Media and Civil Societies Groups (CSOs) have been called upon to as a matter of importance help in encouraging child spacing and unwanted pregnancies amongst youths in the country.
Making the appeal at the “Quarterly Meeting on Child Spacing” organized by Devcoms Network in Kaduna on Thursday, the Chief Imam of Ungwan Rimi Central Mosque, Imam Musa Tanimu said that though God created human beings to worship him, which prompted old scholars to advocate having plenty children, it takes only trained and well disciplined children to bring glory to God.
According to him, “If you train your children, it is because you have the means to do so. Family in present day Nigeria is based on the economic power of the parents. There’s no where in the world, that the financial base of the spouses do not determine the number of children allowed into the world”.
Rev. Shekwolo Ayuba Kasuwa, Chairman Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Chikun Local Government Area and member Family Health Advocate Nigeria Initiative (FHANI), urged the media to assist in sex education. Quoting from the Bible, 1 Timothy 5:8, he said it is an abomination to have children if they can’t be taken care of.
“God allows planing of children because, from creation everything was planned for”.
In his contribution, a media practitioner, Mr. Sola Ojo averred that the rate of abandoned or disposed babies in the state is alarmingly increasing, a trend he urged religious leaders to help in finding a lasting solution.
” The state is in serious problems based on the number of children/babies thrown away, killed by their baby mothers or abandoned. Religious clerics should help in preaching the abstaining from early sex by youths and unmarried couples “.
When asked whether it is religious to space children, Imam Tanimu heaped blames on the media, saying in times past, their introduction to family planning was trying to curtail the number of children couples should have, adding that with the advancement in technology, people are beginning to understand that child spacing is necessary owing to spiritual and economical postulations.
