According to the United Nation’s report in June 2018, Nigeria will become the third most populous nation in the world by the end of 2050. As at now, Nigeria still remains one of the most populous countries in the world taking the seventh position among the 10 most populous countries in the world.
This is not an achievement nor a reward of excellence but a call to make appropriate plans for what is coming our way in the nearest future.
For a country to be able make proper use of its fast growing population, then all hands must be on deck. All aspects of human life attached to that country such as finance, education, health, government among many others should be growing progressively day by day. However, in the case of our dear country, it seems everything is going in the opposite direction.
Poverty has become an ever increasing aspect of the country which automatically weakens the growth of the country as it won’t in anyway aid development. This reveals that the country is sitting on a time bomb. A country in which its population is skyrocketing daily without having positive effect on other sectors, is a country that is merely growing and not developing. Additionally, in a situation where there is population growth and no development, the parties affected will end up in frustration.
Is census then the solution? This will merely be ineffective if proper measures are not taken into consideration while conducting the so called census. For example, the 2006 census was largely ineffective as it failed to provide accurate statistics and was thus unable to aid accurate population planning.
No one can actually indicate the exact population of the nation talk less of having the data of every citizen, not even the president. We lack record, we don’t keep record and we are not ready to record. Like the saying goes, “if you fail to plan you plan to fail.” All activities in this country has been on guess work because we lack statistical proofs to work with, we only work on predictions which is not good enough to make our country great.
