Nigeria’s population becoming liability, Obasanjo warns

Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo has warned against population explosion in the country.

Obasanjo explained that Nigeria’s population was becoming a liability due to its improper management, saying except something urgent was done, Nigeria might be declared the third largest country in 2050.

The former president called for a population management in the face of the geometric population explosion without a corresponding socio-economic development, a situation which he said had slowed down national development.

He spoke in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, during a mentoring session with students of some selected schools across the country tagged “raising the next wave of innovative leaders through entrepreneurship.”

He said, “We have moved from 120 million to over 200 million. We have added the population of France to our population and if we continue the way we are going, by the year 2050, we will be third largest country in the world.

“If we still continue, by the year 3000, we would be the largest country in the world. What are we going to do to handle that? How are we going to handle that population? If we do not start getting it right now, we will not get it right by the year 2030.

“The population by itself may not be a liability if we do what we have to do. But if we don’t do what we have to do, which we are not doing now, population will be a liability. What we need to do is education about population management.”

Earlier, the Chairman, Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship, Nigeria, Agwu Amogu, said the SAGE was initiated to tackle some myriad of challenges facing the country such as terrorism, banditry and dangerous level of youth unemployment.