By BANNERNEWS Reporter
Northern Nigerian leaders have raised concern over the acute shortage of female health practitioners in the region, warning that the gap continues to affect healthcare delivery and cultural comfort.
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) lamented that the deficit has left many women in the North—wives, mothers and daughters—largely attended to by male medical personnel in hospitals.
ACF Chairman, Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, said the situation has remained a long-standing source of discomfort for families across the region.
Dalhatu spoke on Saturday at the maiden convocation of the Sardauna College of Health Sciences and Technology, Kano, where he described the development as troubling despite recent efforts to bridge the gap.
“For years, our wives, daughters and mothers have been attended to by males in hospitals, and that was not very comfortable at all,” he said, noting that progress was being made but remained insufficient.
He said the graduation of 78 students—about 80 per cent of them female—was a milestone that could help ease cultural and social concerns surrounding healthcare in northern Nigeria.
The ACF chairman urged the graduates to pursue further education, stressing that a diploma was only the first step in building strong professional careers in the health sector.
Dalhatu, who is also the Wazirin Dutse in Jigawa State, raised alarm over the wider education crisis in the North, citing estimates that about 15 million children remain out of school and warning of grave economic consequences if the trend persists.
He announced that the ACF operates an interest-free loan scheme to support graduates seeking to establish businesses, while the college provost, Hajiya Naja’atu Abdullahi, charged the graduates to uphold integrity, empathy and lifelong learning as the institution unveiled its new administrative building and highlighted its expanding academic programmes.
Northern Leaders Worry as Wives, Mothers, Daughters Attended to by Male Doctors
