Why Nigeria's population should matter to its next President

The views expressed in this article are those of this guest author and do not reflect the views of Stears.

When it comes to elections in Nigeria, population is the elephant in the room. You can go through an entire campaign season and not hear a single word about Nigeria’s population or birth rate. Yet this is, without exaggerating, the one issue that will determine Nigeria’s viability and liveability as a country in the medium to long term.

But I get it.

It is difficult to talk about population in Nigeria and anywhere in the world. And there are two broad reasons why.

Firstly, no one seems to have the population (or population growth) they want, so why bother? Everyone seems to think their population is too large (Nigeria) or too small (Russia) or growing too fast (Niger), or shrinking at an alarming rate (South Korea).

Once you convince yourself