Nigeria’s high fertility rate—estimated at 5.3 births per woman—places the country among the world’s most prolific. This rate, which measures the number of children born alive to women each year relative to the average annual population of women of the same age, is linked to a range of social challenges, including insecurity, banditry, under‑employment, and high maternal and infant mortality.
Dr. Ejike Orji, chairman of the Association for the Advancement of Family Planning, warned that the burgeoning youth population fuels insecurity. “We have this youthful bulge where 72 percent of the population is under the age of 30. They don’t have jobs, so they can easily be recruited as bandits, kidnappers, religious bigots, ethnic bigots and unscrupulous politicians,” he said. Orji noted that 18.5 million children are out of school, leading many young people—both skilled and unskilled—to emigrate in search of better conditions. The resulting vacuum contributes to the rise of armed robbers, kidnappers and bandits across the country.
Prof. Oladapo Ladipo, president of the Association for Reproductive and Family Health, echoed these concerns, describing the negative effects of overpopulation as manifesting in insecurity. “When you have the nexus of overpopulation, under‑employment, inequity, what you have is a growth of radicalism and banditry, and that is what we have now,” he explained. Ladipo called for “qualitative reproduction, not quantitative reproduction”—having a number of children that can be adequately cared for and educated. He criticized “reckless reproduction,” which has produced many certificate‑holding graduates (“almajiris”) without jobs, and stressed that the government is overwhelmed: hospital bed space and educational institutions are insufficient for the rapidly growing youth population.
The experts agree that expanding free maternal health services and increasing funding for family planning could lower both the fertility rate and maternal mortality. Nigeria’s maternal mortality rate remains among the highest globally, at an estimated 512 deaths per 100,000 live births, far short of the Sustainable Development Goal target of reducing the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births.
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