Prof. John Laah, a Professor of Geography at the Kaduna State University, on Thursday, blamed Nigeria’s high population growth rate on early sexual debut.
Laah made the observation in Kaduna during his inaugural lecture entitled, “Population, Environment and Climate Change: Interrogating Realities and Illusions,” to x-ray what he has been doing in the last 20 years.
He said that Nigeria’s population as at December, 2017 was estimated at a little over 190 million, representing 2.5 per cent of the global population.
According to him, the country is witnessing a gradual erosion of kingship system in the marriage process and a rise in sexual intercourse and child bearing outside marriage.
The expert identified poverty as the driving force of pre-marital sex.
He stated that a recent study showed that about 40 per cent girls had their first sex because of the promise of gift and money.
“Based on the study, only 0.7 per cent girls had their first sex on account of marriage.
“It is important at this point to note that marriage of adolescent girls is an obstacle toward achieving sustainable development goals,’’ he said.
Laah said that with the estimated growth rate of 2.5 per cent, Nigeria population would increase to 411 million by 2050 and would be the third most populous country in the world.
He said that if this high population growth rates was not properly managed, all efforts to improve the life of the Nigerian people would be fruitless.
“This will amount to increase in destitute and homeless people, and high crime rate and other social vices will become endemic.
‘‘Already, about 60 per cent of Nigerians live below the national poverty line.
“Avoiding this will require government to double the entire infrastructure for food production, health services, education, and water supply among others.
“The government will also be required to build more classrooms, more houses, train more teachers, doctors and other health workers and create more jobs among other measures,’’ he said.
Laah, therefore, advised the Federal Government to pay more attention to population management and control.
The don noted that the standard for measuring good governance was the ability of a country to meet the basic needs of its people.
Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Muhammad Tanko, assured that the institution would continue to promote academic excellence toward addressing societal problems.
