An address presented by Engr (Chief) Benedict Ukpong, FNSE, on the World Population Day

An address presented by Engr (Chief) Benedict Ukpong, FNSE, (Ntanta Oro), Hon. Federal Commissioner, National Population Commission, Akwa Ibom State on behalf of the Chairman, National Population Commission,
Chief Eze Duruiheoma, (SAN) at the Stakeholders Sensitization Meeting in commemoration of the 2017
World Population Day (WPD) held on Friday, 14th July, 2017 at Amity Hotel, Ewet Housing Estate, Uyo.

Protocol,

1. Introduction
I feel delighted to address our valuable stakeholders and other distinguished guests present today in this Sensitization meeting in commemoration of the 2017
World Population Day (WPD). As you are aware, the WPD is a global event commemorated on 11th July every year since 1989 with the objective of creating awareness on current and emerging population issues as they impact on the quality of the population. Nigeria and
indeed our State is joining other nations of the world to commemorate the global event.

The theme of the 2017 World Population Day (WPD) is Family Planning, Birth Spacing: Empowering People, Developing Nations.

According to health experts, family planning and birth spacing are measures adopted to attain a sustainable family size by way of allowing for adequate intervals between births, employing especially the use of contraception.

II. Benefits of Family Planning and Child Spacing Family planning and child spacing are personal decisions but their profound implications on the health, economic and social well-being of the society are far reaching.

That is why simply individual choices have become a development agenda that must be addressed on a sustainable basis.

As the theme of the 2017 WPD shows, family planning is not only about saving lives but also empowering people and developing nations.

(a) Family Planning as Life Saving Intervention Family planning is a life saving intervention.

It prevents unintended pregnancies and in turn reduced health risks at childbirth and recourse to unsafe abortions. This type of intervention is critical in not only in normal situations but also during humanitarian crisis, often characterized
by sexual violence, intimate partner violence, child marriage and high risk behaviour, such as survival, transactional and commercial sex.

Universal access to voluntary family planning can reduce maternal deaths by
a third, and child deaths by as much as 20 percent.

In 2016, contraceptives provided by UNFPA had the potential to prevent an estimated 29,000 maternal deaths.

Some family planning methods, such as condoms, help prevent the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Family planning /contraception reduces the need for abortion, especially unsafe abortion.

(b) Family Planning as a Tool for Economic and Social Development
The right of women and children to decide freely for themselves, on whether, when and how many children to have, affords women and girls more opportunities to become wage earners, thereby boosting family income levels.

As women gain access to productive resources, they also report better health outcomes, achieve higher levels of education and experience a lower incidence of intimate partner violence.

These same positive effects are
also true for their children. Adolescent girls who delay pregnancy and consequently complete more years of
schooling, and women with more years of schooling, tend to have fewer children.

Investments In family planning this creates a reinforcing cycle of empowerment, supporting healthy, educated and economically productive
women and families.

(c) Family Planning and Reaping the Benefits of Demographic Dividend
Investments in family planning can contribute to the demographic dividend, which raises a country's economic
growth potential.

When the size of the dependent population (IE, children and the elderly) shrinks relative to the size of those in the working age, it creates an economic advantage especially in countries with lower levels of overall national earnings - the combination of increased wage earners, decreased dependency and the
right policies can fuel major economic growth.

(d) Family Planning is Integral to the Sustainable Development Goals On 25 September 2015, the 193 Member States of the United Nations unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development, including 17 Sustainable Development Goals that aim to transform the world over the subsequent 15 years.

These goals are designed to eliminate poverty, discrimination, abuse and preventable deaths, address environmental destruction, and usher in
an era of development for all people, everywhere.

Family planning is included in the Sustainable Development Goals targets (such as target 3.7, to achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health
services), and achieving many of the goals depends in part on the ability of women to exercise their reproductive rights.

Universal access to sexual and reproductive health services including family planning, is key to achieving such rights.

(III) Closing the Gaps of Unmet Needs for Family Planning Services In spite of the immense benefits of Family planning and
child spacing to the individuals and the nation, there are still wide unmet needs globally and nationally.

An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing but are not using
any method of contraception.

Most of these women with an unmet demand for contraceptives live in 6, of the poorest countries on earth.

Fulfilling their unmet demand would save lives by averting 60 million unintended
pregnancies around the world and reducing maternal deaths by one third of the estimated 303,000 maternal
deaths that occurred in 2016. Although modern contraceptive use has nearly doubled worldwide from 36 percent in 1970 to 64 percent in 2016, we still have a long way to go to ensure that all women enjoy their right to decide whether, when or how often to become pregnant.

At the national level, data from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) reveals that unmet need for family planning is currently 16 percent among married women.

Knowledge of contraception is widespread
in Nigeria: 85 percent of women and 95 percent of men report knowing about a contraceptive method. However, only fifteen percent (15) of currently married women use a contraceptive method, an increase of only 2 percentage points from the 2003 NDHS. Ten percent of currently married women using a modern method.

Injectables remain the most popular contraceptive method, used by 3
percent of currently married women. Private sector facilities continue to be the chief providers of contraceptive method in Nigeria: 60 percent of users of
modern contraceptives methods obtained them from the private sector.

iV. The Time the Collective Action is Now
I wish to seize this opportunity to renew the appeal to the Federal, States, and Local Governments to invest more in the provision of sexual and reproductive health services to the establishment majority of the people.

Our population remains our greatest asset in our quest for sustainable development.

The health status and general well-being of our women and girlchild have the capacity to influence our development process.

This capacity is being undermined by their continued exposure to preventable phenomena of maternal mortality, unsafe abortions, and early pregnancy which deny them the pursuit of educational and economic opportunities, all occasioned by lack of access to family planning services.

Indeed, all the massive investments in building social and physical infrastructure, healthcare, education and other critical sectors of our national life will not yield maximum benefits unless the women and the girlchild have an
unfettered access to sexual and reproductive information and services.

The present situation in which access to
family planning information and services is severely limited is unacceptable and definitely counterproductive to our match towards sustainable development.

Resistance to family planning and child spacing have been deeply rooted in our cultural prejudices and wrong interpretation of religious injunctions.

This is in spite of the fact the two major religions of Christianity and Islam enjoin parents to protect and cater for the health and well-being of their children.

Protection and adequate care of the children and the mother is a well known injunction by the two major religions and should be properly propagated.

There is the urgent need to save our women and the girlchild from the agonies of unwanted pregnancies and accord them rightful place in the development process through a fundamental shift in
attitudes towards family planning.

The woman and the girlchild should have the right to make informed choices and shape their future.

I therefore wish to call on religion leaders, traditional rulers and community leaders to take up this challenge of promoting the demand for and utilization of family
planning services for the sake of building a healthy and prosperous society.

Also, having a large army of un-catered-for children because the mothers are denied access to family planning services is neither in the short nor long term interest of any community.

It is my hope that the commemoration of the 2017 World Population Day will help to sensitise the general public on the need to embrace family planning and child
spacing and redirect the attention of stakeholders and policy makers to the need to mobilize resources in order
to boost access to family planning information and services.

I wish to express our desire to rely on the gentlemen of the Press to draw the attention of the general public to
the implications of rapid population growth and promote the cultivation of attitudes that are consistent with
healthy reproductive behaviors for effective managing of our population for sustainable development.

In this context, we would like the gentleman of the Press to help in sensitising the public on the need to space their births through the utilization of family planning services.

VI. Appreciation
I wish to seize this opportunity to express our profound appreciation to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), especially the Cross River State Zonal Office, Calabar, the State Ministry of Economic Development and Manpower Planning, the State Bureau of Political,
Legislative and Water Resources, Radio Nigeria, Atlantic FM, Uyo, various print media houses, our resource persons and all stakeholders that have contributed in
various ways to the smooth and fulfilling commemoration of the 2017 World Population Day in the State.

Please do not relent in your efforts for the sake of a prosperous Akwa Ibom State.

Thank you and God bless.

Engr. (Chief) Benedict Ukpong, FNSE
(Ntanta Oro) Hon. Federal Commissioner, NPC Akwa Ibom State,
for: Hon. Chairman, NPC Abuja .