Punch
The Africa Progress Group led by former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has moved to curb population explosion in Nigeria and the rest of Africa.
Obasanjo made this known during his speech on Tuesday at the Public Presentation of the 2020 Africa Progress Group Report.
According to the former head of state, Nigeria’s population of over 200 million people with a significant youth bulge should be harnessed for increased industrialisation of the country and Sun-Saharan Africa.
The ex-President said the failure of current African leaders to engage the teeming youths in productive engagement was dangerous as violent extremists and criminals would start enlisting them in their ranks.
Obasanjo said, “Three clusters of questions pop up in my mind any time the scary thoughts of the ever-increasing population kept me awake at night. The first cluster is: how are we going to feed this exploding population? Only a few days ago, the alarm was raised about imminent food crisis in Nigeria. Similar alarm bells have been ringing with increasing stridency all over Africa. How are we going to house them; educate them, provide them with health security and other variants of human security?
“The second cluster of questions is: how do we keep this keg of gunpowder of the large army of unemployed youth from exploding? How do we keep them from enlisting in violent extremists’ groups and in gangs of kidnappers? The third cluster of questions is: how can Africa attain the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063 in a turbulent sea of exploding, not-well-managed populations?
“While these clusters of questions are frightening, they would appear to have an elegantly simple solution- political will and action to make population an asset. This is the master key of a sort! I am sure you noticed that this “key” has two elements- the will and the action. It is not enough to shroud political will in mere political rhetoric and sloganeering but translating such will into concrete, measurable actions with visible impact on the ground.
“This is why, in this report, APG, being a group with a burning desire for Africa’s progress has established a unique measure of progress of African countries on the concrete and measurable actions on responsiveness to their growing population…
