Addressing Population Concern

The issue concerning population evokes a large range of controversies, such that it becomes difficult to discuss human population explosion without offending some sensibilities. Current total human population globally cannot easily be fixed with any accuracy; we can only guess and estimate without any exactitude. In the case of Nigeria, population is an emotive issue because it has been an instrument of political and economic power hustling.
What is of real importance in the population issue is not the number of people, but the quality of life and living conditions. Hardly would any honest person deny the fact that the quality of life and living condition of a large number of Nigerians can be described as quite pathetic. Similarly, it is to be expected that pathetic conditions find solace in amative engagements, thus rapid increase in population.
In the past, individual families and communities could take pride in large family size and number of able-bodies people available as cherished resources. But current situations globally are quite different with obvious changes in economic life-styles and modern technologies. In a monetized rather than agrarian society money talks, rather than the number of people. Those who hold money and power merely use or need the masses as ladder to greater heights.
As communities and nations grow larger and more sophisticated, the majority of people, especially the poor masses, rarely know the dynamics of power-politics. During the transition period from agrarian to increasing industrialization and urbanisation, humans develop a predatory life-style and propensity. Starting from land grabbing by money-bags and through government policies on land and resources, a large number of people are placed in a position of disadvantage.
Anybody who has cared to carry out some unbiased research, particularly in the changes taking place in rural communities, would easily agree that subsistence farming is declining. There is also an increase in migration from rural to the urban towns, usually in search of non-existing jobs. Unfortunately, the aspirations, lifestyles, concern and focus of the leaders of this nation are elitist in nature rather than egalitarian.
Nobody would tell the poor masses that they are increasingly becoming endangered species in an elitist society. Rather what politicians would tell you is: “If you cannot beat them, join them”. Thus are politics and political parties ready instruments of alienation in a society in transition. Hustling for power, money and relevance usually goes along with ruthlessness and corrupt practices which reduce the level of integrity and fuel frustration. As frustration increases, some ready “opium” beckon.
It is well known that the ready opiums of the masses include religion, weeds and lechery, which require little or no investment or energy. Those who establish “spiritual houses”, smoking joints and “slaughter houses” where alienated ones can find solace, are usually the money bags. With increases in places of solace, sexually transmitted diseases, series murders and unwanted babies abound.
Without placing blames on the elites and political class, the truth is that nothing is being done to educate and enlighten the masses on the issues and complexities associated with social transition. Since the end of the Nigerian Civil War, Nigeria has not been the same. Causes and origins of the instability, insecurity and perplexities assailing the nation are many and need to be addressed. They cannot be addressed by the purchase of weapons of mass destruction, exotic luxury cars and private jets; neither would bullet-proof gadgets help.
If Senators can propose, sponsor and finance some independent research on the state of the masses and what palliative measures that can be put in place, that would help better than buying luxury cars. Such research if carried out would reveal shocking findings, one of which is that thought of suicide is on the increase. Another finding would be that lechery resulting from hunger and frustration results in increases of unwanted babies. There is also the suspicion that money politics fuels cultism.
In Shakespeare’s Othello, we find this statement from Roderigo: “It is silliness to live when to live is torment; And then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician”. For many Nigerians, to live is torment, but while death may not be the physician, an alternative is the resort to a life of crime or lechery. The quality of life arising from hopelessness and meaninglessness among the masses, results in the incarnation of inferior souls in the society. To have a dozen children is no honour.
To say that the large increase of the population is matched by a large increase in the quality of the people, is to tell a lie. Rather, the truth is that there is usually a large influx of inferior souls in a society where living conditions become ignoble. Real development or a high standard of life has nothing to do with increased wealth, power and technology, but largely on the nobility of heart. It is an inner personal culture which shows visibly in empathy or a deep inner feeling which makes an individual to shun shameful activities and utterances.
One urgent issue which Nigeria must address now is rising population. While family planning and personal discipline would help, there is a need for an official policy on the matter. Vasectomy for men is a strong suggestion as well as Castration for rapists. On the whole, the plight of single mothers demands the attention of the nation’s leaders. To fiddle while the masses groan is said.

Bright Amirize