POPULATION, NOT CORRUPTION, KILLING NIGERIA

The recent Financial Times of London sincere report on the socio-economic indices of Nigeria was not encouraging in the least. Basically, Nigeria’s economy is in stagnant-mode facilitated by ineptitude in high places. What was also troublingly obvious from that report was the fact that what little effort was made in terms of growing Nigeria’s overall GDP by the previous government was obliterated by a parallel population growth, thus the stagnation. If the population situation continues and international oil price does not improve markedly and flagrant ineptitude, nepotism, creedal-jingoism, political witch- hunt, etc., are not halted then there is zero hope of Nigeria getting out of poverty 50 to 100 years from now. That time window into the future would be when to be poor equates a kind of new-found slavery because poor countries then would lag behind in technology, food production, healthcare, and all. What we spend so much time and resources pursuing at the present time and one which is so hard to characterise and which we have demonised as “corruption” is much less an evil that wanton and uncontrollable population growth. It is even sad when the basis for a population boom is hinged on religious injunctions because, in actuality, religion should be in the forefront of poverty eradication.

Sunday Adole Jonah, Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna