NIGERIA GIVING BIRTH TO CHILDREN IT CANT CATER TO- EXPERT- DR SOLOMON BULUS WARNS
A nation cannot give birth to what it cannot cater for, but this is the stark reality facing Nigeria.
Dr. Solomon Bulus, the Deputy Chairman, Medical advisory committee, research and Ethics, Modibbo Adama Teaching Hospital, fired this salvo, when commenting on Nigeria’s population indices along health lines, on the occasion of the World Population day.
He spoke to a team of journalists including Usaku’s Chief Correspondent Ephraim Okpanachi
Africa’s giant Nigeria, has a fertility rate of over 5 percent and Dr. Solomon believes based on statistics of Nigeria losing about 150 women daily due to pregnancy related causes, Nigeria was one of the worst places to give birth, stressing that these depict that Nigeria cannot cater for the pregnant women and children being born, due to decay in infrastructure, low budget and ignorance.
“We have some of the worst health indices, new born mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, most of it is poor and it is the reflection of our population, because we give birth to the population our population keeps increasing and meanwhile, we don’t prepare to adequately take care of it”.
Family planning uptake according to him is still low, this accounts for Nigeria’s very high fertility rate which stands at over 5 percent, meaning based on births, every woman in Nigeria on the average births about 5 or 6 children, and based on current indices, this is alarming for the nation.
“It is said that Our family planning rate is not what is expected, it is low”
But what is the way out of this quagmire? Dr Solomon, says Nigeria must first work on tackling poverty, which is at an all-time high, with more than half of Nigerians living in extreme poverty, he says Nigeria must learn from the likes of India, who have a population of over 1.4 billion, which is nearly 7 times that of Nigeria, but have succeeded in pulling their nationals out of extreme poverty and by extension improving the health indices.
“India is the most populated now, the number of people living below poverty rate is going down in India, meanwhile in Nigeria it is going up, once you are poor, you are uneducated, you don’t have the finances you cannot afford healthcare, and health is expensive . When you are educated you make informed decisions”
Nigeria must start and in terms of timing, he says Nigeria is rather late, but must act now and fast, as the theme for this year says, Nigeria needs to empower youths to create the families they want.