The Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs, Ireti Kingibe, has declared that maternal health is not a privilege but a fundamental human right that must be protected and guaranteed for every woman.
Kingibe made the assertion during the International Women’s Day Policy Dialogue organised by Adinya Arise Foundation in partnership with the National Human Rights Commission at the commission’s auditorium.
According to the senator, the true measure of a nation’s health lies in how it treats women during their most vulnerable moments, particularly during pregnancy and childbirth.
She noted that Nigeria accounts for nearly 28.5 per cent of global maternal deaths, stressing that the figures represent real lives lost. “This is not just statistics; it is a teacher, a sister, a daughter, and a pillar of a home gone forever,” she said.
Kingibe explained that many maternal deaths are linked to the “three-delay model”: delay in seeking medical care, delay in reaching a health facility, and delay in receiving treatment, often due to the inability to pay.
She observed that when labour becomes obstructed or complications arise, a Caesarean section is often the only life-saving option, yet many Nigerian women cannot afford the procedure.
The senator therefore urged policymakers and stakeholders to move beyond affordable healthcare and work towards guaranteed free emergency obstetric care.
She called for investment in a nationwide free C-section programme to ensure that no woman’s life hangs in the balance while waiting for financial clearance, and also emphasised the need to fully fund social welfare units in public hospitals to support vulnerable women.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Tony Ojukwu (SAN, OFR), said women’s rights are human rights and that access to healthcare is a fundamental entitlement that must be enjoyed without discrimination.
Ojukwu noted that reproductive rights are central to women’s empowerment, adding that access to emergency obstetric care, including Caesarean sections, remains critical.
According to him, many Nigerian women face major barriers to quality healthcare, contributing to the country’s high maternal mortality rate.
“This is a human rights issue, a public health crisis, and a development challenge,” he said.
He added that advancing free emergency C-section care is not merely a health intervention but a human rights imperative that can help protect women’s rights to life and health, promote gender equality, and bring Nigeria closer to achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 on good health and well-being.
Earlier, the convener of the International Women’s Day Policy Dialogue and Executive Director of Adinya Arise Foundation, Mabel Adinya Ade, lamented that many Nigerian women die daily while performing what she described as one of life’s most sacred acts—bringing new life into the world.
She said many women are unable to access timely and life-saving emergency care when complications arise, largely due to social and systemic barriers.
Ade noted that many expectant mothers must travel long distances, often across difficult terrain, before reaching health facilities.
She added that delays in attending to women in labour often worsen conditions such as obstructed labour, which can escalate into life-threatening emergencies leading to uterine rupture, severe bleeding, infection, stillbirth, or lifelong injuries such as obstetric fistula.
She stressed that when timely emergency obstetric care—especially Caesarean sections—is accessible and delivered without delay, lives are saved.
“No woman should lose her life simply because she cannot afford emergency childbirth care,” she said.
