International Men’s Day: Stop Producing Children You Can’t Train – Nigerians Warned

Just as Nigerians join the rest of the world to mark this year’s International Men’s Day, some health experts have cautioned couples against producing children they can’t cater for.

International Men’s Day is marked every November 19 to celebrate positive male role models and to raise awareness of men’s issues.

Speaking at a one-day rally organized by Marie Stopes Nigeria, to sensitize men on the need for family planning, some health experts avowed that many children are still victims of various forms of abuses such as child marriages, sexual violence, abduction of children, molestation, child labour, and neglect, because their parents do not adequately provide for them.

Dr. Kingsley Odogwu, a vasectomy surgeon, told newsmen that following the soaring cost of living in contemporary Nigeria, parents need to take the issue of family planning seriously.

Odogwu noted that in most cases, women are the ones who bear the brunt when it comes to preventing pregnancies with contraceptive methods (including oral pills), as well as implants, intrauterine devices, among others.

He observed that the percentage of men getting vasectomy was still very low, same with its awareness level.

Odogwu pointed out that “Instead of women going for an operation just for the purpose of preventing a pregnancy from occurring, it is easier and much cheaper for men to do vasectomy.”

According to him: “It is a procedure that can be done in less than 15 minutes. This procedure doesn’t affect erection, while the sexual drive is still as adequate as it should be.”

Other experts such as Anne Taiwo and the Country Director of Marie Stopes Nigeria, Effiom Effiom, who spoke at the rally, believe that it is wrong for parents to continue to produce children they can’t take care of.