World Population Day: AHBN Tasks Govt On Family Planning Targets

As Nigeria joined the rest of the world to commemorate this year’s World Population Day, the Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN) has tasked the federal government on speedy efforts towards achieving the Family Planning (FP) 2030 commitment.

Recall that the federal government formally launched the FP 2030
commitment in March 2022.

The FP 2030 document envisions a country where everyone including adolescents, young people, populations affected by crisis and other vulnerable populations are able to make informed choices, have equitable and affordable access to quality family planning and participate as equals in society’s development.

AHBN coordinator, Dr. Aminu Magashi, in a statement on Monday, said with the fast growing rate of the global population which currently stands at eight billion and Nigeria’s population which is estimated to be over 200 million, the call for concerted action on the part of the government to achieve the FP 2030 is timely.

Magashi expressed worry that apart from the recent launch of documents by the federal government, there are no tangible efforts by the government to ensure the FP 2030 is achieved so as to put the country’s population under check.

It is even more worrisome that majority of the over 200 million people in Nigeria, 70 per cent of them are under the age of 30, he said.

“AHBN Meaningful Adolescent and Youth Engagement (MAYE) Working Group, therefore, calls on the governments at all levels and other critical stakeholders to put modalities in place to ensure that the youth in the country are productively engaged through the provision of qualitative education and skill acquisitions so that they can contribute to the socio-economic growth of the country.

“It is necessary to warn here that the youthful population can be an asset or burden to the country, depending on how the government tackles issues around them.

“If not properly taken care of and given the needed attention, the youthful population can be a catastrophe leading to all manner of insecurity challenges including kidnapping, armed robbery and many other social vices.

“We are calling on the federal government to maximize its bulging youthful population by improving on the quality of and access to education.

“The issue of recurrent strike action in the education sector such as the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) should be addressed once and for all,” says MAYE Convener, Mrs Oyeyemi Pitan.