₦airaland Forum

Okechukwu Enelamah, Minister of Trade and Investment, says the country will become poorer if Nigerians keep having children.

The Minister said this on Wednesday while reacting to the Brookings Report that rated Nigeria as the country with the most poor people in the world.

“So, I think we should roll up our sleeves as a people and do the work because, if we don’t do it, our people continue to bear children obviously, they would get poorer," he said.

"He also faulted the data for the global poverty report recently released, insisting it was collected during the period of economic recession.

SaharaReporters had earlier reported that Brookings Institution published a report that put Nigeria ahead of India on the world poverty index.

Mr. Enelamah said: “I think, first, we need to understand when we get these reports that there are reports that are lagging in indicators, which means, people are reporting on history.

"So, when you get reports from Brooking Institution or all sorts of people, you need to look at the context. Somebody may have written a report when we were in a recession. Remember that if you are in a recession, what it means is that even though your population is growing, people don’t stop procreating... which means that in theory depending on how they run those numbers, you will be going the other way. There is absolutely no question that there is an urgency to create employment in Nigeria.

“What I can tell you, with certainty based on one’s background in business and economics, is that if we complete the things on infrastructure and you implement these reports we are doing, that is what I mean by a leading indicator, poverty will go down. There is no magic to it. But you have to do it first, you have put in the infrastructure, you have to implement the economic programme which is what will create the opportunities, they don’t drop from the sky.”

He urged the people to focus more on work so as to assist the government to improve the standard of living in the country.

“I don’t think we should kill ourselves that poverty is something just happen," he said. "I think it comes out of the urgent need we have as a country which is why we are focusing as a government to make sure that we create the enabling environment, the infrastructure that is required to create opportunities for our people and I believe that will happen in the process of time.”

http://saharareporters.com/2018/06/28/nigeria-will-keep-getting-poorer-if-we-keep-bearing-children-says-trade-minister-enelamah

So this docile minister without a single project or achievement, crawled out of his shell to spill trash.

One should bear the number of children his financial capacity can carry not to stop bearing children completely.

With lies..... Almost had to Google his name to know who he is!

DaniDani:
So this docile minister without a single project or achievement, crawled out of his shell to spill trash.

One should bear the number of children his financial capacity can carry not to stop bearing children completely.

Stop writing trash. I don't care about the useless minister but he wasn't saying we should stop bearing children. The issue is bearing children one can take of.

It's high time laws are made in this country for one not to have more than four children but those foolish religious people will oppose it. Hypocrites everywhere in this country

Tell that to the north!!!

DaniDani:
So this docile minister without a single project or achievement, crawled out of his shell to spill trash.

One should bear the number of children his financial capacity can carry not to stop bearing children completely.

Olodo. Do you know what his portfolio is? So what 'project' will a trade and investment minister have?

Moreover he never said we should stop bearing children. The point simply is that with our very high birth rate, unless we have VERY significant growth in our economy, people will keep getting poorer as the population increases.

id911:
Stop writing trash. I don't care about the useless minister but he wasn't saying we should stop bearing children. The issue is bearing children one can take of.

It's high time laws are made in this country for one not to have more than four children but those foolish religious people will oppose it. Hypocrites everywhere in this country

Let him born one dozen and begin to cry marginalisation, ko can aye.

ovadozes:
Tell that to the north!!!

Its not just the north. The entire country. Una too dey *bleep*

alezzy13:
Its not just the north. The entire country. Una too dey *bleep*

It’s the north. How many southerners/Christians give birth to more than two children nowadays?

I for example only want to give birth to one child—when I am ready. The north, due to Islam will want to populate everywhere with illiterate children who will be used for suicide bombings in later years. How many southerners can bear their children not going to school? Stop trying to lump everyone together in northern misery. You know the truth.

The pigs up North believes their oil is in littering the streets of Nigeria with those smelling, beggy piglets.

I don't blame them alone. I also blame yoruba moslems. They have learnt this bad habit.

Islam is archaic.

Down south, people are scared of giving birth to kids they cant train... cant speak for all but i think majority.

Esseite:
Down south, people are scared of giving birth to kids they cant train... cant speak for all but i think majority.

That’s what I told one guy—probably a northerner—who lied that it is a national problem. Most southerners I know are scared to have many children due to the attendant poverty that comes with that. Only my muslim brothers in yorubaland give birth to many children without consideration for how they will be catered for. I guess this is because their religion forbids them family planning and they are allowed to marry 4 wives.