Whenever I remember the story often told by my mum of how my grandmother gave birth to seventeen children and lost 10 during and after the Biafra War, left with 7 children, I can't stop imagining how she did it, knowing how pregnancy can take a toll on a woman's health and giving birth for good seventeen times also catering for that number of children, to make it worst, she wasn't the only wife of my grandfather, he had other wives who also had many children, and if you think it is because he was probably royalty, far from that, those days the number of children they had equals to their influence, in the sense that the more children they had, the more hands they would have working on the farm, not that they had plans to train these children in school or skill, which is so bad, because from a very tender age, they are left to fend for themselves, and the circle continues, probably what led to the death of that number of children, but they would rather choose to blame witches and wizard.
I don't know about other tribes but in the eastern part of Nigeria giving birth to many children is a huge deal for them, you would think that the current economic crises would make some couples wiser but the reverse is the case, and the worst part is that the people that give birth to many children are usually the low or none income earners, they have none other activities than their wives to excite themselves, so the childbearing continues till the woman can't conceive anymore and when you talk to them about family planning, they feel like you've just mentioned the word poison and would rather forbid it and take the risk of bearing more innocent children to come and suffer, these are the children you find on the roadside begging, or sent to be a burden to different relatives or even strangers, in the end, they become a victim of sexual harassment, or become a menace to the society because they were not raised well and given the attention and care a child deserves. Sadly, my country doesn't have any policy that regulates the number of kids a family can have.
Should the government be involved in this matter
Oh yes, the government should, some countries have already succeeded in using this policy to control their population and also restore a seeming balance to their economic state, currently, Nigerians are facing terrible times, as the state of the economy keeps dwindling daily, with inflation not helping matters, food prices have shot up, same with every other basic life needs, now, even note than ever they should be strict on passing this law, at least for the sake of those yet unborn and also in helping the country seek balance, couples should be given a strict orientation before marriage about the number of kids they should have based on their finances and attention they can allocate in taking care of their children, I know we already have the government encouraging mothers in government hospitals to seek family planning options that suit their body types, they should be educated on how to keep a cycle calendar, monitor their body system, for some women, they use the natural family planning method and it works for them, if only they all couples are this educated and yield to what works for them rather than condemn whattttt they haven't even tried due to personal or religious belief, only them would there be positive changes regarding over population issue, and bearing children they can cater for therefore ease the nations economy snd make life easier for innocent little children.
Image 1 is mine
Image 2 is gotten from canva