Excessive Population Growth- a Bane of Nigeria's Economic Development

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Corrected Copy:
 
 Excessive Population Growth- a Bane of Nigeria's Economic Development

--a targeted narrowly focussed response to 

Paul Oranika's Poser on 

 How does Nigeria Move Forward in 2009-- For your New Year Reflection


Excessive Population Growth- a Bane of Nigeria's Economic Development

Ola Kassim MD, FRCPC, FCAP, MPA
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
January 1, 2009

 Wilson (1992) stated:

'The raging monster upon the land is population growth, in its presence, sustainability (i.e. sustainable development)  is but a fragile theoretical construct' --End of Quote

NB: Inserts in red mine for emphasis and clarity.

Dear Paul:

Happy New Year.

Thanks for your thought provoking poser on how to move
Nigeria forward in 2009 and beyond.

I agree with your analysis of the deplorable state of the Nigerian union and your poser about how to move forward in 2009 and beyond. That said, I wish to suggest that when discussing issues surrounding national productivity that we should always focus more on GDP per capita rather than the overall GNP or GDP per se.

Even though Nigeria ranks 41st on the GDP scale, our nation ranks closer to the bottom of the pile in per capita GDP amongst the world's nations. This disparity is due to the huge population crowded within the geographical boundaries of Nigeria. Most of20the other oil producing nations (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Kuwait) have much smaller populations relative to Nigeria making their per capita GDP much higher than ours.

The factors responsible for the successful management (or otherwise) of the economies of the world's nations are not far removed from those of personal and family finances.

Just as in personal finance, it is not so much how you make per annum but how well you spend the money and how many members in the family that must be catered for, that accounts for the socioeconomic welfare of the individual and the family.

In order to solve Nigeria's problems we must address all the issues without neglecting any sacred cows that might offend what we consider as our basic Nigerian values. 

Excessive Population Growth- a Bane of Nigeria's Economic Growth:

This brief analysis assumes that most, if not all Nigerians, agree that the lack of visionary leadership and rampant corruption in both private and public realms are major contributing factors to the deplorable socioeconom ic status of the vast majority of Nigerians. Therefore, it goes without saying that we must address the issues of lack of leadership and corruption before any meaningful progress can be made in Nigeria. This analysis goes further beyond these assumptions. It posits that while addressing the issues of leadership and corruption that we must also address some societal values and beliefs which also retard economic development in Nigeria.

I will begin by asking my fellow compatriots to assume the following scenarios:

1) an acceptance of the fact that notwithstanding her huge petroleum resources that Nigeria is a poor nation by western standards.

2) that our poverty is partly due to the unsustainable population growth over the decades which has totally outstripped the rate of growth of the economy even after discounting for the massive official kleptocracy and economic mismanagement of the past four decades. In short Nigeria has too many mouths to feed given its currently available natural and human resources and her ability to manage these resources.

3) that more attention must be paid in Nigeria to population issues.

4) that our economy and=2 0national resources could be better managed

5)) that we must significantly reduce corrupt practices within the public and private realms of the economy.

6) that Nigeria continues on the path towards diversification of the economy.

7) that we come to grips with the fact that even if we make significant progress in items # 4 to # 6 above, our efforts will be largely diluted if we do not address the issue of population explosion in Nigeria which is major contributor to poverty in Nigeria in # 2 and # 3 above...


Population and National Economy:

The economic resurgence of China and India was facilitated by many  factors including but not limited to the following:

a) sincere, patriotic and visionary leadership with thorough knowledge of the economic needs problems of the citizenry

b) a tremendous growth in the middle class population

c) significant investments in 'knowledge based economic activities' by both the public and private sectors

d) increased investments in all levels of education from kindergarten to tertiary institutions

e) rational policies on sustainable population growth.

The leaders of the Peoples Republic of China realized several decades again that drastic steps must be taken to ensure a sustainable population growth in their country. The introduction of one child per family law has helped tremendously in achieving the population targets envisioned by China's leaders.
Currently, the government of China works hard to keep economic growth per annum at a minimum of 8%, below which it is aware the nation risks civil unrest as unemployed jobless youths migrate to the cities.
 
India, under Indira Gandhi also instituted some measures including voluntary male sterilization to help in stemming the growth of the population of India.
Both India and China seem, along with the adoption of other positive measures to be ripping the benefits of earlier sustainable popu lation growth programs.
 
Unlike China and India, Nigeria seems to have almost abandoned all government programs aimed at educating our citizens on the need for a rational and sustainable growth in the nation's population. As the  FGN devote little amount of its resources to population programs, programs like "Planned Parenthood" initiatives now largely funded by NGOs are now but a shadow of what they were in the 1970s. Sadly, too many Nigerians still believe that we should not worry about the number of children
we produce as only the Almighty God looks after the welfare of our children. This is true to a point as long as we also remember that God helps those who help themselves.

The following are what we have reaped from our failure to address the issue of population explosion in Nigeria:

a) The population of Nigeria was a mere 56 million at independence in 1960. Currently, the population of Nigeria depending on whose fig ures are used is currently estimated at between 130 and 150 million, with most using a figure of 140 million. If we apply a figure of 140 million this means that the population of Nigeria has grown by 250% since Independence. If we use constant dollars, (corrected for inflation), it is hard to imagine that the available economic resources in Nigerian have grown to match this rate.

b) While many Nigerians would readily admit that our towns and cities are over congested due to increasing migration from the rural areas by fellow citizens in search of better economic life, they neglect to mention the ongoing excessive population growth that is occurring both within and outside the urban populations and elsewhere in Nigeria. This results in:

       ***lack of basic amenities like housing, food, water, sewage
       ***inability of the government to provide sufficient electricity, schools, hospitals and nurseries
       ***inability to provide adequate and affordable means of transportation such as safe roads and affordable mass transportation for the masses.
       ***as the Nigerian population continues to grow out of control it becomes increasingly difficult for the authorities to address the massive socio-economic problems of the people, You cannot=2 0address a problem that you cannot recognize and or measure.

Some popular myths about Sustainable Population Growth:

1) that the goal of sustainable population is to suppress the growth of the world's developing nations to the benefit of the developed nations.

2) that the goal of sustainable population campaign is a design of the elites to reduce the population of the less fortunate

3) that most of the world's nations are under-populated considering that there are still vast regions in most of the worlds nations (including Nigeria) that are either sparsely populated or are totally uninhabited.

4) that instituting a sustainable population program in Nigeria or in any other country might end up in its extreme end --in the killing of the poor who would be deemed disposable by the more fortunate segments of the society.

The  Basic Truth on Sustainable Population Growth:

1) Definition: Sustainable development (e.g. population growth)  is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own needs.
  --Bruntland 1987

This definition encompasses the following two elements:
a) The concepts of needs, in particular the essential needs of the worlds poor, to which overriding priority should be given, and:
b)The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environments ability to meet present and future needs.

Thus the goal of sustainable population growth is to ensure that the population grows only at a rate that is in sync with the ability of the government and the private sector to generate enough economic
activities and resources (such as jobs, education, housing, healthcare, food water, sewage etc.) to ensure the maintenance of optimal conditions for current and future members of the population.

In summary, Nigeria needs credible patriotic, selfless, visionary, strong and brave leadership which is able to grasp the immensity and the varied human problems confronting the overwhelming majority of Nigerians.
The leadership must lead by examples rather than by mere words. Such respected leadership deriving from the mandate of the people will be bold an d strong enough to speak the truth all Nigerians regardless of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender, religion and traditional beliefs about the dangers we face through ongoing excessive population growth in the country.

A long time ago, Nigeria's economy was basically agrarian requiring that many children be produced so they could help on the family farms to produce foods and other goods that the family might need.
Polygamy helped fulfill the goal of producing many children as the family patriarch could continue to marry younger wives even as the older ones pass their child bearing ages. Infant and maternal mortality was also very high in those days making it impossible for the parents to know how many kids they reared will survive into adulthood.

The world economy of the 21st century does not require as many human hands to make it work even in less developed countries such as Nigeria. Nigerians must change their breeding habits to keep in line with what is sustainable for a future in which successive generations can achieve higher living standards than their predecessors. Instead of moving forward, Nigeria seems to have her gear permanently on the reverse. Younger generations can no longer assume that they would have better living standards than those of their parents.

We are alr eady failing the millions of children that we bring into the world every year. Even when Nigerian kids do all the good things we ask of them--including proper behavior, facing their studies,
excelling in school, college and university--we end up disappointing them as we are unable to provide
 employment for the vast majority of students who graduate from Nigerian universities each year.

Worse still, Nigeria has a space in the tertiary education system for only 10% of the students who take the JAMB exams each year. We must ask ourselves what happened to the rest them --i.e. of the 90% that could not gain admissions to these tertiary institutions.
How are they going to make a living?
 
We must also ask ourselves what would happen to the 90% of Nigerian university graduates who fail to secure employment after their NYSC years.

The devil has work for the idle hand! Many of Nigeria's current problems, including the pervasive crime can be traced to the restlessness of our unemployed youths.

Why bring more children into the world if we cannot adequately provide for them and secure their future?

Bye,

Ola

________________________________________________________________________________________

 
Definitions of sustainability
The definitions given below encompass all aspects of this subject. The areas of sustainable agriculture and sustainable development are dealt with in more detail later in the subject:
1.   Brundtland (1987): This is the most commonly quoted definition and it aims to be more comprehensive than most:
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own needs.
It contains within it two key concepts:
The concepts of needs, in particular the essential needs of the worlds poor, to which overriding priority should be given, and:
The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environments ability to meet present and future needs.
2.   Harwood (1990):
Sustainable agriculture is a system that can evolve indefinitely toward greater human utility, greater efficiency of resource use and a balance with the environment which is which is favourable to humans and most other species.
3.   Pearce, Makandia & Barbier (1989)
Sustainable development involves devising a social and econ omic system, which ensures that these goals are sustained, i.e. that real incomes rise, that educational standards increase, that the health of the nation improves, that the general quality of life is advanced.
4.   Conway & Barbier (1990) from 1,2 & 3:
We thus define agricultural sustainability as  the ability to maintain productivity, whether as a field  or farm or nation. Where productivity is the output of valued product per unit of resource input.
5.   Daly (1991) then argued that:
Lack of a precise definition of the term 'sustainable development' is not all bad. It has allowed a considerable consensus to evolve in support of the idea that it is both morally and economically wrong to treat the world as a business in liquidation. 
Pause for thought....... The world, a business in liquidation, would you consider this a sensible way for international powers to approach the concept of sustainability (at any level), what are the reasons for your answer?
6.   Heinen (1994)
No single approach to 'sustainable development' or framework is consistently useful, given the variety of scales inherent in different conservation programmes and different types of societies and institutional structures
7.   IUCN, UNEP, WWF (1991):
Sustainable development, sustainable growth, and sustainable use have been used interchangeably, as if their meanings were the same. They are not. Sustainable growth is a contradiction in terms: nothing physical can grow indefinitely. Sustainable use, is only applicable to renewable resources. Sustainable development is used in this strategy to mean: improving the quality of human life whilst living within the carrying capacity of the ecosystems.
8.   Holdgate (1993):
Development is about realising resource potential, Sustainable development of renewable natural resources implies respecting limits to the development process, even though these limits are adjustable by technology. The sustainability of technology may be judged by whether it increases production, but retains it other environmental and other limits.
9.   Pearce (1993):
Sustainable development is concerned with the development of a society where the costs of development are not transferred to future generations, or at least an attempt is made to compensate for such cos ts.
Pause for thought.......List 3 historical events or actions where the costs have been transferred to future generations
10.   HMSO (1994):
Most societies want to achieve economic development to secure higher standards of living, now and for future generations. They also seek to protect and enhance their environment, now and for their children. Sustainable development tries to reconcile these two objectives.
Analysis of sustainability
Riley (1992) pointed out that the level of analysis of sustainability is important and quoted the following table:
Analysis of sustainability
Level of analysis
Typical characteristics of sustainability (cumulative)
Typical determinants of sustainability
Field/production unit
Productive crops & animals; Conservation of soil & water; low levels of crop pests & animal diseases
Soil & water management; biological control of pests; use of organic manure; fertilizers; crop varieties & animal breeds
Farm 
Awareness by farmers; economic & social needs satisfied; viable production systems
Access to knowledge, external inputs and markets
Country
Public awareness; sound development of agro-ecological potential; conservation of resources
Policies for agricultural development; population pressure; agricultural education, research & extension
Region/continent/world
Quality of the natural environment; human welfare & equity mechanisms; international agricultural research & development
Control of pollution; terms of trade; distribution
 
Pause for thought......Before moving on to the next section, see if you can categorize different levels20or types of sustainability
Types of Sustainability
There are two commonsense propositions that would probably command general support, before categorizing the different types of sustainability:
  1. A sustainable system or process must be based on resources that will not be exhausted over a reasonable period (sometimes expressed as the 'long term')
  2. A sustainable system or process must not generate unacceptable pollution externally or internally
Biological sustainability
No individual life form can be sustainable indefinitely, since all must die at some point in time. Therefore:
Preservation of individual life is only possible for limited periods (limited sustainability)
Individual species, ecosystems and habitats can be sustained as they involve reproductive and other essential processes - without which they would cease to exist
However, many of these entities change and evolve as a result of such processes therefore:
Sustainable processes does not necessarily lead to sustainable entities (i.e. precisely as they were originally)
Most biological systems have physical components, therefore there is considerable overlap between the use of biological and physical resources 

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Oranika <oranika@yahoo.com>
To: naijabusiness@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 12:01 pm
Subject: [OurWorldView] How does Nigeria Move Forward in 2009-- For your New Year Reflection
Brothers and Sisters:
Happy New Year to Everyone, the best New Year resolution for all Nigerians must also include how to move this nation forward. Here are some facts to consider. According to the Inte rnational Monetary Fund, Nigeria was ranked 41st in GDP among 190 countries in the world, with GDP of $166,985 (in Millions).
That figure was higher than that of:
Romania (165,983)
Israel (164,103)
Chile (163,914)
Singapore (161,349)
Philipp ines (144,062)
Pakistan (143,766)
Ukraine (141,644)
Hungary (138,356)
Algeria (134,275)
Courtesy  International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Now consider the following, 92.4% of Nigerians are living under $2 a day, and 70.8% of Nigerians are living below national poverty line. Remember that ever ything we have done in the past 48 years of independence has not worked, some believe that Nigeria has moved backwards from the economic standards the nation attained in 1960, with steady electricity, few but good and drivable roads, clean and drinkable tap water, and less crime and cleaner cities. In all of these categories the nation has gone backwards in my view. I raise these questions to stimulate debate and discussion. My question to every one is what is Nigeria going to do differently in 2009, from what the country has done in the past 48 years Is it going to be continuation of the same strategies that has led the country downwards? Isn't it right to conclude that if we continue on this same path, that the nothing may change?
Those are my views, yours always welcome.
Happy New Year to all.
Paul Okechukwu Oranika
 

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ibk...@gmail.com

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Jan 2, 2009, 11:43:19 AM1/2/09
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Dr. Ola Kassim,

What is the population density of Japan compared to that of Nigeria?

Is population not an asset to Japan?

Just asking.

IBK

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Celtel Tanzania


From: olaka...@aol.com
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:34:43 -0500
To: <ChatAfrik...@yahoogroups.com>; <NI...@yahoogroups.com>; <nidoau...@optusnet.co.au>; <nidoa...@yahoo.fr>; <naijap...@yhoogroups.com>; <naijae...@yahoogroups.com>; <chat...@yahoogroups.com>; <Ora...@aol.com>; <NIDOC...@yahoogroups.com>; <ncao...@yahoogroups.com>; <ncato...@yahoogroups.com>; <abas...@yahoo.ca>; <abas...@hotmail.com>; <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Excessive Population Growth- a Bane of Nigeria's Economic Development

Tony Agbali

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Jan 2, 2009, 12:46:56 PM1/2/09
to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Population growth is essential to the attainment of capitalist growth. Ask Spain and Italy who are now paying to have babies. What has continued to be the bane of our development is not just population exploision, rather it is inane corruption, worshipped, and adorned with the sagacious toga of political filiation and clique kinship that allows for the robustly enlarged and bulging primodial patrimonial system of patronage. Nigeria's population as many of the new mobile phone companies will attest, is necessary for economic and social vibrancy.
 
The problem with Nigeria, more than this kind of assuaged and massaging of the "Planned Parenthood" pun relative to Africa, is one of the absymal failure of leadership. Dr. Ola now that the population is a worrisome phenomenon in Nigeria, are you ready to use your scapel to mutilate anyone of those new entrants that come your way? Are you encouraging infaticide too as a reasonable solution?
 
Yes, manageable population control through social education is a desirable goal. But talking as if you already have a catepillar ready to bulldoze some elements of that population is more threatening than Hitler and Mengeles connieved Eugenics bio-scheme.
I am afraid that out of the many real and confronting artifiicial problems of Nigeria, created by rogues of power and rodents in power that population is the new indexical lexis defining Nigerian problems. I am afraid while you maybe somewhat right on this, you proposition is just ink-spitting that may be hitting on the wrong nerves.
 
More cogently, we must move for a conscientious leadership; knowledgeable and courageous to do the right thing.  Talking about Nigeria there are still swath of uninhabited lands in many parts of the country that needs human beings to inhabit and develop. True, few years ago, especially in about eight states in the southern part of Nigeria are noted to be running out of inhabitable land, and thus putting pressures on neighboring states. 
Not a problem actually, but equally a problem when one considers that the land issue here was not because of human land use but mainly due to the unrestrained forces of nature such as gully erosions, which is in fact controllable, where there is a reasoning and effective government, which understands the acute impact of such developments on human ecology, and in fact the state's own survival.
 
But in an atmosphere where most states rely on Federal fiscal largesse coming from the center, rather than on taxation, what difference does massive population shift entails. Nothing. Hence, we can see that the failure of policy and lack of implementation of such things like taxation, among other variables, with a skewed overreliance on free Federal money (soft and sweeter than banana), the states executives are not worried about raising internal revenue. 
 
If this stuff where to be in place, we would equally see a reduction in ethnic, political, and assumed religious strives.  Remember, how the late Sardauna Ahmadu Bello had to rely on southern civil servants to develop the northern civil service in the immediate pre and post-independence years? Under such terms there were fewer riots against Igbos or Yorubas in the north.
 
The issue is not immediately about population. In states with minimal populations how far have they developed with the huge Federal Government funds at their disposal. Rather, many chief executive of states are busy outwitting one another in who is driving the most efficient armoured car, and stealing Nigeria's money into their pockets and bank accounts where they may never really be able to benefit fully. The intellection and visionless redoundancy of our political and ruling class(es) constitutes the most immediate veritable problem against Nigeria's development.  We need also on the long term to think about population control- but how?
 
The Babangida era introduced a one-man-one woman-two/three children policy in the 1990s but it was kicked against. Validly, such policy is counterproductive in Sharia states where a man can marry as many as four women, and by this fact (ipso facto) we can imagine the possible number of children, all conditions holding constant. Let say each of the four wives have four children, that amounts to sixteen children. Then, we also think that this four wives are the current ones, excluding those divorced but who have one or two children, we are almost talking about a conservative twenty children for one household. 
 
Thus, given this scenario, how successful is your population control project likely to be successful where these religious and cultural factors are still overwhelmingly powerful constraints? Are you expecting a radical overnight change in cultural expectations and attitudes? What is the use of making policies that are bound to be useless from the start- like Obasanjo's no-siren blowing policy? Overall, the question of implementation continues to be a problem. Therefore, rhetoric alone does not carry weight if there is no backing action toward ensuring succesful execution and implementation of policies. I can see far ahead the hitch and the hiccups.  Good luck!!!

--- On Thu, 1/1/09, olaka...@aol.com <olaka...@aol.com> wrote:
Corrected Copy:
 
 Excessive Population Growth- a Bane of Nigeria's Economic Development

--a targeted narrowly focussed response to 

Paul Oranika's Poser on 

 How does Nigeria Move Forward in 2009-- For your New Year Reflection


Excessive Population Growth- a Bane of Nigeria's Economic Development

Ola Kassim MD, FRCPC, FCAP, MPA
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
January 1, 2009

  Wilson (1992) stated:

'The raging monster upon the land is population growth, in its presence, sustainability (i.e. sustainable development)  is but a fragile theoretical construct' --End of Quote

NB: Inserts in red mine for emphasis and clarity.

Dear Paul:

Happy New Year.

Thanks for your thought provoking poser on how to move
Nigeria forward in 2009 and beyond.

I agree with your analysis of the deplorable state of the Nigerian union and your poser about how to move forward in 2009 and beyond. That said, I wish to suggest that when discussing issues surrounding national productivity that we should always focus more on GDP per capita rather than the overall GNP or GDP per se.

Even though Nigeria  ranks 41st on the GDP scale, our nation ranks closer to the bottom of the pile in per capita GDP amongst the world's nations. This disparity is due to the huge population crowded within the geographical boundaries of Nigeria . Most of20the other oil producing nations (e.g. Saudi Arabia , Iraq , Iran and Kuwait ) have much smaller populations relative to Nigeria making their per capita GDP much higher than ours.


The factors responsible for the successful management (or otherwise) of the economies of the world's nations are not far removed from those of personal and family finances.

Just as in personal finance, it is not so much how you make per annum but how well you spend the money and how many members in the family that must be catered for, that accounts for the socioeconomic welfare of the individual and the family.

In order to solve Nigeria 's problems we must address all the issues without neglecting any sacred cows that might offend what we consider as our basic Nigerian values. 

Excessive Population Growth- a Bane of Nigeria 's Economic Growth:

This brief analysis assumes that most, if not all Nigerians, agree that the lack of visionary leadership and rampant corruption in both private and public realms are major contributing factors to the deplorable socioeconom ic status of the vast majority of Nigerians. Therefore, it goes without saying that we must address the issues of lack of leadership and corruption before any meaningful progress can be made in Nigeria . This analysis goes further beyond these assumptions. It posits that while addressing the issues of leadership and corruption that we must also address some societal values and beliefs which also retard economic development in Nigeria .


I will begin by asking my fellow compatriots to assume the following scenarios:

1) an acceptance of the fact that notwithstanding her huge petroleum resources that Nigeria is a poor nation by western standards.

2) that our poverty is partly due to the unsustainable population growth over the decades which has totally outstripped the rate of growth of the economy even after discounting for the massive official kleptocracy and economic mismanagement of the past four decades. In short Nigeria has too many mouths to feed given its currently available natural and human resources and her ability to manage these resources.

3) that more attention must be paid in Nigeria to population issues.

4) that our economy and=2 0national resources could be better managed

5)) that we must significantly reduce corrupt practices within the public and private realms of the economy.

6) that Nigeria continues on the path towards diversification of the economy.

7) that we come to grips with the fact that even if we make significant progress in items # 4 to # 6 above, our efforts will be largely diluted if we do not address the issue of population explosion in Nigeria which is major contributor to poverty in Nigeria in # 2 and # 3 above...


Population and National Economy:

The economic resurgence of China and India was facilitated by many  factors including but not limited to the following:

a) sincere, patriotic and visionary leadership with thorough knowledge of the economic needs problems of the citizenry

b) a tremendous growth in the middle class population

c) significant investments in 'knowledge based economic activities' by both the public and private sectors

d) increased investments in all levels of education from kindergarten to tertiary institutions

e) rational policies on sustainable population growth.

The leaders of the Peoples Republic of China realized several decades again that drastic steps must be taken to ensure a sustainable population growth in their country. The introduction of one child per family law has helped tremendously in achieving the population targets envisioned by China 's leaders.
Currently, the government of China  works hard to keep economic growth per annum at a minimum of 8%, below which it is aware the nation risks civil unrest as unemployed jobless youths migrate to the cities.
 
India, under Indira Gandhi also instituted some measures including voluntary male sterilization to help in stemming the growth of the population of India .
Both India and China seem, along with the adoption of other positive measures to be ripping the benefits of earlier sustainable popu lation growth programs.
 
Unlike China and India , Nigeria seems to have almost abandoned all government programs aimed at educating our citizens on the need for a rational and sustainable growth in the nation's population. As the  FGN devote little amount of its resources to population programs, programs like "Planned Parenthood" initiatives now largely funded by NGOs are now but a shadow of what they were in the 1970s. Sadly, too many Nigerians still believe that we should not worry about the number of children

we produce as only the Almighty God looks after the welfare of our children. This is true to a point as long as we also remember that God helps those who help themselves.

The following are what we have reaped from our failure to address the issue of population explosion in Nigeria :

a) The population of Nigeria was a mere 56 million at independence in 1960. Currently, the population of Nigeria depending on whose fig ures are used is currently estimated at between 130 and 150 million, with most using a figure of 140 million. If we apply a figure of 140 million this means that the population of Nigeria has grown by 250% since Independence . If we use constant dollars, (corrected for inflation), it is hard to imagine that the available economic resources in Nigerian have grown to match this rate.

b) While many Nigerians would readily admit that our towns and cities are over congested due to increasing migration from the rural areas by fellow citizens in search of better economic life, they neglect to mention the ongoing excessive population growth that is occurring both within and outside the urban populations and elsewhere in Nigeria . This results in:


       ***lack of basic amenities like housing, food, water, sewage
       ***inability of the government to provide sufficient electricity, schools, hospitals and nurseries
       ***inability to provide adequate and affordable means of transportation such as safe roads and affordable mass transportation for the masses.
       ***as the Nigerian population continues to grow out of control it becomes increasingly difficult for the authorities to address the massive socio-economic problems of the people, You cannot=2 0address a problem that you cannot recognize and or measure.

Some popular myths about Sustainable Population Growth:

1) that the goal of sustainable population is to suppress the growth of the world's developing nations to the benefit of the developed nations.

2) that the goal of sustainable population campaign is a design of the elites to reduce the population of the less fortunate

3) that most of the world's nations are under-populated considering that there are still vast regions in most of the worlds nations (including Nigeria) that are either sparsely populated or are totally uninhabited.

4) that instituting a sustainable population program in Nigeria or in any other country might end up in its extreme end --in the killing of the poor who would be deemed disposable by the more fortunate segments of the society.

The  Basic Truth on Sustainable Population Growth:

1) Definition: Sustainable development (e.g. population growth)  is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own needs.
  --Bruntland 1987

This definition encompasses the following two elements:
a) The concepts of needs, in particular the essential needs of the worlds poor, to which overriding priority should be given, and:
b)The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environments ability to meet present and future needs.

Thus the goal of sustainable population growth is to ensure that the population grows only at a rate that is in sync with the ability of the government and the private sector to generate enough economic
activities and resources (such as jobs, education, housing, healthcare, food water, sewage etc.) to ensure the maintenance of optimal conditions for current and future members of the population.

In summary, Nigeria needs credible patriotic, selfless, visionary, strong and brave leadership which is able to grasp the immensity and the varied human problems confronting the overwhelming majority of Nigerians.
The leadership must lead by examples rather than by mere words. Such respected leadership deriving from the mandate of the people will be bold an d strong enough to speak the truth all Nigerians regardless of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender, religion and traditional beliefs about the dangers we face through ongoing excessive population growth in the country.

A long time ago, Nigeria 's economy was basically agrarian requiring that many children be produced so they could help on the family farms to produce foods and other goods that the family might need.
Polygamy helped fulfill the goal of producing many children as the family patriarch could continue to marry younger wives even as the older ones pass their child bearing ages. Infant and maternal mortality was also very high in those days making it impossible for the parents to know how many kids they reared will survive into adulthood.

The world economy of the 21st century does not require as many human hands to make it work even in less developed countries such as Nigeria . Nigerians must change their breeding habits to keep in line with what is sustainable for a future in which successive generations can achieve higher living standards than their predecessors. Instead of moving forward, Nigeria seems to have her gear permanently on the reverse. Younger generations can no longer assume that they would have better living standards than those of their parents.


We are alr eady failing the millions of children that we bring into the world every year. Even when Nigerian kids do all the good things we ask of them--including proper behavior, facing their studies,
excelling in school, college and university-- we end up disappointing them as we are unable to provide

 employment for the vast majority of students who graduate from Nigerian universities each year.

Worse still, Nigeria has a space in the tertiary education system for only 10% of the students who take the JAMB exams each year. We must ask ourselves what happened to the rest them --i.e. of the 90% that could not gain admissions to these tertiary institutions.
How are they going to make a living?
 
We must also ask ourselves what would happen to the 90% of Nigerian university graduates who fail to secure employment after their NYSC years.

The devil has work for the idle hand! Many of Nigeria 's current problems, including the pervasive crime can be traced to the restlessness of our unemployed youths.

Why bring more children into the world if we cannot adequately provide for them and secure their future?

Bye,

Ola

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ____

 
Definitions of sustainability
The definitions given below encompass all aspects of this subject. The areas of sustainable agriculture and sustainable development are dealt with in more detail later in the subject:
1.   Brundtland (1987): This is the most commonly quoted definition and it aims to be more comprehensive than most:
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own needs.
It contains within it two key concepts:
The concepts of needs, in particular the essential needs of the worlds poor, to which overriding priority should be given, and:
The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environments ability to meet present and future needs.
2.   Harwood (1990):
Sustainable agriculture is a system that can evolve indefinitely toward greater human utility, greater efficiency of resource use and a balance with the environment which is which is favourable to humans and most other species.
3.   Pearce, Makandia & Barbier (1989)
Sustainable development involves devising a social and econ omic system, which ensures that these goals are sustained, i.e. that real incomes rise, that educational standards increase, that the health of the nation improves, that the general quality of life is advanced.
4.   Conway & Barbier (1990) from 1,2 & 3:
We thus define agricultural sustainability as  the ability to maintain productivity, whether as a field  or farm or nation. Where productivity is the output of valued product per unit of resource input.
5.   Daly (1991) then argued that:
Lack of a precise definition of the term 'sustainable development' is not all bad. It has allowed a considerable consensus to evolve in support of the idea that it is both morally and economically wrong to treat the world as a business in liquidation. 
Pause for thought..... .. The world, a business in liquidation, would you consider this a sensible way for international powers to approach the concept of sustainability (at any level), what are the reasons for your answer?
6.   Heinen (1994)
No single approach to 'sustainable development' or framework is consistently useful, given the variety of scales inherent in different conservation programmes and different types of societies and institutional structures
7.   IUCN, UNEP, WWF (1991):
Sustainable development, sustainable growth, and sustainable use have been used interchangeably, as if their meanings were the same. They are not. Sustainable growth is a contradiction in terms: nothing physical can grow indefinitely. Sustainable use, is only applicable to renewable resources. Sustainable development is used in this strategy to mean: improving the quality of human life whilst living within the carrying capacity of the ecosystems.
8.   Holdgate (1993):
Development is about realising resource potential, Sustainable development of renewable natural resources implies respecting limits to the development process, even though these limits are adjustable by technology. The sustainability of technology may be judged by whether it increases production, but retains it other environmental and other limits.
9.   Pearce (1993):
Sustainable development is concerned with the development of a society where the costs of development are not transferred to future generations, or at least an attempt is made to compensate for such cos ts.
Pause for thought..... ..List 3 historical events or actions where the costs have been transferred to future generations
10.   HMSO (1994):
Most societies want to achieve economic development to secure higher standards of living, now and for future generations. They also seek to protect and enhance their environment, now and for their children. Sustainable development tries to reconcile these two objectives.
Analysis of sustainability
Riley (1992) pointed out that the level of analysis of sustainability is important and quoted the following table:
Analysis of sustainability
Level of analysis
Typical characteristics of sustainability (cumulative)
Typical determinants of sustainability
Field/production unit
Productive crops & animals; Conservation of soil & water; low levels of crop pests & animal diseases
Soil & water management; biological control of pests; use of organic manure; fertilizers; crop varieties & animal breeds
Farm 
Awareness by farmers; economic & social needs satisfied; viable production systems
Access to knowledge, external inputs and markets
Country
Public awareness; sound development of agro-ecological potential; conservation of resources
Policies for agricultural development; population pressure; agricultural education, research & extension
Region/continent/ world
Quality of the natural environment; human welfare & equity mechanisms; international agricultural research & development
Control of pollution; terms of trade; distribution
 
Pause for thought..... .Before moving on to the next section, see if you can categorize different levels20or types of sustainability

Tony Agbali

unread,
Jan 2, 2009, 12:47:00 PM1/2/09
to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Population growth is essential to the attainment of capitalist growth. Ask Spain and Italy who are now paying to have babies. What has continued to be the bane of our development is not just population exploision, rather it is inane corruption, worshipped, and adorned with the sagacious toga of political filiation and clique kinship that allows for the robustly enlarged and bulging primodial patrimonial system of patronage. Nigeria's population as many of the new mobile phone companies will attest, is necessary for economic and social vibrancy.
 
The problem with Nigeria, more than this kind of assuaged and massaging of the "Planned Parenthood" pun relative to Africa, is one of the absymal failure of leadership. Dr. Ola now that the population is a worrisome phenomenon in Nigeria, are you ready to use your scapel to mutilate anyone of those new entrants that come your way? Are you encouraging infaticide too as a reasonable solution?
 
Yes, manageable population control through social education is a desirable goal. But talking as if you already have a catepillar ready to bulldoze some elements of that population is more threatening than Hitler and Mengeles connieved Eugenics bio-scheme.
I am afraid that out of the many real and confronting artifiicial problems of Nigeria, created by rogues of power and rodents in power that population is the new indexical lexis defining Nigerian problems. I am afraid while you maybe somewhat right on this, you proposition is just ink-spitting that may be hitting on the wrong nerves.
 
More cogently, we must move for a conscientious leadership; knowledgeable and courageous to do the right thing.  Talking about Nigeria there are still swath of uninhabited lands in many parts of the country that needs human beings to inhabit and develop. True, few years ago, especially in about eight states in the southern part of Nigeria are noted to be running out of inhabitable land, and thus putting pressures on neighboring states. 
Not a problem actually, but equally a problem when one considers that the land issue here was not because of human land use but mainly due to the unrestrained forces of nature such as gully erosions, which is in fact controllable, where there is a reasoning and effective government, which understands the acute impact of such developments on human ecology, and in fact the state's own survival.
 
But in an atmosphere where most states rely on Federal fiscal largesse coming from the center, rather than on taxation, what difference does massive population shift entails. Nothing. Hence, we can see that the failure of policy and lack of implementation of such things like taxation, among other variables, with a skewed overreliance on free Federal money (soft and sweeter than banana), the states executives are not worried about raising internal revenue. 
 
If this stuff where to be in place, we would equally see a reduction in ethnic, political, and assumed religious strives.  Remember, how the late Sardauna Ahmadu Bello had to rely on southern civil servants to develop the northern civil service in the immediate pre and post-independence years? Under such terms there were fewer riots against Igbos or Yorubas in the north.
 
The issue is not immediately about population. In states with minimal populations how far have they developed with the huge Federal Government funds at their disposal. Rather, many chief executive of states are busy outwitting one another in who is driving the most efficient armoured car, and stealing Nigeria's money into their pockets and bank accounts where they may never really be able to benefit fully. The intellection and visionless redoundancy of our political and ruling class(es) constitutes the most immediate veritable problem against Nigeria's development.  We need also on the long term to think about population control- but how?
 
The Babangida era introduced a one-man-one woman-two/three children policy in the 1990s but it was kicked against. Validly, such policy is counterproductive in Sharia states where a man can marry as many as four women, and by this fact (ipso facto) we can imagine the possible number of children, all conditions holding constant. Let say each of the four wives have four children, that amounts to sixteen children. Then, we also think that this four wives are the current ones, excluding those divorced but who have one or two children, we are almost talking about a conservative twenty children for one household. 
 
Thus, given this scenario, how successful is your population control project likely to be successful where these religious and cultural factors are still overwhelmingly powerful constraints? Are you expecting a radical overnight change in cultural expectations and attitudes? What is the use of making policies that are bound to be useless from the start- like Obasanjo's no-siren blowing policy? Overall, the question of implementation continues to be a problem. Therefore, rhetoric alone does not carry weight if there is no backing action toward ensuring succesful execution and implementation of policies. I can see far ahead the hitch and the hiccups.  Good luck!!!

--- On Thu, 1/1/09, olaka...@aol.com <olaka...@aol.com> wrote:
Corrected Copy:
 
 Excessive Population Growth- a Bane of Nigeria's Economic Development

--a targeted narrowly focussed response to 

Paul Oranika's Poser on 

 How does Nigeria Move Forward in 2009-- For your New Year Reflection


Excessive Population Growth- a Bane of Nigeria's Economic Development

Ola Kassim MD, FRCPC, FCAP, MPA
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
January 1, 2009

  Wilson (1992) stated:

'The raging monster upon the land is population growth, in its presence, sustainability (i.e. sustainable development)  is but a fragile theoretical construct' --End of Quote

NB: Inserts in red mine for emphasis and clarity.

Dear Paul:

Happy New Year.

Thanks for your thought provoking poser on how to move
Nigeria forward in 2009 and beyond.

I agree with your analysis of the deplorable state of the Nigerian union and your poser about how to move forward in 2009 and beyond. That said, I wish to suggest that when discussing issues surrounding national productivity that we should always focus more on GDP per capita rather than the overall GNP or GDP per se.

Even though Nigeria  ranks 41st on the GDP scale, our nation ranks closer to the bottom of the pile in per capita GDP amongst the world's nations. This disparity is due to the huge population crowded within the geographical boundaries of Nigeria . Most of20the other oil producing nations (e.g. Saudi Arabia , Iraq , Iran and Kuwait ) have much smaller populations relative to Nigeria making their per capita GDP much higher than ours.


The factors responsible for the successful management (or otherwise) of the economies of the world's nations are not far removed from those of personal and family finances.

Just as in personal finance, it is not so much how you make per annum but how well you spend the money and how many members in the family that must be catered for, that accounts for the socioeconomic welfare of the individual and the family.

In order to solve Nigeria 's problems we must address all the issues without neglecting any sacred cows that might offend what we consider as our basic Nigerian values. 

Excessive Population Growth- a Bane of Nigeria 's Economic Growth:

This brief analysis assumes that most, if not all Nigerians, agree that the lack of visionary leadership and rampant corruption in both private and public realms are major contributing factors to the deplorable socioeconom ic status of the vast majority of Nigerians. Therefore, it goes without saying that we must address the issues of lack of leadership and corruption before any meaningful progress can be made in Nigeria . This analysis goes further beyond these assumptions. It posits that while addressing the issues of leadership and corruption that we must also address some societal values and beliefs which also retard economic development in Nigeria .


I will begin by asking my fellow compatriots to assume the following scenarios:

1) an acceptance of the fact that notwithstanding her huge petroleum resources that Nigeria is a poor nation by western standards.

2) that our poverty is partly due to the unsustainable population growth over the decades which has totally outstripped the rate of growth of the economy even after discounting for the massive official kleptocracy and economic mismanagement of the past four decades. In short Nigeria has too many mouths to feed given its currently available natural and human resources and her ability to manage these resources.

3) that more attention must be paid in Nigeria to population issues.

4) that our economy and=2 0national resources could be better managed

5)) that we must significantly reduce corrupt practices within the public and private realms of the economy.

6) that Nigeria continues on the path towards diversification of the economy.

7) that we come to grips with the fact that even if we make significant progress in items # 4 to # 6 above, our efforts will be largely diluted if we do not address the issue of population explosion in Nigeria which is major contributor to poverty in Nigeria in # 2 and # 3 above...


Population and National Economy:

The economic resurgence of China and India was facilitated by many  factors including but not limited to the following:

a) sincere, patriotic and visionary leadership with thorough knowledge of the economic needs problems of the citizenry

b) a tremendous growth in the middle class population

c) significant investments in 'knowledge based economic activities' by both the public and private sectors

d) increased investments in all levels of education from kindergarten to tertiary institutions

e) rational policies on sustainable population growth.

The leaders of the Peoples Republic of China realized several decades again that drastic steps must be taken to ensure a sustainable population growth in their country. The introduction of one child per family law has helped tremendously in achieving the population targets envisioned by China 's leaders.
Currently, the government of China  works hard to keep economic growth per annum at a minimum of 8%, below which it is aware the nation risks civil unrest as unemployed jobless youths migrate to the cities.
 
India, under Indira Gandhi also instituted some measures including voluntary male sterilization to help in stemming the growth of the population of India .
Both India and China seem, along with the adoption of other positive measures to be ripping the benefits of earlier sustainable popu lation growth programs.
 
Unlike China and India , Nigeria seems to have almost abandoned all government programs aimed at educating our citizens on the need for a rational and sustainable growth in the nation's population. As the  FGN devote little amount of its resources to population programs, programs like "Planned Parenthood" initiatives now largely funded by NGOs are now but a shadow of what they were in the 1970s. Sadly, too many Nigerians still believe that we should not worry about the number of children

we produce as only the Almighty God looks after the welfare of our children. This is true to a point as long as we also remember that God helps those who help themselves.

The following are what we have reaped from our failure to address the issue of population explosion in Nigeria :

a) The population of Nigeria was a mere 56 million at independence in 1960. Currently, the population of Nigeria depending on whose fig ures are used is currently estimated at between 130 and 150 million, with most using a figure of 140 million. If we apply a figure of 140 million this means that the population of Nigeria has grown by 250% since Independence . If we use constant dollars, (corrected for inflation), it is hard to imagine that the available economic resources in Nigerian have grown to match this rate.

b) While many Nigerians would readily admit that our towns and cities are over congested due to increasing migration from the rural areas by fellow citizens in search of better economic life, they neglect to mention the ongoing excessive population growth that is occurring both within and outside the urban populations and elsewhere in Nigeria . This results in:


       ***lack of basic amenities like housing, food, water, sewage
       ***inability of the government to provide sufficient electricity, schools, hospitals and nurseries
       ***inability to provide adequate and affordable means of transportation such as safe roads and affordable mass transportation for the masses.
       ***as the Nigerian population continues to grow out of control it becomes increasingly difficult for the authorities to address the massive socio-economic problems of the people, You cannot=2 0address a problem that you cannot recognize and or measure.

Some popular myths about Sustainable Population Growth:

1) that the goal of sustainable population is to suppress the growth of the world's developing nations to the benefit of the developed nations.

2) that the goal of sustainable population campaign is a design of the elites to reduce the population of the less fortunate

3) that most of the world's nations are under-populated considering that there are still vast regions in most of the worlds nations (including Nigeria) that are either sparsely populated or are totally uninhabited.

4) that instituting a sustainable population program in Nigeria or in any other country might end up in its extreme end --in the killing of the poor who would be deemed disposable by the more fortunate segments of the society.

The  Basic Truth on Sustainable Population Growth:

1) Definition: Sustainable development (e.g. population growth)  is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own needs.
  --Bruntland 1987

This definition encompasses the following two elements:
a) The concepts of needs, in particular the essential needs of the worlds poor, to which overriding priority should be given, and:
b)The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environments ability to meet present and future needs.

Thus the goal of sustainable population growth is to ensure that the population grows only at a rate that is in sync with the ability of the government and the private sector to generate enough economic
activities and resources (such as jobs, education, housing, healthcare, food water, sewage etc.) to ensure the maintenance of optimal conditions for current and future members of the population.

In summary, Nigeria needs credible patriotic, selfless, visionary, strong and brave leadership which is able to grasp the immensity and the varied human problems confronting the overwhelming majority of Nigerians.
The leadership must lead by examples rather than by mere words. Such respected leadership deriving from the mandate of the people will be bold an d strong enough to speak the truth all Nigerians regardless of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender, religion and traditional beliefs about the dangers we face through ongoing excessive population growth in the country.

A long time ago, Nigeria 's economy was basically agrarian requiring that many children be produced so they could help on the family farms to produce foods and other goods that the family might need.
Polygamy helped fulfill the goal of producing many children as the family patriarch could continue to marry younger wives even as the older ones pass their child bearing ages. Infant and maternal mortality was also very high in those days making it impossible for the parents to know how many kids they reared will survive into adulthood.

The world economy of the 21st century does not require as many human hands to make it work even in less developed countries such as Nigeria . Nigerians must change their breeding habits to keep in line with what is sustainable for a future in which successive generations can achieve higher living standards than their predecessors. Instead of moving forward, Nigeria seems to have her gear permanently on the reverse. Younger generations can no longer assume that they would have better living standards than those of their parents.


We are alr eady failing the millions of children that we bring into the world every year. Even when Nigerian kids do all the good things we ask of them--including proper behavior, facing their studies,
excelling in school, college and university-- we end up disappointing them as we are unable to provide

 employment for the vast majority of students who graduate from Nigerian universities each year.

Worse still, Nigeria has a space in the tertiary education system for only 10% of the students who take the JAMB exams each year. We must ask ourselves what happened to the rest them --i.e. of the 90% that could not gain admissions to these tertiary institutions.
How are they going to make a living?
 
We must also ask ourselves what would happen to the 90% of Nigerian university graduates who fail to secure employment after their NYSC years.

The devil has work for the idle hand! Many of Nigeria 's current problems, including the pervasive crime can be traced to the restlessness of our unemployed youths.

Why bring more children into the world if we cannot adequately provide for them and secure their future?

Bye,

Ola

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ____

Definitions of sustainability
The definitions given below encompass all aspects of this subject. The areas of sustainable agriculture and sustainable development are dealt with in more detail later in the subject:
1.   Brundtland (1987): This is the most commonly quoted definition and it aims to be more comprehensive than most:
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own needs.
It contains within it two key concepts:
The concepts of needs, in particular the essential needs of the worlds poor, to which overriding priority should be given, and:
The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environments ability to meet present and future needs.
2.   Harwood (1990):
Sustainable agriculture is a system that can evolve indefinitely toward greater human utility, greater efficiency of resource use and a balance with the environment which is which is favourable to humans and most other species.
3.   Pearce, Makandia & Barbier (1989)
Sustainable development involves devising a social and econ omic system, which ensures that these goals are sustained, i.e. that real incomes rise, that educational standards increase, that the health of the nation improves, that the general quality of life is advanced.
4.   Conway & Barbier (1990) from 1,2 & 3:
We thus define agricultural sustainability as  the ability to maintain productivity, whether as a field  or farm or nation. Where productivity is the output of valued product per unit of resource input.
5.   Daly (1991) then argued that:
Lack of a precise definition of the term 'sustainable development' is not all bad. It has allowed a considerable consensus to evolve in support of the idea that it is both morally and economically wrong to treat the world as a business in liquidation. 
Pause for thought..... .. The world, a business in liquidation, would you consider this a sensible way for international powers to approach the concept of sustainability (at any level), what are the reasons for your answer?
6.   Heinen (1994)
No single approach to 'sustainable development' or framework is consistently useful, given the variety of scales inherent in different conservation programmes and different types of societies and institutional structures
7.   IUCN, UNEP, WWF (1991):
Sustainable development, sustainable growth, and sustainable use have been used interchangeably, as if their meanings were the same. They are not. Sustainable growth is a contradiction in terms: nothing physical can grow indefinitely. Sustainable use, is only applicable to renewable resources. Sustainable development is used in this strategy to mean: improving the quality of human life whilst living within the carrying capacity of the ecosystems.
8.   Holdgate (1993):
Development is about realising resource potential, Sustainable development of renewable natural resources implies respecting limits to the development process, even though these limits are adjustable by technology. The sustainability of technology may be judged by whether it increases production, but retains it other environmental and other limits.
9.   Pearce (1993):
Sustainable development is concerned with the development of a society where the costs of development are not transferred to future generations, or at least an attempt is made to compensate for such cos ts.
Pause for thought..... ..List 3 historical events or actions where the costs have been transferred to future generations
10.   HMSO (1994):
Most societies want to achieve economic development to secure higher standards of living, now and for future generations. They also seek to protect and enhance their environment, now and for their children. Sustainable development tries to reconcile these two objectives.
Analysis of sustainability
Riley (1992) pointed out that the level of analysis of sustainability is important and quoted the following table:
Analysis of sustainability
Level of analysis
Typical characteristics of sustainability (cumulative)
Typical determinants of sustainability
Field/production unit
Productive crops & animals; Conservation of soil & water; low levels of crop pests & animal diseases
Soil & water management; biological control of pests; use of organic manure; fertilizers; crop varieties & animal breeds
Farm 
Awareness by farmers; economic & social needs satisfied; viable production systems
Access to knowledge, external inputs and markets
Country
Public awareness; sound development of agro-ecological potential; conservation of resources
Policies for agricultural development; population pressure; agricultural education, research & extension
Region/continent/ world
Quality of the natural environment; human welfare & equity mechanisms; international agricultural research & development
Control of pollution; terms of trade; distribution
 
Pause for thought..... .Before moving on to the next section, see if you can categorize different levels20or types of sustainability
Types of Sustainability
There are two commonsense propositions that would probably command general support, before categorizing the different types of sustainability:
  1. A sustainable system or process must be based on resources that will not be exhausted over a reasonable period (sometimes expressed as the 'long term')
  2. A sustainable system or process must not generate unacceptable pollution externally or internally
Biological sustainability
No individual life form can be sustainable indefinitely, since all must die at some point in time. Therefore:
Preservation of individual life is only possible for limited periods (limited sustainability)
Individual species, ecosystems and habitats can be sustained as they involve reproductive and other essential processes - without which they would cease to exist
However, many of these entities change and evolve as a result of such processes therefore:
Sustainable processes does not necessarily lead to sustainable entities (i.e. precisely as they were originally)
Most biological systems have physical components, therefore there is considerable overlap between the use of biological and physical resources 

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Oranika <oranika@yahoo. com>
To: naijabusiness@ yahoogroups. com

kenneth harrow

unread,
Jan 2, 2009, 1:43:27 PM1/2/09
to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
if population growth is essential to the attainment of capitalist growth, then capitalist growth is the path to the gradual degradation of human life and world ecosystems. if ever it were obvious that human beings in aggregate are far too numerous for the resources of the world, if ever we were to see the handwriting on the wall for the ultimate  destruction of our environment, if ever we were to do anything to attempt to save our species by saving the environment, it is now! global warming is only a consequence of human consumption, and anyone who thinks that we can have capitalist growth without destroying our environment, and as a result, destroying all that makes human life possible, must be deliberately ignoring the obvious signs and prevailing scientific knowledge about the destruction of the environment.
it doesn't take an expert to realize that human consumption is now excessive; that advocating more humans, who will need to consume to live; and who will want to consume, ultimately, like the wealthy consumers of the world, is a prescription for disaster at every level.
it is time for all human beings to realize we have too large a population already and must shrink that population and its consumption is the human race is to survive. while a statement like this might have sounded crackpot 50 years ago, it is now prevailing wisdom.
as far as spain and italy paying for babies, they are also paying to keep foreigners out, to expel foreigners who are already there and already having babies. i mean foreigners from the south.
what we need to advocate is a more just distribution of wealth on the planet, not an increase in capitalist growth, much less an increase in consumers
ken
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517 353-7243
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Tony Agbali

unread,
Jan 2, 2009, 3:30:21 PM1/2/09
to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Then, why wait. Mutilate yourself. Kill yourself to make room for reduced consumption. You and me, by our existence are the burden. So why must we continue to create burdens. There can be no talk about population control without ethics. The ethical burden of the west, and the overall assault of the west on other nonwestern frontiers privileging a denigrating and destructive ethos must be understood within its limits as the problem. Other societies outliers to these problems, even though somewhat integrated into its schemes and logic, must not become slaves to its totalizing and essentializing non-rhythmic realities that desecrates life.
 
The logic of overconsumerism contrasts with the realities of poverty in societies, where the likes of Dr. Ola Kassim is intrusively waging a campaign for its radical demolition. The least of Nigeria's problem today is not about its population.  America has a large population over $300m and still continues to sipphon from other national spaces to accrete itself, within the aggrandizing interests of capitalist helming and bulging forage. 
 
It is true that while Planned Parenthood was being sold to African governments as the idea and ideal of the future in the past, that the same western interests were also enlarging its pro-life propellant, creating all avenues to ensure that they do not lose. Isn't it strategically noxious and disconcerting to municipal authorities in American cities when their experience population decline, especially within inner city residents internally deserting heading for nearby suburbs and exurbs?  Why the outcry? Why are cities like Detroit, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Oakland, CA, and others worried when census records shows population decline? Just why? Population has no meaning and has no impact?
 
The west cannot continue to dictate human slaughtering around the world in the name of population control through its expansionist and imperial ideological schemes using indigenous agents to sell its failed policies to other spaces- using logics such as those adduced by Ola Kassim and his cohorts of suicidal idealists.  Africans should know better and should not be fooled. Population growth is integral to a viable society. Population growth within the human evolutionary process without the greed of a few, so called civilized members of the human race consuming  vociferously a humongrous percentage of the world resources, be able to cybernetically gear its appetite. 
 
The consumerism and greed of the west more than anything else, together with a maddening orgy for global destruction through rushed and manufactured warfares constitutes the greatest danger to humanity and the ecosystem than any new human person that makes its entrance into the world as a purifying agent, unfortunately soon to be also consumed by consumerism, hate, ignorance, and bloated arrogance, glutted tapestries designed by the world of the Oyinbo- also marketed far afield to distant territories in creating zenith gloom.
 
If Spain and Italy are today paying enormous to have parents give birth to babies because of declining population and the fear that immigrants will "takeover" their civilization, then Africa and Africans must think twice before they ingest illogicalities dressed as objective or empirical sciences that are fast changing or reworked even within the spaces where they emanate.
 
Moreso, while essentializing is good, within the chess of intellection, the towering reality was that I did agreed with Ola Kassim to some extent that population control should be a long-term desirable goal, albeit using the African contextual situation, rather than some abstract and borrowed "ideoformat"  toward looking at the issues of existence and population ethics in general.
 
As Africans we know our problems, and we know that even in spaces where population is not so much a problem development is not catching up, primarily because of malgovernance.  This is thrust of my response. I reasoned that upon the construction of a viable and self-sustaining structures and systems through good and constructive governance that the very realities of economic and social contraints would create rationalizing agencies that would engender autonomous self-restraining and cybernetic modalities that would produce the kind of situation Ola Kassim propounds.  It must not be construed more as advancing a monstrosity that could evolve into Eugenic routine schemes carried out beyond measured control in giving semblance to a totalizing and desecrating ethos intent at violating the African (broad painting in deed!) cosmic harmonic relationship that maps the connective tissues defining its the material and spiritual and self-regulatory cosmological trajectories.
 
Without advocating an overt reversal to a purist mode (which even intended is absolutely impossibe), fundamentally, it is the ethical and relational dissonance between the traditional and contemporary (modern??) cosmogony propellant of the surging greed, violence, and massive desecration that is today's Nigeria- and in deed a vast portion of Africa that is beyond question the capital emphasis in handicapping progressive development. 
 
In drastically advocating a noxious logic of desecrating life at the behest of development is a maddening and malaised concept, because life is not the subject of development, rather development is the subject of life.  Development is an handmaid to a good life (at the pain of almost sounding philosophical here). 
 
Life, therefore cannot be lumbered to make way for development. It would be a sick specter and one that makes decisions such as the cudging and congealed blood-vision from Iraq, richochette like a child's play, and more narsasistically Nazist. Arrowing life in order to have a less populated environment, an enjoyable one, amounts to genocidal stoking. Reasonable and responsible humans in good conscience would be so villanouisly vile to allow such logic to diffuse without restraints.
 
Ola Kassim and kenneth harrow (reflective of bell hooks) and mine constitutes a tangent given we do agree about the necessity of population control, while differing on its tactics and probably agency at some level, thus looking more like a mathematical abscissa point than an origin points, and in spite of all with linear lines that are not without outliers.

--- On Fri, 1/2/09, kenneth harrow <har...@msu.edu> wrote:

Gemini

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Jan 2, 2009, 5:04:26 PM1/2/09
to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
The duty of government in this field is not to sit down and determine an arbitrary ideal population figure for Nigeria.  Rather, it is to return control over their fertility to women, so that they have the number of children they want at the time they want.  That means full and easy access to a full range of family planning methods.  Some will want many children, others will want few or none.  Some will not be able to have as many as they want, but many others may decide to have fewer, not because they want fewer, but because they can't afford to have more, perhaps because they must work and have no child care solutions.  Therefore other things needed are that it should be made easy and practical for mothers to combine motherhood with work if they need to (Scandinavian countries have less problem with low population growth than Spain or Italy because they do make it easy for women to have children and still work) but also to make it unnecessary for them to be forced to go out to work to support their families.  Rather than looking on payments to mothers as paying them to have babies, rather consider it payments which free would-be mothers from constraints that prevent them from realising what they want.
 
There's no doubt that Nigeria cannot meet the MDGs with its current rate of population growth, and nobody who looked at our maternal mortality or infant mortality figures would think that planning parenthood is a bad idea.  However, we should even consider ourselves lucky compared to some of our sister African nations.  I mean, who would have thought that the population of Ethiopia would have doubled since 1985 when we were all* singing 'We are the World' because of famine in that country?  With less arable land now than it had then?  But in Ethiopia, contraceptives were only available when prescribed by qualified doctors.  How many of us think that there are enough qualified doctors in Ethiopia to cater for all the women who might want to Plan their Parenthood?  Or that that is what the doctors that there are ought to be spending their time on?  Exactly!  So once again last year, the same old pictures of starving African women with starving African babies with which Western 'aid' agencies keep up their incomes. 
 
Governments may have their ideas about what populations should be.  Land at Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, which hasn't been extended or expanded for international flights since it was opened over 30 years ago and see what happens when governments close their eyes to increasing populations.  Or visit our schools.  Or universities.  Or hospitals.  Or ...  Governments, as I say may have their ideas.  In Nigeria's case, it would be a good idea for them to know what the population actually is.  But absent the coercive policies of China or (at a time) India, let individual people decide how many children they want, and make it possible for them to have what they want.
 
Ayo
 
*I say 'we were all', but some will remember that sensitive Naijas felt that the appropriate thing to do, when the Ethiopian national team arrived in Lagos for a football match, was to pelt them with loaves of bread ...

Gemini

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Jan 2, 2009, 5:04:26 PM1/2/09
to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
The duty of government in this field is not to sit down and determine an arbitrary ideal population figure for Nigeria.  Rather, it is to return control over their fertility to women, so that they have the number of children they want at the time they want.  That means full and easy access to a full range of family planning methods.  Some will want many children, others will want few or none.  Some will not be able to have as many as they want, but many others may decide to have fewer, not because they want fewer, but because they can't afford to have more, perhaps because they must work and have no child care solutions.  Therefore other things needed are that it should be made easy and practical for mothers to combine motherhood with work if they need to (Scandinavian countries have less problem with low population growth than Spain or Italy because they do make it easy for women to have children and still work) but also to make it unnecessary for them to be forced to go out to work to support their families.  Rather than looking on payments to mothers as paying them to have babies, rather consider it payments which free would-be mothers from constraints that prevent them from realising what they want.
 
There's no doubt that Nigeria cannot meet the MDGs with its current rate of population growth, and nobody who looked at our maternal mortality or infant mortality figures would think that planning parenthood is a bad idea.  However, we should even consider ourselves lucky compared to some of our sister African nations.  I mean, who would have thought that the population of Ethiopia would have doubled since 1985 when we were all* singing 'We are the World' because of famine in that country?  With less arable land now than it had then?  But in Ethiopia, contraceptives were only available when prescribed by qualified doctors.  How many of us think that there are enough qualified doctors in Ethiopia to cater for all the women who might want to Plan their Parenthood?  Or that that is what the doctors that there are ought to be spending their time on?  Exactly!  So once again last year, the same old pictures of starving African women with starving African babies with which Western 'aid' agencies keep up their incomes. 
 
Governments may have their ideas about what populations should be.  Land at Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, which hasn't been extended or expanded for international flights since it was opened over 30 years ago and see what happens when governments close their eyes to increasing populations.  Or visit our schools.  Or universities.  Or hospitals.  Or ...  Governments, as I say may have their ideas.  In Nigeria's case, it would be a good idea for them to know what the population actually is.  But absent the coercive policies of China or (at a time) India, let individual people decide how many children they want, and make it possible for them to have what they want.
 
Ayo
 
*I say 'we were all', but some will remember that sensitive Naijas felt that the appropriate thing to do, when the Ethiopian national team arrived in Lagos for a football match, was to pelt them with loaves of bread ...
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 6:46 PM

kenneth harrow

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Jan 2, 2009, 5:16:03 PM1/2/09
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the problem won't be solved by limiting consumption or growth in the wealthy countries, but by thinking on a global scale. your anger is grounded in the notion that you can separate out actions in poorer parts of the world from those of the wealthy, establish a logic for one that imagines a world that will survive, and not imagine this for another.
i understand the notion of justice, that we should have a just distribution of wealth; i believe that is a viable political ideal
i understand the notion of needing to limit consumption so that the planet can survive.
i understand that this problem has to be resolved everywhere, not just in one corner of the world.
i don't believe you understand that, or that you want to make the sacrifices necessary for the survival of all of us.

address the two issues alone: making the planet safe for our survival, and especially for the survival of our children and grandchildren. i am a grandfather so i care about that more than my own.
and address the issue of justice, how we can facilitate a more just and equitable distribution of wealth.

i submit that you cannot separate out nigeria from the rest of the world, and that you won't achieve either of the two above goals without considering the problem on a worldwide scale and without considering how we all must act, and not just some of us.

lest i be misunderstood: i am not saying that the rules that govern the wealthy should be identical to those of the poor: the wealthy  must give much more for us to arrive at equity and justice.
but the poor, all of whose needs must be met, cannot avoid limiting their number of children and arrive at a sustainable solution for those children or their grandchildren.

your rhetoric about genocide, slaughtering, or mutilating only obfuscate the simple logic that requires us to limit the population, and its consumption, globally, if we are not to destroy the planet, and our children's future. anything else is pure selfishness.
ken

Dr. Valentine Ojo

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Jan 2, 2009, 5:53:28 PM1/2/09
to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com, Tony Agbali, kenneth harrow, olaka...@aol.com
"The west cannot continue to dictate human slaughtering around the world
in the name of population control through its expansionist and imperial
ideological schemes using indigenous agents to sell its failed policies to
other spaces - using logics such as those adduced by Ola Kassim and his
cohorts of suicidal idealists." - TonY Agbali

Ola Kassim also was deeply involved in selling untested "drugs" to African
nations to as "cure for HIV-AIDS' which they claimed was going to wipe out
Africa - another example of the West using determination to continue "to
dictate human slaughtering around the world in the name of population
control through its expansionist and imperial ideological schemes using
indigenous agents to sell its failed policies [and drugs] to other spaces
- using logics such as those adduced by [the same] Ola Kassim and his
cohorts of suicidal idealists."

Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD
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Pius Adesanmi

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Jan 2, 2009, 7:46:31 PM1/2/09
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My Headline Projections in Nigerian newspapers in the weeks to come.
 
 
CORRUPTION NO LONGER A PROBLEM - Canada-based expert
 
A highly-respected Canada-based Nigerian Physician, Dr Ola Kassim, has identified population explosion as Nigeria's numero uno problem, thus finally laying to rest the myth of corruption and government ineptitude that enemies of Nigeria have sold to the international community as the two major factors hindering the country's development.
 
WE ARE VINDICATED - Segun Adeniyi
 
In a related development, President Yar'Adua's spokesman, Mr Segun Adeniyi, has expressed the Federal government's gratitude to Dr Kassim for finally laying to rest the perception that President Yar'Adua's war on the anti-corruption war and his personal philosophy of governance as an extended siesta might have worsened the country's situation in the last two years. While urging Dr Kassim to do more of such patriotic studies, Mr Adeniyi reiterated the Federal Government's determination to import condoms from Togo, Niger Republic, and other neighbouring countries for accelerated population control. Our correspondents gathered that most state governors have ordered copies of Dr Kassim's study to be framed and displayed in all ministries and government buildings as a way of reminding the people that their overactive loins - not unbridled looting by the governors - are responsible for the nation's woes.
 
INDISCRIMINATE PROCREATION, BANE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - Expert.
 
The voracious sexual habit of Nigerians has been blamed for the nation's economic woes. A highly-placed Nigerian Physician in Canada revealed authoritatively that....
 
NIGERIANS BREED LIKE RABBITS - Expert
 
Dr Ola Kassim, a Nigerian expert based in Canada, has advised Nigerians to stop breeding like rabbits if we are to make any economic headway. Asked for his comments about this, Professor Bolaji Aluko, another Nigerian expert resident abroad, urged Nigerians to pray for population control.
 
Pius

Pius Adesanmi, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Director, Project on New African Literatures (PONAL)
Department of English
Carleton University
Ottawa, Canada
K1S 5B6

Tel: +1 613 520 2600 ext. 1175

www.projectponal.com

--- On Fri, 2/1/09, Gemini <so...@multilinks.com> wrote:
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