UN chief visits Nigeria in wake of landmark vote

May 22, 2011

ABUJA — UN chief Ban Ki-moon arrived in Nigeria on Sunday for a two-day visit weeks after Africa's most populous nation held elections viewed as the fairest in nearly two decades despite deadly rioting.

Ban arrived in Nigeria, his first trip here since taking office in 2007, from Ivory Coast where he attended the inauguration of President Alassane Ouattara Saturday. He will on Tuesday travel on to Addis Ababa.

The UN Secretary General decried an "unacceptable" rate of child and maternal mortality due to poor health systems globally.

"Unfortunately around the world, health systems are not working for women and children. A thousand women die every day from complications, pregnancy and child birth," he said on a visit to a UN-funded hospital in the capital Abuja.

"The crisis of complications can and should be dealt with in a hospital like this one. Twenty thousand children under five die everyday. This is a totally unacceptable situation especially because most of these deaths can be easily prevented."

Ban is scheduled to visit the Dutse Makaranta public health care facilities on the outskirts of Abuja on Monday, also funded by the UN.

The UN chief has meetings lined up with President Goodluck Jonathan and his ministers, as well as with the head of the country's electoral agency and governors from among the country's 36 states.

His trip comes less than a month after Nigeria concluded parliamentary, presidential and governorship elections judged to be the fairest since a return to civilian rule in 1999.

The presidential election won by Jonathan however set off rioting across the country's mainly Muslim north that a rights group says killed more than 800 people.

Nigeria's 150 million population is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south. Jonathan is a southern Christian, while his main opponent was northern Muslim ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari.

Ban's trip aims in part to promote women's and children's health under an initiative he launched in September, UN officials said.

Nigeria has one of the highest maternal death rates in Africa.

About 145 women die each day during pregnancy or childbirth, as do 2,300 children aged five years and under, according to UN statistics, placing the country among the worst places in the world for child-bearing women and babies.

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