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Fear not, Osinbajo

Tunji Ajibade

’Tunji Ajibade

’Tunji Ajibade

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Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo made a comment the other day which reminded me of an incident several years ago. Prof ’Segun Ojewuyi (a theatre director, former lecturer at Yale University, and one of the three men on earth whose polished tact, wise quietness and gentlemanliness greatly inform my world view) directed ‘Our husband Has Gone Mad Again’ (a play by Ola Rotimi) to mark one of Prof Wole Soyinka’s birthday anniversaries. The play was staged at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos. Ojewuyi (with whom I lived while I was an undergraduate at the University of Lagos) took me along to watch the play.  I’m not sure I can disconnect that period from my penchant for writing plays these days, one of which won the ANA Prize for Drama in 2014.  There were others that came 2nd in 2010 as well as in 2017. And yet another in 2nd position in 2015 which the ANA judges said reminded them of Ola Rotimi’s characterisation of a late Oba of Benin in the play Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, one play that I had neither read nor watched on stage.

Well, a few minutes to the start of the said play at the National Theatre, Lagos, Mr Richard Mofe Damijo (an actor) came to a seat just behind mine, trying (I assumed) to get into the appropriate  mood for his role.  He saw a fellow actress far off in the hall and asked her to come and give him inspiration. What Osinbajo said lately made me think of sending him a word of inspiration, or is it encouragement, on behalf of Nigerians.  “Nigeria’s population growth will cause challenges, says Osinbajo”, The PUNCH reported.  He made the comment when he hosted the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, calling on the WHO to make Nigeria a priority.  The Vice-President further said, “We are in challenging times and in the next decade or two, we will have more challenges given that the population is growing and this calls for a lot of work especially with regard to health of our citizens.”

The VP’s observation makes me think of our huge population and the positives that should be in it for us. No doubt, there are reasons to be concerned. But we already have close to 200 million people on our hands. So, what should a nation do if it has this kind of good problem? How to effectively deal with it is the issue. This is what China, for instance, is doing. What is China doing with respect to its huge population? The nation set a one person per couple policy years ago. Later,  it decided it was having less than the number of people it needed, so it changed it to two children per couple. That’s in the face of the existing 1.4 billion people!  Now, reasoning like a layman, note that China chases Nigeria in order to purchase its natural resources. We have less number of people to manage, with all the resources, but I’ve heard several government officials talk about our people as though they can’t be an asset instead of liability.  Nigerians are not a liability. They aren’t if only our governments would prudently expend resources to make Nigerians productive even more than they already are. It’s what China does differently to the extent that it wants more people added to the humongous number it already has. Most Nigerians are hardworking, they don’t ask for much from the government, so government officials have nothing to fear.  The citizens only need governments to make life just a bit more comfortable for them by providing a conducive environment as reasonable governments in other climes do for their citizens.

What are the things China does for its citizens? One, it takes note of the numbers and plans accordingly. The well-known China’s Five-Year Plans are a series of social and economic development initiatives shaped by the nation’s single party that maps strategies for economic development, sets growth targets, and launches reforms. Over the years, China’s ambitious Five-Year Plans have been praised for their efficiency, capabilities and importance to growth and development. Does the reader take note? Efficiency, capabilities and importance to growth and development.  Maybe, we will make our 2019 national budget reflect that. When was it that the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, lamented the fact that the 2018 budget didn’t contain a carryover of the 2017 unimplemented provisions as the Executive arm had promised? What about the years of non-sequential funding of projects that don’t form any bridge that should take us into economic growth needed to sustain our huge population?

China has had 13 five-year plans non-stop since it began in 1953. The 13th Plan covers 2016-2020. Its focus areas are in simple outlines and they include Innovation: Move up in the value chain by abandoning old heavy industry and building up bases of modern information-intensive infrastructure; Balancing: Bridge the welfare gaps between countryside and cities by distributing and managing resources more efficiently; Greening: Develop environmental technology industry, as well as ecological living and ecological culture; Opening up: Deeper participation in supranational power structures, more international co-operation; Sharing: Encourage people of China to share the fruits of economic growth, so to bridge the existing welfare gaps. As for policies to back this up, they contain simple slogans that even elementary pupils can remember and run with: “Everyone is an entrepreneur, creativity of the masses”; “Made in China (by) 2025”; “Economy needs a Rule of Law”;  “National defense reform”; “Urbanisation with Chinese characteristics”;  “Reformed two-child policy.” This is all that the Chinese government broadens in details and conscientiously implements, making it a good example of a nation that sees its large population as an asset.

I noticed in the VP’s comments that in referring to challenges, he generally had in mind such that come with a growing population in any nation. That’s okay.  But how do we meet the challenges?  The question is important since we evidently run a yearly budget that neither starts at the set time  nor do we maintain links in the chain of projects, for instance in the health sector, that should connect one year to the next in order to achieve the desired results. China’s approach provides insights with respect to the question. In the document, ‘China’s Population and Development in the 21st Century’, the country’s government acknowledges its current population situation and the challenges it presents. But the government emphasises that socio-economic development and resource utilisation should be in concert with its population growth, noting further that whether or not the population challenge is properly attended to has direct bearing on the improvement of the population quality and the living standards of the people. Consequently,  that country has adopted an integrated approach to the huge population issue with its own national characteristics. They are in the nation’s finer details found in policies and programmes.

Shouldn’t Nigeria have a similar mindset towards its population? I have regularly heard officials under successive governments refer to our huge population as though it is extra load on the cart of the waster collector, sounding apologetic even, especially when foreign dignitaries visit.  Osinbajo didn’t do anything of such that time. But his comment provides me with the opportunity to call attention to opportunities lost, chances wasted, the infrastructure base that should support our growing population that is never constructed.  The government can’t run away from the challenge. It’s there and it will continue because Nigerians still love babies.  In the event, government officials would need to have a different mentality. For if they continue to apologise for our growing numbers, they aren’t addressing the issue. Improving the quality of life of its people is what China focuses on, and since year 2000, it has achieved much, using its national plans to lift millions out of poverty on a regular basis. When will our governments concentrate on cutting waste and utilise resources to improve the quality of our population which the nation needs for its development?  For we know we have enough to provide the right condition for our large population to thrive and assist in building the nation. It’s just that our governments have a knack for frittering away resources only to turn around to blame Nigerians for loving babies.

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