A State Director of National Population Commission in Rivers State, Mr Jumbo Braiye Miller-Daka, has traced the population growth in Nigeria to culture and religion of the people.
The state director of the National Population Commission made the link between population growth and culture and religion when he appeared as a guest on a radio programme on Rhythm 93.7FM, Port-Harcourt, aired on Saturday.
Miller-Daka said: “The fact that growth of population in Nigeria is on the high side is not an issue to argue about. We know that so many factors key into this. First is culture. There is a cultural effect”.
He said people in some parts of the country marry many wives and have many children because they have a chieftaincy title saying that the many wives and children add up to the population size of the country.
He also said that religion in some parts of the country also allow men to practise polygamy where they marry more than one wife and have many children explaining that the practice also leads to an increase in the population growth of Nigeria.
Miller-Daka said that the rate of population growth in the country is at 3.0 per cent.
He said that the need by some men to have male children also promotes population growth in the country saying that a man’s desire to have a male child because he has only female children will increase his family’s population size and that of the country at large.
On the movement of people from rural to urban areas, Miller-Daka said that people move to the cities in search of better opportunities for living but noted that the increase in population growth in cities will have “its own concomitant” effect on available infrastructural facilities.
He said that the government has encouraged family planning to check the population growth in the country and stated the need for people to set a limit on the number of children they should have which they can take care of.
On his part, a gynaecologist and trainer in Family Planning Method, Dr. Eli Sokarime, said that family planning should be encouraged in Nigeria to control the rate of population growth in the country.
He said that family planning is the “timing and spacing of children by an individual or couple” saying that “it entails exploring the possible means to do so in order to cater for the family”.
He, however, said that there are barriers which face family planning, adding that people in rural areas need to be educated to adopt family planning methods.
Nigeria is the world’s seventh largest country in terms of population size with 200,963,599 people.
