BY PATRICK MGBODO/PATIENCE CHRISTOPHER
TO enhance governance and service delivery, the National Population Commission (NPC) has launched a free birth registration campaign for children aged zero to five years in communities across Delta State.
This was disclosed by the federal commissioner representing Delta in the commission, Hon (Mrs) Blessyn Brume-Ataguba during a press conference held in Asaba to flag off the exercise in the state.
According to Hon Brume-Ataguba, the free birth registration is a collaborative effort between the NPC, the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the nation’s First Lady, Sen Oluremi Tinubu.
Brume-Ataguba solicited the support of all development partners, including the state and local governments as well as the media to support the initiative and ensure its success in the state, even as she underscored the importance of birth registration.
‘’I am pleased to inform you that the First Lady, Sen Oluremi Tinubu, under this year’s commemoration of the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CVRS) Day, through the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) partnered with the NPC and UNICEF to further ramp up with birth registration in the country with the launch of the project to accelerate birth registration in Nigeria.
‘’This collaborative effort between the NPC, UNICEF and the Office of the First Lady seeks to ensure that all births are registered, paving the way for improved governance, planning and service delivery across Nigeria.
‘’Unless a person is registered, he or she does not exist in the eyes of the State. Registration is the only access to establish and protect identities, citizenship and property rights. Often, in the absence of registration, a person cannot easily access services and entitlements’’ Brume-Ataguba said.
Earlier, the State Director of NPC, Mr. Patrick Lotobi, gave a brief background of birth registration in Nigeria, tracing its history to its first attempt in 1863 with the promulgation of Ordinance No 21 at the Lagos Colony.
He said that the first consensus to have a universal system of registration of births and deaths in Nigeria was in 1979 when the Federal Government, in search of an alternative source of demographic data, promulgated the ‘’Birth and Death Compulsory Registration Decree (Now Act) 39 of 1979.
Remarking, the representatives of the three senatorial districts of the state for the exercise, Mr. Clement Onaro (Delta South), Mr. Joshua Umushukale (Delta Central) and Mr Austin Omenegor (Delta North) expressed their preparedness to scale further activities in their respective jurisdictions.
Meanwhile, the state ICT lead for the exercise, Mr Jerry Erunube, said that 1198 ad hoc staff were trained for the exercise and how to surmount challenges that they might encounter in their field. During the flag-off ceremony, sister agencies such as the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and the National Orientation Agency (NOA) were present to lend their support for the success of the initiative in Delta.
