By Chibuike Nwabuko
ABUJA FCT – As Nigeria joins the global community to celebrate this year’s World Population Day (WPD), Peter Obi has said that opportunity such as this, provides us with the opportunity to review our population issues about development and see how to leverage our huge population, especially the youths, to drive development throughout the nation.
The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25, 2023 general election who stated this on Thursday on his X account, said as the most populous country in Africa and the 6th most populous country in the world, Nigeria remains blessed in human resources, which when fully explored through investments in the 3 most critical areas of human development: health, education and fighting poverty, the country will experience tremendous transformation and development.
The former Ananbra state governor who disclosed this in a statement on Thursday said:
“Today, we join the global community in commemorating World Population Day. It is a day that reminds us all of the need to address very germane issues of harnessing our population to engender development in the nation.
“As the most populous country in Africa and the 6th most populous country in the world, Nigeria remains blessed in human resources, which when fully explored through investments in the 3 most critical areas of human development: health, education and fighting poverty, the country will experience tremendous transformation and development.
“! Nigeria today, with more than half of the population falling within the productive age bracket of 15 to 64 years, we are reported to have the highest youth population in the world.
“However, challenges of leadership failure have continued to keep our teeming youthful population unproductive, thereby slowing our journey from consumption to production.
“Because we the leaders have not shown commitment to investing in health, education and supporting MSMEs, poverty, crime, unemployment, and inflation, have all remained on the increase while life expectancy, literacy rate, and per capita income have remained on the decrease.
This day, therefore, provides us with the opportunity to review our population issues about development and see how to leverage our huge population, especially the youths, to drive development throughout the nation.
“This we can do by prioritizing their health, and education and supporting their small businesses. By so doing, we will not just have a huge population, but we will take pride in our productive population contributing, in many ways, to the development of the nation.
Precise Post recalls that World Population Day is celebrated on July 11th of every year. It was established by the United Nation (UN) in 1989 and the idea was inspired by the world population reaching five billion on July 11, 1987, prompting Dr. KC Zachariah, a senior demographer at the World Bank, to suggest marking the occasion as World Population Day.
