The Ogun State office of National Population Commission (NPC) has said it has registered a total of 25, 728 births in the State between January and June this year as against the expected 67, 434.
The Commission said the number represent just about 20 percent, calling on the people to take the issue of birth registration a priority.
NPC also called on federal, state as well as local government to evolve a plan that will make it compulsory for parents to register birth of their children within two months of such birth.
With particular mentioning of Ogun state, NPC charged the state government to come up with plans that would compel parents to register birth of their children not later than year after such delivery.
The State Director of NPC, Gbolahan Olude said these in his address at the flag-off of the media campaign on promoting birth registration in Ogun state.
Olude, who explained that birth registration is compulsory, continuous, permanent and universal, emphasised that some parents would not register their children unless government comes up with a standing policy that would compel them to do so.
He explained that massive ignorance of the civil society on importance of birth registration for their children's health development and future aspirations as against poverty were responsible since the exercise is free of charge.
He also bemoaned some of the challenges confronting smooth birth registration in the state which he said include lack of visible offices facilities, inadequate personnel to handle birth registration among others.
NPC Director added that low knowledge of the agency responsible for birth registration also affected the number of birth registered as many parents do not know where to go for such registration.
Olude however, called on the state government to take a cue from the example set by Oyo state in the year 2012 where it engaged ad-hoc birth registrars for all the political wards delineation across the state.
"In Ogun we have very many health facilities where there are no registrars. More importantly, we don't have offices in Odeda, Obafemi - Owode local governments. If anybody is looking for any local government office of NPC, it would be difficult to get any".
"Without all of us including the state government, the birth registration will not move forward. Too few registrars for the 106 registration centers in Ogun which are not enough to cover the entire state unlike in other states of the federation".
"For example, Oyo state in the year 2012 employed one registrar per ward, paid by the state government even change of government did not affect the system till date. So, when you see Oyo state in the map of Nigeria, it's always green. This is because the state has enough personnel on ground to do the job".
"Ogun state has 236 wards. So, if we have one person per ward ad-hoc registrar to assist the existing 106 NPC registrars, then, the story would change. That is what they have done in some other states. We know how to reach, we always leverage on the health personnel to reach these places"
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