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Nigeria’s House of Representatives has emphasised the need to create awareness on the need for birth and death registration in the country.
The House resolved that data from death and birth registration are vital to the nation’s development planning, especially when it comes to planning for the health need of children.
This followed a motion brought to the House by Rep. Bashiru Dawodu (APC, Lagos) arguing that the National Population Commission (NPC) has only managed to register the birth of 57 percent of children under the age of five, thus making it difficult for Government to plan adequately for their medical, nutritional and other needs.
He explained that the Federal Government needs to know how many health centres are needed in the country and the population growth across the country to correctly estimate the medications to be imported and the tariffs.
He expressed concerned that a country like Nigeria is operating without credible statistics, adding that registration of birth is the most
basic requirement in planning for children.
He said when a country fails to follow through with an established pattern, the young ones are exposed to dangers that the public health and economic planning teams cannot cope with.
He said knowing the age distribution of a country’s population makes it easier to plan, knowing how many would be of school age in what year, providing adequate classrooms and school infrastructure.
Contributing to the motion, Rep. Haruna Mshelia said even though facilities for birth and death registration have been provided in major hospitals across the country, there was the needed for a proper enlightenment on the importance of the exercise.
Adopting another motion, he House also asked it’s Committee on the Federal Capital Territory to investigate the alleged disappearance of the transit buses provided by the Federal Government for Transport Services within the FCT.
Sponsor of the motion Rep. Ikenna Elezieanya, said the provision of long buses in Abuja, apart from creating jobs and generating revenue, was targeted at alleviating the sufferings of the citizens as it was designed to ease the commuting challenges of civil and public servants to and from their offices to ensure effective discharge of their duties
He said that between 2003 to 2007, 5,000 buses were provided by the Government to assist and complement the efforts of government workers in accessing their various offices within the FCT, while between 2010 to 2014, the Federal Government, in a bid to effectively improve public service delivery in line with global best practices, also provided an additional 5,000 buses for the transportation of civil servants.
He alleged that all the buses provided by the government are gradually disappearing from
the roads and are not being effectively managed by the FCT administration and as such, not achieving its core objective, which is alleviating the transport challenges of the masses, especially in these trying times.
He said the citizens who are denied these services are daily faced with the risk of riding in commercial vehicles operated by kidnappers, armed robbers and bandits