The Chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Eze Duruiheoma
(SAN), has advised families to adopt birth control measures to avert
population disaster and harness demographic dividend in Nigeria.
Mr. Duruiheoma gave the advice on Tuesday in Abuja while briefing
newsmen as part of the activities to commemorate the 2017 Annual
Population Lecture Series (APLS) scheduled to hold on October 30.
He noted that Nigeria’s population was its greatest asset, but the
population size can become a curse if investments were not adequately
made in some key sectors.
According to him, more investments should be made on education that
would enable the youth to become equipped with the skills they need to
succeed in life.
He added that public and private sectors should also provide job
opportunities for the youth after schooling; these efforts among others
would lead Nigeria to the realisation of demographic dividend.
“It is not a matter of how many youths we have in Nigeria, but the
youths we are talking about falls within the productive age of 14 to 40
years.
“This category of the population makes about 65 per cent of the population.
“We want families to decide the number of children they want to
properly carter for, if we are able to start at this level we will
effectively control our birth in Nigeria,’’ the chairman said.
The 2017 APLS has a theme “Achieving Demographic Dividend: Strategic
tool for national economic recovery and sustainable development.’’
Mr. Duruiheoma said the theme was in tandem with the efforts of the
government to revamp the nation’s economy through the Economic Recovery
and Growth Plan (ERGP).
He added that the APLS aimed to deepen government and other
stakeholders’ awareness and understanding of the benefits of appropriate
systems and sectors to reap demographic dividends.
He said the meeting would arouse public interest on the need to key
into the tenets of Nigeria’s Roadmap on Demographic Dividend, among
others.
Earlier, Muhammad Tola, the Chairman, APLS Media Sub-committee, said
the lecture series was essentially designed to sensitise stakeholders to
mobilise ministries, departments and agencies to harness the dividend
of population.
Mr. Tola, who represented the Chairman of the main Planning Committee
Kole Shettima, added that the goal of the lecture series was to ensure
that human resources are explored, developed and harnessed towards
national development and improve the life of Nigerians.
(NAN)