Children’s Day In Nigeria: UNICEF commends Nigeria for National Health Act

     Its May 27, Children's Day in Nigeria, and there still remains a nagging question, Any hope for the Nigerian child?

The theme of this years Children’s Day celebration is: “Good governance: impact on the Nigerian child” And as was the norm, millions of children across the nation are celebrating.

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has commended the National Assembly for passing the National Health Bill into law. It also called on Preisdent  Goodluck Jonathan to quickly assent to the Bill for immediate implementation across the country.

According to UNICEF  “the National Health Bill is the best gift to Nigerian children as they celebrate their day.”

In there general analysis, they went ahead to state as follows;

The health status of children and women in Nigeria remain poor but we believe that with careful implementation of the National Health Act, along with sufficient funding for and close monitoring of the National Strategic Health Strategic Development Plan, Nigeria will take firm steps to reverse this trend.
We expect the National Health Act to translate into the release of much needed funding from national revenues for the health of children and women. Its focus on an essential minimum package of care to tackle the health problems which cause the highest number of death and illness in children and women is highly commendable.
Scaling up the implementation of an essential package of proven, cost-effective and high-impact interventions in all primary health centres will bring Nigeria closer to attaining the health related MDGs, said Dr. Suomi Sakai, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria. In doing so, we encourage the Government and its partners to leave no child behind, as this momentum is really about securing quality primary health care with equity - for every woman and every child, she said.
The theme for this year’s Children’s Day celebration, ‘Good governance: impact on the Nigerian child’ underscores the critical role of good governance in realizing the full spectrum of children’s rights as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Nigeria’s Child Rights Act of 2003. Good governance should equal child-friendly governance and ensure that every child is counted and visible in the state budget.