The government of Ekiti State has approved and commenced the implementation of a six-month (180-day) maternity leave for nursing mothers in the state public service. The new initiative which replaces the old three months of maternity leave that female workers in the state’s employ enjoyed took effect from February 1, 2020. This is a wonderful and commendable scheme that conforms to global best practices and it promises to improve the quality of lives of the citizens. With the new policy, the government has demonstrated in unmistakable terms its intention to engender and strengthen gender friendliness and inclusiveness in the state. In addition to improving maternal health, the new policy will encourage nursing mothers in the state’s workforce to observe the six months exclusive breastfeeding campaign of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). The UNICEF’s breastfeeding campaign is aimed at reducing to the barest minimum, infant and maternal mortality rate and facilitates work-life balance for female workers. It has however been somewhat difficult for Nigerian female workers to observe the six-month exclusive breastfeeding programme because of the length of time they are officially permitted to stay out of work on account of being nursing mothers. The government’s new policy has removed that constraint.
It is axiomatic that adequate and proper breastfeeding of children will translate into a healthy and more productive workforce in the future. In a sense, therefore, it was forwardlooking, and indeed in its enlightened self-interest for the state government to have formulated the policy because the phenomenon of healthy female workers and children which the new initiative seeks to achieve promises to guarantee a productive workforce now and in the future. It is hoped that other states and indeed the private sector will follow the initiative so that they can be beneficiaries of the benefits attendant upon the initiative. It will be in the overall benefit of the nation and society if the initiative is embraced country-wide. The point should be made that even though the new policy implies three additional work-free months for nursing mothers and a seeming loss of output, the expected increase in the productivities of fully restored and healthy mothers upon resumption of duties will more than compensate for the apparent loss of productivity. This is in addition to the expectation of improvement in the work efficiency of healthier children arising from the policy when they become working adults.
Nonetheless, it is expected that the government’s extant policy of a maximum of four children per couple introduced by the administration of President Ibrahim Babangida, the recommended child spacing and other family planning initiatives will be strictly adhered to, so that the advantages of the new initiative can be optimised. In other words, the policy should not be a licence for people to begin to have children by chance rather than by reasonable choice, otherwise such abuse will make the good policy to become counterproductive. For instance, already, the issue of Nigeria’s population that is reputed to be rapidly growing in the face of economic stagnation will only exacerbate if the beneficiaries of the new policy do not exercise discipline or reasonable caution while they enjoy it. Perhaps this progressive policy could not have come at a more apposite time than now when the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) is lamenting the little progress that has been made in the reduction of maternal mortality in the country. SOGON says that the ratio has remained virtually static despite extant efforts at reining it in. The Ekiti State initiative is therefore another positive but natural effort that will no doubt help to reduce the maternal mortality ratio. It should be noted that maternal and child mortality ratios in Ekiti State, though intolerable, are below the national average and the state is by no means the worst in the country in terms of these ratios among its peers in the federation. But its appreciation of the imperatives of reduction of maternal mortality and ensuring positive child health outcomes must have weighed heavily on the government’s decision to initiate the lofty policy.
We laud the Ekiti State government for summoning the necessary political will to adopt the initiative currently in place in Lagos and Enugu states. As a matter of fact, Lagos State even has a policy of ten-day paternity leave for male civil servants. The move by the respective states is not only forward-looking; it also encompasses gender sensitivity, friendliness and inclusiveness. Other states in the federation will do well to take a cue from the ongoing effort to improve motherhood well-wbeing and child health outcomes by elongating the maternity leave of nursing mothers in their employ.
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