The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre on Tuesday disclosed that Nigeria accounts for 20 percent of all out-of-school children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Executive Director of CISLAC and Head of Transparency International, Auwal Rafsanjani, made the disclosure.
He spoke at the Nigerian Population Conversation Seminar organised by CISLAC in partnership with Population Matters in Abuja.
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Rafsanjani also said that in Nigeria, about 53.40 percent of youths are unemployed.
He said the statistics were based on the youth unemployment rates released by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2022.
He said: “This again exposes our country to most of the social crimes perpetuated by youths, including the accelerated level of prostitution, armed robbery, rape and all facets of violence, can be largely attributed to the incidence of unemployment of youths.”
The CISLAC boss, therefore, said it is time Nigerians begin to embrace the idea of smaller family to boycott ravaging poverty, youth unemployment, child mortality and other socio-economic upheavals.
Rafsanjani said: “While population affects every facet of societal development, discussion around population remains uncommon in Nigeria; and this puts Nigeria’s population, which is projected to reach 400 million by 2050, doubling the current estimate, at a demographic nightmare.
“We cannot conceal the fact that with the current inadequate awareness on consequences of population at citizenry and policy levels as well as the unattended impact on national planning, Nigeria has not efficiently harnessed its population to achieve development goals.”
He said this has had multiplier effects of youth unemployment, insecurity, inaccessible healthcare services, food insecurity, education inequality and other challenges that undermine socio-economic development of the country.
“Regrettably, Nigeria is among the top five countries in the world with the highest under-five mortality rates,” he said.
Rafsanjani said the “active participation by Nigerians across the six geo-political zones in the Population Perception Survey report that was launched today is a clear indication of citizens’ readiness for constructive conversation on population and its impacts on their well-being as well as living standards”.
Dr. Edu Effiom, Member of the Advisory Board, Population Matters, said that almost half of the African continent is affected by land degradation.
Effiom said that unless urgent and concerted action is taken, it would worsen in the face of population growth, unprecedented consumption, increasingly globalised economy and climate change.
She said there was the need to address slowing down population growth to ease off pressure on the living environment and also empower women and their families.
She said: “This is because women are the worst hit in situations like these, so we have to rethink girl child marriage and empower the girl child through good education.
“This will considerably check population growth with the corresponding benefit of a better life for the girl child among others.”
