LAGOS/Nigeria: Patrick Omogbohun, has stressed the need for governments to sensitise the masses to embrace Family Planning (FP) to improve their health and living conditions.
Omogbohun, the Medical Director of MercyWay Medical Centre, Ejigbo in Lagos State, gave the suggestion in an interview with newsmen on Thursday in Lagos.
He said that the awareness campaign was necessary to make family planning become a social norm in the society; where everybody would be free to discuss it.
According to him, making family planning a social norm in the country will boost the economy, improve the living standards of the public and reduce the poverty level.
He said that Nigeria’s already large population and uncontrolled population growth were recipes for poverty and underdevelopment, as well as national and regional conflicts.
Omogbohun explained that multiple births or lack of birth control also had contributed to the high rate of poverty, lack of infrastructure and economic challenges currently being experienced in the country.
The physician noted that planning the economic development and growth of the nation starts with planning the family.
“Having multiple children in unplanned manners can be very devastating because you cannot cater for them adequately and this is why poverty, hunger, unemployment, maternal and child mortality are on the increase.
“Multiple births can also disrupt government plans, with the country’s economy and infrastructure struggling to cope with volatile population growth,” he said.
Omogbohun said that the developed countries used to plan and turn around their economies positively through family planning, adding that the country could do same.
He said that family planning should become a ‘must’ in Nigeria of the 21st Century because people cannot continue to give birth in an unplanned manner.
“We need to adopt family planning so that our society and country can be like the developed countries.
“The beginning of their development was through birth control, which is why they are able to plan their families, society and their countries.
“If we can adopt family planning or child spacing, the government will be able to plan and cater for the citizens, better than the developed countries because we are endowed with more resources,’’ Omogbohun said.
He, therefore, appealed to the citizens to embrace family planning so as to improve their quality of life, break the vicious cycle of poverty and secure their future.
