Government is contemplating a legislation to control population growth, President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday.
Dr. Jonathan said although the issue of population regulation is very sensitive, government cannot fold its arms until the country’s population becomes uncontrollable.
The President spoke at the inauguration of the Chairman and Commissioners of the National Population Commission (NPC) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He said Nigeria would not be the first country to make law on birth control, adding that religious belief should not be a tool to frustrate a good policy.
Former Managing Director of Nigeria Brewery PLC, Chief Festus Odumegwu, was inaugurated as Chairman of the Commission. Twenty two of the 23 appointed Commissioners took the oath of Office and oath of Allegiance.
The Commissioner representing Sokoto, Sen. Jubril Gada, was absent.
The President assured that government would carry out enough sensitisation before making the law controlling birth and population.
He also directed the NPC team to begin advocacy on birth control and promised government support and funding.
“For us to plan properly, we must manage our population, but it is extremely sensitive, we are extremely religious people, either you are a Christian or Moslem.
“Both Christians and Moslems and even traditionalists believe that children are God’s gifts to man, so it is difficult for you to tell any Nigerian to limit the number of their children because they are gifts of God.
“It is a very sensitive thing but we must begin to think about it. We must begin to think about how we manage it
“The key thing is that how you will through your advocacy come up with plans and programmes that as a way of advocacy you begin to encourage Nigerians to have the number of children they can manage before government comes up with clear policies and guidelines.
“First and foremost is the personal consciousness that people should get the family they can manage.
“Sometimes you get to somebody’s house living in a well furnished duplex. The husband and wife there may have two, three four children. The maiguard guiding them have nine children. That is the scenario you have.
“That means there is a segment of the population that knows that you must get a number that you can manage but the other segment of the population don’t.
“If you are use to military barracks you see that the officers, General this, Major General this, Brigadier this, Colonel this have three, five children but those that have no rank have eight, twelve.
“This is the scenario. The people up, probably because of their level of education know that they must control thei population, but the people down, because of the level of exposure and education are still not aware that you must control your population.“So first and foremost, before government comes up with regulations, guidelines or laws, Nigerians must be made to know that we cannot continue to procreate and procreate even though we know children are God’s gifts,’’ he said.
The President noted that Nigeria would not be the first country to make laws controlling population and religious belief should not be a tool to frustrate good policy.
Meanwhile, the President has also set 2015 deadline for National Population Commission (NPC) to complete the issuance of national Identity Cards to all eligible Nigerians.
According to the president a situation where government had spent lot of fund on the project without getting results is not acceptable.
He said the Commission should liaise with the Presidential Committee on the National Identity Card to ensure its prompt completion.
The President has also asked the Commission to commence the process for the 2016 National Census because of its importance to national growth.
“There cannot be genuine sustained development if it is not anchored on accurate and reliable data.
“No meaningful planning is possible without dependable data and statistics. This informs why we have chosen these distinguished men and women to run the affairs of NPC,’’ he said.
The president also charged them to demonstrate the highest standard in the discharge of their duties and warned them against primordial divisive tendencies.
He also warned the Commission not to subject the sensitive issue of census figure and demographics to the expediency of cheap political advantage and political discord. The President commended the immediate past leadership of the Commission for effective 2006 Census and charged the new members to consolidate on the achievements. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
who talks like this?is GEJ stupid or dumb.should ve just said due to the diff literacy levels in the country he chose to say some pple are up and some down.Even me dont talk like that in public ...a daft president.
ReplyDeleteI believe, is high time regulations should b in place to avoid this high increase of child birth. Implimentation of this regulations is another problem, bc Nig is a country wit laws but no impact. Alaga
ReplyDeletei just hate this president completely. he totally has misplaced priorities. Dumb ass..
ReplyDelete@Anonymous Yes the president should have used a better words. But presidents/leaders all over the word use lower-class, middle-class and upper-class all the time, and that's the reality, it doesn't make you not daft.
ReplyDeleteMisplaced priorities.PresiJo,please,don't use population as an excuse for your underperformance.u knew our population before campaigning
ReplyDeleteI don't think this is an issue of misplaced priority. You cant really expect the president to halt all other issues he has to deal with just because of boko haram. Personally, I think this is an important issue, and as long as the president doesn't advocate abortion or force Nigerians to have only one child per family, I'm okay with it.
ReplyDeletePopulation explosion is one of the major crises facing the Nigerian state, bearing in mind that available resources are dwindling. What the population control policy (proposal) should do is to give incentives to those who control the size of their families and impose sanctions directly or indirectly on those who have many children without having a clue of providing for such large number of children. For once as Nigerians we should be reaslistic about this potential time bomb, which if care is not taken might explode at any time in our faces.
ReplyDeleteThe realities of life is naturally dawning on people that have large families with little or no resource to cater for them, government should not over-stretch the idea. We have a crumbling economy, poor social amenities, a bad security system, poor power, etc. I agree that Government must multi-task but what happened to words like "Priority" & "Scale of Preference". We must stay alive to make and have laws, so for me its an issue of misplaced priority and deceit cos I strongly believe they all know what Nigerians need most presently
ReplyDeleteMr. President has forgotten that a man whose house is on fire does not chased rats. Insecurity is the major problem this country is facing and should be properly tackled before venturing into areas like birth control at the moment.
ReplyDelete