The need for an effective family planning in Nigeria

The need for an effective family planning in Nigeria

Nigerians have been charged by health experts to embrace workable family planning methods that would reduce poverty, ensure social protection and healthcare, as well as the successful implementation of government’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In the light of this, it is important that the Nigeria Population Commission (NPC) live up to its responsibility of determining the country’s population size to enable government adequately plan for people’s welfare.

Dr. Tunji Akintade the chairman, Lagos chapter of the Assocaition of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN) told The Guardian that with the high rate of the nation’s population, it was necessary to control birth rate to attain quality life.

“We need to understand the concept of family very well and see how best it can work in this part of the world. Remember Bill Gates’ advice when he visited Nigeria that we invest more on health and education. How do we do this in the midst of low economy and population explosion?

“We need to first of all manage our family size in accordance with our pocket. This does not mean to regulate the family size alone, but consider death arising from frequent child births, adequate breastfeeding before another pregnancy, proper child spacing, prevention of deaths from abortion of unwanted pregnancies, among others,” he said.

Also, Chima Dike public health expert noted that lack of a working population development policy and accurate data was responsible for shortfalls in the nation’s economy and urged the commission to accelerate efforts in ensuring that there were real figures of the number of citizens in Nigeria.

“The nation faces a huge challenge with a housing deficit of 17 million, 12 million kids out of school, water and infrastructure deficit, herders and farmer conflicts, which are all attributable to the country’s estimated over population, are the result of improper family planning and lack of good policies,” he stated.

Family planning is important for the health of a mother and her children, as well as the family and the Nation’s economic situation.