By our Taraba correspondent
No fewer than 47 million women stand a risk of losing access to modern contraceptives, if the ongoing lockdown due to the Coronavirus continues over the next six months.
The alarm was raised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), through its Assistant Representative/Coordinator Lagos Office, Dr. Omolaso Omosehin, while speaking during a webinar organised by the leadership of the Network of Reproductive Health Journalists in Nigeria (NRHJN).
The webinar, in commemoration of the World Population Day, was tagged “Putting the Brakes on Covid-19: How to Safeguard the Health and Rights of Women and Girls”.
Omosehin, who was also of the view that the lockdown, necessitated by Coronavirus pandemic, has as well “disrupted UNFPA programmes on ground” especially on the health services.
Omosehin said the lockdown may as well result to seven million unintended pregnancies, a figure arrived at in the wake of recent research embarked upon by the fund.
Also, he intimated that there could be an estimated two million cases of female genital mutilations (FGM) if current situations persist over the next six months.
Omosehin observed that “60 per cent of women have greater propensity of falling into poverty, as a lot of them are health and social workers. The hope of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs will be compromised if this happens”.
While urging states to domesticate the law preventing violence against persons, he said the UNFPA would not be deterred but would continue to work round the clock in order to transport the much-needed commodities to service delivery points.
The chairman of the NRHJN’s Board of Trustees and former Country Director of IPAS Nigeria, Dr. Ejike Oji, charged state governors to tread extra legitimate paths to reduce the effects of the pandemic.
Oji lauded the bold steps taken by the members of the National Assembly to pass pending acts on rape and gender-based violence and harped on the need to ensure full utilisation and domestication of the Violence Against Person’s Prohibition Act (VAPP) in all the states of the country.
