The House of Representatives has set up an enquiry on records of births and deaths in the country. The motion, adopted by the House, was sponsored by Rep. Mohammed Auwal Jatau. The sponsor of the motion noted that “the National Population Commission was established to control, manage and produce accurate database of information of citizens but records of births and deaths from various health institutions for efficient and effective use for national planning have not been achieved”. He also noted that “in 2017 the Commissions’ budget was N9,499,419,457 while in 2018 the sum of N10,336,046,852 was appropriated and in 2019 the sum of N9,151,387,430 was approved for the Commission to effectively deliver its mandate”. He however regretted that “despite the allocations from the government, the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja and the Six Zonal offices at Lagos, Kano, Port–Harcourt, Enugu, Abuja and Kaduna are currently in deplorable conditions lacking modern I.C.T equipment such as software and hardware computers, laptops and constant light to carry out their operations”. He raised the alarm that “the “UNICEF Report on Every Child Alive Campaign” shows that about 1 million newborn babies die daily globally, 2.5 million die in one month after birth, representing 47% in Nigeria while, 262,000 babies die at birth and 257 babies die a month after birth from preventable causes such as premature birth complications during delivery and infections like sepsis and pneumonia a development that constitutes, a violation of the basic right to survival in the society”. He expressed concerns that “in 2019, childbirth was 37.684 by 1000 people which represents 1.09% decline from 2018 while the childbirth rate for 2018 was 38.098 births per 1000 people which represents a 1.25% decline from 2017. The childbirth rate in 2017 was 38.582 births per 1000 people at 1.24% decline from 2016 across the nation”. He said he was “Informed that the average birth rate was 18.5 birth per 1000 total population in 2016, while the death rate is 7.8% per 1000 yearly, whereas UNICEF Report on 1 January 2019 showed that an estimated 25.68 babies were expected to have been delivered in that same January of 2019”. He called for “government intervention to curb the inability of the National Population Commission to produce accurate database for effective planning in Nigeria”. The House adopted the motion and resolved to “Urge the National Population Commission to urgently commence registration of births and deaths of newborn babies in various health institutions in Nigeria”.
The House also resolved to invite the chairman and zonal coordinators from the six geo-political zones for an interface on the record-keeping of births and deaths in Nigeria for effective economic planning”.
