Population explosion liability to girl-child education, says Tijani

A Professor of French and Applied Linguistics, Mufutau Tijani, has disclosed that population expansion is a liability to girl-child education.

Prof. Tijani was the Keynote Speaker at a Conference organized by the French Embassy in partnership with French Institute in Nigeria with the theme, ‘Demographic Dynamics and the Challenges of School Enrollment in Nigeria: Doing More for A Better Nigeria.’

Prof. Tijani noted that looking at the population of Nigeria, it is the largest in Africa and 6th in the World.

“The United Nations has been making projections that in some years to come, Nigeria will be the third largest country in the world which is alarming. It is an emergency. When there is over population, there are many negative impacts on society. The girl-child is always at the receiving end of it. The increase in population will create more demands for education without seeing the need to take the girl-child along.

“In most areas, girls are denied access to education. Due to some religious and cultural beliefs, some people still don’t allow their girls to go to school. Imagine, we are 224 million; by the time we become 330 million, those girls who don’t go to school will end up getting married at a very tender age, and they start procreating amid dependency and poverty, adding to the increasing population. Population increases demand.

“Population explosion is a liability to girl-child education. Family Planning should be enforced to curb this population increase. There is need to put in place, legislation and enforce them. The government also needs to put in place, sustainable programs, like giving incentives to parents to motivate their girls to go to school”, he said.

In his remarks, the representative of UNICEF, Jutaro Sakamoto, said that UNICEF was committed to improving education for the girl-child.

“In UNICEF, we have been involved in states like Adamawa, Kastina and many more to ensure that girls are allowed to go to school. We have succeeded in making sure that there are seven girls in every 10 boys who go to school. 23,655 girls have benefited from cash transfers, small grants that enable girls to enroll and stay in school and complete basic education.”

Also, the Director, French Institute in Nigeria, Judikael Regnaut, reiterated the institute’s commitment to creating awareness programs.

He said: “Education is key to Nigeria and also to the world. We intend to host more of this kind of conference in this institute to raise consciousness about key topics, and after, we can translate it to support. We are very involved in higher education programs and creating profitable partnerships.”