KANO AND THE POPULATION QUESTION

There is an urgent need to embark on enlightenment campaigns on family planning

Last week at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, United Kingdom, Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje again raised familiar concerns about the country’s unproductive population. “The population of students in Kano State now is over three million; the population of those outside the school system is also over three million. So if we are talking about Africa, we can confidently say the level of literacy is inversely proportional to population. Are we safe?” asked Ganduje rhetorically.

Definitely we are not, especially putting into consideration the rate at which we breed children many of whom we cannot provide for. Nigeria has the notorious distinction of harbouring the highest number of out- of- school children in the world, put at over 10.5 million – more than the combined population of Libya and Liberia. What is even more frightening is the speed of growth of the entire population.

There are ominous threats wherever you look. Presently put at 198 million, the United Nations estimates that the country will have the greatest concentration of people by 2050, except in India and China. Even in the present state, the country is increasingly finding it difficult to cater for the population. Social amenities, public services and infrastructure are overstretched, and as lately reported by the Brookings Institution in Washington, Nigeria has overtaken India as the headquarters of poverty, with six people slipping into the poverty net every minute of the day.

What is more worrisome is that things may get worse because government is not doing enough to contain the looming catastrophe, and states like Kano are special culprits. Indeed, out of the 10.5 million out of school children in the country, about 70 per cent of them are in the northern states. For years, the various state governments are acutely aware of the problem, but many have chosen to do little or nothing to take the children out of the streets. After realising that there were more than three million Almajiris roaming his state, without homes and without any discernible means of survival except begging, what has Ganduje done to take some of the unfortunate children out of the streets?

The street life exposes the almajiris to abuse since they are easily lured into all manner of crimes and have indeed constituted themselves as breeding grounds for violent conflicts. The questions therefore are: What is the government doing to secure the future of many of these street urchins through basic and functional education? What have the governors done to ensure that street children are not susceptible to anti-social vices? And more important, what have they done to educate the people on the dangers inherit in some of their cultural practices that result in the bulk of the children on the street?

Ample evidence exists that the social miscreants and religious bigots, including the Boko Haram insurgents whose operation headquarters is located in the North-east of the country today, are largely recruited from the army of uneducated people who grew up without any hope for their future.

A concerned Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi 11, last year hinted of a family law which would list conditions men are expected to fulfil before they could qualify for polygamy. It was a bold advocacy aimed at attacking the root of the problem. “Those of us in the North have all seen the economic consequences of men who are not capable of maintaining one wife, marrying four. They end up producing 20 children, not educating them, leaving them on the streets, and they end up as thugs and terrorists,” said Sanusi.

If Ganduje is to be taken seriously, this is the time to join hands with the emir and other stakeholders in finding practical solutions to this malaise.

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What is the government doing to secure the future of many of these street urchins through basic and functional education?