your view, are those relevant questions worth asking about our country Nigeria at this point in our national life?
As I said earlier, at SOAS I learned the ‘How’ and ‘Why’ of asking questions. Not just any questions but questions worth asking. Looking at Nigeria and much of the World today, one sees a myriad of issues – poverty, conflict, intolerance, recession, and inequality. The assumption is that government or a higher power can solve these problems – and in many ways that are a logical way to think. However, in exploring “Questions Worth Asking” everyone is part of the solution. This is because we all come from diverse backgrounds – be it cultural, educational or religious, and have different perspectives of looking at issues.
In our Country, some questions worth asking are ‘How can we empower and educate girls?”, “How can we ensure that women and men are treated fairly and equitably?”, “What better ways can our citizens receive accurate health information?” and “How are we treating our healthcare professionals, namely the midwives and community health workers?”. “How can we eradicate dangerous and harmful diseases like Meningitis and polio?” And, because one of my Wellbeing Foundation Africa's flagship tools is a patient custody health record, "What is the Value of a Statistical Life?" All these questions, I think are pertinent in moving our society and economy towards a more sustainable one.
Why did SOAS decide to celebrate its Centenary in Lagos, Nigeria?
SOAS is celebrating their Centenary across the globe with their 100 cities campaign. Lagos - Nigeria was chosen for several reasons. Africa is so often inaccurately depicted, solely as a place of hopelessness and despair. I see us as
"AFRICA IS SO OFTEN INACCURATELY DEPICTED, SOLELY AS A PLACE OF HOPELESSNESS AND DESPAIR. I SEE US AS A PLACE OF HOPE, OF LIGHT, OF SPIRIT, AND OF STRENGTH"
a place of hope, of light, of spirit, and of strength. Africa holds many wonders of the world and civilisation. The city of Lagos has enormous wealth, in terms of cultural heritage and art. As an institution focused on the arts and humanities, it seemed apt that they come have the celebration here.
Kindly, tell us the history of the Well Being Foundation (WBF). What inspired you into the WBF? How did it become so big and international? Some believe that WBF is just a pet project which you thought of when your husband was the Governor of Kwara State, similar to other pet projects of the wives of Governors and Presidents, like Better Life for Rural Women, WOTCLEF, Beyond Zero by the wife of the Kenyan President and so on. But we recall that you already had an NGO before your husband became the Governor of Kwara State, which was involved in providing medical care and much-needed operations for very sick children. Has that been co-opted into WBF?
The Wellbeing Foundation Africa began 13 years ago as Nigeria's first homegrown purpose- centred private sector philanthropy, and yes, I drew on some courage and experience from running an earlier charity with 5 of my friends, called The Lifestream Charity, which sought to mobilise resources to help children with heart deformities, established in 1995.
My decision to start WBFA, long after my own tragedy of losing a newborn, and decades of trying to help pregnant women informally as my own little promise to God for sparing my life and that of my first child and survivor of my first set of twins, after years of silent donations,
crystallised when I realised, as the wife if the Kwara State Governor, in collating and analysing raw data that I had been gathering on childbirth outcomes, from the women I was helping in various health facilities in the State and across the country, that Nigeria had an abnormally high number of deaths in childbirths. I knew as a matter of fact, that this was not an issue that simple financial donations could resolve or solve, yet I also knew that some innovative solutions could combat this scourge and deliver beneficial impact. That crystallisation of intention with innovation, became my "Moment of Obligation", in making me raise my voice, and my actions, formally, to tackle, and raise national and global actions, in combating Nigeria's maternal and child deaths emergency. That was in 2004. I believed then, and still, believe that maternal and newborn health care, need to dramatically improve in Nigeria.
The recognition and acknowledgement of the Wellbeing Foundation internationally, I believe was largely due to the commonality and resonance of its longestablished core focus, with that of the former- Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who also recognised the importance of maternal and newborn health within the Global Strategy for Women and Children's Health, having and created the “Every Woman Every Child Movement” which WBFA joined. Yes, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa enjoys a significant global platform across policy, advocacy, and action fora, which I continue to drive as a committed advocate, along with the dedication of my teams, but I must note that entering a global arena necessitates the right movement, the right moment, the right evidence for action and the right policy foundation, along with an adherence to diligence and accountability to a more stringent standard than normally obtains locally. Within the then Millennium Development Goals, and the now Sustainable Development Goals, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa's mission targets happened to identify a challenge and solution locally, which are a significant measures globally, and we discovered that global leaders were ready to embrace a non-governmental pathway to exploring and deploying innovative solutions, as evidenced by our admission to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, ECOSOC. If it had been another Secretary-General who perhaps, had interests in other issues, perhaps we would not have engaged to such heights with a global cause. I was seeking for solutions, and I sought the best solutions, from the top, but with a clear commitment, to apply and implement those solutions at the grassroots where they are most needed. When all's said and done, myself and His Excellency Ban Ki Moon, shared a common respect for the value of human life, and particularly a desire and unwavering conviction, that we could, alongside so many others, preserve, promote and protect, the value of newborn lives, whether in my home nation Nigeria, or around the world.
The Wellbeing Foundation Africa has forged many key locals, national and pan-African partnerships, and I greatly recognise the efforts of Mrs Margaret Kenyatta in the Beyond Zero campaign and other African first ladies in reducing for instance, the prevalence of HIV-AIDS across our continent, as I equally am encouraged by my dear friend Graca Machel's chairing of the WHO Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health PMNCH, of which my Wellbeing Foundation Africa was Nigeria's first non-governmental organisation country member.
What are the functions and goals of WBF? What is the contribution of the Foundation to the everyday life of Nigerian women and children? How far has WBF gone in achieving its aims and objectives? Does WBF cooperate with other NGOs like Beyond Zero of Kenya for example, which has to do with child maternal mortality rates?
The Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s objective is to dramatically reduce the percentage of maternal and newborn mortality in Nigeria, and also support other organisations which have the same objective in other countries across the world.
Currently, we run carefully targeted programs to meet certain unmet needs, for our citizens, which have dramatically improved survival rates in the prenatal, delivery and postnatal periods, of a woman, and her newborn's life.
Our Emergency Management of Obstetric and Newborn Care EmONC programme trains midwives and medical workers, with the latest innovations in anatomical models, to avoid, detect, and treat obstetric and newborn complications, in Kwara State primarily, with medical observers periodically from other States of the Federation. This program has radically up-skilled the preparedness, capacity, and competence of medical personnel, to cope confidently and promptly in situations where targeted care is indicated, and has literally eradicated preventable loss of lives in childbirth in the medical facilities across 9 local government areas in Kwara State. So far, where the medical workers in all the covered medical learning institutions and facilities have received this training, supported by Johnson and Johnson, in collaboration with our implementing partners, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. An added value-set of this EmONC Program are the skills laboratories we empower the institutions with, to constantly refresh their acquired skills.
Another program, a favourite of mine, is our 'Mamacare' Antenatal and
"THERE ARE QUITE A FEW REASONS WHY INFANT MORTALITY IS SO HIGH IN NIGERIA. FIRSTLY, THERE IS A SHORTAGE OF MIDWIVES THAT ARE WELLQUALIFIED AND TRAINED ACROSS THE COUNTRY"