Religious Leaders Task Media, CSOs on Family Planning Messages for Young People

By Alex Uangbaoje, Kaduna

Following the rampant cases of dumping of newborn babies in Nigeria, religious leaders in Kaduna State on Thursday tasked media practitioners, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to develop Family Planning (FP) messages targeting young people.

They gave the charge in Kaduna at the ‘Quarterly Meeting on Child Spacing’ organized by Development Communications Network, otherwise known as DevComs.

According to them, the spate at which young girls are having unwanted pregnancies has called for a matter of urgent importance reduce the menance amongst youths in the country.

Speaking as one of the resource persons at event, Chief Imam of Ungwan Rimi Central Mosque, Imam Musa Tanimu, it is their responsibility to address the issue of Child Spacing amongst married couples and also address sin of immortality and formication among the youths.

“As religious leaders, we cannot be teaching youths about the use of condoms, that is a way of encouraging immortality, so the media and CSOs should help us shoulder that as part of their contributions to the society.” He said.

Speaking on the Islamic perspective of child spacing, the cleric said, Islam gave a minimum of 30 months interval between pregnancies so the mother can have enough rest before the next one, hence the child spacing was not a new idea that should generate unnecessary arguments.

“When we talk about child spacing, we have to look at a lot of things. What’s the purpose of our existence here on earth. God said he did not create human and genes (angels) except to worship him. Haddit of the Prophet also said we should marry and get many children so he can be proud of us.

“But which kind of children the Prophet was talking about, is it criminals that he would be proud of. Once you abandon them, they become criminals and don’t remember to pray for themselves or for their late parents.

“The portion of having many children is what many people misunderstood forgetting that, the Prophet only talk about good children.

“When you tell couple to discuss the number of children they can cater for, it is already child spacing. But when you said they should tame it then there may be problem of acceptance of your message.”

He added, “today, while planning your family, you need to think of economy too because even the education now is money. So, those that stick to old education, their children are suffering.

“You have to plan base on the health of the mother. At what interval will she be able to undergo child bearing process once again. Then ask her if she can, then if she said yes she’s capable you can decide and if she said no you decide too.

“But in all these, you need to manage the children well. You will be responsible for any sin they commit. You should take care of their education, character and all that so they will not become criminals and add up to Devil’s kingdom. Children are blessing from Allah but that can only be claim when they are doing well.”

Imam Tanimu, therefore said, leaving children to be begging is against Islamic teaching, saying, “it is better to leave something behind for your children than to leave them to become beggars. Therefore, new innovation will come to people base on what they have created for themselves. You have to use your intellect to see how you can develop. We need wisdom always. We need to increase in knowledge.”

Another religious leader, Reverend Shekwolo Ayuba, Chairman Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Chikun Local Government Area, who also appealed to the media and other groups take off the responsibility of preaching about safe sex among the youths, urged the media to assist in sex education, because is not the place of the Church to encourage sex among unmarried people.

The Reverend who Quoted from the Bible’s first book of Timothy 5:8, added that it is an abomination to have children if you cannot take care of them.

“It is important to plan our family as God Himself did. For example, in Genesis Chapter 1,God plans His creation. That means we need to plan everything we want to do emulating the master planner.

“What I’m trying to say is that, what is the gain if you have a large family that cannot live a good life, no good food, no education and all that. Our belief is that, if families are healthy, church will be healthy. If they are not healthy, how can we concentrate on worshiping our Creator.” He said.

Earlier, Coordinator of Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF), Mrs. Seykem Dadik, had challenged participants on the value and santity the life of a woman.

“What is the value of Nigerian life? What is the sanctity of Nigerian life? What is value of Nigerian women? If there is value for Nigerian life, there is no point for any woman dying let alone of many of them dying while giving live.

“As we consider the way forward, we need to place value on every life where women go through the upbringing process with joy and all of us if we faint not will be better for it.” She said.

Newsweb

At Newsweb Express we don't only break the news, we are committed to investigative and developmental journalism

You may also like...

2 Responses

  1. December 19, 2023

    … [Trackback]

    […] There you will find 42111 additional Information on that Topic: newswebexpress.com/religious-leaders-task-media-csos-on-family-planning-messages-for-young-people/ […]

  2. February 12, 2024

    … [Trackback]

    […] Find More to that Topic: newswebexpress.com/religious-leaders-task-media-csos-on-family-planning-messages-for-young-people/ […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *