historically, at least since when the documentation of nigeria population has begun under the british, the country's population has been abnormally high above every other african countries, and to even corroborate the fact, most of the people taken away during the slave trade are from nigeria especiallly the yorubas, that is why you find orisha, osun, oduduwa,yemoja, sango worship in cuba, el-savador in brazil, trinidad and tobago. that has led to to start wondering why is the population in this area of africa high !!! your response, please

Illegal immigration in Nigeria is number 1 issue. The immigration policies are flawed. Anyone can go to Nigeria and become a Nigerian without scrutiny. Also political reasons.

this is not the isssue of illlegal migration, like i wrote, historically, nigeria's population has always been high since the colonial times, and besides , the number of people leaving niggeria is much more than people coming in , go to Ghana, SA, Zambia, Zimbabwe (of all), and in europe, UK (where there is yoruba translation for some goverment documnets), france, germany, austria, , and in the statess,

It's a problem of illegal immigration. And remember Nigeria also has 253 tribes which country in Africa has such? If you count how many illegals are in Nigeria, especially from Niger republic and North Western Africa, you'll be surprised at the figure.

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Overbreeding

well one reason of rapid population increase and hence highpopulation is resource, resource such as good soil, adequate drainage(rivers), good rainfall etc. this attracts migrant in pre-colonial times and even modern time to settle in the area and anytime the population density was too high for the land production capacity some of the people migrated to another area within the space known as nigeria today. overtime various tribe and cultures evolved and this led to all the various tribe we have in naija today. now when you have so many tribe within a defined political boundary they will be either a silent or violent tussle for resources. one way dominance is maintain is through having high population growth rate(e.g gaza/isreal, india, rawanda& burundi).disclaimer: this is not an expert views i be layman, takenote  

This question has always boggled my mind too. Why? There are several African countries with larger land mass.
I'm yet to get any clear explanation for this.

-Larger land are than most African countries
-Higher population density than most African countries
-Higher than average birth rate

The population is likely higher than reported.

The average Nigerian doesn't like condoms.

Those illiterate Nigerians in the villages churn out babies with that sick mentality their parents had that the number of children you have is directly proportional to how wealthy you are.

Imagine people still contemplating more than 2 children in this era when there's scarcity of everything apart from rubbish heaps and diseases.

Abeg who wants to be a Nigerian? People are running away from the country.
I think it has always been because of our culture. Nigerians used to be polygamous with various concubines and for some reason, this has cause a crazy explosion in population. When you also look at the countries around us, you can understand how Nigeria seems like a better choice.

very bad a situation

ow11:

Those illiterate Nigerians in the villages churn out babies with that sick mentality their parents had that the number of children you have is directly proportional to how wealthy you are.

Imagine people still contemplating more than 2 children in this era when there's scarcity of everything apart from rubbish heaps and diseases.

Other African countries also share this.

PeeDaVinci:

historically, at least since when the documentation of nigeria population has begun under the british, the country's population has been abnormally high above every other african countries, and to even corroborate the fact, most of the people taken away during the slave trade are from nigeria especiallly the yorubas, that is why you find orisha, osun, oduduwa,yemoja, sango worship in cuba, el-savador in brazil, trinidad and tobago. that has led to to start wondering why is the population in this area of africa high !!! your response, please

Thatz a stupid ass question. . . . .

Nigerians overbreed.
The men and their polygamy is one reason.
Lord knows what the population woulda been if we have winter in Nigeria.
Nigeria's population woulda given China a run for their money.

Abeg who wants to be a Nigerian? People are running away from the country.
I think it has always been because of our culture. Nigerians used to be polygamous with various concubines and for some reason, this has cause a crazy explosion in population. When you also look at the countries around us, you can understand how Nigeria seems like a better choice.

Polygamy is a standard practice in most African nations especially the muslim ones. So, why is the population in Nigeria growing in geometric progression?. And yes, people still want to be Nigerian no matter what.

Lord knows what the population woulda been if we have winter in Nigeria.
Nigeria's population woulda given China a run for their money.

haha, no start o. although i see our health minister or whoever is in charge, come out boldly to blame the high birth rate on the winter.


we are still trying to be like china and india still.

must_a_far:

haha, no start o. although i see our health minister or whoever is in charge, come out boldly to blame the high birth rate on the winter.

Winter in Naija would just bring more babies and yes the muppet health minister would defend it.

Simple social geography.

Improved healthcare leads to a growth in population. Humans have always had a large number of children, in order to help them farm and/or look after them when they are old. Therefore a large number of boys is preferred over girls. Obviously there is a 50% chance whether a child will be a boy or a girl, so this leads to a lot of children.

In the old days most of these children would die, but simply because of improved healthcare and social conditions, the birth rate will become higher than the death rate so the population explodes. This is what is happening in Nigeria. Obviously cultures can also come into play here as well.

St.Funmi:

Polygamy is a standard practice in most African nations especially the muslim ones. So, why is the population in Nigeria growing in geometric progression?. And yes, people still want to be Nigerian no matter what.

You beat me to this, as a refutal to the 'polygamy argument'.

I did Geography in the high school and in my first year in the uni, in addition to many private readings, but of all the 'factors affecting population growth' I have come across, there is none that I have found peculiar to Nigeria and not other countries, especially West African.

Poverty/Illiteracy - Not only Nigeria. Senegal,CIV,Ghana,Togo etc not better than Nigeria, yet have 'tiny' population compared to ours
Religious factor - Not only Nigeria. Almost all WA countries have 50-50 Christian/Muslim mix like Nigeria. So this explanation is void
Land mass: The opposite is even the case. Many African countries have alrger land mass, but far less population
Culture/taboo etc: Rife, not only in Nigeria, but in Africa as a whole


So why is our population extremely high? Still waiting for a convincing explanation.

we just love making babies. what else is there to do? after a hard days work, we go home, eat and with the little energy we have left, we do the 2 minute horizontal poker and voila 9 months later we contribute our small quota to increase the numbers.

jarus while it true that they are alot of african countries that have larger land mass than nigeria, nigeria have the most agricultural useful landmass, more food for agric = more people, e.g nation with larger land mass like sudan,mali, et al are mostly desert, while in the northern part of nigeria that we call dry we get at least in a year get 4-5 month of rain in the worst instance.

I wonder what kind of question is this. If you can ask such question, then I think you should also ask yourself why China and India are the most populated country in the world. Don't for that China is ten times Nigeria population( still there are a lot of chinese living outside their homeland). Any answer you come up, should also serve as an answer to your question.

half the population in nigeria are not actually Nigerians and getting a passport is not very difficult.
The borders are porous and just about anyone can come in. (Niger Rep etc)

Maybe and until a proper census is conducted, a true citizen can be ID-ed.

At the moment, it is just a country for all Africans. simple.

Polygamy, villagers breeding just anyhow are not necessarily the cause.

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What a question? Is like amalgamation of Germany, poland, Czech repulic and Austrial as a country and asking why are they so many people in it. If you view Nigeria with the European geopolitical distribution do you know how many countries you can get out it?

@Jarus - Nigeria is well placed to have a large population in Africa. Apart from the DR Congo with similar/greater abundance of resources, Nigeria rarely suffer from many natural disasters like - drought- Zimbabwe &the southern African region, droughts and locusts invasion in the Sahel countries from Mauritania to Ethiopia in the East/ horn of Africa, massive floods like in Mozambique via Malawi. There is abundance of fertile arable land in Nigeria that it can actually feed herself and others but for contemporary bad politics/ government policies. Majority of Nigerians do not depend on/ consume imported foreign food but live on locally produced/sourced food. Nigeria is relatively peaceful, never mind whatever Nigerians may think of each other etc. The Congo basin has been at war for a very long time, Southern-Africa have not really had it so good until recently- Apartheid was not peaceful co-existence nor 'tea party' either. Kenya and Tanzania are relatively dry places lacking the kind of abundant rivers and rainfall typical of the Nigerian tropical/equatorial zone. Besides Uganda, the rest do not have good agricultural land comparable to Nigeria. There has been so much turmoil all over the rest of Africa besides the fact that most like Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, the whole Southern Africa including Zimbabwe contain very large tracks of Land dedicated to so called ' game reserves' by settlers/invaders. The 'game' reserves are as large of most European countries. Nigeria luckily did not suffer such indignity which could have removed very large tracks of land /disrupt traditional farming on pretty good land. Is it any wonder there are wars over land still on going in Zimbabwe, South- Africa, Namibia- semi- desert and Angola only just came out of a protracted bloody war. Much of other places are inhabited by Nomads, semi-nomads because their lands are not exactly fertile/ hospitable like the Nigerian/Cameroon-Congo axis all year round. Sudan is arid/desert in the north and Sahel in the south of the country and I guess we are aware of the on going oldest wars in Africa are in that region. You don't procreate willy nilly in harsh unstable conditions. Nigeria in reality is not highly populated but perhaps relative to other African countries it appears large erroneously.

@Jarus Pls note that I deliberately did not bother to explain the so called large population- using cultural/religious and other pseudo-explanations that are not peculiar to Nigeria relative to other African countries. Much of Senegal is arid/ desert like Namibia. Besides Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Conakry, Liberia and Sierra-Leone water for agriculture is a big issue. Nigeria is truly blessed hence her population will increase in the future just the USA. It's very attractive and naturally blessed with abundant water resources for sustainable agriculture all year round.