Nigerian govts urged to make family planning free

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The three tiers of government have been charged with making family planning activities free as a way to improve their advocacy in the grassroots areas of the country.

It was also argued that free family planning activities would improve the low contraceptive prevalence rate among women in such areas.

Speaking at a roundtable workshop programme organised for the state media advocacy group on family planning by the Challenge Initiative (TCI) in collaboration with the DevCom network in Ilorin on Tuesday, the Senior Registrar, Department of Community Medicine and Epidemiology, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Dr John Godwin, lamented the low contraceptive prevalence rate in Kwara state.

Speaking on the topic “Unlocking Sustainable Development through Family Planning: Exploring the Connections between Population, Prosperity, and the Planet,” the health expert said that an uncontrolled population has an impact on poverty and health hazards.

Dr. Godwin, who said that family planning is tied to the population growth rate, added that family planning can help regulate the population growth rate.

“In a society where family planning is working, the population rate would be organised and slower. When it’s slower, the pressure on natural resources like agriculture, natural resources, ecosystems, and the nation’s resources that we depend on will be well regulated.

“There will be less insecurity, which is caused by scrambling for natural resources. Family planning is that balance between population growth rate and the nation’s resources,” he said.

He also said that the resources in the nation’s education and health sectors are easily stressed due to the high population and called for population control through family planning.

Dr. Godwin highlighted the benefits of family planning to include effective allocation of resources in aspects of nation-building like enhancement of quality education, health, economic prosperity, etc., which he said would lead to the right decision that will help the country.

“Where family planning is working, a woman is enabled to maximise her potential, be it in small-scale business or large-scale business,” adding that the absence of child spacing could attract poverty, insufficient resources, poor health, inadequate education, and poor socioeconomic lives.

Also speaking, the family planning coordinator in the state ministry of health, Dr Jatto Bashirat Adebukola, said that the state government was determined to improve the 17 per cent contraceptive prevalence rate among women of reproductive age.

“We are set to improve the contraceptive prevalence rate, especially among women of reproductive age. Our major challenge is the misinformation and misconceptions about family planning, mostly by women in rural areas.

“This is what our health providers in our facilities and family planning mobilizers have embarked upon to sensitise the people on the benefits of contraceptives and child spacing, among other activities involved in family planning,” he said.

Dr. Jatto said that there is availability of commodities as well as health providers in government facilities across the 16 LGAs of the state.

She said that “when the commodities are available, accessibility will improve. There is no facility in the state where you won’t get family planning services. We want our women to access the service.”

The TCI state programme lead, Dr Adewale Abiodun, who was represented by the TCI programme officer, Mrs Sharon Gabriel, charged parents to familiarise themselves with their teenage male and female children and be free to discuss family planning matters with them.

He also called on media personnel to make use of stakeholders like opinion, religious, and community leaders in society to address the low contraceptive prevalence rate in the state, adding that we should always engage people in family planning activities.

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