Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance on Wednesday, October 24, 2018, debunked claims that the Federal Government was planning to reduce the number of children that a mother could have in Nigeria.
The minister was quoted as saying on Tuesday, October 23, 2018, while responding to questions during a session at the 24th Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, that “We have been engaging traditional rulers and other leaders.
We urge the public to dismiss the statement attributed to the Minister of Finance, that FG will limit the number of children per-mother, her position was clear; to her, child spacing will allow the economy have a chance at growing well enough to cater for every child's need. pic.twitter.com/9XbfYU6idl
— Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning (@FinMinNigeria) October 24, 2018
Specifically, we have found out that to be able to address one of the great challenges that we identified in the ERGP, which is the growth in our population, we need to engage these institutions.
“And we hope that with their support, we will get to a point where we can come out with the policy that limits the number of children that a mother can have because that is important for sustaining our growth.”
However, Ahmed, on her twitter handle, @ZShamsuna on Wednesday, October 24, 2018, said the federal government had been engaging critical stakeholders like traditional and religious leaders to advise their members on child spacing.
The federal government has been engaging critical stakeholders like traditional and religious leaders to advise their members on child spacing.
We never said we are placing a cap on childbirth.
What is child spacing?
This is a healthy practice of waiting between pregnancies. pic.twitter.com/fs0kfPzElw
— Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed (@ZShamsuna) October 24, 2018
“We never said we are placing a cap on childbirth. What is child spacing? This is a healthy practice of waiting between pregnancies,” she said.
