Nigeria has one of the fastest growing
population not only in Africa, but also in the
world, with an average growth rate of over
3%.
As at 1994, the population indicators of all
countries showed Nigeria had 119.3 million
people and would reach 285.8 million in
2025.
In the last 2006 population count, the
census figure was given as 140 million,
which demographic analysts believed was
more than that as it had been "politically
doctored," whereby a part of the country
had an edge in population over the other.
Some years after, the figure has now
climbed to 167 million, as disclosed by the
Nigeria country office of the United Nations
Fund for Population Activities, but which
the National Population Commission (NPC)
seemed not to have confirmed, nor
properly explained.
To check the country's growing population,
President Goodluck Jonathan has hinted
about making a law likely aimed at
controlling the population and which some
legislators are already discussing informally.
However, making laws to control
population anywhere in the world has
never worked perfectly well without
inherent problems and abuses.
Even China, with a totalitarian, dictatorship
system of governance, having mankind's
largest population of about 1.3 billion
people, has a one-child official policy that
cannot be effectively implemented.
Although it is a criminal offence in China for
couples to give birth to more than one
child, many citizens of that country are
circumventing the law by concealing the
extra babies from government
enforcement officials who are always on
the prowl for offenders.
Families with only female children are using
clandestine methods seeking for males
relentlessly without minding what the law
says and the punishment for violators. In
fact, the one-child policy is not working in
China, only giving opportunity to state
officials to extort money and be bribed by
defaulting families to avoid prosecution.
Sometime ago, during General Ibrahim
Babangida's military presidency, there was
attempt to promulgate a decree limiting
families to four children. The idea didn't see
the light of day as combined cultural,
religions, traditional, polygamous
tendencies scuttled the four children
concept.
Above all, individual choice in the size and
spacing of the family is being seen as a
human right, while choice itself is the
foundation of development at all strata of
society.
There is contention that this is essential to
achieving balance between populations
and the resources to sustain them.
Population experts and researchers have
argued that if barriers to free choice to
determine size of the family are removed,
the results will be smaller families and
slower population growth to a rate that is
more compatible with sustained and
sustainable economic development.
Also, problems of poverty, unemployment,
food shortages, lack of clean drinking
water, poor electricity, environmental
degradation and damage, inadequate
housing, decaying medical system, social
disharmony, insecurity, illiteracy, political
and religious strife are still far from
solutions.
In Nigeria as in most developing nations,
there is need to address issues of
corruption stifling infrastructural
development, bad governance, greed and
avarice of the political leadership, inefficient
public sector, looting, embezzlement of
public fund, while accountability,
transparency in governance are lacking in
both public and private sectors to ensure
that dividends and benefits of democracy
accrue to a larger percentage of the
citizens.
It is estimated that about 70% of Nigeria's
population live below the poverty line. A
poor person is one who is under
nourished and aging fast, lacking self-
confidence, living in filthy environment,
who cannot cater for his family, nor able to
train his children in the school and unable
to pay medical bills.
According to the World Bank, the average
income in the world's richest countries is
about thirty seven times that in the poorest
nations. This is because poverty in
developing nations is not only more
prevalent, it is also much deeper.
In a World Heath Organization (WHO) report
it was stated that 88% of deaths can be
traced to unsafe water, inadequate
sanitation and poor hygiene. Diarrhea is
killing about 1.5 million children in
developing world and over 200,000
Nigerian children die yearly.
Those living in poverty have a higher
prevalence of chronic illness with lower life
expectancy than those at higher income
levels. Children from poor homes are more
affected by infections, respiratory disorder,
gastrointestinal complaints, general ill-
health, anemia and nutritional deficiencies.
Nigeria is among the 24 countries with
large number of undernourished children
in the world, according to the United
Nations Children Fund report.
Poverty is still a very serious problem in
Nigeria, a country estimated to have earned
about $800 billion US dollars from oil since
independence. No doubt, with huge
petroleum and gas resources and large
reserves.uding massive agricultural
potentials and solid minerals, the country
has the means to build a very prosperous
economy for its teeming population which
also can be regarded as asset. In spite of
this, Nigeria is among the 20 poorest
countries in the world, and also among the
13 countries with the highest maternal
mortality ratio.
As 2015 beckons, Nigeria is still not listed
anywhere near the 10 countries that have
made rapid progress to meet the
Millennium Development Goals. The
Nigerian economy is ranked 99 in the
world out of 133 countries assessed.
But as a result of some development
efforts, the proportion of people so far in
Nigeria living below the level of absolute
poverty has minimally declined. There has
been considerable progress over recent
years including increase in life expectancy
to 53 years Population factors interact with
health in several ways.
A woman's health, even from childhood,
due to poor nutrition and health care, is
further weakened by large numbers of
pregnancies. On a community or national
level, the demands of a growing population
mean that fewer resources are available to
improve or maintain a minimal level of
health care.
Women's life expectancy has not increased
as much as that of men, partly because of
gender discrimination in nutrition and
healthcare from early childhood and partly
also because pregnancy represents a
markedly enhanced health risk in many
developing countries including Nigeria.
Malaria is a major cause of mortality and ill-
health in this country, while there seemed a
re-emergence of epidemic diseases which
previously had been controlled, such as
cholera, yellow fever, typhoid, to mention a
few. Syphilis is on the rise, AIDS, genital
herpes, sexually transmitted diseases,
tuberculosis, continue to spread across the
country. Population growth and urban
over-crowding are intertwined. It has been
established that women who are able to
space their births are healthier, and so are
their children.
In our society, early marriage and child
bearing are socially encouraged and
adolescent fertility rates are among the
highest anywhere, a situation that creates
"baby boom," leading to increase in
population.
With increased interaction between boys
and girls, particularly in cities and urban
areas, premarital sexual activity is on the
increase. Invariably, more and more young
ladies are becoming pregnant, involved in
early childbearing and having sexually
transmitted diseases.
Sexual initiation plays out differently for
young women than for young men. Young
men are often likely to take the initiative
sexually while young women eager to
establish a relationship are not able to
ward off their advances. Although the girl is
likely to be concerned about the risk of
pregnancy, the boy enjoys sex and doesn't
bother about it. Compared to boys, girl
chidlren's share of education, food, health
care, work options and general welfare is
smaller, because they are perceived to be
less valuable than boys. Cultural factors and
perceptions of economic advantage make
families to desire for male children.
Preference for sons is common in many
cultures and quite strong in Nigeria. Even if
a girl child is also desired, she is seen as
less valuable than a boy. After the birth of
the first daughter and the sequence
continues like that, the man can go on until
he gets a son, even if it means marrying
more women, not minding he is increasing
the population consequently, because
subsequent daughters are unwanted.
Marrying several women often led to
population explosion with one man having
20, 30, 50 or even over 100 children. While
a Muslim can have up to four or more
wives, traditional chiefs can get as many
wives and concubines as possible, and
Christians in single marriage may keep
mistresses and other women outside
matrimony bearing many children most
times unknown to the legitimate wife at
home.
Both legitimate and illegitimate children are
counted in the population without
discrimination whatsoever.
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