FOR some time now, concern about Nigeria’s growing population has dominated conversations about the country’s socioeconomic prospects among international development policy experts. The concern is motivated by projections that Nigeria’s population will grow to 400 million people (almost double its current estimated 219 million) by the middle of this century. While population growth is not necessarily a problem in itself (as a matter of fact, the reverse is regarded as a serious problem in some European countries facing population decline year after year), the absence of commensurate investment in education, health and infrastructure to support the explosion means that the country could be staring at a nightmarish situation.
This underlying anxiety was once again brought to the front burner by Dr Adeela Khan, Technical Specialist for Maternal & Reproductive Health at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Speaking last week at an event to mark the 2023 World Population Day, with the theme: ‘Dialogue on Financing and Investment in Family Planning: Meeting the Growing Demand of Nigerian Women’, Dr Khan disclosed the Fund’s projection that Nigeria might record up to 700,000 unwanted pregnancies due to the increased cost of funding family planning in the country. According to Dr Khan, a seven-million-dollar decrease in funding for family planning this year alone ($25 million, down from $32 million in 2022) could lead to 300,000 unplanned births and the same number of unsafe abortions.
Dr Khan’s shot across the bow to the Nigerian government was not without a note of encouragement, as she commended it (the government) for “recognising the importance of investing in family planning.” That said, given the grim prognosis, it goes without saying that the government has its work cut out for it and should welcome the UNFPA projection as an opportunity to step up advocacy and vital education activities on family planning while making adequate funding provisions in this regard to ensure a robust structure for preventing the inimical consequences of lack of proper population planning. Agencies like the National Population Commission (NPC) and the National Orientation Agency (NOA) should be mobilised and given a free hand to bring the message of having smaller families to the people. The last time the government got involved in mass advocacy of the kind we are recommending was in the 1980s when juju maestro, Sunny Ade, and Onyeka Onwenu combined to implant the “Wait for me” message into the heart of every Nigerian. A campaign of that size would seem to be desperately needed at this moment.
Realistically, such cannot be undertaken without alertness to the staggering and widening disparity between the northern and southern parts of the country. On the average, northern states have higher birth and lower literacy rates than states in the southern part of the country. The average woman in northern Nigeria has an average of more than seven babies. The educational gap between the northern and southern regions is similarly profound. As of 2017, Yobe State had a literacy rate of 7.23 percent, the lowest in the country. This disparity is pertinent to the subject because education allows women to exercise control over their lives, including their choice of partner and sexual and reproductive choices. With greater investment in education in the North, the Federal Government can kill two, if not more, birds with one stone.
The fact that Nigeria is reportedly producing the combined population of Liberia and Togo every year reflects the enormity of the problem. The Federal Government can intervene decisively with the right mix of advocacy and funding.
and then