OGUN WOMEN GROUP DRILLS GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATES AT DEBATE

Others were; Adekunle Akínlade of Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Adewale Omoniyi of  Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP), Ademola Ogunbanjo of  Alliance for New Nigeria(ANN) and Sina Kawonise of YES Party.

Penpushing further reports that the debate  tagged, “Ogun Women Decides: Parley With Ogun Governorship Candidates”, was witnessed by various professional bodies, ,artisans, civil societies and members of the various political parties among others

The convener, Deaconess Doyin Ogunbiyi, in her speech explained that, the debate was held with a move towards making sure that women are actively involved in the political activities within the state and not just onlookers, adding that they must be a great asset to the development of the state and not just a tool for voting.

She said, “We want to take our destiny into our hands, we want to take our decision by ourselves because we know where the shoe pinches and for this reason, we plan this forum between Ogun Women and the electorates to make sure this forum come to place”

Penpushing also reports that Candidate of African Action Congress (AAC), Princess Martins while speaking on issue of maternal health care, said that there is a need for training and retraining because Nigeria is not where she supposed to be in 2019.

“Many have the poverty mentality, so in AAC we have to bring our that mentality from them and make them know that we are no longer in 1960 but in 2019, so by this, there will be low maternal mortality rate in our state and the women will be educated on necessary things to do when about to deliver”

Penpushing reports that, on his own part, Gboyega Isiaka, of African Democratic Congress(ADC) said that the problem lies with poor infrastructures and lack of trained personnel during the pre and post-natal activities, so there is a need to enlighten the people and give them confidence.

“It is something we are going to start from day one because we motivate the people that are there so as a result of that, it will give them confidence, we have the numbers of Doctors that are required, the numbers of medical practitioners required, no one is saying that we are going to include all of you at same time but you have to take conscious efforts”

The Action Democratic Party (ADP) Candidate, Dimeji Bankole, In his contribution, said that primary health care is the duty of the local government.

“The primary health is local government function, but as at today, because there is no local government taking up that function that is why there is CDS/CDC coming up to that function. We also need to build up necessary infrastructures, train and retrain’,

He added further, “Our agenda is only one point which encompasses other points and this is employment, when you do not get over 50% of your population engaged in employment, people will suffer” .

Penpushing also reports that, on his own part, the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) flagbearer, Adewale Omoniyi said, “what we intend to do is to upgrade three general hospital, reason for these is beyond what we are introducing known as Electronic Medical Record (EMR)’

He added, ’take for instance you go to Ijaiye Hospital now and you register for your treatment and you also go to Ijebu-Ode, there is no way you won’t receive treatment there also. Take for instance, go to any bank, register and they take your information, if you go to same branch of the bank, you will have your information likewise, so if they can have such in the financial institution, why can’t we have it too. That is the problem we have been facing through non-consistency”

The All Progressives Congress ( APC) flagbearer, Dapo Abiodun who was represented by his Deputy, Engr (Mrs) Noimot Oyedele, said “our administration is planning  a lot of emphasis on primary health care, because it is closest to the people. The primary health care is very important  and some of them are up to date, some of them needs to be updated, refurbished and made ready for use, this is our primary focus”

She also said that the administration will go into educating and making the women to be aware of the facility that are available to them and how they can use it to their best of ability, and by that there will be reduction on mortality rate.

The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) candidate, Adekunle Akínlade, said that rehabilitation of the 477 health centres in the State is the greatest challenge and not building new ones, and also the new challenge is looking into how to fund them.

He said, “Also the challenge we need to look at is the issue of data, not just in the state but across the country and we also need to have the data of children and women to know the level of ailment and if these can be done, it will be dealt with”

Penpushing further reports that, the Yes candidate, Sina Kawonise noted  that the issue of maternal mortality has made Nigeria to be the third largest holder of Maternal Mortality Ratio in the world.

“As at 2015, it was 814 per 100,000 pregnant women, and it dropped to 805 in 2017 per 100,000 pregnant women, the death is either through pregnancy, during child birth or 42 days after termination of the pregnancy, now If we look at both figures we gave out, you will see a clear association between poor countries and MMR’,

“So the first solution to this problem is to address the issue of poverty among our women, first and foremost, it was not accidental that the poorest countries in the world has the highest MMR in the world, so if we are talking of health facilities, we are just treating the issue as secondary issue, so the primary factor is the causative factor is the issue of poverty”

Penpushing reports that, Kawonise, however added that there will be a world development programme that will take care of women, and also address the issue of poverty, and health care facilities, as it will also involve personnel and upgrading of facilities. He promised to look into the internal generated revenue (IGR) of the state as a means of boosting the state’s economy

Penpushing further reports that   Ademola Ogunbanjo of Alliance for New Nigeria(ANN)  vowed to ensure that infrastructural development, security and policy are given special interest in the state as a means of developing the economy.

Meanwhile, the highlights of the event were that the candidates were also made to sign a Charter of Peace and on Gender Issues of Education, Health and Maternal Health among others.