The worlds’ growing population has been a cause for concern for decades now, with Africa being the biggest contributor. Countries such as China have used state controlled birth control as means to maintain the number of births each year. But this method is going to be the first in Africa if Nigeria passes the law.

Last week President Goodluck Jonathan said people were having too many children, and went on to back birth control measures. He said Legislation and policies aimed at controlling the number of births might be considered in the near future. He said he had asked the National Population Commission to inform people about birth control before taking the issue further.

He said that in particular, uneducated people were having too many children, and urged people to only have as many children as they could afford.

The United Nations has estimated that the population of Nigeria could grow from 160m to 400m by 2050.

Jonathan was quoted as saying: "Both Christians and Muslims, and even traditionalist and all the other religions, believe that children are God's gifts to man.

"So it is difficult for you to tell any Nigerian to number their children because... it is not expected to reject God's gifts."
The President noted that Nigeria would not be the first country to make laws controlling population and religious belief should not be a tool to frustrate good policy.

Do you think people should be told how many children they should or should not have?

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