Nigeria’s population projected to hit 411 million

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Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari has said that the prospect of Nigeria hitting 411 million in population was a frightening one especially if nothing is done about it, Punch reports.

Buhari said this during his address at the two-day retreat for cabinet members on Monday.

He said, “We are all aware of the looming demographic potential of our country. By average estimates, our population is close to 200 million today. By 2050, UN estimates put Nigeria third globally behind only India and China with our projected population at 411 million.

“This is a frightening prospect but only if we sit idly by and expect handouts from so-called development partners. The solution to our problems lies within us.”

According to the report, Buhari was however reported to have said that positive steps have been taken and results were already in.

He said, “Honourable Ministers-Designate, in our first term we identified three salient areas for close attention and action, namely to secure the country, to improve the economy and to fight corruption.

“None but the most partisan will dispute that we have made headway in all three areas:

“First – we have rolled back the frontiers of terrorism; we are actively addressing other challenges such as kidnappings, farmer-herder violence, improving the safety of our roads, railways, air traffic and fire control capacities.

“Second – we are steadily turning the economy round through investment in agriculture and manufacturing, shoring up our foreign reserves, curbing inflation and improving the country’s infrastructure.

“Third – on corruption, we have recovered hundreds of billions of stolen assets and are actively pursuing control measures to tackle leakages in public resources. We will not let up in fighting corruption.”