Application of ICTs in family planning and birth controlin Awka-South L.G.A, Anambra State, Nigeria
By:Uchenna Patricia Ekwughaand Allen NnanwubaAdum
Introduction
Birth control and family planning method has been there for ages. The rate of human multiplication has increased so much so that it allowed a group of people to create their own country and forming their own population. However, if this is not being controlled, the problems of overpopulation will then appear and cause a chain effect on either on the environmental state of the world or the cultural and economical state of the particular country. Experts observed that the rise in number of human population will affect the social-economics and destroys the maintenance of the minimal standards of living of the country. Therefore, it is necessary to have the knowledge of overpopulation crisis implanted in the citizens’ mind. The efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria in improvising the birth control and family planning policy in the country has not been doing well because some Nigerians believe that it is not necessary to control the number of children in the family and disobey the policies. The purpose of this study is to find out if the residents of Awka-South L.G.A. are aware and know of the application of ICTs in family planning and birth control services in Nigeria. The influence of ICTs in family planning and birth control in Nigeria were also analyzed. There were two questions raised .Are the residents of Awka-South L.G.A aware of the application of ICTs in the policy of family planning and birth control? To what extent the usage of ICTs in family planning and birth control in Nigeria? The thesis statement of this research can be identified through Ekwugha&Adum’s hypothesis which says that the application of ICTs leave an impact onto the citizens of Nigeria and further improve the policy of family planning and birth control services.
Literature Review
Importance of family planning and birth control in Nigeria
Family planning and birth control policy is aim at nurturing responsible parenthood, avoid overpopulation crisis and also to have a better quality of life for the people. Some Nigerians stated that it is for the family to decide what number of children should they have while another group stated that it should depend on the economical state of the family whereby the rich would have more children than the poor or average ones. It is very contradicted to say so because that is not the case in Nigeria. In fact, the poor family are the ones who have many children and in order to support the family, they would send their children out as labourers or workers in the factory and in the end neglected the importance of education. Back to the topic of overpopulation, the crisis of overpopulation happen when the poor or average family give no importance onto the birth control and family planning policy that the Federal Government of Nigeria have been implemented. Family planning benefits everyone(women, men, children, families, nations and The Earth).
Women: Family planning helps to prevent unwanted pregnancy. In terms of medical benefits, some family planning method could prevent certain cancers and also sexually transmitted infections such as HIV / AIDS.
Children: By controlling the birth control, children’s life would be saved and not be suffered on behalf of the irresponsible parents.
Men: Family planning helps men to be able to provide more for the family and lead to a better quality of life.
Nations: Family planning could help the economical status of the country. The controlled population growth will lead to a more stable standard of living. And furthermore reduces the usage of resources of the countryand thus leading to a better nation.
The Earth: Overpopulation would cause the depletion of natural resources in the world. Therefore, if the population could be controlled, there would be lesser usage of natural resources and decrease the pollution that caused by the wastage of the resources.
Application of ICTs in family planning and birth control in Nigeria
ICT is a way for effective communication. ICTs have brought upon an enormous change to the development of society or country. ICT could improve the way people communicate and exchanging information with each other. Through the usage of ICTs, the Nigerians could get hold of information about the overpopulation crisis and effects. Thus, they will realise that child birth control and family planning is a must to prevent such crisis to occur. The magic happens is when ICTs serve as a purpose of giving out information to a very large audience. It improves the rate of information transferred. But the problem that arise in Nigeria is that Nigeria is one of the country that lack of access to the modern communication (ICTs). According toAdum (2014), the awareness of the people about family planning services appears to be low in Nigeria. If the application of ICTs could be improved in the rural areas of Nigeria, the family planning and birth control could be a success and a breakthrough of the problem faced by the Federal Government of Nigeria.