Rising population may escalate insurgency, Sanusi warns

Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, yesterday said that insurgency might escalate if the country’s population is not checked.

Sanusi, who cautioned that failure of the government to find lasting solution to the growing demography of the country might expose the nation to more grievous insurgency than the dreaded Boko Haram.

Speaking at the opening of national conference on insurgency and the Boko Haram phenomenon in Nigeria, the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor noted that with the projected population of 100 million youths in Nigeria in the next 20 years, Boko Haram would be child’s play, if the nation’s population were not controlled.

“The population of Nigeria in 1960 was 45 million, today it is about 200 million. The medium age is 19 and in the next 20 years, we are going to have 100 million Nigerians between the ages of 20 and 40. What will they do? Is the civil service going to employ them? Is the banking industry going to employ them?

“If you want to have a sense of what 100 million is, Germany is the third largest economy in the world and the population of Germany is 85 million. Nigeria is going to have a population of 100 million youths in the next 20 years.

“If we do not build our economy and address our demography explosion, especially in the north east, Boko Haram will be child’s play in another 20 years,” Sanusi lamented.