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By Doris Obinna
President, Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Alhassan Yahaya, has called on the Federal Government to treat family planning as a matter of national survival, warning that continued neglect could deepen maternal mortality, weaken health outcomes and stall economic development.
Yahaya made the call while speaking on the importance of sustained investment in reproductive health, stressing that Nigeria’s future depends on urgent and deliberate action to strengthen family planning services nationwide.
He highlighted the Made Possible by Family Planning (FP) campaign, an initiative under FP2030, as a critical platform for improving access to quality reproductive healthcare for women. According to him, the campaign goes beyond contraception, focusing on saving lives, empowering women and strengthening national productivity.
Yahaya said family planning remains central to the health system, noting that access to quality maternal care enables women to deliver safely and remain healthy during the crucial first 1,000 days of a child’s life. He added that these early years are vital not only for children, but for long-term community and national development.
He expressed concern over Nigeria’s heavy dependence on donor funding for healthcare, describing it as unsustainable in the face of shrinking international support. He urged the government to take full ownership of family planning programmes by investing more resources in FP2030 projects, ensuring timely release of funds and enforcing accountability in their utilisation.
According to him, delays and mismanagement in healthcare financing have contributed significantly to preventable maternal deaths. He noted that family planning has been shown to reduce maternal mortality by up to 40 per cent, arguing that the statistic alone should spur immediate government action.
Yahaya proposed alternative funding models, including dedicating a percentage of major government contracts to healthcare financing. He suggested that sectors such as infrastructure and agriculture should contribute a portion of project funds to health, insisting that relying solely on annual budgetary allocations would not deliver sustainable results.
He also endorsed global calls for increased taxation to strengthen healthcare funding, describing the approach as timely. In particular, he advocated raising the statutory allocation to the Basic Health Care Provision Fund from one per cent to five per cent of consolidated revenue, saying such a move could significantly transform the country’s healthcare system and reduce reliance on external donors.
The NUJ president further called for the adoption of basket funding, a model that pools resources to improve equitable access to healthcare services while reducing out-of-pocket spending. He said effective healthcare transformation requires competent management and strong systems to ensure resources reach communities directly.
Yahaya urged the private sector to become more actively involved in healthcare financing, stressing that investment in health is both a moral responsibility and an economic necessity. He said no sector can thrive without a healthy and productive population.
He also charged the media to play a leading role in promoting family planning, noting that journalists and broadcasters are critical to public sensitisation and behaviour change. However, he stressed that effective communication requires adequate funding for strategic partnerships, content development and programming.
Reaffirming his personal commitment to advocacy, Yahaya said he would continue to speak out against maternal mortality and push for universal health coverage. He described maternal deaths as a national tragedy and a reflection of systemic failure, urging immediate action to save lives.
He concluded that family planning is not a luxury but a necessity that strengthens communities and secures the nation’s future, warning that the cost of inaction would be measured in lives lost, broken families and stalled national progress.
