When i saw this thread
https://www.nairaland.com/3650628/6-critical-reasons-why-northern

I expected to see one of the most critical reasons for why Northern Nigeria is the poorest but the Senator just beat about the bush.

The major reason why Northern Nigeria is the poorest and will remain the poorest region in Nigeria is because of the Islamic practice of polygamy that results in overpopulation


The six reasons the senator mentioned are not the root of the problem but rather emanated from the bolded. Just take a look at them
1. They toil so hard for less.
2. Used and dumped
3. Begging
4. No economic roadmap
5. The poor are seen as pets
6. Philanthropy making the people lazy.

I live in the North and so i know these for a fact.
You will see one poor man marry 2,3 or 4 wives and birth more children than he could possibly ever support. He either sends them to do 'Almajiranci' or they become touts that terrorize the community. The best you can ever see from such a family is probably one that just attended a public secondary school and hopefully finds a trade to support himself while the females are just given away in underage marriages so the cycle continues.

This is why i laud the efforts of the Emir of Kano in advocating that at least the poor should be limited in the amount of wives they can marry. Even though i propose it should be enforced on all i know its not possible as we can all see the backlash he got for such a suggestion.

If you look closely at the Northern Christians, hardly will you ever see a man that cannot support his family and give his children a decent education. Hardly will you ever see a begger on the street that will tell you he is a Christian.

The average muslim man is only bothered about his people dominating the country in every aspect not bothering whether they are competent or not as was seen the 2015 presidential election.

It therefore stands to say that, Senator. Shehu Sani and all Northern leaders only kid themselves if they think that poverty in Northern Nigeria can be eliminated without taking drastic steps to reduce population increase and the attendant illiteracy.

Word!

There is need to reform the religion; if that is not done then they are wasting their time

U dey mind that Sen. sanni, he came out to tell us why his people were so poor yet ended up beating around d bush.

U are right! Polygamy played a vital role in shaping the future of northern nigeria. They give birth to children they cant take care of.


My grand dad was a polygamist; he married 4 wives but had only 4 children.


Getting married, having sex and impregnanting your wife does not show that u are a man but taking care of your children and family members shows how man enough u are.

Average muslim man? Can you elaborate please. Or do u mean an average hausa/fulani man

Dey only think hw to ocupied every were,so dat is dere mind set.

So the poor people are the issue with society not the policies. These people need education and work. Polygamy is less amongst educated and employed men are less likely to become criminals. Marriage also has it benefits.


Let's assume Emir of Kano got his proposals through. The guy simply has one wife he continues to procreate with due to fact he has no self control. Btw there's nothing stopping then from fooling around on side. The big factor is these women aka young girls in many cases as I've been informed are given away in marriage n stead of sent to school to build skills.

They don't care about children.

Blue3k:
So the poor people are the issue with society not the policies. These people need education and work. Polygamy is less amongst educated and employed men are less likely to become criminals. Marriage also has it benefits.


Let's assume Emir of Kano got his proposals through. The guy simply has one wife he continues to procreate with due to fact he has no self control. Btw there's nothing stopping then from fooling around on side. The big factor is these women aka young girls in many cases as I've been informed are given away in marriage n stead of sent to school to build skills.

They don't care about children.

I am telling you the poor are more in the habit of birthing multitudes of children. Most of the rich Hausa/Fulani men do not procure many wives and generally have less children than their poor counterparts.

It is true that educating them would go a long way but how do you propose properly educating so much people that will only keep multiplying?


The issue of promiscuity is common in all areas. You should know that the amount of children a single woman will birth will still be significantly less than if there were more women in the household. The best option here though impracticable without a military regime would be to limit the number of children a couple can have as is the case with China.

The fact that they can send an infant boy to live on the street in the name of alamajiri, or give out a preteenage girl in marriage has already told you their stance on child upbringing

Ahmadgani:
Average muslim man? Can you elaborate please. Or do u mean an average hausa/fulani man

The fact that the habit is peculiar to the hausa/fulani muslim cannot be overemphasized

I don't think it's bullshit

FreshShavedBalls:
When i saw this thread
https://www.nairaland.com/3650628/6-critical-reasons-why-northern

I expected to see one of the most critical reasons for why Northern Nigeria is the poorest but the Senator just beat about the bush.

The major reason why Northern Nigeria is the poorest and will remain the poorest region in Nigeria is because of the Islamic practice of polygamy that results in overpopulation


The six reasons the senator mentioned are not the root of the problem but rather emanated from the bolded. Just take a look at them
1. They toil so hard for less.
2. Used and dumped
3. Begging
4. No economic roadmap
5. The poor are seen as pets
6. Philanthropy making the people lazy.

I live in the North and so i know these for a fact.
You will see one poor man marry 2,3 or 4 wives and birth more children than he could possibly ever support. He either sends them to do 'Almajiranci' or they become touts that terrorize the community. The best you can ever see from such a family is probably one that just attended a public secondary school and hopefully finds a trade to support himself while the females are just given away in underage marriages so the cycle continues.

This is why i laud the efforts of the Emir of Kano in advocating that at least the poor should be limited in the amount of wives they can marry. Even though i propose it should be enforced on all i know its not possible as we can all see the backlash he got for such a suggestion.

If you look closely at the Northern Christians, hardly will you ever see a man that cannot support his family and give his children a decent education. Hardly will you ever see a begger on the street that will tell you he is a Christian.

The average muslim man is only bothered about his people dominating the country in every aspect not bothering whether they are competent or not as was seen the 2015 presidential election.

It therefore stands to say that, Senator. Shehu Sani and all Northern leaders only kid themselves if they think that poverty in Northern Nigeria can be eliminated without taking drastic steps to reduce population increase and the attendant illiteracy.

Oga, polygamy can't be the culprit. The key issue is number of births per woman. The fact that one man has 4 wives does not mean that more women will be manufactured from thin air to satisfy other men. The number of women will still be fixed. However, the critical thing is the number of births per woman which in itself is always closely correlated with poverty for a number of reasons amongst which is infant mortality and the fact that the poor rely on children as old age insurance.

I don't want to bore you with the well researched relationship between poverty and birth rate. A High Birth rate is simply a symptom of poverty. The solution to poverty is usually structural. Successful solutions have always focused on productivity improvements. This could involve investment in education (good examples include South Korea, Ireland and Finland) or simply moving people from low productivity rural agricultural activities to higher productivity urban activities ( example China, which moved over 300 million rural workers to urban economic activities in 2 decades enjoying sustained double digit growth in the process.

Curlieweed:


Oga, polygamy can't be the culprit. The key issue is number of births per woman. The fact that one man has 4 wives does not mean that more women will be manufactured from thin air to satisfy other men. The number of women will still be fixed. However, the critical thing is the number of births per woman which in itself is always closely correlated with poverty for a number of reasons amongst which is infant mortality and the fact that the poor rely on children as old age insurance.

I don't want to bore you with the well researched relationship between poverty and birth rate. A High Birth rate is simply a symptom of poverty. The solution to poverty is usually structural. Successful solutions have always focused on productivity improvements. This could involve investment in education (good examples include South Korea, Ireland and Finland) or simply moving people from low productivity rural agricultural activities to higher productivity urban activities ( example China, which moved over 300 million rural workers to urban economic activities in 2 decades enjoying sustained double digit growth in the process.

You misunderstood me. I did not imply that the reason for overpopulation is because men take 4 wives and more are given birth for the rest of the men to have. No. Rather i am referring to the number of kids that the women in polygamy give birth to.

Do you live in the North? Do you know the peculiar circumstances surrounding the situation in the North? Was this your research carried out with Northern Nigeria as a case study? If the answer is no then you can see my point.

You also seem to have failed to factor in the religious indoctrination involved here. As i stated in my first post.
With that in mind considering the Nigerian scenario which would even be more realistic? Stopping polygamy or limiting the number of births per woman?

adadike281:
U dey mind that Sen. sanni, he came out to tell us why his people were so poor yet ended up beating around d bush.

Poverty is on the high side in the North. Almajiri running up and down with bowl looking unkempt. These almajiris are time bomb waiting to explode. It will definitely consume the North. A meat seller having 4 wives. Now tell me how is he going to fend for them? Boko Haram would be a child's play in the future.