When Blessing Eze who was born out of wedlock, arrived Lagos a year ago to continue her primary school education, she was 12 years old.

Attempts to register her in a public school then prompted requests for her birth certificate, an official document required to get her admitted into school.

Sadly, it couldn’t be produced; a development that temporarily stalled her school admission. Enquiries made then to secure the certificate revealed that the birth of Blessing wasn’t registered at the time she was delivered in Igbogbo, in the outskirts of Ikorodu, Lagos State way back in 2012.

Her mother thereafter took her to Owerri in Imo State where she lived for 12 years before returning to Lagos to join her biological father. Even today as she clocked 13 years, she still doesn’t have a birth certificate.

Blessing is one of Nigerian children who has so far missed out on the registration of their births and consequently lose out on their legal identity, though, the National Population Commission, the birth of Blessing can still be registered free with NPC. The registration of persons that are 18 years and above however attracts an administrative charge.

According to UNICEF, 43 per cent of Nigerian children were not captured in birth registration and legally became invisible. Despite millions of children given birth to annually in the country birth registration uptake in the country has been less than optimal, depriving Nigerian children of the rights recognised by both the UN and the Federal Government and so they legally become invisible and do not exist.

Speaking on children who miss the registration of their birth at a two-day media dialogue, organised by UNICEF, NPC and the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development, at Sangotedo, Lagos State recently, the Chief of UNICEF Field Office for South West Nigeria, Celine Lafoucriere, said birth registration is a fundamental human right, and without legal identity, a child remains unavailable, invisible. “A registered child has acknowledged rights to protection but also to healthcare, education and other critical services.

Without child registration, these children remain invisible to our governments, making it difficult to plan adequately for them,” Lafoucriere added.

However, speaking on the e-birth registration, Lafoucriere said it is a formidable opportunity to get more children registered and have a legal identity, adding that it cuts off the issues like geographic distance, and makes it easier for parents to register their children as soon as they are born.

Considering some negative attitude such as demonstrated in the non-registration of the birth of Blessing, one strategy experts proposed to help capture the registration of more births is that of incorporating traditional birth attendants (TBAs) at both the urban and rural areas in ensuring that more mothers and guardians follow up and register the birth of their babies with NPC.

A Family Physician who specializes in Adult Internal Medicine & Paediatrics, Dr Rotimi Adesanya affirmed that adopting the TBAs to connect mothers with NPC for the registration of their baby’s birth will be a success.

According to him, as far as the Nigerian health care system is concerned, the TBAs are legally recognised even by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“So, because of that recognition, the state ministries of health work hand in hand with them at the grassroots level. “Part of their operations are also controlled by the primary health care (PHC) centers. The records of the their baby delivery and other procedure that they do, are submitted to governments on monthly basis.

Collaborations

Adesanya recommended that the state governments will have to collaborate with the TBAs and prompt them to register their practices so that government will subsequently engage through training and empowerment.

“Then things like non-financial incentives could also be introduced; it will help the TBAs to be more interested in engaging mothers and caregivers to get the birth of their children registered with officials of NPC.

According to him, the incentives could come in form of various rewards, as simple as giving them a status, such as saying that this particular TBA is a birth registration center approved by the state government; things like this boosts their morale.

Without child registration these children remain invisible to our governments

Incentives

“Then the training of the TBA is also an incentive. So if the government also support the TBAa with things that they need in the labor ward including things that are put on the children’s arms when they are born to identify them.

Incentives like that can be a package provided by the NPC to get the buy-in of the TBAs for the birth registration. “Periodically the state governments engaging with them should also organise a seminar for them on how to improve on their delivery and how to make their operations hygienic.”

According to Adesanya, various state governments have engaged with TBAs on the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, taught them how to do a rapid test for HIV for all their pregnant mothers, and how to give tetanus; so those are the other ways that the government has partnered with TBAs.

“So it’s just for governments to go the extra mile to take this birth registration to TBAs and train them on how to connect mothers with officials of the NPC. So if all these are put in place, I guess we will have an improved statistics of birth registration, added Adesanya.

Speaking in similar vein, a Public Health Physician, Dr. Japhet Olugbogi who is also an epidemiologist said TBAs take more deliveries than the public health centers and private facilities put together. Available data show that TBAs are responsible for 60–80 per cent of all births that take place in rural areas of developing countries including Nigeria.

To this end, Olugbogi lauded the idea of using TBAs to capture more birth registration. First, the public health physician urged relevant government agencies to sensitise the TBAs as much as possible, raise their awareness about the benefits of registering the birth of babies and the need for other vital statistics.

“Let’s start this engagement with those TBAs that are registered with the Lagos State Traditional Medicine Board (LSTMB), for instance and make their registration with the Board compulsory as well as ensure that they engage mothers to register the birth of their babies with the NPC officials.

In addition, he said TBAs that are not registered with the LSTMB will thereafter be encouraged to do so while also engaging them to be part of those to expand the birth registration exercise. Similarly, Olugbogi urged the adhoc staffs of the NPC to similarly meet with TBAs to sensitise them as much as possible.

Also, they can visit one or two of the TBAs that are the largest in a particular settlement or community or LGA and ensure that they capture the registration of as many babies as possible from time to time. “I know that may include a lot of logistics that may make it a bit difficult to do. But of course, we can always define the process as we go on in the project.”

Planning

Communication officer, UNICEF Lagos office, Blessing Ejiofor said ebirth registration will generate vital statistics that are necessary for effective planning and implementation of policy and budgeting.

“If the government does not know how many children it has to budget for, it cannot do it efficiently,” she added. Lagos State Director, NPC, Bamidele Sadiku, said the commission has 4,000 civil registration centres spread across the 774 Local Government Areas of the 36 States including the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.

Sadiku, said a well-developed and functioning civil registration system entails the registration of all vital events including births and deaths, adding that e-birth registration, when launched, would provide an identity that usually enables access to a wide variety of basic rights and services as bonafide citizens.