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By Joel Anekwe
The United Nations Children’s Funds UNICEF has scored Rivers State low on official registration of children born in the state, noting that only 30 per cent of such births are recorded.
UNICEF Child Protection Specialist, Sharon Olatunji made the revelation during a media campaign to promote child birth registration in Rivers State, noting that the rate was very low as many births in the state were not captured.
Olatunji, while speaking to journalists, stated: “We have data from 2011. But I remember in 2016, they were about 20%, in 2017, maybe 22%, and data has now shifted in 2018 and this is why we are doing media campaign that people should know that these children you give birth to need to obtain a birth certificate because that piece of paper will last through the entire life time of the baby, that piece of paper is a life cycle document.”
She appealed to parents to ensure that they register their child’s birth, adding that it would help government for future planning.
She said: “You work for 30, 40 or 60 years and you retire, but if a child dies at 5, how would we know? This is the essence of the child registration. It helps development. For example, if we have one million children counted in Rivers State, we know that three years down the line we should create avenues for three million children to be in nursery school, the same thing five years later.
“If we know that in 2018 three million were born, 10 years later if we count and know that it’s only one million left, we have lost 2 million,” she said.
In his remarks, the immediate past director general, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Rivers State, Oliver Wolubom called on stakeholders and relevant agencies in the state to ensure that there is improved mechanism to ensure that all children born in the state were registered officially.
He called for all hands to be on deck to create more awareness on the need to officially register all child births in the state.
Wolubom said: ” It was a shock to us when we saw the them roll out performances of states and we made a firm promise that we will carry out a vigorous campaign of this vital registration for Rivers State because in all that we do Rivers State has always done very well. So we wouldn’t be the one to always be lagging behind.”
