Looming danger

In most developed countries and even developing ones, birth registration provides a solid guide for government planning for citizens.

While we commend UNICEF for their work in Nigeria and other countries, we must as a nation do the necessary developmental processes without the prompting of multilateral institutions.

We would have expected this information to have come from the Chairman of the National Population Commission that has responsibility for recording births and deaths.

Nigeria’s exact population is unknown because data collection seems uncommon in the country. Even when censuses are conducted, there have been reports of some regions thwarting efforts for a thorough, procedural and real enumeration of people purely for political expediencies. The result is that the country’s development is jeopardised because a 21st Century national development plan must be based on realistic population figures, based on demographic numbers. National planning and social services are all based on real population figures.

For the 14 million birth registrations in the last two years, we commend the progress made in the documentation. But, given that there might be the undocumented in possibly rural areas and even in certain circumstances in the cities, we are concerned already because the country is overpopulated if the population figures are put side-by- side the per capita income.

The number is huge with no signs of commensurate growth in productivity. Already, in the last 10 years, the poverty index of Nigeria has been rising and if nothing is done about the population, the country might run into more crisis.

While no country frowns at population growth, most countries put structures in place to subtly control population and match it with available resources.

Nigeria already has a scary number of its population living in multi-dimensional poverty – more than 130 million, extra children from the same impoverished population pose danger for the nation. Fourteen million births over just two years portend great danger for national development.

At the moment, life expectancy in Nigeria at 54.6 years for men and 55.3 years for women, is lower than the global average of 73.5 years and the African average of 64.2 years.

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Factors affecting Nigerian population include poverty, high infant and maternal mortality, illiteracy, and limited or no access to healthcare and good nutrition.

The government and concerned agencies must change the old system of estimates and guess works about the population. Real census must be conducted and, like most countries, immigration must be taken more seriously.

Most of the registered births are possibly by none Nigerians. Nigeria has some of the most porous borders in the world and better action must be taken to guard the borders.

Planned Parenthood must be made more functional through public enlightenment and incentives for smaller families.

The quality of life of citizens is a direct result of the plans by the governments. The era of claiming that Africans do not count children has passed. The era of families having many kids to work in the farms is gone. On the other hand, advancement in medical sciences has increased the survival of babies as opposed to the times when minor childhood diseases killed many of them.

We can only hope this number of children in two years would be a wake-up call for government to intervene and do the right thing. Population is not necessarily about numbers but about quality of life and productivity.