Youths urged on family planning before marriage
Nigerian youths have been urged to get themselves prepared for Family Planning and other marital responsibilities before engaging in active family life.
In her message for the International Women’s Day 2015, the Advocacy Advisor, Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI), Ms. Ibeawuchi Charity, noted that Nigeria joined the world at the London Summit in 2012 to commit to achieving the Global Family Planning Vision 2020, which aims at supporting the rights of women and girls to decide freely and for themselves, whether, when and how many children they have.
She said, “Government at all levels and partners should work together to ensure that Nigeria’s goal of 36 per cent Contraceptive Prevalence Rate is achieved by 2018. Culturally appropriate information and facts about family planning and its benefits should be widely available to all.
“In particular, the youth should know all about it, well before they engage in active family life. It is only when young women begin early to know their reproductive health that they can genuinely achieve responsible family life. When all families are planned, the larger society will begin to also plan its affairs and eventually achieve development.”
She urged the government to ensure that all women of reproductive age in Nigeria have unhindered access to quality family planning services as a matter of right.
“The right of women to quality family planning services in the community is not negotiable; same applies to all other maternal health services. The Federal Government’s Policy of Free Family Planning methods to all women who need the services should be equally supported by the States and Local Governments. Each level of government must commit to adequate budgetary expenditures on all the other components of a good FP programme, including consumables, logistics, supervision and training of the service providers,” she said.
Also speaking, a senior health officer at the federal ministry of health, who preferred anonymity said government non-chalant attitude towards the issue would lead to the upsurge in the death of women in the country in 2015.
This, he noted, would also truncate and rubbish the government’s effort in trying to reduce maternal and infant mortality in the country, as maternal and infant deaths statistics would soar higher.
He regretted that the Nigerian Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to pay $3 million every year for the procurement of the commodities, but failed to honour the MoU.