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The most populous nation in the world is china while the most populous black nation in the world is Nigeria and we as Nigerians take pride in this fact despite the impending danger ahead which Japan saw and passed a law that only allows one child per family.
Continuous increase in the population of a countries in africa spells doom for such countries and neighboring countries eg. Nigeria because there will be an increase in unemployment, poverty, crime, immigration, depletion of resource, competition for space etc.
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Nigeria has an estimated population of about 195mil people of which more than 40% of that figure is from the north.
Year Population Median Age
2018 195,875,237. 17.9
2016 185,989,640 17.9
2015 181,181,744 17.9
2010 158,578,261 17.9
Between the year 2016- 2017 , Nigeria had a population increase of about 10mil people higher than the spike between 2015-2016 .For there to be a balance I believe, birth rate most not be more than death rate in a landslide because death is the balancing factor of life as we know it whether we like or not.
Am I saying the population of the world should be slashed down with a machetes and machine gun like some lunatics are currently doing all in the name of religion? Nope, I am saying we should acknowledge we have a problem and start putting modalities in place to remedy it.
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MY TOP 3 CAUSES OF NIGERIA'S POPULATION INCREASE.
1.BELIEVE STYSTEM
My paternal aunty gave birth to 11 children all in the name of wanting a male child that will carry on the family's name and if left to her, she would have stopped after giving birth to her 5th female child but pressure from her husband and his family members made her continue bearing the pains of having to push not one but eleven children out into this world. Let’s do the maths; eleven pregnancies = 396 week = 2772 days and = 9 months. Hmm
A Ugandan mother with 38 children.
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The issue here is the reason for the eleven children i.e. getting a male child to carry on the family’s name and this is also one of the African believe system that is putting more importance on males over the females. This is not only fallacious but it is also causing over population, who says a female child can’t carry on the family’s name.😟
A woman living not too far from me have given birth to eight (8) children already and she is pregnant of the ninth. The annoying thing is the family is poor, the husband is out of work and none of the eight children are in school yet the ninth child is on the way.
When she questioned, she said ‘‘God didn’t bless us with money but he blessed us with the ability to give birth so I and my husband are making good use of that opportunity’’😕. Some will even quote the popular scripture ‘’ go into the world and multiply’’ as a defense for over populating mother earth with children they can’t feed or clothe.
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- INCREASE IN TENAGE PREGNANCY .
The continuous increase in teen pregnancy in Africa is also a factor of interest here as it not only causing over population but it is also one of the cause of teen's school drop out which in turn causes an increase in the level of Illetracy , teens death during child birth, stigmatization etc.
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Some traditions in Nigeria and Africa at large encourages polygamy i.e. one man more than one wives therefore giving room for so many children to birthed and in some occasions, some of these parents don’t even have the resources to take care of these children. Their only way out is to give them out as house help to relatives, neighbors, friends and even to passersby who are interested.
MY SOLUTION TO THIS POPULATION IMPENDING DANGER
As a qualified microbiologist, I work in the laboratory of a government owned primary health care centre so every day I am in close proximity with some these parents. Some of them can't even afford to pay 200 naira (0.57 cent) to take their child's birth certificate not to talk of feeding the child but their kids are in numbers.
Family planning can be a way out if parents in Africa can commit to it.
The practice of controlling the number of children one has and the intervals between their births, particularly by means of contraception or voluntary sterilization is known as family planning .