Slow down in giving birth to many children - Rawlings to Ghanaians

Former president Jerry John Rawlings is warning population explosion in Ghana could derail the country’s development if immediate steps are not taken to check it.

He has consequently underscored the need for Ghanaians to consider family planning as the surest way to stemming the country’s population growth.

Ghana’s population per the country’s Statistical Service, was 27.9 million in 2015 with a projected annual population growth rate of 2.5 percent.

An estimated figure from the United Nations Population Division puts the country’s population at 28,616,129 as of Sunday, June 11, 2017, which is equivalent to 0.38 per cent of the world’s population.

This situation, according to the former president Rawlings, is due to lack of family planning among Ghanaians, expressing fears it has the tendency to impede the country’s development efforts.

“One of the things that undermine our development is the lack of serious family planning. No matter what we do, no matter how hard we work if we do not do something about family planning it will keep undermining our attempt to develop,” he said.

He said this while addressing hundreds of National Democratic Congress’ supporters at a rally in Ashaiman on Saturday as part of activities marking the party’s 25th anniversary.

Former President Rawlings the population explosion is evident in people’s home hence expect them to also see same, saying “You can see it right in your homes your ability or capacity to be able to feed your children, to cloth your children, to pay their school fees and others.

“This kind of situation is transmitted onto the community society and unto the nation” which he observed has led to streetism in the country with children seen engaged in hawking in order to survive.

“When I see the children all over the place, the way they sweat it out in the street trying to sell just so they can survive it’s so difficult. Every Friday I have to look for money when I’m passing so I can give to them for the weekend.

It’s serious,” he said. He charged Ghanaians to “think about it,” and advised the people to practice safe sex saying “Let’s do it safely; the means to do safe sex has always been there”.