Without resorting to forced abortions, sterilizations, infanticide, and control of the numbers of live births we must acknowledge that population control is crucial to a nation’s economic survival.

In most African countries mass production of children is almost regarded as a show of importance rather than a lack of knowledge of contraception, ignorance, lack of education and stolidity. The South African leader who told his people not to use condoms because white people were deliberately trying to prevent them from reproduction is one of such cases.

Most Nigerians lack fresh drinking water; over population (and bad leadership) means depletion of natural resources, increased levels of air and water pollution, soil contamination and noise nuisance. There are reports of deforestation and loss of ecosystems, changes in atmospheric composition.

We have seen an increase in legal and illegal immigration to the developed world on an alarming scale, creating an unprecedented demographic and political problem for the west. Many of these migrants are talented and well-educated people from Nigeria that has deprived the nation of its limited skills base. There are also documented cases of high infant and child mortality caused by lack of family planning, insufficient resources and poverty. Overcrowding has resulted in increased incidence of diseases and other infectious diseases, a lack of adequate sanitation and clean potable water, and scarcity of available medical resources.

Starvation, malnutrition, poor diet with ill health and diet-deficiency diseases; poverty coupled with inflation has resulted in low level of capital formation. Desperation to survive has elevated crime rate in a struggle over scarce resources and crowding, leading to increased levels of brigandage. We now experience serious over-utilization of infrastructure, public transport, roads and bridges, and public health systems.

Nigeria is 140 million people with over 70% living on less than one dollar a day; people deliberately produce children know this offspring will be born into disease, poverty and untold hardship. A typical example can be found in war-thorn Somalia and during the Ethiopian famine, where people produced children knowing there was no food or resources to cater for them, children were born only to survive for 6 months and die miserable deaths covered in flies. Many of these children became the face of Africa on western TV as a way to embarrass the continent.

We have not learnt our lessons; educated Nigerians who should know better are reluctant to discuss this issue and help coerce government to formulate a policy that will regulate live birth helping to ensure decent quality of life. A well organised population will not guarantee economic success but it will assist resource management, impact development, food requirements, resources and the environment. It will adversely affect the welfare and progress of Nigeria.

Overpopulation is a condition when an organism's numbers exceeds the carrying capacity of its ecological niche. In common parlance, the term usually refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment.

Is it evidently clear that Nigeria is overpopulated due to an increase in births; many of these births are unplanned. The 4 wives per man Islamic policy in mostly northern Nigeria have ensured that many in that region record the most poverty stricken existence in the country.

We are now in a state of meagre or non-existent capability to sustain human life due to corruption, lack of credible leadership and of course uncontrolled childbirth. Leadership has been the centre of attention for most Nigerians when they discuss the current socio-economic state of Nigeria, not many want to talk about overpopulation that has contributed more to our present sorry state of events.

Nigeria may be rich in terms of natural resources and income but an out of control population will not ensure quality of human life if resources are over stretched.

With an out of control population there are additional resources to be considered, such as medical care, employment, the environment, money, education, electricity, sewage, waste management, and transportation. Negative impacts should also be considered including crowding stress and increased pollution. Lagos is a good example of what overpopulation can do.

Overpopulation in Nigeria is such that the population density is so blatant it has caused an impaired quality of life, serious environmental degradation, and long-term shortages of essential goods and services. It is an imbalance between the number of individuals vis-à-vis the resources needed for survival, and the ratio of population over resources, and a function of the number or density of individuals, compared to the resources like food, employment and business opportunities.

The constant argument that poverty and famine are caused by bad governments and economic policies are serious cases of misplaced priorities and ignorance among an already semi-literate and ignorant citizenry; There is talk that a higher population density leads to more specialization, productivity and innovation, and that this leads to a higher standard of living. China has been cited as an example of this, but the Chinese 1 child policy has attested to the fact that it is not the case. Indian with its fast growing economy and high-tech innovations has not ensured that a large section of its population is excluded from one of the worst examples of poverty. 

It has been proven that while resources tends to grow precariously, population grows exponentially, if left unchecked Nigeria’s population will continue to amplify and become too bulky to be supported by the resources available, with or without good leadership.

It is without doubt that the irresponsible decision by the British government to allow new Eastern European EU accession states to come and live in the UK has caused one of the worst cases of depleted resources this country has ever seen. Today the UK with its position in the G8 and its material wealth is struggling to provide average social services, transport and housing to an uncontrolled population. All it took was for 2 million people to come from Poland and other parts of east Europe and the world to turn a usually comfortable society with decent quality of life into a cesspit of confusion, mayhem and despair for many citizens.

Due to a lack of moral fibre in the Nigerian society we cannot allow population control to be at the discretion of the individual, moral restraint will not work, Nigeria needs laws to control the trend; a 2 child per couple policy will guarantee some semblance of civility and legality in dealing with the issue.

We do not need to adopt the US/UK system of reducing population in the 3^rd world by manufacturing and infecting people with biological weapons like HIV.

Nigeria can introduce legislation backed by a Biometric database of citizens to monitor and control the trend; part of the solution must include education, effective contraception and social awareness.