By Asmau Ahmad
The Head of Vital Registration Department at the National Population Commission (NPC), Mr. Innocent Mishikir, said Adamawa state is least among the six states in the North-East in area of Birth Registration.
Mr Mishikir made the disclosure while speaking at a media advocacy meeting on birth registration in Adamawa organised by NPC in collaboration with UNICEF and EU.
He 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 explained 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.
He added 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 existing law; Act 69 of 1992 which stipulated penalty of fine for parents who failed to register their new born within 60 days.
In his remarks at the meeting, Information Officer, UNICEF Bauchi Field office, Mr. Samuel Kaalu, 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.
