“Children are the heritage of the Lord,” says the Holy Bible.
But the same book said, “A man who cannot provide for his house is worst than an infidel.”
In the old days, primarily in Africa, a man is entitled to marry as many wives as possible and was free to give birth to as many children as he could. Getting to know this made me inquire from the elders! Was that how appealing the ladies were?
My findings made me understand that one of the major reasons for this is that most of these men are into agriculture, and they majorly practice commercial agriculture (large-scale farming), for example, cocoa plantations, palm oil plantations, and so on.
Only a few practice subsistence agriculture (small-scale farming), for example, home gardens. In their era, there was no machine nor equipment that could make this work easier and faster. So the only option was to marry plenty of wives and give birth to many children that would help with farming. They believed the help of their family would go a long way compared to hiring workmanship or labour with money. The more children, the easier the work!
As civilization came, many people were unaware of the reason behind these multiple births and began to follow the footsteps of their fathers. I heard a man say, “In my family, we marry many wives and give birth to as much as we can." Their fathers were large-scale farmers with only feeding responsibilities.
This current generation is made up of teachers, lawyers, and so on, with lots of responsibilities.
For example, in the old days, there was no formal education, but now there is, and this multiple birth mentality keep a lot of students on the street with no one to sponsor them. Agriculture is no longer interested in manpower; many farmers opt for the use of farm equipments and machines. There was nothing like paying expensive medical bills in the old days, but now we do. To mention but a few.
This has led us to the point where we are now overpopulated. Many countries have adopted the policy of regulating the number of kids families can have as a way of controlling their population and make plan for their future economy. Countries like China, Japan, South Korea, and many more. Few African countries like Nigeria have also adopted this policy, but it is not effective because no benefits are attached to it, so the citizens believe that since the government is not in any way involved with taking care of their children, what is the essence of this policy? That is why most citizens are not aware of this policy.
I believe the Nigerian government should be more involved in these regulations, not just by mere announcement, but because there should be a well-rounded welfare system in place to encourage child birth control. If there is child care grants and other grants related to this policy, then the citizens will be forced to obey. Not only the welfare system, but the government should create avenues (for example, seminars in all local government areas, awareness through the media, and many more.) to educate the citizens on the benefits of this policy in order to convince them that this is one of the best ways to escape poverty.
Regulating the number of children will surely make things better. Effective regulations will bring about a balance between national revenue and population. We have three types of population.
Overpopulation (the population is greater than the revenue)
Under Population (the population is lower than the revenue),
Optimal Population (the population is equal to the revenue)
Right now in Nigeria, we are experiencing overpopulation because our revenue cannot take care of the population we have. Effective regulation of children in the family will make teaching and learning easier. Teachers will have minimal number of students to handle. Unlike the current situation where we have about 80 students in a classroom in most government schools, to make things worst, the classrooms are not conducive for learning. Health care workers will no longer complain of overwork with little pay. In short, Everyone would be relieved, and the revenues will be enough.
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Grateful Heart ❤️