As the world commemorates the seventh billionth population day, Nigeria has taken over from Pakistan as the sixth most populous country in the world with its 167 million people, according to UNFPA’s Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Agatha Lawson. In the World Population Report of 1 July, Nigeria was ranked seventh, but by the latest ranking by the UN’s population agency, the country has moved to the sixth position. The UNFPA Representative, who spoke in Abuja, the nation’s capital, Monday during a media interactive session to mark the day – alongside Nigeria’s National Population Commission (NPC) Director General Jamiu Zubena – said with the figure, Nigeria still maintains its first position as the most populous in the continent. Apart from the media interactive session, the NPC, non-governmental organisations and some civil society groups embarked on an awareness campaign across the capital city. At the National Assembly (parliament), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Population, Manna Maji Lawal, said the lawmakers were disturbed by the rapid growth in Nigeria’s population, which he put at 2.4% of the global population. “This is a time for sober reflection. This is the time we should be concerned about the number of children we bring into life. It means making law that empowers girls and children, eradicate poverty and stabilize mobility growth,” Lawal told the campaigners, who have come to solicit the support of the lawmakers on population control.
‘It means making legislation that supports reproductive and healthy rights and guarantees women’s right to really determines the number, spacing and time of children without violence,” the MP said.
With global population experiencing a rapid growth, starting from 1959 when it was three billion, the UN has estimated that the world population will reach eight billion by 2025 and ten billion by 2053.
Development experts have however warned that the world could face huge challenges if the population growth is left unchecked.
They point to the global economic crisis and climate change as two major factors that may hinder food production to feed the teeming population in the nearest future.
‘As population base shifts higher, there will be need to think more creatively about how the social system and infrastructure can sustain that kind of population – water, food distribution system, schools, health services, recreation, ensuring that we maintained the environment,’ the Executive Director of UNFPA, Prof. Babatunde Oshotimehin, advised.