Population growth in Ghana
I was extremely shocked to learn that in 1950, the population of Ghana was
virtually at par with Denmark. According to Leticia Adelaide Appiah of the
National Population Council, “In 1950 the population of Denmark and Ghana
were 4,267,693 and 5,077,595 respectively.” Amazingly, “In 2023, the
population of Denmark is 5,882, 261 and that of Ghana is over 31 million.”
If my mathematics is correct, then, in the last seventy-three (73) years, the
population of Ghana has increased by five-hundred and ten percent (510.52%)
whereas the population of Denmark has increased by 37% over the same period.
What has accounted for this gargantuan difference in population growth between
the two countries?
In my opinion, the main difference is our inability to effectively check the
growth of our population. It looks as if Ghana is one of the countries that
have strictly adhered to the directive given by God in Genesis 1:28 which
states that “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.
Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground”.
I think we have been so engrossed in the idea of multiplication that we have virtually relegated the aspect of taking dominion over our environment to the background. However, I do not believe that a loving God will command us to do something that will cause us to become impoverished as a people. Therefore, this command could mean much more than unchecked procreation. It means prospering in all our endeavours and excelling in all aspects of life.
Growing up, we were socialized into a society that values childbirth so much
that, even in professed Christian societies, the end of getting a child always
justifies the means. I am not saying it is unacceptable to give birth.
However, giving birth the right way is what I am trying to promote. What do
I mean by giving birth the right way? In my uninitiated knowledge of
population issues, giving birth when one is ready to take full and absolute
responsibility for the child and their upbringing is the best helpful way. Is
child birth in itself so great an achievement to solve the problems of our
society?
One thing that marvels me so much is the ability of people at the bottom of
the socioeconomic scale to specialize in reproduction so much so that they
tend to equate this to the blessing of God. Does God bless us with a gift that
could become a ‘burden’ for us? Or is God so disorganized to force ‘blessings’
on us who will later turn out to be ‘street children’ and ‘criminals’ in our
society? Again, can a God who prepares the ‘Garden of Eden’ before creating
humans allow us to produce ‘homeless’ and ‘vagabond’ people into the
world?
In Ghana, I have observed two scenarios. Person A, who is a well-educated
woman with a decent life, who is financially self-reliant, and contributes
significantly to national development in various capacities, is disregarded,
maligned and stigmatized due to her lack of a child (whether intentional or
unintentional). Person B, a teenager who is yet to complete senior high
school, gets pregnant for another teenager and gives birth to twins though
she is unprepared for such a responsibility, is respected and praised and
seen as “blessed by God with twins.” With this line of reasoning, could we
say Person A is cursed by God?
The people in the above paragraph, though hypothetical, present an
overview of our mindset as a people and why we have not been able to make
much economic progress. Unfortunately, Person B’s twin girls received poor
care and also became pregnant in their teens, perpetuating the teenage
pregnancy in their lineage.
Objective readers will bear with me that this analogy seem more real than fictitious. The entire society is woven around childbirth and so the more children one has the greater the respect they garner. Is it not worrying that we have outgrown all our systems?
From electricity to water and dormitories, from basic school desks to classrooms
and textbooks, we seem to always have a deficit of everything.
It is true that adolescent reproductive health education has not been very
efficient and effective in the past, it is also true that the same cultural
barriers that make ARH education unattractive, promotes any childbirth over
responsible childbirth. The same culture that rewarded our grandmothers for
giving birth to ten or more children, is the same system that is hindering our
economic development by placing undue pressure on all our systems.
In the past, childhood mortality was high due to lack of access to health
facilities. Therefore, it was common to see extremely large family sizes with
parents nurturing the thought that even if they lose some of their children to
death, they would still get some remaining. In this current era where there is
pressure on all the facilities and systems, it is incomprehensible for people to
raise large families in this country. Family planning is not evil, it is not
ungodly, nature plans for everything. It is just unfortunate that we have not
been able to grasp the relationship between population and development.
I have realized that the high dependency ratio we are witnessing, is an
outcome of unplanned childbirths. We cannot continue to perpetuate poverty
through teenage pregnancy, unchecked childbirth in families and cultural
practices that promote unnecessary population growth.
Let us remember that raising high quality humans will make our society
better than raising high number of people in suboptimal conditions that will
yield unproductive and ‘substandard’ citizens.
Yes, God takes care of children. However, “Heaven helps those who help
themselves” and so we cannot leave our population growth to chance.
