Some parents have called for monthly house-to-house birth registration exercise in Bauchi State to ensure that all children under the age of five are registered.
Our correspondent, who monitored the exercise in Shira Local Goverment Area of Bauchi State, reported that the exercise witnessed huge turn out of parents and guardians registering their children but complained that 10 days was inadequate for 100 percent coverage.
A 43-year-old Abdurazak Ahmed, who registered two of his children during the exercise in Shira, urged UNICEF and NPC to extend the registration exercise or conduct it monthly.
“The 10 days given for the birth registration exercise might not be adequate to register all pure children. So we want the authority in charge to extend the exercise to enable all our children get registered. They can also make it a continuous exercise which will be conducted monthly to ensure that no child will be left out ,” he said.
Ahmed also called for awareness on the birth registration to enable parents espcailly the rural dwellers know the importance of obtaining birth certificate for their children.
The National Population Commison (NPC) Comproller in Shira council, Bashir Ya’u, said that about 30,000 children were expected to be registered at the end of the 10 days exercise.
He said that ad hoc staff engaged by NPC were working hard to ensure that all children were registered in all the 18 wards in Shira council, noting that the duration of the exercise was too short to achieve their target.
Ya’u, who complained that workers had run short of registration form, said that the shortage might also hamper the registration hence the need for extension to ensure full coverage.
The birth registration, which will last for 10 days in Bauchi began on July 6, 2017 and is being conducted by EU-UNICEF in collaboration with National Population Commission (NPC) and Bauchi State governement.
