Nigeria at a Crossroads as Population Surge, Fertility Pressures Threaten the Future
- With over 240 million people, Nigeria is the sixth most populous country in the world, yet persistent unemployment leaves millions of young people struggling to imagine a meaningful future
- Northern Nigeria, which has the country’s highest birth rate, sees women typically having six children, while authorities face challenges in persuading couples to use contraceptives
- Legit.ng examines how the country is grappling with the social and economic pressures of being sub-Saharan Africa’s most populous nation in history
Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has more than four years of experience in public-interest journalism across Nigeria and the African continent.
Ikeja, Lagos - Nigerians are largely enthusiastic about education, often travelling far and wide with the hope that completing their studies will help them secure a decent job. But with each passing year, the pool of applicants in this country, home to Africa's largest youth population, continues to grow, making competition tougher than ever.
34-year-old Abdghaffar Abiodun has spent most of his adult life in Lagos, yet he has never secured gainful employment despite being a tertiary institution graduate with big hopes, thereby missing out on significant and cumulative advantages that could have shaped both his personal and professional life.
Source: Original
“The only opportunity I got was working as an unsalaried marketer with a real estate company, Shapearl Homes and Properties. Getting a great job seems like a distant dream. I have since dumped my certificate and returned to Madrasah (a higher Arabic and Islamic study centre). That was never my plan when I finished my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 2018," Abiodun rues.
Source: Original
The country continues to grapple with high unemployment and widespread underemployment.
Available data show that youth employment is rampant in Nigeria, and this has contributed immensely to their involvement in criminal activities.
With youths making up over 60% of Nigeria’s population, many take any job they can find, though what they covet most are lifelong contracts with the government or high-paying jobs that could help lift their families out of poverty. Driven by these aspirations, numerous young Nigerians unknowingly fall prey to multi-level marketers, and despite the tall promises coaches in multi-level marketing make, achieving financial breakthroughs is easier said than done.
Nafisat Wunmi tried for four years. It was not until 2022 that it dawned on her that she was wasting her time - she had been living in the bondage of deceitful recruitment. These schemes come in different forms: recruitment centres, online marketing, job vacancy notifications posted on public walls, talent hunts, and similar setups. The 'jobs' they offer vary and are often dependent on how the recruiters choose to label them. Many unemployed youths become victims of fake job advertisements and are even brainwashed into drug marketing. In the end, the promises of quick riches leave them disappointed and disillusioned.
After her bad experience with network marketing, Wunmi is now working as an education counsellor, providing study abroad guidance.
“They literally don’t care about how your life is ruined through their recruiting method. They just want to sell their products, and the unfortunate marketers bring in more marketers deceptively just to recover their money back,” Wunmi lamented in an interview with Legit.ng.
In 2014, more than 6 million Nigerians applied for just 4,000 immigration jobs. During the government recruitment drive, at least seven people were killed and dozens more injured in the nation’s capital, Abuja, after thousands of panicked jobseekers stampeded at the National Stadium. In Abeokuta, Ogun State, five women slumped.
People were trampled as the crowd surged toward the central stage at the Mudashiru Lawal Stadium.
“A particular lady...I cannot even imagine the number of people who stamped on her,” said eyewitness Ibrahim Adeyemi. “I remember she was picked up me and two other people.”
Afterwards, the young man ran a small business in Ogun and worked without pay at the Lagos Airport before exiting Nigeria in 2022, joining the ‘Japa’ trend. ‘Japa’ is a Yoruba word that has gained widespread usage, describing the act of Nigerians, frustrated with the system, ‘fleeing’ abroad in search of better opportunities.
Today, finding a high-paying job in the ‘Giant of Africa’ is still tough and is likely to become even harder as the population continues to grow.
Source: Original
Nigeria struggles with population boom
Over the next 25 years, Nigerian cities will absorb an additional 140.3 million people, more than twice the country’s current urban population. Driven by states like Lagos and Kano, the country’s population is forecast to continue growing, projected to be the third most populous nation on earth with a population of 440 million people by 2050.
With northern Nigeria’s fertility rate high, state actors are using several family planning measures, including injectable contraceptives and long-acting reversible implants, even though these can place a burden on some women.
Source: Original
For authorities, reducing this high growth rate is a priority as they seek to rein in the country’s rapidly expanding population. Healthcare professionals like Dr Sada Dan Musa are leading the government's ambitious family planning programme.
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In late 2024, the Kano government launched its Family Planning (FP) Strategic Plan, marking a critical moment in the state’s effort to address women’s family planning needs. There are at least 5.6 million women across Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest state by population.
Sada Dan’Musa, the national consultant who led the plan’s development, remarked, according to Nigeria Health Watch:
“The plan was built on a foundation of comprehensive background analysis and active stakeholder involvement. It offers targeted initiatives to address critical gaps and ensures that family planning services reach women who need them the most.”
The strategy, it is understood, incorporates an action framework to optimise resource allocation, use real-time data for programme adjustments, and deploy high-impact practices to sustain the family planning system. The plan is designed to improve maternal health outcomes and empower women with access to reproductive health resources.
Jimi Dupe, a 32-year-old mother of two residing in Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria, was questioned by a close friend during a chit-chat when she mentioned her decision to adopt family planning.
"Ọ̀rẹ́ (my friend), what led you to that? Why would you decide to do that?"
Dupe had visited a medical facility and, after discussions with her husband and the nurses, opted for a contraceptive implant in 2023, a birth control method effective for three years. Small, flexible rods were placed under the skin of her upper arm, releasing progestin to prevent pregnancy. The implants can be removed at any time to restore fertility.
While Dupe keyed into family planning, misconceptions, cultural beliefs, and spousal disapproval still prevent many women in Nigeria from adopting contraceptive methods.
From gainful career opportunities to the populace embracing effective birth control, the race is on in Nigeria to avert a demographic disaster. How the country performs will shape the lives of future generations.
Source: Legit.ng
