Dr Okechukwu Osai is the Director, Public Health Services in Enugu State. He was among Nigerians who attended the recent Family Planning Conference in Malaysia with support of the PACFaH@Scale project. In this interview at the side-lines of a programme in Abuja, he explains the uptake of family planning services in the country, and lessons Nigeria can learn to improve its health services.
What is your assessment of the uptake of family planning services in Nigeria?
Family planning in Nigeria is still evolving. We still have unmet needs in some areas because of the level of awareness among our people. That is why the contraceptive awareness prevalence rate is still very low. By now we should be thinking of a Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) of above 50-60% but we are still below 20% as at the last assessment.
So I think it is still low and we have a lot of work to do to bring it to what it should be, and where we are supposed to be.
You participated in the recent Malaysia family planning conference, what lessons can Nigeria imbibe to improve her service delivery?
The conference which was held from 10th to 12th July was attended by experts from over 35 countries, and over 200 abstracts were presented. The health experts from Nigeria had the opportunity to meet with people from different parts of the world. We had the opportunity of interacting, and seeing how things are being done in other countries for success stories and how we are getting it wrong in Nigeria.
What key findings or innovation do you think Nigerian can adopt?
We learnt that globally, countries are placing emphasis on providing healthcare for the less privileged. Since 1948 the World Health Organisation (WHO) made health care a human right. That means it should be a right to everybody born into this world irrespective of race, religion or colour, or where you live.
So the whole world is thinking towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) but in our country right now with less than 1% of the total population covered by health insurance, it is difficult to start talking about UHC.
I also had the opportunity of interacting with someone during the conference that mentored me on how to bring in the 8th pillar in the health system; that is community participation. He told me how they were able to improve their health system involving the community using the village health committee, and it did not take them long. That model has been institutionalised in every part of Bangladesh, and it did not take them long to bring their health system from where it was to the present situation.
What is the uptake of family services in your state?
As at the last time, we had a CPR rate of 18% which is low and it still borders on ignorance about family healthcare services. Once we say family, people usually think that it is for those who already have a family. But it must go beyond that in order to remove the stigma that is attached to it, that is why we are adopting that name family planning.
What is your advice for the Nigerian populace on family planning?
To me, family planning should be the responsibility of every stakeholder; the community and the society should be involved. We know that with our family settings, in some places women culturally have to seek permission so you cannot remove the role of men. Everybody should participate and do their role in family planning services in the country.
The government also has some roles to play in terms of policy, and resources needed to drive the process. The individual also has a role in creating awareness. If I tell my neighbour, and he or she tells other persons, then awareness and quality information will get across to every nook and cranny of the society.
