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New Page 9
Resolving the national population question
chuma ifedi
The
announcement by the Federal Executive Council in January 2004
that a new national population policy has been evolved, raised fresh hopes of a
pragmatic solution to our perennial population enigma. However, neither the
details nor structure of the new policy has been produced by the Minister of
Health to whom the assignment was given. Nigerians are therefore left in the
dark about the issue. Speculations are that the new policy has refined and
modified the current population policy, which seems quite liberal, and endorsed
an annual population policy of two per cent growth and fertility of four
children per woman.
Over the years, prior to 1988, successive
governments in Nigeria had adopted a laissez-faire approach to population
matters. Demographic data derived from sample surveys indicated annual
population growth rate of about 3.3 per cent which if maintained would lead to
the doubling of the population in about twenty-one years. This high population
growth which contrasts sharply with the present poor performance of the
country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and agricultural production is
attributable largely to the sustained high fertility of Nigerian women estimated
at 6.3 children on the average as well as the declining mortality rate in the
country especially of infants due to improved standards of living and public
health.
It is apparent from government official
statements and attitudes that the new population policy is geared towards
improving the quality of life of the people, promoting health and welfare
through preventing premature deaths and illness particularly among high risk
groups of mothers and children. There is also the goal of achieving lower
population growth through reduction in birth rates by voluntary fertility
regulation methods that are compatible with the attainment of the social
objectives of the nation. Efforts to contain the rural to urban migration as
well as the brain drain of technical and professional manpower to Europe and
North America are apparent.
In tackling the population question
effectively, we are constrained by the low level of literacy in the country,
especially among females and the rural peasantry coupled with the declining
income earnings in the society. Recently, the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) lamented the diminishing poverty which has placed over 70 per
cent of Nigerians below the critical poverty level of less than one U.S. Dollar
per day. The "Better Life Programme for Rural Women" which could have improved
the lot of the rural society was abruptly discontinued.
Facilities for birth control and family
planning in the form of modern health facilities, centres and clinics are
grossly inadequate. Effective implementation of the national population policy
requires considerable funds from government which unfortunately are
insufficient. International agencies are discouraged from foreign subventions
because of the corruption in the corridors of power. Our population policy
appears silent on the pertinent issues of emigration and immigration.
Consequently, the situation is chaotic with many citizens seeking various ways
of travelling out of the country by hook or crook. One is disturbed at the
humiliating treatment meted out to the crowds at the foreign ambassies. Nigeria
constitutes the largest applicants for the visa lottery of the United States of
America. The craze to leave the country by all means has reached an embarrassing
stage. Yet, the government seems totally helpless to address the harsh economic
conditions and the high rate of youth unemployment. Our circumstances are even
being aggravated by new government reform measures which tend to inflict more
hardship on the embattled citizenry. With policies such as monetisation and
rationalisation of the public service, retrenchment has increased with grave job
losses all over the country. Senior citizens prefer to join their children
overseas in the wake of non-payment of gratuities and pensions to retirees of
government parastatals. Pensioners of the Nigerian Railway Corporation have not
been paid for 25 months. Immigration into Nigeria has been facilitated by the
corrupt immigration officers as well as the porous borders.
Past governments had found population
censuses difficult to handle. Head counts generate acrimonious political
controversies and agitations. The 1952/53 census gave the figure of Nigerian’s
population as 30.41 million.
That of 1963 announced 55.66 million. The
1973 census figure of 79.76 million was rejected following public outcry of its
inaccuracy. According to the 1991 census, our population was 88.501. Men
outnumbered women by 574,561 with respective populations of 44,544,531 for men
and 43,969, 970 for women. Southerners doubted the figure of the population of
the Northern states which was given as 46,883, 288 as against 41,252,542 for
Southern states. There was a general observation that the population of Lagos
State given as 2,234,280 was grossly understated. In view of the political
implications of the population census, several distortions prevailed. Both
states and ethnic groups are in competition to magnify their numbers to gain
financial resource distribution advantages.
Everything must be done to ensure that the
proposed 2005 census is made as accurate as possible to forestall the usually
controversies. Towards this goal, reputable persons must be appointed as members
of the National Population Commission. They must to be competent and fair-minded
patriots who will live up to expectations. We should also involve the population
agency of the United Nations organisation to boost credibility and universal
acceptability of the census. In addition, an intensive public campaign and
orientation should be mounted to prepare the citizenry for active and honest
participation in the census.
We should take the issue of population
more seriously in view of its impact on the economy. Too large a population for
the country will retard economic and social development and inhibit whatever
reform programmes the government may envisage. The most effective means of
ensuring reliable population statistics is for the National Population
Commission to establish and maintain a machinery for continuous registration of
births and deaths throughout the federation, publish information and data on
population regularly and update the training of demographers. There is the
pressing need to sensitize the citizenry on the importance of population
control, its relationship to national development, welfare of the masses and
general quality of life. The federal government should adapt all national
population control measures to our culture and level of social development.
Kenya has done that successfully and we
should take a cue from them.
President Olusegun Obasanjo must expedite
action on the publication of the new national population policy and provide
adequate funds for the execution of the 2005 national census.
•Mr. Ifedi writes from Satellite Town, Lagos.
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