Nigeria Fertility Rates :: Fertility Rate Africa Nigerian Essays

Nigeria Fertility Rates The fertility rates in Nigeria are high because of Nigerian resistance toward family planning. Strangely, African maternal mortality rates are also the highest in the world. Nigeria, on the South Atlantic coast is one of the typical rural-based countries of Africa. It is generally lower in terms of education and income when compared to the rest of the world. Nigeria is also one of the leading populated countries of Africa with one-fourth of the Sub-Saharan African population. The country has contributed greatly to Africa's fertility rise and the continent as a whole claims up to twelve percent of the world's population, which is comparable to its nine percent population density in 1950 (Caldwell, 1990, 118) Many researchers connect Africa's economical and educational standings to the continents high fertility rates. However, this hypothesis was proven wrong by a comparison study done on the two continents of Africa and Asia. Both had similar social and economic numbers, but today Asia's economy has grown more than Africa's, and Asia's fertility rates have declined more than a third since the 1980s. As a result of these studies many researchers now say that the reason for high fertility rates in the world is among the lifestyles of the people. Nigerian lifestyle is commonly rural and less industrialized than that of the rest of the world (Caldwell, 1990, 118). Not surprisingly, the introduction of family planning to African countries such as Nigeria started out slowly. At a world population conference in Bucharest in 1974, most African governments cautiously took direction toward national population programs. Only a few countries supported such programs; Nigeria was not among them. Ten years later, at a conference in Mexico City, most African Nations supported family planning. The Nigerian government set president and now encourages women to limit themselves to four children; other countries throughout the continent are doing likewise (Caldwell, 1990, 123). Although Nigeria was one of the first to try directly controlling the number of children a couple should have, it is still struggling with family planning. Like most African governments, the Nigerian government is a little apprehensive to create a population control program, much less one similar to China's. This is due to their fear of inflicting on the views of fertility issues. Nigerian views are somewhat different; they are centered on beliefs and religious practices that are strange to the modernized world (Caldwell, 1990, 121).