One important phenomenon that took the front pages of many Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday the first of January was the reported births of Nigerian women which was given to be 26,000 (Twenty-Six Thousands). The news went almost unnoticed except for the few comments here and there who were alarmed at the rate at which the Almighty God has been blessing the country with more mouths to feed! Many of the commentators went as far as to tell us that if the rate continued till 31st December 2020, we cannot but have additional 26,000 times 366 (this is a leap year) to the current population of about 200milliom! While the fear as expressed cannot be said to be unfounded, it is necessary to point out that this country does not have to worry since other parameters in the population balancing equation was not considered. The first of such is the neonatal and post-neonatal mortality. One of the demographic misfortunes of Nigeria, as a nation, is the rate at which under-one (neonatal) and those between 1-4 (post-neonatal) die. As a matter of fact, the nation has one of the highest infant and child mortality rates in the whole world!!! Consequently, if we are ensure the ongoing survival of this society, births, must of necessity, be far higher than deaths -particularly at 0-4 age group. The above observation becomes understandable if it is realized that mortality at those ages responds the prevailing socioeconomic conditions. Furthermore, parents (the newlywed in particular) are always responsive to the expectations of the elderly who, most reasonably, expect the younger generation to contribute in order to ensure the perpetuation of the family lineage! Additionally, children are regarded as BLESSINGS from God and the cost of taking care of them must be borne by every adult members of the society – the taxes from them are to be used to cater for their medical, educational, nutritional and other needs. It is the government, therefore, that must be alive to its
responsibilities rather than thinking that having a mere 9,516,000 newborns this year will create problems of monumental proportions!
However, Sir, we know the government care less about fending for anyone talk less of children but themselves. We cannot put any hope on the government for any reason. Guess the campaign for family planning and more literate exposure has to be taken seriously