The need for government at all tiers to rise up and address the issue of high birth rate in Nigeria with all the seriousness it requires has become impearative.

In a reaction in a recent global ranking of Nigeria as the sixth most populous nation in the world with a population  of 167 million, an environmentalist, Professor Temi Ologunorisa,  has said that population rise would negatively affect infrastructural facilities, lead to deforestation, food insecurity, diseases, slums, unemployment and environmental degradation.

The environment professor who views the population surge as a threat, fears that failure by the government to evolve measures geared towards controlling population would have adverse effects on the country’s socio-economic development.

He therefore, calls on the governments to come up with a  result-oriented population and birth control policy that would  prevent population explosion in the country.

He however, added that the country’s present population would have been an asset for production of goods and services for local consumption and export, if properly harnessed.

Meanwhile, the director of the centre for climate change and environmental studies at Osun State University, Osogbo, has called for the encouragement of family planning practices with efforts geared at increasing food production as well as generation of employment.

Also speaking, Monsignor Gabriel Osu, spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese has called for a more effective population control measure to prevent socio-economic vices associated with population.

Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi