WHEN Alheri Yusuf first heard about family planning from a relative she wasn’t convinced. “I thought she didn’t want me to give my husband more children,” says the 33-year-old mother of four, as she waits to have her contraceptive implant replaced by a hormonal injection at Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital in Kaduna. “But when I thought about it I realised it was for my own good, because she wanted me to be able to recover well after childbirth.”
It is impossible to be sure how many Nigerians there are. The World Bank’s estimate of 182m in 2015 is based on the 2006 census, which was probably inflated (politicians have exaggerated population counts since colonial times, to grab more parliamentary seats and government money for their regions). Most observers agree, though, that Nigeria’s population is growing at around 3% a year. Its economy will struggle to grow that fast, and indeed shrank during 2016 owing to a low oil price. A quarter of young people, who make up many of the recruits of jihadists in the north-east and militias in the oil-rich Delta, are unemployed (many more are underemployed). Many Nigerians still see their booming population as a source of...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2pi3fag
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