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Let income level determine number of children, NPC tells Nigerians

By Uzoma Nzeagwu (Awka) and Auwal Ahmad (Gombe)
12 July 2017   |   3:36 am
The National Population Commission (NPC) has advised Nigerians to bear the number of children they can train, stressing that having children above income level was responsible for the upsurge in violence and crimes in society.

National Population Commission

• Group decries absence of family planning facilities

The National Population Commission (NPC) has advised Nigerians to bear the number of children they can train, stressing that having children above income level was responsible for the upsurge in violence and crimes in society.

The Anambra State Director of NPC, Joachin Ulasi, gave the advice yesterday in Awka, Anambra State while marking the 2017 World Population Day, with the theme: “Family Planning, Birth Spacing: Empowering People, Developing Nations.”

Ulasi charged families to bear the number of children they can train, saying that some Nigerians make children above their income capacity, which results to poor up-bringing.

He, however, argued that despite the fact that Nigeria has a population of over 180 million people, the country was not yet over-populated because the population comprises younger people compared to Britain with an older population.

He also said the country has a productive and quality population, adding that if the country manages its human resources well, it would be able to produce what it needs as a nation.

Ulasi denounced insinuations that the commission was ill-prepared for the forthcoming national census, adding that it was doing a lot to ensure that the exercise succeeds, particularly in Anambra State.

In an address delivered on behalf of NPC Chairman, Eze Duruiheoma, he stressed the need for family planning, child spacing and empowering of people as tools for economic and social development of the country.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of Gombe State Maternal and Newborn Child Health Coalition (MNCHC), Alhassan Yahya, said that as long as maternal mortality rate remains unchecked, the maternal mortality and poverty rates in Nigeria would continue to rise.

Yahya stated this at a joint press briefing between the MNCHC and the NPC to mark this year’s World Population Day, adding that a situation in which people cannot have access to family planning information and services was unacceptable.

He maintained that access to safe, voluntary family planning was a fundamental human right that is central to gender equality and women empowerment.Yahya decried the low budgetary provision for family planning services in Gombe, as well as the shortage and unequal distribution of professionals.

He expressed concern over the absence of child spacing facilities in Gombe and called for a budget for family planning in the 2017 supplementary budget and the 2018 budget.

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