2021: NPC registers 127,305 childbirth in Gombe
The National Population Commission (NPC), says no fewer than 127,305 childbirths were registered and issued with a birth certificate from January to November 2021 in Gombe state.
Speaking in Gombe on Tuesday, Adedeji Adeniyi, the Head of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics of the NPC noted that there is a chunk of children not registered without birth certificate in the country.
Adeniyi said, “It is not enough for any parent to bring a child into the world and not register that child. To you, he or she is existing, but is he or she existing to the government, no
“whenever you give birth to any child take the next step after the christening, after naming, go and obtain a birth certificate for him or her
“Gombe has so far registered 37,870 under one-year-old children and a total of 68,727 under-five children as well as 20,708 children above 18 years old.”
The NPC official explained that government can only plan for registered children, not unregistered ones.
“A typical example, in community A, 20,000 children were given birth to, 5,000 were registered. In community B, 10,000 children were given birth to and the 10,000 children were registered.
“Now, somebody that has 20,000 children, but registered 5 and 10,000 children that registered them all, who do you think the government is going to take care of more. But those with 20,000 but registered 5,000 children will start crying foul that they have more children than these 10,000 people.
“Yeah! you have more children. Did you get them registered, does the government have their record, you see this is how we shoot ourselves,” Adeniyi added.
Commenting on the situation in Gombe state, Mr Adedeji noted that the state is not doing badly in terms of birth registration. However, he stated that there is room for improvement.
He said, “In the last meeting we held with UNICEF, we were in the middle. We were neither there nor here.”