On Monday, the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) in its 2019 state of the world population report, said Nigeria’s population has hit a new high of 201 million. Quickly, the government in the capacity of the National Population Commission (NPC) dismissed the report and said it was a ”mere assumption.” 

I’m not surprised by the government’s inclination to invalidate the finding. It’s something familiar and routinely done, especially when international or external bodies conduct research or surveys that puts Nigeria in the negative. Nigeria’s population was previously 190m as at 2017, but the UNFPA report should not surprise anyone. With rampant illiteracy on contraception, cultural and religious norms that enforces male-child preference and procreation, and the very limited resources and infrastructure, Nigeria is precariously on the brink of a catastrophic population crisis.

That said, we can’t overstate the glaringly obvious element at play here: straight Nigerians are the demographic causing a swell in population via reproduction, despite being overwhelmingly and virulently homophobic with the warped narrative that decriminalizing homosexuality would lead to the downfall of society. Although moving at a glacier pace, society is already headed towards a downfall.

One of the popular arguements against homosexuality is that gay people can’t procreate, which has been mainly used to justify and rationalise LGBTQ marginalisation. But Nigeria, at the moment, is an overpopulated country wherein straight people still go about reproducing, inexorably moving the country to a crisis point. Overpopulation is an existential threat to everyone, including gay people. And while tackling this imminent crisis would involve literacy on contraception and eradication of poverty, it’s worth mentioning that straight Nigerians are decimating society via their ignorance and bigotry.

Alexander Onukwue