On the 29th of June 2017, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) renewed its four year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed with the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, UNFPA, for the procurement of contraceptives in the country.

Yup, you read that right. The Nigerian government has been receiving heavily subsidised contraceptives from the UNFPA for the last four years as a way to help control the population explosion in the country, an explosion that the UN already suspects will lead to Nigeria’s population crossing the 300 million mark in 2050. Nigeria can barely handle its 200 million inhabitants as it is, and this aid from the UNFPA isn’t just important, it is vital not just for population but also the management of our underreported HIV and Hepatitis crises.

Why do we only hear about this occasionally when the MOU is being renewed? Why isn’t this literally everywhere?

We have heard of the almost ridiculous cases of corruption, like just last month when dates donated by the Saudi Arabian government to be distributed for free to the Bokom Haram affected Internally Displaced Persons camps (IDP’s) was cornered and sold for profit. Or was it the food aid from the United Nations that ended up in markets? How do we know that these contraceptives, which are supposed to be distributed freely across the country from 2017 to 2021 isn’t already being sold for profit?

Does anything work right in this country?

Editor