Every year, Nigeria reaffirms its commitment to reducing maternal and child deaths. The policies exist. The programmes exist. The pledges exist. What keeps slipping through the gap is the most essential piece: enough trained, supported and fairly distributed health workers to make any of it real.
The country is facing serious shortages in the very cadres that matter most for maternal and child survival. Midwives, nurses and obstetricians are all in critically short supply, and the workers who do exist are not always placed where the need is greatest.
Until Nigeria closes that workforce gap, the distance between a policy on paper and a mother making it through childbirth safely remains wide. The real question is not what Nigeria is committed to. It is who will show up to deliver on that commitment.
Originally published by AllAfrica.