Governor’s wife seeks 6 months maternity leave for Jigawa female civil servants
By: Ahmed Aminu, Dutse
Wife of Jigawa Governor, Hajiya Hadiza Umar Namadi has appealed to the state government to extend maternity leave for civil servants from three to six months.
This, she said would tally with the new law at the federal level that gave nursing mothers in the civil service six months to take care of their babies.
The governor’s wife made the appeal in a paper she presented at a Policy Dialogue on the extension of paid maternity leave for nursing mothers, on Tuesday in Dutse.
She said that the six months leave would give nursing mothers enough time to practice exclusive breastfeeding.
The governor’s wife was represented by her Special Assistant, Hajiya Hadiza Ahmed.
She said exclusive breastfeeding from first day to six months for every child is the best prevention of all children diseases.
Speaking to newsmen on the sideline of the dialogue, the Chairman, Jigawa state Civil Society Scaling-up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), Comrade Shuaibu Musa Kafingana, emphasis the importance of domesticating the law and extension the maternity leave.
He said it would allow nursing mothers to stay at home for the complete six months needed to exclusively breastfeed their babies.
“Apart from medical benefits to child for disease prevention, it’s also has a lot of benefits in child’s brain development. The child would be intelligent and a quick learner,” Kafingana added.
He urged nursing mothers in the state to practice exclusive breastfeeding, as it keeps the children in the best health condition.
In his opening remarks, CS-SUNN Programme Officer, Mr Ambrose Evhoesor said the one day dialogue brought together all stakeholders in nutrition support and promotion to secure their commitment to adequate and prompt release of nutrition fund in the state.
The programme officer maintained that the dialogue was an opportunity for the participants drawn from government, media and civil society, to come up with more ideas to convince state government to domesticate the six months maternity leave with pay for women of reproductive age.
Mr Ambrose said the CS-SUNN was highly disturbed about the increasing rate of malnourished children across the country, and was working with all stakeholders to reduce the rate.
