Communication Policies for Population Control: Nigeria in the African Context

Abstract

Nigerians are worried about the inability of their country's economy to support an annual population growth rate of 3·3 per cent, not least because of the persistent decline in agricultural productivity, and the inadequacy of current ad hoc measures in stabilising the situation.There is, of course, increasing international awareness of the intractable economic and social woes associated with uncontrolled population growth. More important still, there is now considerable interest in devising effective policies and measures for controlling population, and these include the implementation of massive public-education programmes. In Tanzania in January 1984 the Second African Population Conference called on the member-states of the U.N. Economic Commission of Africa ‘to ensure the availability and accessibility of family planning services to all couples or individuals seeking services freely or at subsidized prices‘.2 Implicit in these proposals is the need to develop national communication policies on population issues.