By Chiangi Avese, Makurdi
Benue Commissioner for Youths, Sports and Creativity, RT. Hon. Terkimbi Ikyange, has said the three months given to nursing mothers as maternity leave was grossly inadequate for working class women to achieve the goal of exclusive breastfeeding.
The Commissioner made this known when members of the Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) led by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Coordinator, Ngozika Ibhadode, paid him advocacy visit on Monday in Makurdi.
Hon. Ikyange lamented that the three months paid maternity leave was too short to enable women to exclusively breastfeed their children for the required duration of six months, frowning that the working class women were not many. He pointed out that they should be more in numbers and extend their advocacy to the larger society.
He further encouraged them to take their advocacy visit to the Benue State House of Assembly, Association of Wives of Assembly Members, commissioners wives, Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), and relevant stakeholders so as to escalate their message.
“I am fully aware of the immense benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, and i am promising that the ministry would support their your intentions wholeheartedly”, Ikyange said.
He disclosed that at the moment there was no desk officer for nutrition in the ministry but he promised that the nutrition unit would be created after due consultations with the relevant authorities.
Earlier, the FCT Coordinator, Ngozika Ibhadode, encouraged Benue to join the states that had approved six months paid maternity leave for nursing mothers. So far, 13 out of 36 states had implemented the six months paid maternity leave for working mother.
“Instead of treating malnutrition, use the opportunity to exclusively breastfeed your children, every ministry should endeavor to create a nutrition unit and make a budget line for nutrition”, she said.
