Gerrard59:





This is not true. China unlike India is being able to bulldoze her way economically partly due to her one-child policy as resources which would have been used to cater for extra 300 - 400 million mouths are used for the current population. The major reason China changed her one child policy is due to the female infanticide parents practice because they want a male child and this ensured a distorted population arose. To balance it, the government decided to change it and even at that, current Chinese parents aren't interested in procreating more than one due to rising costs and the pollution crisis China faces. Then again, you forgot to factor in the kind of leadership China has vs her poorer counterparts. You cannot compare the vision and focus minded leaders China has to India or Bangladesh.



First, part of Nigeria's problem is that there are too many mouths to feed with limited resources and even the major resource is threatened by innovative technologies and everyone having same resource. If the enabling environment is created and true federalism enacted, then, some people in Nigeria will die of hunger with the kind of leadership the country has. Instead of being reliant of having good leadership one day, how about individuals take their destiny into their hands by having the kids they can take care of? Regarding Japan, it is not just the population numbers one is looking at but also the quality. So because Japan needs people, you think Nigeria needs same? Does Nigeria have a similar government like Japan? Infrastructure? Wealth? Economy? Even with the declining population, she has the third largest economy in the world while Nigeria, who you want Japan to mimic or think she is mimicking is number one on the list of countries suffering from multidimensional poverty. Japan, Singapore, South Korea etc can afford to increase their populations at their current state not SSA countries that depend on foreign aid for their budget to balance or borrow from rich countries.



And how well has Nigeria been able to manage her resources and the population she has? Is not hypocritical that you expect a family that has five mouths to feed on an income of 100K to be a great manager than the one with two mouths to feed on the same income? It is the norm that countries with low populations but greater resources manage theirs better than those with high population but limited income. So your managerial skills is an exception world over. UAE vs Nigeria, Japan vs Indonesia, Turkey vs Bangladesh etc.



If you agree that life is a competition, then you would know that preparation is important in winning that competition and to prepare adequately, one needs adequate resources to cater for her contingents. Which is why rich countries tend to win more Olympic gold medals than poor countries. Remember, life is a competition.

Vivikema:
I know a couple with one child and is still struggling with 3 square meals....please remove poverty out of it

OJODEL10:
the best thing is have the number of children you can care for . even caring for two children in this country of ours where a rubber of rice cost roughly N1000 . but come to think of it having many children is not a crime my parent gave birth to 6 of and we are doin fine does not mean you should do the same please think b4 you do.

midnighter:


Illogical argument. Would they not be dividing the square meals into circular meals if they had another child?

Poverty can never be removed from it o!

Khaleell001:


Hello auntie, caught you here again.
And it also happens we are also having
divergent views here.

For me, number of kids one has does not determine the permanence of their poverty level as some of you think.
There are so many dynamics knew can consider before saying something is certain.
The factors you base your arguments on are not permanent but dynamic both individually and collectively.

Life itself is never and was never mean to be easy.

Nowenuse:


Overpopulation is not necessarily based on landmass, rather availability of resources & urban planning.
Tokyo metro is just about 13,000km² yet there are 40 million people living there and overpopulation is not felt cos the city was well planned.
If you consider Nigeria overpopulated, then Germany is overpopulated too.

Besides, the spread of population in Nigeria is uneven. Southern Nigeria has only 22% of Nigeria's landmass, yet 50% of the population.

Some LGAs in Northern Nigeria are bigger than states in Southern Nigeria.

NiCurious:


Ah, so they lack the courage of their convictions...
I will leave you and this issue alone now. Peace and good night.

FromZeroToHero:
Sometimes it's our poor mentality that is causing it. I know a family that has 9 girls because they are looking for a Male child.

nobone:
@ OP, If your wife gives birth to a set of sextuplets at her first pregnancy, what will you do

midnighter:


Uncle you are not making sense, please.

The constant factor here is the word "average" as in "average Nigerian couple". With a fixed income bracket.

So statistically speaking, I mean with cold, hard numbers: Is it more expensive to basically feed and clothe 2, 3 or 4 children?

And logically speaking, do you need a larger house to shelter 2,3 or 4 children?

Do you need to spend more money on electricity to provide for 2,3 or 4 children?

How much water do 2,3 or 4 children need to use?

Thats just material consideration o. Not counting the knock-on effect of your stresses and struggles on the childs emotional and psychological health.

Stop bringing out tired platitudes like "life was never meant to be easy" and "God is the provider of children" and stare the facts boldly in the face.

uninspired07:


Is that all? Just food & any kind of education?

I will want my kids to have the kinda education I never had.

Limit child birth & you will do much more.

Litmus:
Let us at this juncture sum up what we have so far: why is it that in Asia we have two nations with significantly larger population than Nigeria and one that share approximate population size with Nigeria and yet the West makes such a fuss of Nigeria and Africa’s population?

Pakistan: 216,565,318 million
Indonesia : 270.63 million
Bangladesh: 163.05 million

Obi1kenobi:


Africa is already the most populated continent after Asia. We're more populated than Europe (1.2 billion to 714 million). I'd say considering all our problems on the continent, we don't need any more people. People are a resource, but only if they're developed human capital and Africa's human capital is the most underdeveloped on the planet by far, so we're more a continent of consumption than production. The world's problems over the next century (tech evolution and medical developments and scientific discoveries and space exploration and climate change action and environmental conservation etc) would basically be solved by the productive people while all we'll keep doing here in Africa is breeding. We shouldn't be proud of the fact we're a liability to the world rather than assets to the world. The pressures we're already facing in Africa (urban population explosions, climate change and desertification, famine, drought and disease, political and sectarian strife etc) is why hundreds of thousands of Africans are risking the perilous journey through Libya and the Mediterranean crossing to get to Europe. And it will only get worse.

Think of this: at Nigerian independence, the UK's population was 52 million while Nigeria's was 45 million. Today, the UK is 66 million while Nigeria is close to 200 million. Which is predicted to hit 450 million by 2050 (UK's population would be around 76 million at that time by projections) and 750 million by 2100. Biko, e don do for us. Let us stop. Lagos is barely a livable city nowadays because of the population and lack of infrastructure to support that population. I can't imagine what it would be like for the population of Lagos to keep expanding. China's one child policy was one of the greatest economic policies of the last century. It eliminated about 400 million people who would have been born in that time and allow China to deliver focused policies that dragged several hundred million Chinese citizens out of poverty in the space of a few decades. If African states had any ambition, that is the kind of thing we should be conceptualizing right now.

Bagehot:


Do you really think Nigeria has enough resources to cater to its population?

Quick comparison: Saudi Arabia did about $160 billion in oil revenue in 2018, which divided by 26.9 million people comes to about $5,900 per head; conversely, Nigeria earned $26.1billion in the same year, which divided by 180m people comes to a miserly $140 - if you factor in that the production cost for Saudi Arabia is around $3 per barrel, and $30 per barrel for Nigeria, you see how limited the so-called wealth of Nigeria really is (before even getting into the grubby hands of our politicians and grubby civil servants).

Nigeria is already a poor country, with an incompetent thieving elite, a population already bursting at the seams, and next to no thriving industries to occupy the youth bulge.

midnighter:


You have the guts to say that somebody who is saying the right thing has a trashy opinion when youre the one spewing the highest amount nonsense here

Death has nothing to do with your pocket...tell that to the spirits of children who die every day from preventable diseases because their parents cant afford good food or effective drugs smh

CorporateJay:


You mumu die... Preventable disease kwa... Do you know the number of rich people who get misdiagnosed results.... Do you know the number of rich people who died of cancer.. Do you know the number of people who crashed thirr fast cars... You too mumu

midnighter:


Lol you better shutup! So who is more likely to survive between somebody who can afford cancer treatment and somebody who cant

Keep talking rubbish! Go and have your 12 children and leave sensible people alone biko

Blendy77:
For me I love kids and I love crowd so will certainly go for more after the two I currently have. With this era of kids schooling abroad and abandoning home, I will rather have more to keep me busy when the older ones might have left for school. If it's just poverty our Parents were worse off than us today. If you have the means to take care of them very well there is nothing wrong in having 3-4 kids whether biological or adopted.

Khaleell001:


Thanks for the fine details I must admit, but it does not also rule out what I feel can be done.
Using 100 k as a base for determining the number of kids one should have as if that is going to be permanent living wage does not cut it for me.

Who says the man can get a better out put or a better source of income?
and life is never about permanence.
If we were to judge China let's say 40 50 years ago we will never say they will be where they are today.
It's all about putting resources in place with the right attitude and policies.
You can't just say people should stop procreating because we have lazy leaders who can't think out of the box.

And one problem with one of your point is that you forget our problems are peculiar and requires a peculiar approach.
The down part for me in your analysis is Ywou are just basing you analysis on one out of many more possible out comes.

I have an uncle who has nothing less than nine children ,but not all of them went to school.
In fact, only three as at last count are graduates and they are doing relatively well while others are not doing that bad.

Whether your argument about limitation of bearing children is better for us or not what I know is,the factors that determine what we are; are too many just to base your argument on limitation of population growth alone
Saying we should cut down population is always a convenient excuse for people who don't want to put things in place..

The only time your argument will make sense to me is when policies are followed through and basic necessities are provided and things start working the way they should then I can blame our high birth rate as the problem.
As for now, tackle those issues first before talking about decerease in birth rate.

All those who argue about having less population or birth rate should go exterminate themselves first so we know we have minutes one of the population.

LZAA:

You keep missing the point
Brazil alone has a higher birth rate than nigeria
U won't say brazil is totally backward would you
Also u have to factor in the fact that in south america and africa homosexuality is an anomaly hence man and wife
Also last time i checked china alone still has a billion plus population excluding immigrants
Are they backwards too?

armyofone:
I thought you keeping busy vacationing and seeing the world should be the best thing!

1Sharon:


Ok cheers, have edited.

I read your lengthy post btw. Have you noticed blacks have issues with using contraception? It's like this with blks around the world

Blendy77:
Having several kids does not prevent u from doing that if you can afford it. At old age children hav a way of making u look and feel younger.

uninspired07:


Why can’t you stop at 2? Nigeria has changed radically from the time of our parents?

How do you know that I am not among the 1st two children of my parents?

Nigeria is just too failed a country to burden with overpopulation. I observe that people who give birth to many Children are always illiterate & stark poor. And they are not afraid of poverty do they hug it with gusto by having many children they can’t cater for.

NB: 10 Childern? That’s fantastic. I am sure your pops was doing fine back in the days to have been able to shoulder the responsibility.

xcelentattitude:
@uninspired07

This is a simple case of you being uninspired

What the hell in the name of the apostles is the meaning of this thread?

Two children For what na?

Do you even know the child that will bring greatness into your home?

Have you ever heard of David in the bible?

Lemme even bring it home. Do you know that Muhammadu Buhari is the 23rd child of his father? What if the pop had stopped on the 2nd child. Have you ever heard about any of the other 22 children? But you have heard of Buhari, even though sometimes it's for the wrong reasons

Am I now saying people should give birth to 20 children? The answer is NO!
My point is that, people have the right to give birth to whatever amount of kids they can take of with no questions asked. It could be 5, 6, 4, 2, 1 or even ½, it's no ones business until it becomes their business.

Litmus:
Let us at this juncture sum up what we have so far: why is it that in Asia we have two nations with significantly larger population than Nigeria and one that share approximate population size with Nigeria and yet the West makes such a fuss of Nigeria and Africa’s population?

Pakistan: 216,565,318 million
Indonesia : 270.63 million
Bangladesh: 163.05 million