When I heard a child’s cry recently, I was jolted. I was so surprised that I made enquiries as to where the child was. I wanted to know who the child was-I heard the cry for several days-it came occasionally like when he needed something, always a short outburst or whimper. My guess was a very young child who was not up to one year.

“I think he is that woman’s baby…” I was informed. The woman in question was a regular guest in the next compound. I was familiar with the voice, but I rarely saw her, so I did not know that she was ever pregnant and had given birth.

But why would something as common as a baby’s cry or the sound of a newborn be such a surprise?”It was to me, especially because I heard not heard the sound of a newborn child so close to me for quite some time. The last I heard was about four years ago and, at that time, it looked as if there were many children at the same time.

In one house at the back of the house, were three children born of the same parents from ages six to one year-old. The one-year-old was born in that house; I heard when he was born and heard his cries, his attempt at speech and I knew when the mother decided that he had grown strong enough to be taken outside to stay with her and the senior siblings who were both girls. The celebration of his first birthday was a huge party. It was a Sunday afternoon and I had a lot of chuckle at the jokes and fun.

The family moved away soon after the party. When they left, another family of three children replaced them; the children were also of the same ages as the previous one. They had just one son as the other family and two daughters. But the boy was their first child unlike the previous family where the boy was the youngest. The youngest of this particular couple was a girl who, although was not born in the compound, but was three months old when they came there. Unconsciously, I monitored these people and followed the baby’s progress. I knew when she turned one year, too, and was amazed at how fast she developed. She spoke early and clearly. Little Sara, that was her name. She started nursery school and she had just turned two when the whole family went abroad.

In the building to their left was a woman, who was not only their neighbor, but a very close friend; she had a two-year-old son and one-month-old daughter-they too were on their way abroad; they left too.
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In yet another compound, one woman had twins.Why did I pay so much attention to these families? It is because I found the children’s innocence so refreshing. But the hard work of bringing them up was not lost on me as I knew how difficult it was to get some of them up to prepare for school or even getting them to eat the food prepared for them.

For example, there was this compound on the left hand side with four children, all of school age. Mornings were interesting and rarely without event. Commotion, there was on most mornings; “Mummy! Mummy! He has taken my socks. Nooo! I don’t want biscuit. Give me my capr-i-s-o-n-e. No, I don’t want that M-u-m-m-y!!!”

Even without being there, you knew that it was difficult to get one of them to bath. But with promises, threats and cajoling, they always managed to get him ready. They are grown up and in higher school now.

So when I began to hear another child about three years ago, I paid attention. She cried a lot and she could be said to be the closest to me of all of them. She matured very fast, too, and I knew when she began to speak. As she grew older, she cried less and became one adorable girl. She is four-years-old now and you could only hear her singing most of the time although when she cries it jangles the nerves because she throws all her efforts and whatever is annoying fully into her tears.

So, apart from her who could be called the last of all these children, I had not heard of another baby, unless you could speak of Hajia my friend who gave birth around April- but she stays right at the beginning of the street.

When I heard this cry, therefore, I became interested because that was when I realized that I had not been where they cried at any hour at all.But is it so in other places? I have been wondering if somebody has had the same line of thought. We see pregnant women all the time, but I was thinking that perhaps fewer babies are being born these days? If this is anywhere nearer correct, then this country may face population problem in the future because of these factors I have been thinking about. . The present generation of men and women appear not quite ready to take the plunge because of obvious reasons like finance.

. Insurgency up North; many lives that have been lost
. Military action in the Niger Delta region
. Nigerian men out-number the women and men cannot give birth on their own.

But how do we confirm this really? We remembered that in 1992, at the celebration of the Year of the Family, that an official of the United Nations Population Agency (UNFPA) gave what he called the world population clock to then Minister of Health, Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti. According to the official the clock announced every birth given by the minute.
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It was with this in mind that we visited the website of the National Population Commission. What we saw there might mean that babies are born by the second in this country. We were there at about 2:00pm on October 6. When we logged on, their birth metre said that 4,951 births had been recorded as of that time. But within the few seconds that my eyes were glued to their meter, mouth agape, it showed 4,995 births.

One other thing that took us to the website was the need to confirm that the number of men were still higher according to what the 2006 census said; the men were still higher than the women in number; they outnumber by 1,026 to 1,000 women. The NPC says that males make up 50.06 per cent of the population while the women are 44.4 per cent. My thinking was that this could explain why I have not taken note of a new baby very close to where I stay. Now I think that the babies are quieter, due to improved parenting methods.

Still, one thinks that with military exercises, insurgency, restiveness or whatever names they call behaviours that cause needless loss of lives, that depopulation should not take us unawares.
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