The Chief
Operating Officer (COO) of Leadership Newspapers, Mr Dele Fanimo, gave this
charge at the Lagos office, when a delegation of Family Planning Media Advocacy
Working Group (FPMAWG) led by its chairperson, Mrs. Chioma Umeha, paid him an
advocacy visit.
Churches and
mosques, he told NaijaAgroNet, need
to do more, underlining the fact that some of these things should form part of
the Sunday sermon and Friday mosque service.
“They need
to demystify the myths and misconceptions to their members. Imagine a woman
attaching child birth to inheritance. Some will say, if you live in a man’s
house and no so, you will suffer when the man dies.
“Not able to
cater for a large family can also lead to corruption because when you have more
than you can care for, you would be forced to steal,” he bemoaned.
He also
called on traditional leaders, religious leaders and political elites to help
and demystify the myths and misconceptions of family planning as the media
alone cannot do it.
As part of
contributing its quarter in creating more awareness on FP, Fanimo assured
FPMAWG that Leadership Newspaper is ready to work with them, declaring that he
and Leadership team are already converts on FP.
Fanimo, accompanied
by the acting General Manager, Southern Operation
at Leadership, Mrs. Angela Tony Iji, further urged the FPMAWG to see beyond newspaper publications
but go to the rural communities, community leaders and other stakeholders to
sensitize them on the importance of FP.
“… They in
turn will now be an advocate of family planning,” he declared.
The working
group chairperson, Mrs. Umeha, noted that Family Planning (FP) has been a
worldwide issue, which paved the way to an international Family Planning Summit
in London on July 11, 2017, to discuss efforts to reach the FP 2020 goals and
ensure that more women and girls around the world are able to plan their
families and their future.
Umeha at the
advocacy visit was in the company of Chioma Obinna of Vanguard Newspapers and Remmy Nweke of DigitalSENSE Africa
Media, publishers of NaijaAgroNet, pointed out that the
Summit made a commitment to increase the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR)
from 15 percent to 27 percent by 2020 at that meeting.
He also said
that in Nigeria, government at both the Federal and State have shown commitment
to the provision of free FP services to the entire women of child-bearing age
in the country.
Further, she
said that family planning initiatives when effectively done, could reduce
maternal deaths by up to 34 per cent and newborn death by about 15 per cent.
Also, the chairperson’s
team included Pastor Olusegun Omotayo Adeboye as well as Mrs Shotomiwa Olubunmi,
both of Lagos Advocacy Working Group (LAWG) and Public Health Sustainable
Advocacy Initiative (PHSAI).
