Mimiko receives SOGON award

Governor Olusegun Mimiko was yesterday decorated as a Honourary Fellow of the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria, SOGON, in Ibadan, Oyo State. The award according to the President of SOGON, Dr. Tinuola Abiola-Oshodi was in view of the Governor’s achievements in the health sector, especially the state’s Safe Motherhood Project called Abiye, which has ensured high level of safe delivery thereby reducing infant and maternal mortality rate in the state.
  Her words: Our society counts you worthy of this prestigious award as a result of your valuable contributions to safe motherhood in Nigeria. She commended the governor and the wife of the President, Mrs Patience Jonathan who also bagged the society’s award for their efforts at addressing the challenges facing the mother and child.

                While lauding Governor Mimiko for the priority his administration has been giving to major sectors such as health, education, agriculture, urban and rural development in the state, the SOGOM boss was of the opinion that all these will soon translate to unprecedented growth and development in the state.

                In his response, Mimiko appreciated members of the society for considering him worthy of the award which he said will spur him to do more in the service of God and humanity. He said the success recorded in the health sector is due to the dedication and commitment of members of his health team who have had to sacrifice personal comfort for the success of the safe motherhood project in Ondo State.

                Taking the audience through the novel processes involved in his government’s intervention in health in Ondo State during a presentation, Mimiko said it is a combination of political will, commitment, desire to succeed and the dedication of the entire people of this state that has resulted in the celebrated success.

                He said infant and maternal mortality figures in the state has nose dived. Through the project, which he said was initiated in 2009, no fewer than 8,033 safe deliveries have been recorded and more than 32,000 women and children under five have been attended to.

He disclosed that a baseline survey earlier carried out in the pilot local government revealed that only a few fraction of pregnant women who registered at health facilities end up delivering in such facilities, leading to abysmal capacity utilisation.

To reverse the trend, he said, the administration after identifying four major delays predisposing women to death during pregnancy introduced Abiye programme which involves fully kitted and trained health personnel called health rangers to monitor registered pregnant women form registration till delivery. Not only were the registered women provided with toll-free mobile phones to communicate with the health rangers, midwives and even the governor and top government functionaries, their care givers were given kitted motorcycles, tricycle and four wheel ambulances to aid transportation of the pregnant women during emergencies