Overpopulation In Nigeria

Hello everyone, Hope you're having a good day. Today we're going to talk about something that has been an issue in this country (Nigeria) for sometime now. I'm talking about the issue of Overpopulation, this is one of the major problems in Nigeria, believe it or not.

Overpopulation cannot be merely defined as having too many people in a particular area, it goes beyond that actually. The true meaning of Overpopulation is having a lot of people in a place, far more than the available resources to meet their needs. Simply put, it is having too many mouths to feed.

Whenever the citizens in a country greatly outnumbers the available resources, it makes it almost impossible to satisfy the needs of the people, especially for a third world country. This is one of the major issues Nigeria is facing.

Of course there are cases of Overpopulation in other countries. For example, China has a population of over 1.4 billion but at the same time has the largest economy in the world rivaled only by the United States.

Reports today state that the President Muhammadu Buhari has launched the Revised National Policy on Population for Sustainable Development, stressing the need for urgent measures to address Nigeria’s high fertility rate, through expanding access to modern contraceptive methods across the country.

The President also launched the National Council on Population Management headed by the President himself and the Vice President as the deputy chairman among other members.

Details of both events were contained in a statement by Buhari’s Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, titled "Nigeria Seeks Urgent Measures to Address High Fertility Rate as President Buhari Launches Revised Population Policy", on Thursday.

Speaking on the Population Policy in Abuja, the President said that its overall goal was to make the quality of life and standard of living much better for all Nigerians, which was one of his major aspirations when he was elected President.

He stated, "The policy emphasizes the urgency to address Nigeria’s sustained high fertility rate, through expanding access to modern family planning, counselling and commodities as well as promote births spacing."

"This will enable Nigeria to achieve rapid fertility control, improve the health of women, adolescents, newborns and children, and other population groups."

Nigeria's population is currently the largest in Africa and is projected to surpass the US population by 2050. The thing is that Nigeria has a youthful population with about 72 percent under the age of 30, and so with the fertility of most of the still population growing it is important that we find a way to control the rate of birth or use our massive manpower to our advantage.

Just like I said before, China has a massive population also, but have been able to harness the shear size of manpower at their disposal to become a well diversified economy, China produces literally everything. It took them a while to reach where they are today, but they've done it.

The question is, Can Nigeria replicate it?

Upon the massive size of the young population, many are unemployed. The Nigerian economy is in decline and we import almost everything we use in this country including foodstuffs.

It remains to be seen whether this sudden move by the Federal Government is really genuine or just another scheme to try to retain political power in the upcoming elections.

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Thank you for reading.