LETTER TO THE EDITOR: World Population Growth Projection
DEAR Sir,
The latest population growth projection figures worldwide confirm the conventional wisdom about the exponential growth in Nigeria’s population.
As the Reverend Thomas Malthus is often quoted as warning centuries ago, geometric growth in population and incremental increases in food production is a sure route to unmitigated disaster.
Something must be done to avert a looming disaster. Population control will be hard to enforce in a democracy and within a framework of religious groups and a revenue sharing mechanism which confers advantages to those with bigger populations.
Free and compulsory education initially up to the age of 16is the way out. All the demographic studies over time confirm that the more years spent in education, the later the marriages the fewer the children. Confirmation for this comes from figures from the United Kingdom and other countries after the implementation of free and compulsory education. It is in our interest to emulate them and avert a catastrophe.
Ayo Davies, Iwo
