The question no one is asking about Nigeria’s population and future

Unlike some folks who have given up hope on Nigeria, I have no choice; I love my country and will keep working for its greatness, God helping me, all the days of my life. But my country, your country, our fatherland, is threading on very dangerous paths.

We are living for today and not for tomorrow. As far as we are concerned, tomorrow can very well go to hell. I’ll sincerely admit we don’t say that expressly. However, that’s what we do all the time with our actions. You know that actions speak louder than words. And that’s why I feel troubled, worried, concerned and seriously alarmed this week in writing this intervention.

Troubled that no adequate attention is being paid to Nigeria’s silently increasing population! Worried that there seems to be no engaging discourse of this very important issue by government and our public officials! Concerned that there is no evident action plan from the government to assure Nigerians that our future matters and it is adequately preparing well for it no matter the different scenarios that are likely to play out! Alarmed that in all of its articulations, the government has made little talk about the importance of Nigeria’s children who will become the leaders of tomorrow and the criticalness of planning for their future in a drastically-changing and an increasingly-competitive world!

Believe me, dear friends and fellow compatriots, we have a lot to fear about Nigeria’s future beyond the terrorism of Boko Haram in the North or the militancy of Niger Delta warlords in the South or the rampant kidnapping in the East or the ritual killings and rape reported in the West.

Honestly, it’s tough not be worried about Nigeria at all times. Even in bed, I discuss our country. That’s something my darling wife doesn’t ever want to have me do. “Why do you ‘carry’ Nigeria’s matter and problems on your head all the time like this?” she would sometimes ask. But sincerely, it’s a difficult thing not to lament about our slow progress when you know the giant strides, the quantum leaps and the mind-blowing advances other peoples and countries with heads and brains like ours and the free land and air of God which they enjoy like we also do, have made in developing their own spaces and bettering the lives of their citizens and posterity.

And that’s what leads me today to the question I believe we haven’t asked or answered well enough. Who are those assigned with the task of planning for the future of our country? Who are the people in government helping to plan for our tomorrow? Where are they based? How diligent, patriotic, faithful and effective are they at the job? And who is monitoring them? Who is evaluating their plans and reviewing their futuristic projections and suggestions? If they exist, I will like to hear to from them. I believe other Nigerians would also love to hear from them. Our future matters.

Yes, we have a Ministry of Budget and National Planning. True, we have a minister in charge of that, a fine Nigerian professional who sadly couldn’t answer the question of the country’s debt at a public event when it was most needed. However, how serious are they in planning for the country’s future? Our children are the future. How well are they…sorry, how well are we preparing for them? Or it doesn’t matter?

In the next 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, what will be our fate as a country and as citizens? Are we still going to be lamenting about the same old problems of epileptic power supply, unemployment, bad roads, dilapidated infrastructure, lack of world-class hospitals and quality medical healthcare services, ethnicity, nepotism, as well as bribery and corruption that we’ve always complained about or we would have overcome these challenges?

How many primary and secondary schools would be constructed and well-equipped and staffed to provide world-class instruction and education? What efforts would be put in place to ensure that our teachers are well trained and duly compensated for the great work they do? How will we change the face of our universities and transform them to real academic communities where 21st century knowledge is imparted unlike what we have now? How many youths will be out of school in need of jobs? What opportunities would be provided for them? What infrastructure would have been put in place to support their entrepreneurial flairs and aspirations?

How soon can we get the whole country lightened up? What amount would be needed to achieve that? And how will we raise the funds? Our tourism potentials are vastly untapped yet we can make millions if not billions of dollars from these. Will this continue? If things must change, what must change? And how do we ensure that we have surplus food through agriculture instead of a Presidential spokesman lamenting that our grains are being exported out of the country and could lead to famine at home?

Since other countries have successful mortgage systems that work well, how can we ensure that hardworking Nigerians are able to own their own homes and spread the payment over decades? Even for those in the informal sector, how can they be accommodated so it is not limited to civil servants or corporate salary earners only? And how will we ensure that public projects are not over inflated and are delivered to time and also able to stand the test of time? What are the plans we have for the old ones so they can age gracefully as well as the men and women in the Nigerian military who put their lives on the line in service to our country? Any answers? And yet, more questions remain.

On a recent visit to Nigeria recently, the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Under Secretary General of the United Nations, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, our former health minister here in Nigeria, had spoken on the critical need for the country to plan its population with the impact this has on national development. Osotimehin, who by the way is from Ijebu Igbo, my hometown in Ogun state, couldn’t have been more correct. We need his recommendation. We need to plan our population. We need to control the number of new babies we make.

With our evident lack of foresight and long-term planning and projection for the future in education, healthcare, energy, housing and other infrastructure by the successive governments we have generally had at various levels in Nigeria, I’m afraid that our population which is increasing may eventually become a burden. Without addressing the widespread poverty across Nigeria, encouraging parents to make more and more babies won’t be in their interest or society’s interest. This is the bitter truth. It’s the gospel truth.

China famously adopted the one couple, one child policy to control its population towards avoiding an unbearable population explosion and poverty trap. It worked for them in addition to other plans the government had. China, with over a billion people, is now generally seen as a success story. However, does an average Nigerian couple need more than two or three children or at most four and that, for me, is even for those who are well-to-do? We must help ourselves and do all we can to address our own problems and challenges. We can’t continue on the wrong road and expect to arrive at the right destination.

Again, we are witnesses to the changing world order. Contemptuous and cantankerous US President-elect Donald Trump has said he will deport or jail up to three million illegal migrants in his country in an interview he granted the CBS. Although those to be targeted are migrants with criminal records like gang members and drug dealers, but to hit such a mark, it would involve either casting a very wide net that covers even the smallest infractions or also deporting legal alien residents of the US. Nigerians in the US will undoubtedly be affected if Trump goes ahead to fulfil his threat.

This is why now is the time to seriously begin to think and plan on making our country the best it can be for everyone. It is in our best and long-term interest. When we do that, instead of our youths endangering their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean and our experienced professionals seeking greener pastures abroad, they will be able to stay back home and contribute their quota to Nigeria’s development.

Simply put, the dwindling national revenue across board has made it clear that an unplanned population for Nigeria will only lead to widespread poverty in the system and even worsen and complicate an already terrible situation. Poverty will lead to crime and other delinquent behaviours like prostitution, armed robbery, kidnapping, terrorism and such like.

From the controversial figure of 140 million people which the National Population Commission (NPC) of Nigeria released for the 2006 Census (a figure I believe was below the actual population of the country evidenced by the 9, 113, 605 figure it released for Lagos), to the 173.6 million by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in 2013 and the 182.2 million in 2015 according to the World Bank, now is the time for the federal government to put serious attention on planning for Nigeria’s population and future growth.

For the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency, doing this would be a right step in the right direction. Of course, this also doesn’t exempt us as citizens. Responsible individuals and couples, for instance, can’t continue to make babies the number they know they won’t be able to nurture and train in the way of God to become responsible and value-adding citizens of the world.

In all, this is just a wakeup call from a passionate lover of Nigeria. Our current situation is as a result of lack of foresight and visionary planning in the past. That should no longer continue. More than at any other time in our history, Nigeria’s current economic recession offers us a good opportunity to ask ourselves the really though questions about our country’s growing population and our preparations for the future in order to provide answers that we know will be in our best interest tomorrow when that future arrives. My patriotic token!

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