Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has warned against
population explosion in the country.
Obasanjo said Nigeria’s population is becoming a liability
due to its improper management, saying, except something urgent is done,
Nigeria may be declared the third largest country in 2050.
The former president called for population management in the
face of the geometric population explosion without a corresponding
socio-economic development, a situation which he said has slowed down national
development.
He spoke in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital during a mentoring session with students of some selected schools across the country tagged “raising the next wave of innovative leaders through entrepreneurship.”
Obasanjo, while fielding questions from the students on
mentorship, highlighted service to fatherland , integrity, loyalty and good
moral standing as some of the virtues that could sustain them in their chosen
careers in life.
Speaking on the state of the nation, the former president
expressed worry over management of population of the country.
He said, “When COVID-19 struck, I decided to take the
vaccine. I was worried that it would be like Ebola, thank God it has not been
as devastating as Ebola.
“We have moved from 120 million to over 200 million. We have
added the population of France to our population and if we continue the way we
are going, by the year 2050 we will be the third-largest country in the world.
“If we still continue, by the year 3000, we would be the
largest country in the world.
“What are we going to do to handle that, how are we going to
handle that population? If we do not start getting it right now, we will not
get it right by the year 2030.”
The former president however said population could either be
an asset or a liability.
According to him, population by itself may not be a
liability if we do what we have to do, but if we don’t do what we have to do
which we are not doing now, the population will be a liability.
He said, “What we need to do is education about population
management. Some people don’t like saying family planning, but whatever you do,
you must manage your population to the benefit of all that are living within
your nation.”
Earlier, Chairman, Students for the Advancement of Global
Entrepreneurship, Nigeria, Agwu Amogu said the Sage was initiated to tackle
some myriad of challenges facing the country such as terrorism, banditry, high
poverty rate and dangerous level of youth unemployment.
He said, “One possible approach to reverse this trend would
be to increase attention and funding for hands-on entrepreneurship and
community service education.
“This will enable the young people to acquire the necessary
21st-century skills for jobs and self-employment.
“We urgently need a new paradigm for education. The new
paradigm must provide students with a chance to learn while solving community
problems and immediately applying what they have learnt in the classroom by
actually doing something great.
“We now live in a world where any country can compete
effectively with others based on the creative imagination of its human capital.
There is no better place to stoke the fire of imagination than in the young
people.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com