Fashola Advocates Conscious Steps To Control World Population

The 17th Conference of the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO) kicked off in Lagos on Tuesday with the State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), advocating conscious steps to slow down population growth in the country.

Speaking at the opening of the three-day Conference flagged off by his Edo State counterpart, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, with the theme: “Seeing beyond today: Enhance the quality of life”, Governor Fashola said there was no way quality of life could be enhanced now or “beyond today” if there is no conscious effort to stem the increase in the population of the people, arguing that if life is difficult for those already here, there was no guarantee of a better life for those coming in future.

He told the congregation of prominent women including past and present first ladies of the State and from other states across the country, “There are a few things we must do if we must see beyond today and if we truly seek to enhance the quality of life locally and globally. First is that I believe that we can have a better world if we choose it. It must be a conscious choice. We can reduce the number of the world’s population who live in abject poverty”.

Giving the reason he chose to bring up the issue at a Women’s Conference, Governor Fashola said, “People have felt uncomfortable to discuss it. They say it is un-African. But the truth is that poverty is blind to where you come from. Hunger knows no ethnic bounds. So, the earlier we talk about it, the earlier we take decisions about it, the better off we will be”.

“A woman once said, and I agree with her, that women are half of the world’s population and they are responsible for bringing the other half to the world. So I thought to myself what better place to discuss this than at a women’s conference because you have the yam and you have the knife”.

He continued, “In 1970, London had an estimated population of about 8.5 million people. Around the same time, Lagos had about 1.4 million people. Today, the city of London has dropped marginally to 8.1 million people; Lagos has grown to 21 million people”.

The Governor argued that this constitutes one of the strong reasons to begin to consider slowing down, adding: “Is our land growing? Are our water resources increasing? Those are the resources we need to sustain life and I think that the point, therefore, is made”.

Governor Fashola said another way to “march out of poverty and march into prosperity” was to plan well adding, “one of the tools of planning is measurement and one of the strategies for measurement is the Lagos State Residents Registration programme that we have initiated”.

“Let us know how many we are. Let us know what status we are, let us know how many children are amongst us, let us know how many elderly people are in our midst, how many people have jobs and how many do not have. It is only in that way that we can plan to address each and everybody’s aspirations because we can measure it and if we can measure it, we can manage it”, the Governor said.

The Governor also urged the women to embrace and propagate the culture of conservation, especially energy and water resources pointing out that it is the only way to ensure that the resources are sustainable.