Ejike Oji, the chairman of the Association for the Advancement of Family Planning in Nigeria, said on Monday that family planning was a panacea to multidimensional poverty.

Mr Oji said in Abuja that he urged Nigerians to embrace family planning for quality living in all ramifications.

“Nigeria, at the moment, is one of the countries with multidimensional poverty. This means that a lot of homes in the country lack access to not just money but quality healthcare, food, water, education, etc.,” he said.

The medical practitioner expressed optimism about the capability of family planning to reduce multidimensional poverty.

According to him, when parents plan well for childbearing and spacing, they will at least provide basic resources to their children and themselves.

Mr Oji, who blamed the increase in insurgency and insecurity on a lack of family planning, said children born without good planning were vulnerable to becoming miscreants.

He alleged that many of the terrorists or insurgents in the country were children born without planning. He called on the government at all levels to produce policies encouraging family planning locally and nationally.

The National Multidimensional Poverty Index by the National Bureau of Statistics says 133 million Nigerians, representing over 60 per cent of the country’s population, are multidimensionally poor.

It says they are deprived of no fewer than one essential survival need, which includes good health, good living standards, basic education and gainful employment.

(NAN)