31st August, 2016
Adamawa has been described as the ‘least’ among the six states in the North-East in the area of Birth Registration.
Mr Innocent Mishikir, Head of Department, Vital Registration, Yola Office, National Population Commission (NPC), made the disclosure on Wednesday while addressing newsmen in Yola.
He spoke at a media advocacy meeting on birth registration in Adamawa organised by NPC in collaboration with UNICEF and EU.
Mishikir said that from January to date, NPC registered only 87,748 children in the state comprising 45,858 males and 41,890 females, a development he described as “grossly inadequate.’’
He said that the figures indicated that so far only 27 per cent of births under one year and six per cent of births under five years were registered.
Mishikir listed some of the reasons responsible for the poor registration to include inadequate registration centres and lack of public awareness on the importance of birth registration.
“For instance, we have only 79 registration centres in the state, we need at least a centre in each of the 226 wards in the state,” he said.
The HOD said that 21,136 sub-registrars had been recruited by NPC for the forthcoming one-week birth registration campaign commencing in the 226 wards in state next week.
He called for the enforcement of the existing law; Act 69 of 1992 which stipulated penalty of fine for parents who failed to register their newborn within 60 days.
In his remarks at the meeting, Mr Samuel Kaalu, Information Officer, UNICEF Bauchi Field office, said that non-registration of a child among others contravened the child’s right to identity.
He said that the media advocacy meeting was organised to involve the media on enlightening the public on the relevance of birth registration.