Still nothing for the Nigerian child
An estimated 25,685 babies (was supposedly) born in Nigeria on New Year’s Day, according to UNICEF, with Nigerian babies making up 6.5 percent of the estimated 395,072 babies born on New Year’s Day globally. Within Africa, Nigerian babies will account for almost 40 percent of all those born in West and Central Africa, and more […]
An estimated 25,685 babies (was supposedly) born in Nigeria on New Year’s Day, according to UNICEF, with Nigerian babies making up 6.5 percent of the estimated 395,072 babies born on New Year’s Day globally.
Within Africa, Nigerian babies will account for almost 40 percent of all those born in West and Central Africa, and more than 23 percent of those born in sub-Saharan Africa.
Globally, over half of the world’s births are estimated to take place in just eight countries, including Nigeria:
At current life expectancy rates, a child born in Nigeria today is likely to live only to the year 2074 – 55 years of age. A child born today in Denmark is likely to live until the 22nd century.
Only children born in three countries today have a lower life expectancy than that of Nigerian children: Central African Republic, Chad and Sierra Leone.
“We can and must do more to ensure that children born in Nigeria survive their first day of life – and are able to survive and thrive for many months and years to come,” said Pernille Ironside, UNICEF Nigeria’s Acting Representative.
Globally in 2017, about 1 million babies died the day they were born, and 2.5 million in just their first month of life. In Nigeria, each year, about 262,000 babies die at birth, the world’s second highest national total, while every day in Nigeria, 257 babies die within their first month of life.
Among these children, most died from preventable causes such as premature birth, complications during delivery, and infections like sepsis and pneumonia, a violation of their basic right to survival.
“In Nigeria today, only one out of every three babies is delivered in a health centre, decreasing a newborn baby’s chance of survival,” said Pernille Ironside. “This is just one of the issues that need to be addressed in order to improve the chances of survival of those babies born today and every day.”
So we are “APCing and PDPing”, swimming in the ocean of hate based politicking with very little of issue guided discourse by any of the candidates. We do not like figures, data and information gives us some form of higa-haga fever. So alongside many African nations Nigeria will in the year 2019 look at six overarching themes with recommendations for tackling the challenges that lie ahead, sadly none deals with how we are preparing for those that manage to escape death at childbirth, a population that will be increasing at an alarming rate.
All our noise pre elections very few candidates are talking about fixing our fragility and those who are close to the talk we know won’t win, our pikin dem don suffer. Truth is that the role of the private sector and local institutions give economic growth prospects hope, extreme poverty and state fragility prevails in part. In 2019, it is estimated that 70 percent of the world’s poor will live in Africa-mostly in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. By 2030, 13 African countries will see an increase in extreme poor. Based on these forecasts, poverty will continue to strain government institutions and threaten stability. Climate change will exacerbate the challenge, with disproportionate effects on the Sahel and other unstable areas. Boko Haram, violence and drugs, where do our children feature in the future?
Prince Charles Dickson PhD.