Population has been a prominent and cliched subject concerning Nigeria with the UN being the latest counselor to our supposed or potential "problem".

Suggestions such as the infamous X child policy has been cast at our country in what some consider an urgent matter.

Since population seems to be a recurring theme instead of considering the number of children how about considering the number of spouse(s) as some have suggested.

One man and one wife is surely better than "one child".

Although I doubt such limiting factor will ever be implemented, is it not a much better proposition than borning one pikin?

One man, four wives.

What is th difference between 1 man and 1 woman having 8 children than 1 man and 4 women having 8 children total (2 each)?

igbo2011:

What is th difference between 1 man and 1 woman having 8 children than 1 man and 4 women having 8 children total (2 each)?

That is a good point and is the same as comparing a childless couple to a couple with 4 children which effectively balances the equation. However those instances cannot be relied on because the probabilty of them occuring frequently is not that high and when you think about it 4 women plus 8 children now have to be catered for as opposed to only 1 wife and their 8 children. I'm not a huge fan of this X child policy program but if population appears to be a point of concern that is inspiring various solutions such as the infamous X child policy I'd rather the factor that was considered and limited would be one that doesn't potentially threaten the life of a child or harm society.

Having one wife won't harm anybody. Having one child won't harm anybody either but if a lady happens to fall pregnant again after borning her first child or is carrying twins I would be sad for her if her sole option was to seek an abortion because she has to maintain the population quota.

I believe such a policy will encourage frequent abortions but I'm also confident that it would never be implemented anyway because Nigerias society is very much different to China.

@emofine
In Chiina they tend to kill abort more daughters than sons because they need male strength to do the farming in the rual areas. This is pretty bad and if this sort of thing happened in Nigeria then itwould be bad too. Do you think that Nigerians would abort sons or daughters more?

if men dont have 2 wives or something there will be more single women, one wife policy is as bad as one child policy, it wont work in nigeria, it is totally against society,every man who can afford 2 wives has to get 2 wives, its no one business, people have alot of mistresses anyway, only insecure women are against polygamy, my father has 2 wives and it works fine

Hausa no go gree

igbo2011:

@emofine
In Chiina they tend to kill abort more daughters than sons because they need male strength to do the farming in the rual areas. This is pretty bad and if this sort of thing happened in Nigeria then itwould be bad too. Do you think that Nigerians would abort sons or daughters more?

Yes I am aware of what has gone down in China concerning that policy and that's why I fear when people encourage Nigeria to adopt the X child policy because of the potential consequences and even though I understand that Nigerians view and value children differently from China I'm just worried about the side effects i.e. high abortion rates.
Plus whether Nigeria agrees to such program or not (which I am very confident they won't anyway) Nigeria has the highest incidence of twin births in the world so adopting that policy would definitely threaten a child's life.

. . .and another thing. . .

People have spoken about family planning etc and rightly so, but sometimes a couple who might have planned for only one child at a particular time may beget triplets instead and that should challenge the one track rhetoric which suggest that some people have children anyhow or without investing some thought into the matter beforehand.

namfav:

if men dont have 2 wives or something there will be more single women, one wife policy is as bad as one child policy, it wont work in nigeria, it is totally against society,every man who can afford 2 wives has to get 2 wives, its no one business, people have alot of mistresses anyway, only insecure women are against polygamy, my father has 2 wives and it works fine

Oh I am very aware it would not work in Nigeria I just thought it would be a better alternative because I doubt it's side effects (if any) would be as bad as the one child policy.

If I may ask why would it be "totally against society" to court only one wife, is it compulsory to have more than one wife
and having mistresses is not on the same scale as having multiple wives because the aim most of the times is not to impregnate the mistress which thus implicates the man.

Sir, you say that if a man can afford 2 wives then he should thus acquire two wives lol that actually falls in line with the logic of some who believe children should be reserved for the wealthy populace.

Finally. . .I doubt "only insecure women are against polygamy", both my grandparents were polygamous but my mother had a tough upbringing and that obviously would make her consider the trials of marrying a polygamous man . .  it's not always harmonious between one man and wife let alone one man and his wives there are various reasons too but I'm glad it works fine for your father.

i think in Nigeria's case, people need to be taxed for each kid they have. I know in the developed world this would not make sense but in a place where common sense does not fly, it makes sense to penalize people when they decide to go against common sense.

@emofine, what is wrong with polygamy, do you come out of that? my father with 2 wives and i never experienced problems, and i know alot of people who come out of bigger familes with only 2 parents, so polygamy does not only work with big families, what is bigger families is marrying at a young age, that is when you find couples with big families, maybe you may just start stopping the youth from marrying young or stop early relationship if you want to stop alot of babies

Population has been a prominent and cliched subject concerning Nigeria with the UN being the latest counselor to our supposed or potential "problem".

U lot are still arguing? u are next and by the time dey are finished population would be the last problem for Nigeria becos more than half of the population would be gone.

Does monogamy actually reduce population growth rates?

Mathematically I don't see why it should. . . if each woman will have X kids, it doesn't matter if each woman is attached to only one man or several are attached to one (of course, sucks for the guys since there are less women available.)

But maybe polygamy means each woman will for some reason decide to have more kids (perhaps marrying younger and thus start producing kids earlier, for example.)

Anyone seen studies on the topic?

namfav:

@emofine, what is wrong with polygamy, do you come out of that? my father with 2 wives and i never experienced problems,

I honestly don't know what was hard to understand in what I was trying to say.
Did you read anywhere in my posting that I said there is anything "wrong" with polygamy? and no I wasn't raised in a polygamous household. I did say however that people are affected differently by a polygamous houseld, for you you had a great childhood, for my mother not so great . . .I just wanted to counter your earlier remark that women against such union must be governed by insecurity by highlighting it's not always the case and that people have different experiences which have obviously weighed on their opinions about certain issues.

I did say however that it would be better to adopt a monagamous union than adopt a one child policy because I do not anticipate any forboding or harm in one man having one wife but maybe there would be some side effects for a couple to have one child . . . like I said before it's not as straightforward as ABC because a woman could be pregnant with multiple babies and/or abortion may become a popular option in the country.

and i know alot of people who come out of bigger familes with only 2 parents, so polygamy does not only work with big families,

Here I agree and what you have said matches with igbo2011's first comment which I have already adressed.

what is bigger families is marrying at a young age, that is when you find couples with big families, maybe you may just start stopping the youth from marrying young or stop early relationship if you want to stop alot of babies

Valid point you have coupled with a suitable suggestion.
Lastly, I don't want to "stop alot of babies" I just want to stop the one child policy promoters from encouraging Nigeria to adopt that awful scheme so I was considering less harmful alternatives

ekt_bear:

Does monogamy actually reduce population growth rates?

Mathematically I don't see why it should. . . if each woman will have X kids, it doesn't matter if each woman is attached to only one man or several are attached to one (of course, sucks for the guys since there are less women available.)

But maybe polygamy means each woman will for some reason decide to have more kids (perhaps marrying younger and thus start producing kids earlier, for example.)

Anyone seen studies on the topic?

Intersting comment. I actually don't know if monogamy affects population growth rates but I did assume that a polygamous household will on average carry more children.
However what you said about it not impacting on the issue whereby each woman was to have X children with one man or a polygamous man, well it kinda does . . . because if a woman married to a monagamous man had 3 children, in total the household will carry 3 children. In a polygamous household (let's say there are 2 wives) that born the same X amount of children, that household will then have 6 children so it does have some sort of affect. Igbo2011 and namfav did highlight an important issue whereby the number of children in one polygamous household may be equal to the number of children in a monagamous hosehold so that was something to consider.
. . .but I like I said before, consequently it won't boil down to only taking care of those children in a polygamous household but also the mutiple wives in that household because resources must be shared.

Right. Polygamous households will carry more children. But this doesn't by itself increase the total # of children in Nigeria.

Hmm, sometimes easier to see things if you use an extreme example.

If we pass a law saying that all women in Nigeria are now the "property" (so to speak ) of ekt_bear (a very extreme form of polygamy in which one man has ~75 million wives), then assuming those women don't make any changes about how many kids they want to have, the population growth of Nigeria would be exactly the same.

ekt_bear's household is now huge, but the household of every other man in Nigeria is now very small (just him by himself.)

This is why I say that polygamy in and of itself cannot affect population growth. The total # of children produced is all that matters, not whether a man has 1 wife, 4, or 10.

But there are probably some more subtle effects going on that do cause a relationship between polygamy and pop growth.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not pro-polygamy or something (my religion doesn't permit it.)

But I think if you want to limit population growth, you limit the # of kids, not # of spouses.

They should start a massive campaign on family planning like they used to do years ago on radio and tv. They should also remember to send the message that smaller families = wealth, opportunity or status.

ekt_bear:

Right. Polygamous households will carry more children. But this doesn't by itself increase the total # of children in Nigeria.

Hmm, sometimes easier to see things if you use an extreme example.

If we pass a law saying that all women in Nigeria are now the "property" (so to speak ) of ekt_bear (a very extreme form of polygamy in which one man has ~75 million wives), then assuming those women don't make any changes about how many kids they want to have, the population growth of Nigeria would be exactly the same.

ekt_bear's household is now huge, but the household of every other man in Nigeria is now very small (just him by himself.)

This is why I say that polygamy in and of itself cannot affect population growth. The total # of children produced is all that matters, not whether a man has 1 wife, 4, or 10.

But there are probably some more subtle effects going on that do cause a relationship between polygamy and pop growth.

lol @ your extreme[/b]ly wonderful [b]example

okay I understand the point you're relaying however. I think I will research this issue and see if there truly is a correlation between polygamy and population size.

ekt_bear:

Don't get me wrong, I'm not pro-polygamy or something (my religion doesn't permit it.)

But I think if you want to limit population growth, you limit the # of kids, not # of spouses.

I'm not against polygamy but I hate the idea of Nigeria being encouraged to adopt an X child policy, it seems way too intrusive and quite dictatorial if you ask me. I thought that one man, one wife scheme may be a bit impersonal and less harmful in it's approach but of course I wouldn't want it imposed on anyone. . .it was just an alternative suggestion that I believed could serve Nigeria without having to follow the China route which I dread.

Quote from: ekt_bear on Today at 08:35:36 PM

If we pass a law saying that all women in Nigeria are now the "property" (so to speak ) of ekt_bear (a very extreme form of polygamy in which one man has ~75 million wives), then assuming those women don't make any changes about how many kids they want to have, the population growth of Nigeria would be exactly the same.

 

Ol' boy are you sure? LOL.
What if the rule bars technology and mandates that you must impregnate each woman NATURALLY as is the case in real life, no be run u go take commot for naija? 

Lmao

If no artificial insemination, then I'd be screwed. For the rest of my life, lol.

But I wouldn't run away, I'd face the task and give it my best shot

the whole thing is that it is not easy for a family to only have 1 child, in our age today even for a person who is born alone you can see that he is insecure, if you have 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 brothers and sisters you are more grounded, i can tell you that children who are born alone are hit the hardest when a parent dies, and parents with one child are hurt the most when the only child dies, it is psychology of the society, bigger families=more happyness, in nigeria most poeple dont want one child, they want atleast 2, let me ask you, would you be happy with only one child?

emofine:

I honestly don't know what was hard to understand in what I was trying to say.
Did you read anywhere in my posting that I said there is anything "wrong" with polygamy? and no I wasn't raised in a polygamous household. I did say however that people are affected differently by a polygamous houseld, for you you had a great childhood, for my mother not so great . . .I just wanted to counter your earlier remark that women against such union must be governed by insecurity by highlighting it's not always the case and that people have different experiences which have obviously weighed on their opinions about certain issues.

I did say however that it would be better to adopt a monagamous union than adopt a one child policy because I do not anticipate any forboding or harm in one man having one wife but maybe there would be some side effects for a couple to have one child . . . like I said before it's not as straightforward as ABC because a woman could be pregnant with multiple babies and/or abortion may become a popular option in the country.

Here I agree and what you have said matches with igbo2011's first comment which I have already adressed.

Valid point you have coupled with a suitable suggestion.
Lastly, I don't want to "stop alot of babies" I just want to stop the one child policy promoters from encouraging Nigeria to adopt that awful scheme so I was considering less harmful alternatives

namfav:

the whole thing is that it is not easy for a family to only have 1 child, in our age today even for a person who is born alone you can see that he is insecure, if you have 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 brothers and sisters you are more grounded, i can tell you that children who are born alone are hit the hardest when a parent dies, and parents with one child are hurt the most when the only child dies, it is psychology of the society, bigger families=more happyness, in nigeria most poeple dont want one child, they want atleast 2, let me ask you, would you be happy with only one child?

You have just highlighted some of the various reasons why I stated time and time again in this very thread that I am against X child policy.
I agree with everything you said (maybe not the insecure bit) - that is why I was considering other alternatives that could be adopted to tackle the so called "population problem" (not my words) Nigeria apparently has without having to include X child policy as one of our solution. I do not agree with a parent borning one child when they are forced to. To answer your question I would not be happy to have one child especially if my right in the matter was taken away.

ekt_bear:

Lmao

If no artificial insemination, then I'd be screwed. For the rest of my life, lol.

But I wouldn't run away, I'd face the task and give it my best shot

Brave man

Why dont we just end the senseless polygamy in the SW and the North?

That's a start.

hmm! all these whoosky urhobo men no go gree o . wallahi then too like the thing

it will disrupt the fabric of society in ways u won't imagine.
I'm sure polygamy (with complacency of many women) exists for a reason.

why should the UN be dictating our laws for us anyway.

Jenifa_:

it will disrupt the fabric of society in ways u won't imagine.
I'm sure polygamy (with complacency of many women) exists for a reason.

why should the UN be dictating our laws for us anyway.

I think that's what namfav was trying to tell me I guess.

Jenifa_:

it will disrupt the fabric of society in ways u won't imagine.
I'm sure polygamy (with complacency of many women) exists for a reason.

why should the UN be dictating our laws for us anyway.

IN TODAY'S SOCIETY, WHAT REALLY IS THE POINT OF POLYGAMY?

95% of the time, it's a disloyal man's excuse for . . . .

my suggestion is you have to curb teenage pregnancies if you want to stop that, once a person starts having children young they dont stop soon, teen pregnancies is prevalent in nigeria, i am sure that all our parents started having kids before 23

our population growth has nothing to do with polygamy, if you look the north and the south both regions have families that are big in most households

emofine:

You have just highlighted some of the various reasons why I stated time and time again in this very thread that I am against X child policy.
I agree with everything you said (maybe not the insecure bit) - that is why I was considering other alternatives that could be adopted to tackle the so called "population problem" (not my words) Nigeria apparently has without having to include X child policy as one of our solution. I do not agree with a parent borning one child when they are forced to. To answer your question I would not be happy to have one child especially if my right in the matter was taken away.


Brave man

namfav:

my suggestion is you have to curb teenage pregnancies if you want to stop that, once a person starts having children young they dont stop soon, teen pregnancies is prevalent in nigeria, i am sure that all our parents started having kids before 23

our population growth has nothing to do with polygamy, if you look the north and the south both regions have families that are big in most households

Yea, you're right.

Maybe we should also focus on forced underaged marriage.

schools are promoting underaged sex  today girls and boys in school are having intercourse behind the parents backs, it is not only those that are married, but the culture of sleeping around while very young and while not married is deep in nigeria, that is worse than underaged marriages, government has to look at that, like banning blackberries in schools or adding a age restriction to the peole who can acquire tem

Ileke-IdI:

Yea, you're right.

Maybe we should also focus on forced underaged marriage.

namfav:

schools are promoting underaged sex today girls and boys in school are having intercourse behind the parents backs, it is not only those that are married, but the culture of sleeping around while very young and while not married is deep in nigeria, that is worse than underaged marriages, government has to look at that, like banning blackberries

Nothing is worst than underaged marriage. Atleast most of these teenage sex is consensual.

Nothing worst than having your freedom stripped away from you in such a young age.