Report by Nana POKU
The National Population Council took selected Media houses through a day’s training workshop at the Coconut Groove Hotel in Accra.
The purpose was to show and guide these journalists on how to report accurately on issues regarding the population in the country.
The Executive Director of the Council Dr Leticia Appiah gave the reasons for the training that had to do with the need to plan the population of this country to have healthy, quality and happy people on sustainable basis.
According to her every country needs healthy, strong quality, reliable people to develop and grow. In this regard she postulated Ghana should prioritize the population regimes for sustainable national development.
She told participants that any decision one takes in terms of poor population planning may have good or bad effects on other individuals and the country in general depending on the decision one took.
She indicated that we must collectively weigh what decisions, why those decisions, how we come out with those decisions since it may have rippling consequences on the entire citizenry and the country. The decision to marry one or more women, give birth to a number of kids must be properly thought out because child birth is a byproduct of marriage and the children brought out must be fed well, well catered for in terms of; health needs, education, accommodation, clothing spacing for better growth, etc.
So, one must look at his ability to take very good care of number of children he can properly take care of but not the sheer numbers but the quality. Though the choice is ours but the consequences is not only ours but generically affect everyone on the globe. According to her giving birth to children without proper care puts pressure on the parents, citizens and the state on what she termed ‘Tyranny of Small Decisions’. Such poor decisions will lead to the struggle with the country’s scarce resources, infrastructure and facilities as too many people will be fighting for few of such things.
The Executive Director posited that elsewhere population issues are of prior concern and it had helped them plan and provide for the needs of sizeable people without much stress. She used the principles of: Tragedy of the Commons; Butterfly or Ripple Effects; Lily in the Pond; Tyranny of Small Decisions to explain her method of population control systems to avoid the dire consequences. And this had sustained their economy and their life expectancy is around 72 years whiles in Africa it’s 62 years or low. She told the participants that every human being wants a good life and this can only happen we plan our births and take good care of our children and of the next generation.
She would not advocate for the number of children though but she preferred the Chinese or other countries’ method of a small number of kids who are properly catered for rather than the opposite on Africa.
She indicated that the free uncontrolled population can give birth to poverty, ill health, deprivation, poor working class, immigration, brain drain, environmental degradation, land litigation, joblessness, violent crimes, conflicts, envy, etc.
Madam Leticia Appiah also spoke against early marriages of teenagers, defilements of young girls that can result in teenage pregnancies, and cases of fistula.
She also advised women to gravitate towards the use of protective sexual kits to avoid unwanted pregnancies. She allayed the fears of women of side effects in the use of these kits because it’s very they are very negligible and help but rather help in spacing births and avoiding unwanted pregnancies. She called on the Media to help come out with innovative ways, methods, and programs to deal with population issues in the country so all of us to sleep well without keeping watch overnight.
