Despite the Nigerian government’s and partners’ efforts to increase birth registration rates across the country, 75.5 percent of children in Sokoto state lack a legal identity.
This is the case regardless of the law establishing the National Population Commission, NPopC, which requires birth registration by Act Number 69 of 1992, making it a child’s right to have a birth certificate.
It is however unfortunate that not too many parents in Sokoto consider this to be important.
Again, although, the same law establishing the Commission makes birthday registration a condition for school enrolment and a requirement for obtaining a job in the public service, it is doubtful how much these parents know about birth registration.
Findings by Good Health Weekly, during a field trip to Sokoto state, were revealing. Many parents in the Caliphate still do not have any knowledge about birth registration and why the birth of a child should be registered.
A good number of them still believe they have no use for it.
“I have not seen a birth certificate before and none of my seven children has a birth certificate. They were all born at home because my husband and mother-in-law wanted it that way”, Larai, a resident of Sokoto said.
Larai said her mother-in-law and her husband had forbidden her from going for immunisation and had not had the opportunity to register her children.
For Mallam Nasir, birth registration is not important. “I have a good memory of the date of birth of all my children. I do not require such paper,” he defiantly told Good Health Weekly.
Nasir said he is wary of some government policies as no one is telling the people about them.
Hajiya Jummai, another resident who is a mother of four, told Good Health Weekly that although she has heard about birth registration, a lot of women in her community are afraid because their husbands will not allow them to take their children to the health centre or register their births.
“I have four children, only one has a birth certificate,” Jummai said.
Asked if she knew the benefits of birth registration, she said, “No one has spoken to me about it. If it is an important document as you said, the state authorities need to engage with the people, especially, educate women on the need to have their children registered when they give birth.”
According to Abubakar Mohammed, another resident, “Birth registration is the official recording of the birth of a child. It is an essential way of protecting the fundamental rights of the child but many people in the state do not know the importance of registration.”
Mohammed traced the low birth registration rate in Sokoto to the fact that many do not know the benefits and the fact that some centres charge money, especially if the child in question was not born in that area or facility.
He said the government needs to embark on a vigorous sensitisation exercise to educate the people about birth registration.
For Hajiya Aisha, spousal influence is also hindering her children from getting registered at birth.
“I have five children, four were born at home, and only the last child that was born in the hospital has a birth certificate.”
Aisha lamented that her husband was against taking her children for immunisation which has also denied the rest of the children chances of being registered.
Another resident, who gave her name as Rabiu, told Good Health Weekly, that his wife had his four children registered at the Primary Healthcare Centre, Guiwa in Wamakko Local Government Area, LGA.
“I am fully aware and all my four children were registered at birth, to have an accurate date of birth, according to my wife.”
Rabiu admitted that though his children have been registered, he did not believe in the registration of birth.”
He said he has five children, four of who were born at home and only the last one born in the hospital has a birth certificate.
According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, target 16.9, governments need to provide legal identity for all, including birth registration by 2030.
Sadly, achieving such a target may be a mirage for Nigeria as states like Sokoto rank low in birth registration and awareness about it remains at the lowest level.
The 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, MICS, carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS and the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, among other partners noted that Sokoto has the lowest number of children under age five registered at birth, with 22.5 per cent while Lagos State leads with 94 per cent, higher than the national average of 57.3 per cent.
The MICS also revealed that although Nigeria had only 57 per cent of its children under five years registered in 2021, it was an increase of 10 per cent from five years ago.
According to the survey, the highest levels of birth registration are found in Lagos with 94 per cent and FCT at 87 per cent. The lowest levels are found in Jigawa with 22.5 per cent. Also, 3 per cent of children under the age of five had their births registered, but do not have birth certificates.
The findings from the field trip supported by UNICEF and the Federal Ministry of Information Child Rights Information Bureau confirmed part of the result of the survey which states that two out of every three mothers and caregivers of children aged below five years whose births were not registered, did not know how to register births.
According to the Birth Registration Attendant at the Guiwa PHC, Samaila Shekare, who explained that birth registration was a process of documenting a child’s birth explained that the centre ensures that all children delivered at the centre are registered at birth.
Confirming the ignorance associated with birth registration in Sokoto, the Birth Registration Officer at the PHC Arkilla, Wamakko Local Government, Rabi’atu Bashar who disclosed that only 385 children have been registered at the centre since the beginning of the year, identified a lack of awareness as the major obstacle in driving birth registration rates in the state.
Bashar said: “One major reason is that most parents in Sokoto do not know about birth registration and that is why we are doing a house-to-house mobilisation to educate them about the benefits of birth registration. Lack of awareness is a challenge.”
Bashir believed that taking the campaign to schools will increase awareness about it and in return increase the number of registered children in the state.
The state Director of Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilisation and Programme Manager, of the State Emergency on Routine Immunisation Coordinating Centre, Aliyu Abbass acknowledged that the withdrawal of NPopC representatives in the Local Government Areas has affected birth registration exercises in the state.
Abbass explained that for 3 to 5 years, the NPopC had its representatives at the LGA and in other facilities but now, that the representatives have all been withdrawn leaving the health workers to handle the services, the tempo for birth registration has gone down due to acute shortage of services providers at the local level.
“Before now, everyone had their schedule but with the present problem of human resources which is also a global issue, it has become more difficult. Another reason why the state performed poorly is also lack of adequate information on birth registration.”
He disclosed that currently, the state is working with the National Population Commission, NPopC to register more children.
According to UNICEF, there is a need to ensure that every child is counted to benefit from important services like health and education. Experts believed that birth registration if gotten right will sure up progress and development in the country.
In a chat with Good Health Weekly, the Head of the Department of Vital Registration, National Population Commission, Lagos State, Mr Ikechukwu Nwannukwu, said birth registration has many benefits and the basics among them are that birth registration gives a child the first identity in life just like the slogan goes, that a child that is not registered does not exist.
Nwannukwu explained that the benefit of identity is the foundation to which other benefits of birth registration can be added.
Explaining why children must have birth certificates, he said; “Birth registration is used for enrollment into the school. For instance, in Lagos, no child gets admission into the school without providing a birth certificate. Birth registration or birth certificate is also used when somebody wants to get an international passport.
“It is a defence from child trading and stands against early marriage because we know that a child is not an adult until he is at the age of 18 years. It also helps you to know your age group. A birth certificate is a powerful tool for the government to plan for example if you have 500 children in a community and only 200 of them have a birth certificate, if they want to set up a school there, they will set up the school based on the number of children registered and you will then see that at the end of the day the schools will be inadequate, the same thing happens to social facilities and hospitals.” He said for the government to plan effectively on where to site hospitals, social facilities and their sizes. “It has to depend on the registered children.”