Population, Education and Nigeria’s Cycle of Poverty
Nigeria’s population today is ranked seventh in the world at over 192 million and is projected to grow exponentially to over 233 million by 2025. This should be of grave concern to everyone, especially in view of absence of national economic plans that could provide jobs for the new addition. We are already confronted with a large numbers of idle hands.
Basic knowledge of population growth teaches that population increase is only desirable when accompanied with increase in human capital development, economic activity and good governance. Nigeria’s population is already creating a myriad of social issues. Taking development indicators such as literacy rates, poverty rates, quality environment, social justice, gender equality, etc., into account, one cannot but conclude that our population growth is presently more of a liability rather than asset.
Contrary to China which manufactures and sells its products to every other part of the world, ours is a consuming population. Thus, our increasing population is a liability with pervasive poverty, high illiteracy rate, high unemployment and the consequent insecurity in the country.
Except sincere national planning that adequately addresses the country’s population explosion, and an education sector that can groom entrepreneurs and inventors is urgently activated and implemented, poverty and various crimes currently plaguing the country will continue to be a major impediment to socio-economic growth.
Among the many assumptions as to why people commit crimes, the one that really stands out is the connection with uncontrolled population growth, education and poverty. With our huge population, lack of education is driving poverty rates, thus causing those same impoverished and uneducated people to commit crimes. Unfortunately, what various tiers of governments are doing in the education sector is not dominating our headlines as much as corruption does.
Now in the light of recently released statistics of numbers of out-of-school children in the country, there is no convincing indication that changes would come as regard issue of poverty-induced-crimes. In addition to 54 million illiterates which put Nigeria at the bottom in the global literacy index, out –of- school children are today a ticking time bomb.
In what is clearly a national scandal for a country that is the world’s eighth largest oil producer, the UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report (EAGMR) says Nigeria holds the world record of having the highest number of its young people who are out of school. According to the shocking report, approximately 10.5 million kids which translate to one out of every five Nigerian children are out of school.
Though this issue has been prominent for a long while, it is now about time adverse cultural practices including forced/ misguided early marriages, Almajiris phenomenon, poverty and child labour were accorded urgent national attention.
The situation provides an answer to why people are easily manipulated by ethnic and religious bigots for selfish agenda. It explains why people sheepishly get into the recruitment net of Boko Haram. With the current economic challenges in the country, children that lack basic education will struggle to live a decent life.
When people descend into poverty in that way, they naturally turn to criminal activities in an attempt to make ends meet. Such criminal tendencies can take many forms. It can be something as simple as petty theft or it can escalate into money rituals and other severe crimes such as armed robbery and kidnapping.
Sadly, when people find themselves in such situations, they are rarely able to get out of it which is why it becomes a vicious cycle.
The difficulty or inability of the average Nigerian parent to cope with the requirements of basic education of the child is at variance with Article 2 of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child which stipulates that no child, irrespective of the parentage, circumstance or status should be discriminated against with respect to access to education. In addition, Article 4 of the Convention states that governments should make every effort to ensure that all children have access to education.
To break the cycle of poverty and crimes in the country, the large number of illiterates, out-of-school children and the jobless should be viewed by all Nigerians as an indictment of our collective humanism more than the failure of government alone. We must accept that all of us are duty bearers (as individuals, religious bodies, media, NGOs) who must accept to play role to ensure that the future of many more children are not put at the risk of illiteracy and social esteem.
Having assented to and ratified the recommendations of the Convention in addition to affirming such right in Chapter 2; Section 18 of Nigeria’s Constitution, the onus therefore is on the government at all levels to review existing policies and funding towards reversing the ugly trend of growing population of out-of-schoolchildren and illiterate adults.
As this is a national imperative, a series of federal initiatives must emerge as the country might not be able to actualize its change agenda without making literacy a fundamental right of its citizens.
This becomes imperative as research has clearly shown that the higher the rate of literacy, the better the potential to succeed and the easier for government to fight poverty, crime as well as reducing social injustice.
Indeed, poverty not only lies at the heart of the factors that hinder access to education but continues to be the main obstacle to achieving the goal of universal education in the country. For government to successfully enforce compulsory elementary education, there must be assurances that access to educational facilities as well as provisions of the basic needs, most especially feeding, clothing and educational materials of the children at that level, are guaranteed.