By Ukasha Aliyu
Preparatory to the official launch of a new initiative titled “Nigeria Population Matters” (NPM), the North East Coordinator of the initiative Ambassador Comfort Attah and her team have paid an advocacy visit to Unguwar Marafa Community in Bauchi Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
The North East Coordinator of NPM disclosed that the objective of the advocacy visit was to garner support and cooperation of community leaders on seeking avenues to address challenges on population data, which tends to shortchange citizens on social amenities being provided by the Government.
Part of the advocacy campaign carried out by the visiting team was the introduction of population matters and child birth spacing in relation to human capital development.
The Nigeria Population Matters team further stressed on the importance of having an accurate population data for effective funds allocation to communities for social and human capital development.
According to the advocacy team, some of the current hardship among families include large family size and the inability of family caregivers to cater for basic needs.
“Nigeria is currently depending on the 2006 population census to make decisions, this is not representing the growing population in Nigeria. We want to sensitize your community members to support the mini census that will soon be introduced to give room for support from other countries”, said Amb. Comfort Attah.
In their separate responses all the community leaders pledge to support the NPM initiative at any point the need arises.
They further expressed their appreciation for selecting their community for the advocacy engagement, promising to step it down to their subjects.
