Says Northern Govs.’ll begin talks on birth rate
Plateau State governor, Caleb Mutfwang, has warned that the 19 northern States in Nigeria are sitting on a time bomb due to the regions explosive birth rate.
Mutfwang, who made the disclosure while speaking on a television programme on Tuesday, revealed that the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) will soon begin discussions on the issue.
The Governor expressed concern that the lack of infrastructure for human capital development of the youth bulge in the region may escalate banditry and terrorism.
He also attributed the disruption of the recent #EndBadGovernance protests in the state to external elements.
Mutfwang criticised the northern elite for failing to take responsibility for the region’s young population, allowing criminally-minded individuals to control and indoctrinate them into insurgency and banditry.
According to him, We dont have an option. At this point, we must take the bull by the horn. I am pretty sure that a lot of the northern elite do not have their children on the streets; they send their children to elite schools, locally and internationally.
If that is the situation, it is not so much about how many children you give birth to, but that we must be able to put measures in place that: if you give birth to children, you must take responsibility for those children. It must be a carrot-and-stick strategy that well put in place.
I dont want to say: ‘this is the maximum number of children you must have’. That is a dialogue that is beyond me; but I can assure you that from the NGF, we are going to initiate this dialogue. We are going to make sure that we broaden it to a national consultation.
We must know that religion has a responsibility to society; we must ensure that religion does not become a setback to society. We must then be able to bring religious leaders in tandem with global realities.
