Nigeria's population is growing rapidly even as its earnings from oil has dropped drastically. Family planning is a contoversial issue in Nigeria which has remained a place where most people hold on to tradition .
Most Nigerian families live in rural areas and are ignorant about how they can space their children. It is therefore good news that Federal government is now recognising family planning as key to sustaining development and improving health outcomes especially among women, youths and children.
Speaking last Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, during a Family Planning Consultative Forum ,Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo said, govern-ment has recognised the need for review of the national population policy especially with regard to its implementation.
Osinbajo, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr Ade Ipaye, noted that with the rate at which the country's population is increasing, even if we were to reduce our fertility rate, its working force would have increased by 40 percent by 2025, hence the need for government and its partners to take proactive mea-sures. He stressed that without an effectively executed policy to reduce the rate of fertility by 2025, Nigeria's population which is already 188.8 million will be over 400million by that year with negative implications on the county's economy. He noted that population increase will put pressure on ability of the states to provide quality social services and impact negatively the economy of the country. He said: "The economy will not be able to generate enough jobs to absorb the youths in the labour market every year, the economy growth has not been equitable or broadly shared, with over 60% of the population living on a dollar a day. We need to make a choice today on whether the population trends we are presently faced with will need to be halted, to yield the demographic dividends or leave it to lead to disastrous consequences."
In his remarks, Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole disclosed that the Federal Government is more determined to improve access to information on family planning and widening access to women, especially those in rural communities, to family planning products. Adewole observed that the poor in some cases have no access to information or commodities to plan families. Nigeria failed to meet the health related Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).
Also speaking at the summit, the Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, who was represented by wife of the Speaker, House of Reprsentatives, Gimbiya Dogara, called on wives of all governors to act as ambassadors and advocates for better health policies for women and children to prevent maternal and child deaths.
Traditional rulers weren't left out of the dialogue on the way foward as Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa'ad Abubakar called on all levels of government to ensure that the girls are educated and allowed to reach their full potentials as a means to ensure meaniful development.
The Sultan who spoke after he received an award as an ambassador for women and children's health, stressed that girl- child education was critical to Nigeria recording the much desired leap in development.
By: Kemi Yesufu
Daily Sun News
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