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From: Tunde Omolehin, Sokoto
The National Population Commission (NPC), on Thursday, called for more sensitisation among the citizenry on the need to embrace family planning and child spacing.
Speaking at a press conference, in Sokoto, to mark World Population Day, NPC’s Federal Commissioner in the state, Alhaji Aminu Ahmad, said the call became necessary so as to build a healthy and prosperous society.
He maintained that resistance to family planning and child spacing were deeply rooted in cultural prejudices and wrong interpretation of religious injunctions.
Ahmad said religious leaders could redirect the attention of stakeholders and policy makers to the need to mobilise resources in order to boost access to family planning information and services.
Said he, “The present situation in which access to family planning information and services is severely limited is unacceptable and counterproductive to our match towards sustainable development.
“There is urgent need to save our women and the girl child from the agonies of unwanted pregnancies and accord them rightful place in the development process through a fundamental shift in attitudes towards family planning.”
According to Ahmad, having a large army of un-catered-for children is neither in the short nor long term interest of any community.
He maintained that the health status and general wellbeing of women had the capacity to influence the development process.
Ahmad, however, lamented that this capacity was being undermined by their continued exposure to preventable phenomena of maternal mortality, unsafe abortions and early pregnancy which deny them the pursuit of educational and economic opportunities all occasioned by lack of access to family planning services.
