September 5, 2015 was a black Saturday...because I lost a sister, 6 weeks after childbirth (to avoidable causes -infections arising from mis-management of the C-Section performed on her). She fought for six whole weeks while we spent hugely, praying and hoping that she pulls through.

But it was not to be.

Her child lives and will grow up without truly experiencing a mother's love, her mother's touch...like thousands of other children, in Nigeria.

Today, 1 in 13 women (if not more) still lose their lives during / after childbirth while 1 in 5 children would never live to celebrate their 5th birthday!

The outlook is bleak.

The very system meant to protect our mothers are letting us down, every second with each new case of avoidable death.

Today, the privileged (super-rich) few invests massively in medical tourism. They fly out of the country in their private jets to treat the commonest of ailments because they can well afford it.

They leave the country in droves because the Nigerian health sector is crippled, brought to her knees by the same few who focussed on enriching their purses to the detriment of over 173 million citizens.

Maybe you have never lost someone.
But...are you a lady / woman?
Are you a man who has a wife, daughter, sister, cousin, etc who you love very much?
Are you a citizen of Nigeria?
Do you have cause to visit the hospital at least once in a year?

Think of the poor masses who have no means to procure the cheapest of drugs or who are unable to afford even the transport fare to take them to the nearest health-center.

Think of the mothers who are condemned to death just because there are no blood packs available at the blood banks for life-saving transfusions. I experienced this, first hand.

Think of the mothers who arrive at the doors of the hospitals to deliver their babies but are left unattended to for hours because Doctors are on STRIKE or because there are shortage of doctors and the few available are busy at the theatre.

Think of the mothers who have no option than to deliver their babies at home or at the popular mission houses with no skilled health worker attending their births just because they could not afford the cost of ante-natal care or childbirth.

I could go on.

They die, daily. Needlessly.

I cannot build hospitals or provide money for all the women in Nigeria and nothing I do can bring the dead back. The hands of time cannot be turned back but if I can prevent one more family from suffering the fate we suffered, if I can save just one more mother from dying, then I will.

But I cannot do this alone. I need you.

I need you because it is a general plight and our collective fight...our right...to demand for our rights.

My lone voice will not go far but it is my hope that our collective voices will create a defeaning sound that will propel our leaders to action.

PLEASE join me and call on the Nigerian Government to do us right. To do our mothers and children right and:

-Invest rightly in the health sector,
-Put resources in place to save the lives of our pregnant women and young children,
-Build new properly-equipped hospitals to support the existing units,
-Equip the existing hospitals with functioning medical equipment,
-Employ properly trained / skilled medical workers to take charge.

No mother deserves to lose her life while trying to give life to another. No parent deserve to lose their child(ren).

Save our Mothers. Save our Children.

I am Abiola Olaleye, a Nigerian and I urge you for the love of all you hold dear to please sign the petition here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/688/728/202/demand-an-end-to-maternal-and-child-deaths-in-nigeria-now/#sign

Yes i have and it hurt me so badly.My aunt was an epitome of what womanhood represented.I always prayed God to give me a wife with such qualities until the careless and negligent acts of some lousy doctors in Abuja sniffed life out of her

talktonase:
Yes i have and it hurt me so badly.My aunt was an epitome of what womanhood represented.I always prayed God to give me a wife with such qualities until the careless and negligent acts of some lousy doctors in Abuja sniffed life out of her

So sorry about your loss, it is always very painful (it's only the 'victim's families that truly understands how it feels).

But we cannot all continue to fold our arms without doing anything. I really look forward to the day all these needless deaths would stop and people would visit Nigeria for health tourism.

Impossible is nothing.