News
FG working to place Limit on Number of Children Women can Have
Zainab Ahmed
The Federal Government has revealed that it is working with religious and traditional leaders to place a limit on children women can have.
The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, revealed this while speaking at the 24th Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja.
TheCable reports that Ahmed said the country’s population and its estimated growth are one of the challenges identified in achieving the Economic Growth and Recovery Plan (ERGP).
A policy limiting of the number of children women can have will be important for sustaining the growth of the economy, Ahmed shared.
While she mentioned that the policy will limit the number of children women can have, nothing was mentioned about men. She said:
We have been engaging traditional, religious 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.
The ERGP is not a new plan, it’s a plan that reviewed what needs assessment, what was in the vision 2020, what is in existing sector plans so because we have taken those plans and used them, the next administration will continue them, which government will not want to continue to improve the infrastructure? What we have in the ERGP are things that any government must do.
Ross
October 24, 2018 at 1:31 pm
FINALLY, someone is addressing this growing concern.
Tobi
October 24, 2018 at 11:13 pm
If the law does not apply to men, nothing will change.
ND Babe
October 25, 2018 at 2:39 am
Well, she has a lot work to do starting with the married 12 year olds in the north. When you marry that early, it means you add about 10 more years of parity to what would be the average for a woman that marries in her mid-twenties. We dey here dey look. By the way, it is not tying womb that will solve Nigeria’s problem. It is not investing what you have in your citizens that is problematic.
by_stander
October 24, 2018 at 2:25 pm
Hahahaha….Oh my days!
I’ll leave y’all to figure this one out.
LMAO!
Fred
October 24, 2018 at 2:48 pm
How can this work now, when I can marry more than six wives at once!? Let be realistic
Fred
October 24, 2018 at 2:53 pm
How can this work now, when a man can marry more than six women at once? Let be realistic, start with the fundamentals
Dee
October 24, 2018 at 2:56 pm
Abeg ooo, make una do am quick. These days husband and wife dem just dey make plenty babies as if na dem God give the command to fill the earth. One or two children dey ok. Even with the increase in violence, pollution, low moral standard etc wey full evertwhere people still want bring in plenty people con full the earth.
Manny
October 24, 2018 at 3:36 pm
No decrease in fertility rates can be achieved without a prior decrease in child marriage rates. The younger a woman is married, the more years she has – to be reproductively active. Countries with high fertility rates also have high rates of child marriage.
Ayo
October 24, 2018 at 4:04 pm
Islam will never permit it 🙂
Ovadje
October 24, 2018 at 6:54 pm
@Ayo, we are too politically-correct to face that reality.
abby
October 24, 2018 at 4:13 pm
OKAY!!!! wait a minute…just women? This woulda made sense if men were involved too.. cos a man can marry more than woman and continue to multiply for goodness sakes..take the freaking alaafin of oyo for example
Nne
October 24, 2018 at 4:23 pm
How would this work, when there is no efficient data capture of Nigerian citizens?
We haven’t finished dealing with our porous borders that adds to the increasing population
TheRealist
October 24, 2018 at 5:56 pm
IBB had a population policy (target of an average of 4 kids per family) in the 1980s before many of us were – and everybody simply ignored it.
Population ‘control’ is not rocket science, and there are things that Nigeria can immediately to start addressing it. As someone already mentioned, decrease (I would say OUTLAW) child marriages, and corollary to that increase education rates (particularly, but not limited to, female education rates) not only because folks in school are usually not having children but also because educated people often postpone childbearing for career and financial reasons, understand issues like proper child-spacing, and the need to keep their family numbers manageable for financial, emotional and other reasons. I was in a recent meeting of professionals, and virtually everyone there testified that their drivers or maiguards had more children than they did.
The reality however is that without an overwhelming mass of illiterate and semi-literate mostly poor Nigerians, the present administration would have never won the elections and gotten to power – and they know it! So, instead of pursuing meaningful population control policies, they are likely to persist with the N5K bribe under their so-called Social Investment Program.
Diamond
October 24, 2018 at 6:11 pm
Rubbish! She should first tell the Muslim men to marry only one wife. Not marry four wives, divorce and marry another four plus the concubines
Funke
October 24, 2018 at 9:48 pm
Darling, non Muslims too marry more than one wife!
Funke
October 24, 2018 at 9:51 pm
Darling, non Muslims too marry more than one wife
Socially acceptable
October 25, 2018 at 1:20 am
And the Christians that have baby mama’s around should not be told too?
How myopic of you. This is a general problem and you chose to tag it to a religion and not an ethnic/cultural group.
Poesy
October 24, 2018 at 6:24 pm
WTH? This is a bad idea.
o
October 24, 2018 at 7:22 pm
This is coming years late but better late than never. They should just figure out how to implement this and it shouldn’t be per woman. It should be per adult. Before men will say they are not affected and go ahead to have like 7 women bear children for them.
Mee
October 24, 2018 at 7:47 pm
Why just women? Why not for each family? I understand we are trying to protect religious and cultural differences but this is just shooting the air. If a man can just marry as many wives as he wishes while limiting the number of children per woman, then it makes no sense.
Besides, why even tell me how many children to have when you virtually contribute nothing to their well-being and upbringing as a country?
Funke
October 24, 2018 at 10:44 pm
Darling, non Muslims too marry more than one wife
Stupid country backward leadership
October 25, 2018 at 12:31 am
Rundown country, uniformed leadership. Yet another misguided proposition.
First, both men and women have children, not women alone – goes to show how much burden is laid on the woman especially after childbirth.
Second, I don’t hear anyone talking about income especially since the people that have the highest number of children per household are the ones that usually don’t have the means and cannot take care of them. Concentrate on that population and leave the rest who can afford to have as many children as they can to. In reality, the people who are gainfully employed and responsible don’t just go around giving birth to children like they were laying eggs.
Find a solution to the problem of unemployment and some other economic deformities and this problem of overpopulation may just solve itself.
Third, why are they engaging traditional and religious rulers? LMAO Awon elere – when they should be appealing to reason and engaging their brains.
Forth, to say this will improve economic growth in corrupt Nigeria is simply reaching. China has the second largest GDP in the world, overpopulation is not an excuse for our rundown economy and reducing the number of children that are born will not necessarily and immediately result to economic growth for Nigeria; other things are never equal when it comes to Nigeria.
In summary: focus on implementing better and more consequential financial policies, consult knowledgeable people/institutions…I’m tired sef, I’m going to bed.
Nnenne
October 25, 2018 at 1:02 am
It must always be women. If a man can have limitless number of children with different women, how does this policy focused on women,help us?