By Asma’u Ahmad
The Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), has urged Nigerians to embrace family planning as a way of enhancing the quality of life in their families.
Its Country Representative, Mrs. Hildegard Behrendt-Kigozi, gave the advice in an interview in Abuja.
Contemporary notions of family planning, however, tend to place a woman and her childbearing decisions at the centre of the discussion, as notions of women’s empowerment and reproductive autonomy have gained traction in many parts of the world.
It also defines quality of life as the general well-being of individuals and societies, outlining negative and positive features of life.
It observes life satisfaction, including everything from physical health, family, education, employment, wealth, religious beliefs, finance and the environment.
The country representative further urged parents to give birth to a number of children they would be able to cater for in terms of providing them with quality education and other basic needs.
Mrs. Hildegard Behrendt-Kigozi
“Families should have only the number of children that they can take care of, but if you are well off and can send them to school you can have as many as you want. Otherwise, only have the number you can adequately afford to take care of, so that your children can go to school.
“Don’t have children without a means of feeding or educating them, particularly, for those in the rural areas. It is necessary that every child that is born, the parents should provide for it, if they cannot they should not have children because these children have the right to be brought up well,” she said.
According to her, because the population of the country is rising very fast, it will be difficult for government to provide adequate schools or jobs for the people.
Behrendt-Kigozi observed that the number of available basic schools and qualified teachers was not enough to cater for the educational needs of Nigerians.
She said that teachers should be trained on how to build self-confidence in their students to enable them to develop ideas that could make them self- sufficient.
The country representative called on the government to build many more technical schools, saying training many craftsmen and women would further create wealth for the country.
KAS is a German foundation that promotes democracy, rule of law, and social market to foster peace, freedom, and justice in the world.
