Death Certificate As Important As Birth Certificate – Gombe NPC Commissioner

The Federal Commissioner of the National Population Commission (NPC) in charge of Gombe State, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed Danburam, has explained why death certificate is as important as a birth certificate.

For unexplained reasons, many people jettison the idea of obtaining a death certificate after the passing away of family member or a loved one but prioritise the registration of a child at birth.

“We are touring on advocacy and sensitization in the State on the issue of birth and death registration and attestation for those above eighteen years.

“We started this e-birth registration. We’ve been doing the manual birth registration but we are now going into the digital registration. Both registrations are free while the attestation cost N4,000 only”, Alhaji Danburam pointed out.

According to the Federal Commissioner, who spoke to Journalists after the sensitization and awareness campaign in some Local Government Areas of the State, he emphasized that, as much as a birth certificate is vital, likewise the death certificate.

He called on people to stop the habit of ignoring the death certificates explaining that both registrations are extremely vital for planning by Government.

He explained that, “that is part of population management. You can not monitor your population if you don’t do birth and death registration. Many people don’t bother about death certificates, except when they want to claim benefits of a deceased person.

“You can have the population data of a state at the tip of your fingers through monitoring of death and births. You can know how a population is increasing through birth or decreasing through death in a particular area”, he stated.

Another reason for the campaign, he added, was that people should be aware and do both registrations digitally at over 93 designated centres across the State.

Also adding, the State Director of the NPC, Adedeji Rufai Adeniyi, explained that information gathered (deaths) from the registrations are analysed monthly and annually to know the major cause of death in a particular area.

“It’s been used for prevention, planning and for the general good of the community. It helps the Government to know what is coming or what is happening in a particular area so that it can plan well”, Mr. Adeniyi explained.

The team had been visiting LG Chairmen and their Counselors, Emirs, Chiefs, District and Village heads while thanking the Gombe State Government for facilitating the tour with logistics.