From Lawan Sunday, Lafia
Nasarawa State government is considering making birth certificate compulsory requirement for enrolment in both public and private primary schools.

Nasarawa State Governor, Engr Abdullahi Sule, disclosed this while hosting commissioners from the National Population Commission (NPC) for Nasarawa, Benue and Plateau states who paid him a courtesy call at the Government House on Tuesday.

Governor Sule said it has become necessary to know the true population of the state for proper planning, adding that his administration is considering making birth certificate compulsory requirement for registration in primary school.
“I strongly believe we need to know our records on registration for births and deaths, in order for us to plan. As an engineer, I cannot work without data,” the governor said.
While acknowledging the significance of population in revenue allocation from the national government, Engineer Sule however stressed that he is more interested in other areas of planning, such as the development thrust of his administration, infrastructural goals, which could hardly be attained without adequate planning.
“We cannot plan our infrastructure, we cannot plan our development programmes, we cannot truly plan our budget if we don’t know our population,” Engineer Sule stated.
The governor noted that Nasarawa State has no excuse not to register births and deaths, emphasizing that his administration will take the campaign to religious bodies, clinics, hospitals as well as all agencies that are responsible for birth and death registration.
The governor promised to support the NPC to facilitate its activities in the state.
Earlier in an opening remark, Nasarawa State Commissioner at the National Population Commission, Alhaji Nasir Isa Kwarra, leader of the delegation, reviewed the activities of the commission in the state.
Kwarra solicited the collaboration of the state government in terms of advocacy and logistics, especially towards its planned Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD), as according to him, the Federal Government alone cannot singlehandedly finance the project.    The NPC Commissioner lamented that Nasarawa State is backward in the continuous and universal registration of births and deaths, with the state yet to launch its awareness campaign on births and deaths registration.