The First Lady, Hajiya Turai Yar'Adua, has expressed concern over the high incidence of maternal and infant mortality in the country.
Yar'Adua expressed the concern recently while speaking at an awareness campaign on maternal and child health in Jalingo.

She noted that Nigeria was one of the countries with the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world.
Yar'Adua stressed that there were indications that Nigeria might not be able to overcome the health problem before 2015, if concerted efforts were not made to tackle it.
She said that her visit to Taraba was to sensitise women to ways of protecting their lives and those of their children during and after pregnancies.

Yar'Adua urged policy-makers in the states to assist in formulating, implementing and executing laws that would mitigate increasing cases of maternal and child mortality.
She pledged that she would continue to play a pivotal role ``in this national challenge to ensure that no woman dies while giving birth to a baby”.

Earlier, the Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Oshotimehin, said that the Federal Government had trained about 1500 midwives, adding that 96 of them had been posted to Taraba.
He said that the availability of skilled nurses and midwives would reduce the problem of maternal and child mortality by 50 per cent.

Oshotimehin gave the assurance that the midwives posted to the state would give good service delivery in tackling the health problem, in view of their expertise.
In her address, Hajiya Amina Az-Zubair, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGS, said that the country would soon overcome problems relating to high maternal and child mortality rates.

She said that in spite of the huge efforts of the federal and state governments, the country was still facing huge challenges in maternal and child health, HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
Az-Zubair said that the country still had some problems in handling these health issues, adding: ``We must scale up our efforts, partnerships and resources in addressing these enormous challenges urgently.

`` At the helm of this crusade is our First Lady, who has shown us the true value of genuine advocacy that touches lives and moves rhetorics to action,'' she said.
Also speaking, Hajiya Hauwa Suntai, wife of the governor of Taraba, commended Yar'Adua for her efforts in the fight against maternal and infant mortality.

Suntai said that the campaign had assisted women in knowing what to do during pregnancies, adding that such knowledge had considerably reduced mortality rates during childbirths.
Newsday reports that Yar'Adua presented delivery kits, mother kits, mosquito nets and wrappers to some midwives and women. She also gave money to some widows.