High Infant Mortality Worries Abia Commissioner

Infant and maternal mortal ity rate in Abia ‘’is still very high,’’ Dr Sam Ahiwe, the Federal Commissioner for the National Population Commission (NPC) in the state, has said.

Ahiwe made the statement in Umuahia on Thursday at an interactive session with newsmen in Umuahia, as part of activities marking this year’s World Population Day.

He, however, said that he could not provide the statistics to support his assertion because he was still ‘’new in office.’’

Ahiwe, a former Commissioner for Health during Gov. Theodore Orji’s first tenure, said that the then state Executive Council was disturbed by the trend.

He said that was why the then state executive council resolved that the administration should provide free maternal services for expectant mothers as part of measures to curb the problem.

The commissioner said he hoped that the massive construction of health centres by the State Government would help to make reproductive health services available to the people.

Ahiwe said that the level of compliance with the mandatory registration of births and deaths in the state was ‘’poor;’’ noting that not more than 30 per cent of births and deaths ‘‘are registered in the state’’.

He attributed the development to the palpable face-off between the commission and Local Governments in the state, arising from interpretation of the provisions of the Constitution.

Ahiwe said that while councils charged for the exercise as empowered by the Constitution, the commission did not, disclosing that the governor had promised to look into the problem.

Speaking on the 2006 census as it affected Abia; Ahiwe said there was basis for the legal action taken by the state to challenge the 2.8 million population figure allotted to it.

He said that ‘’this figure cannot stand for Aba, not to talk about Ohafia and Umuahia.’’

He contended that about 75 per cent of the people were not counted because the exercise was disrupted by members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra.

The commissioner, however, advised the state to put the matter behind it and look forward to future national census.

He appealed to the media to help in creating public awareness and sensitising the people on the need to fully participate in such exercise in future.

Ahiwe said the rejection of the census figure by 25 states that went to court to challenge its validity rendered the figure unacceptable and unreliable.

He said that the commission was putting necessary machinery on ground to produce a database that could be used by individuals, groups and corporate organisations.

‘’Our database is very poor,’’ he said, adding that it was necessary for the NPC to generate a veritable, reliable and acceptable data for the country and the international community.

He advocated the inclusion of sex education in the school curriculum which should start from the family as part of the collective efforts to promote reproductive health.

The NPC, Mr Ndu Nnanna, in his remarks said that the country’s population would hit 177.8 million in 2013 at an annual growth rate of 3.2 per cent.

Ahiwe had earlier presented the address of the Chairman of the NPC, Mr Festus Odimegwu, where he highlighted the commission’s programmes, designed to promote reproductive health in the country.