Nigeria: The Dangers of Too Many Children - Professor Ladipo

BY SOLA OGUNDIPE

LAST year, President Goodluck Jonathan stirred the hornet's nest when he declared that Nigerians were having too many children. The President's accusation was directed at persons unable to properly cater for the needs of their children as those guilty of giving birth too many times and too often. "Uneducated people are having too many children. People should only have as many children as they can afford," the President remarked. His declaration that Nigerians ought to learn to limit the number of children they brought into the world did not go down well with a lot of people. The call, which was essentially for new policies and legislation on family planning in the country towards controlling number of births, was greeted with mixed reactions. Although incisive debate still trails the President's commentary on the sensitive issue of childbirth, the implications of unchecked population increase and a high fertility rate remain paramount, especially with growing evidence that unchecked population growth is a major trigger of violence in the country. Population moderation "There is great wisdom in having only the number of children you can provide for. We need a population moderation and management policy because people should not just be having as many children as they want," asserts Professor Oladapo Ladipo, the President/CEO, Association for Reproduction and Family Health, ARFH, Abuja. Anyone who disagrees with this assertion should ask Haruna, the maiguard whose wife just gave birth to her 11th child. Kunle, his employer, who also has one wife, but three children, is already sponsoring Haruna's first two children in school. Four other children are scattered around, and at least two others are being brought up by relations and guardians.

Ladipo argued that millions of "Harunas" out there, who have failed to moderate the size of their family, and the ones rocking the boat by continually transferring the responsibility of catering for their children to the "Kunles" who have moderated the size of their families and are doing well as a result. "It is important for Nigerians and indeed Africans generally to recognize the need to have just the number of children we can care for, rather than just reproducing and expecting God to take care of them. There is no reason for having children who are just languishing in abject poverty, roaming around, doing nothing productive," he remarked. http://allafrica.com/stories/201308191231.html