Family Planning as an Agent of Population Reduction in Nigeria: Addressing the Increase in Population
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are;
- To enlighten the public on the meaning of family planning.
- To examine the family planning facilities available
- To examine the benefit of family planning to Nigeria as a country to oneself.
- To identify the barriers attached to the use of family planning.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
CAUSES OF OVER POPULATION
It has already been stated in this work that due to improved medicare in Nigeria since the 1960’s birthrate has far outweighed death rate, thereby causing population explosion. But this is not the only cause of increase in population, other factors are:
Cultural values/beliefs: In many cultures in Nigeria a man is rated and respected based on the number of children he has notwithstanding if he has the resources to take care of them. Also in rural communities in Nigeria children are regarded as source of labour in the home and farm. So, the more children a man has the more helpers he has to take care of his domestic and farm work. In the Nigerian society male offspring’s are more highly valued than females for a variety of reasons which leads to the common practice of continuous child birth in an attempt to have male children.
Religion
Religion has played a prominent role in the increase of population in Nigeria. The Islamic religion in Nigeria promotes large families with the encouragement of early marriage and polygamous family system. The Christian religion in turn prohibits the most effective forms of contraception and most are anti-abortion (Orama, 2006).
Lack of Education
The lack of education especially as related to population education, sex education, the lowering of infant mortality and birthrates has contributed so much to population problems in Nigeria. Women who married early have children all their productive years because they do not know 5 what measures they could take to stop bearing children. Likewise, young ladies who engage in illicit sex also get pregnant and have children who contribute to the over flow. All these are possible because they have not received any instruction on sex education and the adverse effect of over population.
Old Age Social Security
In Nigeria children are seen as support for their parents at old age. Due to this belief, a man is supposed to have many children so that he will not be stranded in his old age.
EFFECT OF OVER POPULATION
Rapid population growth has economic, social and political effects and it also interacts with public education, health and welfare, and the quality of environment in which people live (Adewole, 2012). According to Ehrlich (1968) over population has been blamed for a variety of issues including poverty, high unemployment rate, environmental degradation, famine and genocide. Due to population explosion the resources of a country cannot satisfy the populace anymore. That is why many people struggle for very few available resources, for example during the post UME Examination at Imo State University, Owerri in the 2012/13 session more than 54 thousand candidates were competing for admission positions meant for about 6 thousand students (IMSU Fact Sheet).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to family planning as an agent of population reduction of the increase population in Nigeria
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information on family planning as an agent of population reduction of the increase population in Nigeria. 200 selected residents in Enugu communities, Enugu state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain family planning as an agent of population reduction of the increase population in Nigeria. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of family planning as an agent of population reduction of the increase population in Nigeria
Summary
This study was on family planning as an agent of population reduction of the increase population in Nigeria. Four objectives were raised which included: To enlighten the public on the meaning of family planning, to examine the family planning facilities available, to examine the benefit of family planning to Nigeria as a country to oneself, to identify the barriers attached to the use of family planning. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 selected residents in Enugu communities, Enugu state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made married men, civil servants, youths and women were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
The question of whether a government has the right to interfere with the freedom of an individual to choose the number of offspring, by either increasing or reducing the population, and or a donor(s) who exerts pressure on developing nations to put into place population control programs lies heavily on ethical, socio-cultural, economic and moral values that surrounds the acceptance and or rejection of contraceptive methods. Family planning and population control programs should invest on examining ethical issues in depth and set ethical guidelines known to the public about the family planning and population control so as to educate and inform the people and thus avoid what can be considered as unnecessary ethical dilemma and conflict. The main interest of population control is to reduce the burden on the already stretched resources such as land, money, water etc. Better mechanisms should be adopted to tackle the burden on economic and limited resources. Resources as they are currently are not equally distributed. By doing so, the individual will have more time to dedicate to their children the society will benefit as a whole due to lowered infant mortality and reduced use of resources.
Recommendation
It is important that while trying to achieve the positive goods brought about by family planning at individual and societal levels, on the other hand, the freedom justice and values of these same individuals and societies should be protected.
REFERENCES
- Agadjanian, V., & Hayford, S. R. (2009). PMTCT, HAART, and childbearing in Mozambique: an institutional perspective. AIDS Behav, 13 Suppl 1, 103-112. doi: 10.1007/s10461-009- 9535-0
- Berelson B, J. L. (1979). Government Efforts to Influence Fertility: The Ethical Issues. . Population and Development Review, 5(No. 4), 581 – 613.
- Humphries, V. (2013). The Policy Implications of Family Planning as a Human Right. Retrieved from http://www.africaportal.org/blogs/community-practice/policy-implications-familyplanning-human-right
- Kaler, A. (2004). The Moral Lens of Population Control: Condoms and Controversies in Southern Malawi. Studies in Family Planning, 35(2), 105-115. doi: 10.1111/j.1728- 4465.2004.00012.x
- Rust, D. L. (2010). The Ethics of Controlling Population Growth in the Developing World. Intersect, 3(Number 1).
- Srikanthan, A., & Reid, R. L. (2008). Religious and Cultural Influences on Contraception. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada, 30(2), 129 – 137.
- Warwick, P. D. (1974). Ethics and Population Control in Developing Countries. The Hastings Center Report, 4(No. 3), 1 – 4.
- WHO. (2012). Addressing the Challenge of Women’s Health in Africa Report of the Commission on Women’s Health in the African Region. WHO Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo: World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa
- Bongaarts, J., (2009). Human Population Growth and the Demographic Transition. Philosophical Transactions:Biological Sciences, 346, 2985-2990.
