By Etim Etim

Instead of tackling this globally embarrassing problem, northern political leaders are more interested in boosting population growth by offering the poor all-expense paid weddings.

The urge to control power and be in public office is stronger than the need to enhance the welfare of their people. But a poverty-stricken and poorly educated population is less likely to take care of its offspring; thus perpetuating a vicious circle of poverty and dragging the rest of the society back.

Without skills, education and future prospects, they are easily recruited into terrorist groups; kidnap and robbery gangs. They do not work; don’t pay taxes, but rely solely on alms and government handouts.

Some drift southwards where they take to menial jobs in big cities; constituting themselves into social menace and security risks. This is the problem of Northern Nigeria, which has become the Nigerian crisis. Mass weddings are a clear example of how a government’s welfare programme could be counterproductive.

Nigeria has one of the highest fertility rates (number of births per woman) in the world. As of 2022, it was 5.14 per woman. It is far higher in the North, with some states like Katsina hitting 7.4; and lower in the South, as low as 3.2 in some Southern States, according to the economist. The import of this disparity between the two regions is obvious.

While one region is far more economically progressive, the other seems to be travelling back in time. A 7.4 fertility rate is higher than what the global rate was in the 1800s! Nigeria’s population is growing quite rapidly, faster than GDP’s three percent growth rate.

Income levels are also very low in the country. A recent report by McKinsey & Company, an international consulting firm, stated that less than one million Nigerians in both government and private sectors earn up to one million naira per month. Our huge population therefore does not necessarily translate into a big consumer market with more than 70 per cent of the population living in multidimensional poverty.

Northern Nigeria underperforms the south in almost all indices: per capita income; employment; school enrolment; WAEC performance; poverty rates and many others. The conventional wisdom in many parts of the world is that no young man seeks to marry and start a family until he has a means of livelihood.

In recent times, a few northern leaders like Governor Sule of Nassarawa state have admitted publicly that the region has failed in its basic responsibilities to the citizens.

Speaking in Lafia at a conference on population dynamics, security, climate change, out-of-school and vulnerable children last November, Sule said it was time for the north to address the challenges of the almajiri system. “The almajiri problem is indeed a huge issue for us. It’s time we stopped complaining and took the bull by the horns to solve it,” he said. He attributed the persistence of the almajiri problem to systemic failures and the neglect of parental responsibilities.

Mass weddings have not helped the north. Rather, it has perpetuated poverty and it’s time to modify it. One way of doing this is to train the would-be couples in any trade of their choice; give them grants for take-off and offer to sponsor the weddings of only those who can fend for themselves.

In that case, mass weddings would become incentives for economic empowerment rather than a tool for subjugation.

Etim is a public affairs commentator