02-02 Nigeria - John Bulloch

A nation with an exploding population, Nigeria faces enormous pressures to feed, clothe and house its people. And to makes its problems more difficult, its educated professional class wants to emigrate. Lots of illegal immigrants have found a route to Italy via Libya.

At a world conference in Anaheim, California in 1978, I developed a friendship with an economic professor from the University of Lagos in Nigeria. He was also an advisor to one of the political parties preparing for the election of 1979.
I assumed this was a normal democratic process, but he said that if his party was not successful, he ran the danger of being assassinated. Well, his party came second but won all the ridings around the airport and major sea ports which saved his life.
He talked about the soaring population of Nigeria, which he said would be bigger than the US some day. A nation of 206 million people today with 250 tribes with different languages and culture. Some tribes, he explained, did not believe in birth control. Having children to them was a blessing from Allah.
He tried to explain the chaos of Lagos with such an exploding population. And all the problems associated with clothing, feeding and housing the population. It was his job as an economist to give advise to governments on solving this problem. His recommendation was to invest in education. Educate women and they will have less children.
He said he could call me in Canada by phone from the university but could not phone anyone locally. Instead of a local telephone system an army of kids on bicycles took messages around the town. I am sure Nigeria today is a more sophisticated nation technologically than it was in the late 1970s.
I had a particular interest in entrepreneurship at the time, and was interested in which cultures in Nigeria were the most entrepreneurial. Well it was the Igbo or Ibo population in Nigeria, which today has a population of about 40 million with another 30 million around the world. They operate most of the businesses in Nigeria and many have global interests.
The photo shows a group of Igbos with their distinctive clothing.
I taught at the Ryerson University in Toronto in the 1960s with a colleague from Nigeria. He told me he sent about a $1000 Canadian a month home to his family. Apparently today Nigerians around the world send home something like $22 billion US a year. So Nigerian emigration pays off.
It seems emigration, legal and illegal is one of the solutions to over population. Lots of Nigerians in Italy. The hot route for illegals from Nigeria was vis Libya until that way out was closed down.