In Nigeria, it has become common for parents NOT to register the birth of children into their families, otherwise known as the Vital Registration System.

However, Babatunde Malik, head of the Vital Registration Department, seems to be getting tired of it, and is announcing that parents could be faced with the possibility of spending one month in jail.

In a paper entitled "Vital Registration System in Nigeria: The Journey So Far," Malik said, "parents who fail to register their children would be liable to default and may be sentenced to one month imprisonment and/or made to pay a fine of N50.00 for their act of negligence."

According to Malik, the jail term forms part of the stipulations of Decree 69 of 1992, which permits free registration for children under 60 days. It also prescribes a yet to be stipulated fee for the registration of those over two months old.

"All birth certificates issued in respect of children born from 1979, except those issued by the NPC, were useless and would not be recognized by the government. The period between now and the enforcement of the decree will serve as a period of grace for parents to register with the NPC children born since 1979, warning that non-compliance was likely to attract severe punishment via the due processes of the law," said Malik.

Chris Ugokwe, the National Chairman of NPC, has been observing the recent incidents and seems to feel strongly about where it is arising from.

"I realize that even those registered are done very late. This attitude arises solely from ignorance about the benefits of the Vital Registration System. Also, certain cultural beliefs among those who are aware of the necessity of registering the children born into their families, forbid it."

According to on-line information, the government is going to have a stricter method of keeping accurate and up-to-date records of the country’s population at inter-causal periods. This method will include family planning programs and fertility regulations such as child spacing and registration of births.

Responding to these problems in Nigeria, Molly Glaser, a Marist College student included her opinion in a brief interview.

" I do not understand why parents would want to hide a childbirth, but jail time is not the answer to the problem. Wouldn’t the government be better off just keeping the jail time a warning," said Glaser.

Pius Ezeanya, a social worker, stated his beliefs about the incidents in a recent issue of The Post Express.

"Although most government policies have been liable to criticism," said Ezeanya. "The imprisonment threat for non-compliance with the nation’s policy on birth registration was born out of genuine intentions and will probably remain a threat if the people adhere to the laws. The result, is that each time headcounts are conducted, a certain controversy over whelms the process. If people had adhered to the birth registration exercise over the years, the situation would not have been so."

Statistics reveal that the population of the country stands somewhere between 102 and 104 million people. Of this figure, about 47.9 percent are children between the ages of zero and 14. This would indicate that nearly half of the country’s population comprises mainly children who ought to be catered for by both their parents and the government.

Chief Ayo Ogunlade, the Minister of National Planning stated in the first edition of The Progress of Nigerian Children, that the fact that children represent almost half of the nation’s population was an indication for the nation to consider what proportion of resources was devoted to the welfare of children and the damage which the neglect of this group might cause.

The NPC Chairman, Ugokwe also said, "The reason for the emphasis on provision of information was because government recognized the importance of accurate demographic data for planning and implementation of its programs."

Like Ugokwe, Ezeanya agreed and felt that the one sad thing about the issue of registering births is that people ignore it without recognizing the effects, which that attitude will have on them in the long run.

"I want to point out that the 1994 figures showed that a total of 6,074 schools were available for about 4,451,329 post-primary students nationwide. 152,596 teachers in 100,924 classrooms catered for this number. The ratio of teachers to students stood at 1:29 a picture," said Ezeanya.

  Ezeanya said that the ratio of patients to doctors was embarrassing. In 1990, figures from the FOS revealed that there were 204 health establishments owned by the Federal Government while the states including Abuja owned a total of 3,353 and the local governments 7,412 others. Private individuals owned 2,295, the grand total of 14,103, when the 823 others owned by unidentified agencies are added to the lot.

  Many are arguing that these statistics form the major reason why the government came up with the population policy in 1988.

Kizat Sivyo, a citizen of Nigeria said, "these are the main things causing the government to adhere to the laws made in the late eighties."

Based on the stipulations of the policy, the NPC divided the country into 210,000 areas to effectively collate figures. Each local government areas then maintained at least two births registration centers.

"Since records of births and deaths are major factors of change in the population of any country where migration stream is not particularly heavy, the intention is to provide adequate information on demographic changes after each population census," said Ezeanya.

Unfortunately, there has been an inadequate response to this scheme, which may be responsible for the threat of jail terms. The expectation is that the threat would help establish reliable census figures, and hopefully, the controversy in which past census figures had been altered would end.

"Most important, is that it would help to determine national budgeting and planning as well as allocation of resources and siting of development projects," said Malik.