About 75.5 per cent of children in Sokoto state have no legal identity. This is despite efforts by the Nigerian government and partners to increase birth registration rates nationwide.
The development, according to a report has been blamed on ignorance.
Recall that the law establishing the National Population Commission, NPC makes birth registration compulsory by Act Number 69 of 1992, making it the right of every child to have a birth certificate.
Vanguard reports that 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 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”.
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, said 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 immunization which has also denied the rest of the children chances of being registered.
Another resident, who gave her name as Rabiu, said 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.
What UN says about birth registration
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.
Sokoto performance in 2021 MICS
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.