A public health organisation, Nigeria Health Watch, has expressed concerns over the increasing rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria, saying the country is not moving in the right direction to curb the menace.

It said no woman in Nigeria deserved to die during childbirth.

The Managing Director of NHW, Vivianne Ihekweazu, stated these in Abuja during the second edition of the ‘Celebrating Womanhood Art Gala’ with the theme, ‘Elevating women’s voices for quality maternal healthcare.’

The event was part of the activities to commemorate International Women’s Month.

Ihekweazu lamented that Nigeria was nowhere near achieving the Sustainable Development Goal target of reducing the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births.

She said, “We have to say that Nigeria is not going in the right direction when we are trying to reduce the number of maternal deaths. According to the SDG targets for 2030, we should have no more than 70 women dying from 100,000 live births. Currently, according to Nigeria’s Demographic and Health Survey, it is 512. The recent WHO report showed that there were over 1,000 women dying from 100,000 live births. We have to think as a country how important are women’s lives? But also importantly, we have to also look at leadership; how are we involving women in the decision making?