Here are the dangers of Nigeria’s population explosion – Olurode

A former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) commissioner and University of Lagos Professor of Sociology, Lai Olurode has raised an alarm over population projection of Nigeria which has ranked it the third most populous country of the world after China and India by 2050 as released by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs sometimes in June this year.

Reacting to the report in a chat with encomium.ng today (Tuesday, September 12, 2017), the university don expressed fear about the report and highlighted the impending dangers associated with geometrical progression in population amid limited resources. He, therefore, called on the government to do everything within its power to checkmate the rate of population increase in the country before it gets out of control.

“A situation of exponential increase in population should be a cause of concern for those who are kind hearted and human welfare centred. Rev. Robert Malthus had long ago raised the same concern. If human misery, sufferings and catastrophes are to be averted, human beings, and especially those in authority, must act rationally and deploy reason to checkmate rate of population increase. Thus the rate of population increase must keep pace with available resources. Human resources must be in tandem with available resources if competition, struggle and conflict over material resources are to be averted.”

The population of the world is projected to be 9.7 billion by 2050, with Nigeria set to record 398 million!