Dear elected officials: On the matter of Nigeria’s unregulated population (2), By Sunday Adelaja

We need a break, we need a policy, and we must slow down the population growth and accelerate industrial and economic development at a 10-15% growth rate for the next 20 years, for Nigeria to become one of the  top 10 nations in the world. Not just in terms of its GDP but also in terms of its standard of living. If we don’t address this problem now, we risk passing it down to our unborn generation. But worse still, we could continue to witness more social economic crises that could lead to the collapse of the country.

Nigeria’s Unregulated Population Growth Is Our Albatross 

We can compare the achievements and track record of Nigeria today to those of great nations of the world when they were 60 years or even 100 years as independent and sovereign countries, in particular countries like England and USA. One can only objectively assess a situation when there is something to compare it to.

21. 50% of Nigerians are not skilled workers and we cannot compete with even smaller countries who put most of their populations to productive work.
22. Our human capital development is catastrophic. We grew as a result of our oil wealth, which unfortunately led to people running away from the farms.
23. Now, it is time to move away from dependency on raw materials towards human capital development, so that our future economy will be based on human capital maximisation, like the rest of the world.
24. If we do, then we will be poised to overtake England and all European countries in the near future. I strongly believe that if we put our acts together in the next twenty years, we can grow an economy bigger than that of any of the countries in Europe.
25. A good example is Brazil. Portugal colonised Brazil in the past, but today the country has changed its story. Brazil’s economy is $1.5 trillion, while that of Portugal is $230 billion, which is six times or 552% bigger than that of its former colonial master.
26. Nigeria must do the same by building an economy that is bigger than that of the country that colonised us. It is not a dream but a near-future possibility, especially if we maximise our human capital development.
27. Nigeria’s economy is projected to rank among the world’s top ten economies by 2050, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $6.4 trillion.
28. A report by PwC states that Nigeria, Indonesia and Mexico could displace the United Kingdom and France out of the top ten economies by 2050.
29. Nigeria could sustain an average growth of about 5% to 6% per annum in the long run, and if it does, it will attain the projected goal.
30. I believe in the Nigerian resilient spirit, and with good leadership and purposeful policies we will get there.

Our National Problems and Resolving Them

1. The following are the biggest and most urgent problems I see in Nigeria as an entity, and if we can fix these issues below our future is promising and bright.
2. An underdeveloped people and a 60% literacy liability: We need to aggressively develop our human capital resources. A nation with the highest number of out-of-school children in the world is not serious about its development.
3. The lack of values and ignorance of how to develop: It is like our government and people in general do not have an understanding of the role of a value system in national development. We need to intentionally study and build values in our people and into the entire fabric of our society.
4. Unregulated population growth and lack of family planning: A matter of great shame to us as a nation is our income per capita. This problem will persist until we do something about our rate of population growth. We need to learn from China and begin to enforce family planning right now. We can start by limiting a woman to a maximum of three children and a maximum of six children to a family or a father.
5. Lack of law and order: Unfortunately our country has not learnt to live by law and order. Yes, we have parliaments but lack the culture of abiding by the law. This factor alone could propel us to become a civilised country. This will take hard work in cultivating a new mindset in our people.
6. Poor biometric registration of all Nigerians: Statistics and figures are not a part of our culture yet. We must know that the information and biometric data of every citizen and foreigners in our country must be a matter of the highest priority to us. As long as we don’t have the data of every person living in our country, then we don’t have a country yet. We are only imitating a country. This is the most basic requirement for us to call ourselves a country.
7. The elites versus the poor: Our society is built on the principles of feudalism, particularly when a man who has is worshipped by the have-nots. Hence, everyone else wants to attain some level of power, either political or financial, so that they would also be adored by their countrymen. This must change if we are to build a truly civilised society. We need to make all equal before God and the law. We must strive to build an egalitarian country, instead of a bourgeoisie class conscious country that we are presently running.
8. Secession and the need to encourage reconstruction instead: Our diversity is one of our greatest blessings by God. We should not let some separatist elements poison our feelings towards one another. We are better together, hence we must all fight against all sorts of secessionist movements in Nigeria. Unless we want your children to become refugees like Syrians, Liberians, Ukrainians or Sierra Leonians, who had the bad luck of being forced out of their lands because of separatist wars.
9. Lack of representative democracy in all major groups in the country: Nigerians like to blame leadership for all their woes. While there is some truth in this, it is not exactly as our people see it to be. Leadership doesn’t comprise only the president and the parliament, but all citizens of the land. We are all responsible for the wellbeing of our country. We all should show leadership and participate in the leadership of the land. By taking responsibility for where we are, we become the leaders there. This mindset must be drilled into our people, such that we don’t simply wait for someone to do something for us but rather to individually take responsibility for building the kind of country we want for ourselves.
10. Unguided and unregulated religion: Religion is supposed to be a positive force in nation building if well channeled but with the way religion is given free rein in our country, it could become the greatest threat to our nationhood. The government must be bold enough to develop a set of rules by which all religions in the country must agree to abide. All must be equal before the law, including religious organisations.

To execute these recommendations, especially with regard to the “moratorium on population growth” in Nigeria, we will definitely need courageous and daring leaders. I understand that it’s going to be a Herculean task for any leader to undertake. Yet, this is something that must be done if we don’t want to keep swimming in the ocean of unresolvable problems. I’m aware of the type of resistance that will come from our religious bodies, both Muslim and Christian. Our traditional groups will also raise an obstacle or two. But leadership is about daring to do the best things at all times, no matter how unpopular these could seem in the temporary term.

I believe that our new president-elect has the boldness and courage required for such a revolutionary move, but he won’t be able to do this without the support of the National Assembly and all our appointed officials across the country. Hence I am addressing this as an open letter to all appointed officials of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Yes, I don’t doubt the fact that under Tinubu we could grow our economy faster, even attaining a 10-15% growth rate. Nevertheless, even if we do so, we will still remain a poor country if our population growth continues to skyrocket as it is presently doing. Something must give!!!

According to a study by The Lancet, Nigeria’s population is expected to treble in size to 3.4 billion by 2100 (bbc.com). Nigeria’s population is growing at 2.6% a year, which is one of the fastest rates globally (theconversation.com). Uncontrolled population growth can lead to several problems such as increased poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, environmental degradation and social unrest (vanguardngr.com).

We need a break, we need a policy, and we must slow down the population growth and accelerate industrial and economic development at a 10-15% growth rate for the next 20 years, for Nigeria to become one of the  top 10 nations in the world. Not just in terms of its GDP but also in terms of its standard of living. If we don’t address this problem now, we risk passing it down to our unborn generation. But worse still, we could continue to witness more social economic crises that could lead to the collapse of the country. People will continue to demonise the leadership, not knowing that their poverty is as a result of their uncontrolled national libido.

I hope and pray that all I have written gets into the hands and hearts of those who are elected to resolve such problems.

May Nigeria succeed and may all its enemies live long to witness this. For the love of god, church and nation.