USA Africa Dialogue Series - It's not yet election year but Goodluck Jonathan is already urging birth control !

At least it's not an ethno-demo-graphic nightmare
or mere fear of the North over-populating Nigeria

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18610751


Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan urges birth control

Comments (5)

President Goodluck Jonathan said birth control was a sensitive
issue

Continue reading the main story
Related Stories
Nigeria three-baby plan 'tricky'
Profile: Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan
Rwanda moves to limit family size

Nigerians should limit the number of children they are having,
according to the country's leader.
President Goodluck Jonathan said people were having too many children,
and went on to back birth control measures.

He said that in particular, uneducated people were having too many
children, and urged people to only have as many children as they could
afford.

The United Nations has estimated that the population of Nigeria could
grow from 160m to 400m by 2050.
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, and previous attempts
to encourage adults to have fewer children have failed.
Mr Jonathan said legislation and policies aimed at controlling the
number of births might be considered in future.
He said he had asked the National Population Commission to inform
people about birth control before taking the issue further.
The president acknowledged that the issue was a sensitive one, saying:
"We are extremely religious people... It is a very sensitive thing."
Mr Jonathan was quoted as saying: "Both Christians and Muslims, and
even traditionalist and all the other religions, believe that children
are God's gifts to man.
"So it is difficult for you to tell any Nigerian to number their
children because... it is not expected to reject God's gifts."

Your comments (5)
More on This Story

--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com