A Bloom, A Baby & A Rebirth: Banke Meshida-Lawal and her lil’ cutie Iris cover Genevieve’s July Issue

Most people in Nigeria are poor, do have limited access to proper health care or lack the education that would help them seek medical attention, less than 1% of the Nigerian population qualify at the “BM Pro” levels; so the numbers are unfortunately very representative of most of Nigeria.

Though being rich in Nigeria doesn’t insulate you; you’re just as likely to die in a simple traffic accident (or during childbirth) as your less fortunate counterparts, because of the lack of emergency response system, virtually no fully equipped trauma center within Nigeria’s borders and most medical centers being ill-equipped to perform emergency surgeries.

It’s a shame because they’re literally millions of Nigerian born & bred physicians living in the diaspora, protecting and treating the citizens of other countries. Not that I’m assigning blame to them, they won’t be well compensated if they lived at home, and they certainly won’t have the basic infrastructure available to them to give the best possible medical care. I mean just imagine being in the middle of surgery and there’s a power failure because of “shedding” or sending an ambulance somewhere, only for the driver to tell you that there’s yet another fuel shortage so no fuel.

Anyways all that being said, I support folks who want to move back to Naija, especially young people who want to do more than be a beento. I think some of the saddest people I’ve met in my life are those folks who have been away from home so long that they’re no longer relevant there, but hold on to home so much that they’re definitely not relevant in their country of residence.

very green indeed.

Amen o! Reen

According to UNICEF & WHO, 1 in 18 women die in childbirth in Nigeria, higher than the rate for Sub-Saharan Africa (1 in 22) and the 2nd highest maternal mortality rate worldwide… why would anyone who has the resources to give birth elsewhere risk their life giving birth at home? Yes things are getting better in Nigeria (& I am one of those who thinks Nigerians abroad should consider living at home even if for a short while), but there’s no need to put yourself at unnecessary risk.

On another note, Genevieve has such dry ass content, unimaginative articles, hell even the layout sucks… they need to breathe new life in that magazine, get a new creative director or something. It’s such a disappointment to see the lack of growth in this publication.

Umm… it’s obviously the ‘comfortable’ ones as you call them that can afford to travel to have their kids! They travel because they can afford it and the mother and child get better medical care, and also (in some cases) because of the opportunities the child may get out of it. That’s not to say there is no good medical care in Nigeria, but no-one can deny that we have a LONG way to go here, and that what’s available abroad is much better. Either way, you should definitely consider coming home for a little while just to see things for yourself, so you can stop relying on the reports of others to build your own views.

Hey Nneka. If you are in the U.S you can buy all Nigerian magazines and books from http://www.naijareads.com. They are reasonably priced and ship worldwide.

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The baby isn’t pouting. That’s not a pout. The baby’s mouth would have to be shut for it to be a pout.