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Founder of Medicaid Cancer Foundation and wife of Kebbi State Governor, Dr Zainab Bagudu, says the State House of Assembly will soon pass the Violence Against Persons Act as well as the Child Right Act to protect the rights of vulnerable persons in the state. She spoke on Friday at the maiden edition of the UGAMATV Digital Town Hall with the theme ‘Strengthening the Nigerian Maternal and Child Health through Clinical and Community-based Interventions’. Dr Bagudu, who was the Special Guest of the occasion, said the state government is exploring partnerships with authorities at the local government level to reduce the menace of mother and child deaths. She said, “In the last few months, we have been focusing on gender-based violence which is a hindrance to women accessing care. In that regard, we also do women empowerment programmes which helps, because one of the main problems that our women have is that they are not empowered, they are not able to make decisions on their own. “Kebbi State is now on the verge of signing the Violence Against Persons Act as well as the Child Right Act – it is something we have been on for many years, not only in this administration.

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“We also have engagement with the traditional rulers which other states might not place a premium on but this has worked particularly in the area of immunisation by engaging the traditional rulers and the religious rulers and putting them to work with the agencies. So, this helps us to get the people’s acceptance and buy-in.” Also speaking at the event, the Founder of Brown Button Foundation, Adepeju Jaiyeoba, noted that a woman’s socio-economic status should not determine if she lives or dies, while calling on more support for expectant and nursing mothers in the country. UGAMATV Media Foundation is a non-governmental organisation and the nonprofit arm ofNigeria Limited, publishers of UGAMATV Newspapers, established in 2019 with a vision to promoting active public engagement, accountability, good governance, and free enterprise using the instrument of public policy advocacy, digital journalism, investigative journalism, and media development