Apart from the Nigerian government's war on corruption there are of course many other matters to be attended to, simultaneously.
In Al-Jazeera's latest Inside Story, Ending China's one-child policy there are valuable suggestions by Hans Rosling about how population growth in Africa could be addressed. The high child mortality rates in Africa notwithstanding, populations are still increasing faster than in Europe for example where the generation of elders are now living much longer, people on the whole living well into their 90s and may soon be attaining to what we usually wish our friends and loved ones, Moses' proverbial age of 120 years…
In Africa generally, it's said that one of the incentives for having large families is that children are supposed to take care of their parents. At this stage any legislation aimed at curbing sexual reproduction would be met by rebellion, mostly coming from the diverse religious folks , especially those who read in the Bible that it was the Almighty – THE ALMIGHTY who said " Be fruitful and multiply!" – So who be some mortal, flesh and blood governor or president to come tell them say, Ojahray that a man with four or five wives can only have one or two children? And the use of contraceptives as suggested by Professor Rosling, to what extent will or does that jar with religious sensitivities?
By Independence Day in 1960 Nigeria's population was 45.21 million – today, in 2015 it's now 183,523,432 souls.
In spite of population decimation by malaria, Boko Haram, yellow fever and tuberculosis Population growth in Nigeria may not be a problem just now and at the current rate of growth could even enhance Africa's economic giant number one – providing a gargantuan market , hopefully not just for the dumping of the East and the West's industrial waste and even more importantly, with more mouths to feed, food security has to be taken into account: In my Nigeria of 1981-84 there was never any scarcity of food, but the cost of living was sky-rocketing because for example some people (you know who) had a monopoly on burning up valuable foreign exchange importing essential commodities such as rice, tinned sardines and tomato puree and for profiteering purposes, maintained what for the general population was unaffordable prices and that why in that 1983 elections campaign the main theme from my brethren in the UPN in Rivers State was Dem belly full but we hungry
And with Nigeria's population set to double in another generation we're talking about the need for better healthcare for the whole nation, more schools, universities, housing, jobs, and the general impact a much greater population will have on the political structures….
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
No comments:
Post a Comment