Nigeria is planning a major policy on population growth management to address the challenges of increasing population in line with its economic recovery measures.
Finance minister Zainab Ahmed said in Abuja the government is proposing to put a limit on the number of children a woman could have to curb rapid population growth in the country.
However, the measure, which was meant to placate the large Muslim community in the country and seek their buy-in could trigger protest from the women activist group.
Ahmed who spoke at the ongoing economic summit said the government plans to engaged traditional rulers and other leaders across the country to seek their cooperation in mobilising the populace to support the policy.
She said the burgeoning population growth pose “great challenges” to the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of the government.
Ahmed said, “We have been engaging traditional rulers and other leaders. Specifically, we have found out that to be able to address one of the great challenges that we identified in the ERGP, which is the growth in our population, we need to engage these institutions.
“And we hope that with their support, we will get to a point where we can come out with the policy that limits the number of children that a mother can have because that is important for sustaining our growth.”
When asked about the sustainability of the ERGP by successive governments, Ahmed argued that the plan would be sustained as it was purely a document that focused on the development of the Nigerian economy.
Ahmed said, “We have been engaging traditional rulers and other leaders. Specifically, we have found out that to be able to address one of the great challenges that we identified in the ERGP, which is the growth in our population, we need to engage these institutions.
“And we hope that with their support, we will get to a point where we can come out with the policy that limits the number of children that a mother can have because that is important for sustaining our growth.”
When asked about the sustainability of the ERGP by successive governments, Ahmed argued that the plan would be sustained as it was purely a document that focused on the development of the Nigerian economy.
Nigeria has a large Muslim population who believed in polygamy practice. however, the measure could bring the government in collusion with women activists who may want to protest against the seeminly discrimnative nature of the policy.
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