I’m interested in this proposed population control policy, although knowing it’s definitely going to trigger fierce reactions along ethnic and religious lines. One of the major problems we have here are leaders who don’t seem to get that we have a population problem – as a presidential candidate once ignorantly dismissed it as non-issue.
I don’t always get why we even refer to our large population as some sort of accomplishment, whereas it’s only an indication of our policymakers’ inability to manage our social realities. Being called “the most populous black nation” isn’t a praise, it’s in fact an insult, considering the redundancy of our human capital and position in global development index.
As kids in the 80s and 90s, my generation was introduced to Nigeria’s first conclusive decision to tackle our exploding demographic crisis: the 1988 National Population Policy of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida administration.
The policy set a target to, by 1995 and 2000, correct a myriad of population problems through birth control, discourage under-age marriage, restrict women to having not more than four kids, reduce pregnancy among overage women, extend family planning services adult males, among others.
You may not be comfortable with some items in IBB’s population control policy, but it was a beautiful document that could have stopped us from living “above our means,” if not for the familiar policy somersaults and bureaucratic bottlenecks we experience in Nigeria.
With this decision by the Buhari-led government to consider related policy, it’s another opportunity to harmonize our ideas on how to implement it. There are millions of people who don’t have a business having the number of children they have – or even having a child at all. Of what use is bringing fragile and vulnerable humans into this world, and abandoning them on the street?
Source: Facebook