AmanaOnline

I recently came across a powerful reflection titled “We Cannot Keep Birthing Into Scarcity.” Its central message stayed with me because, although written in the broader context of Northern Nigeria, it could almost have been written specifically about communities like Potiskum. It raises an uncomfortable but necessary question: are we producing children faster than we are producing the opportunities, resources and infrastructure needed to give them decent lives?

This is not an argument against children. Far from it. Children are our greatest responsibility and our greatest hope. But responsible parenthood also requires us to confront the economic reality in which our families are raising those children. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that population growth, when it is not accompanied by corresponding economic growth and investment, places enormous pressure on families and communities.

Look around Potiskum. Our population continues to grow, but the things that sustain that population have not kept pace. Our schools are under enormous pressure. Classrooms are overcrowded, learning resources are inadequate, teachers are stretched, and too many children are growing up without the quality education that can give them a fighting chance in an increasingly competitive world. We cannot continue to increase the number of children entering our schools without simultaneously increasing the number and quality of classrooms, teachers, learning materials and opportunities available to them.

The same reality exists in healthcare. Our hospitals and primary healthcare facilities are struggling to serve a population whose needs keep increasing. Maternal and child healthcare, access to medicines, qualified medical personnel and basic facilities remain serious concerns. Every additional family and every additional child adds to a healthcare system that is already under considerable pressure.

Then there is water. Clean, reliable and affordable water should be one of the most basic services in any community. Yet many households in Potiskum continue to struggle with dependable access to water. Where water is available, the cost can itself become a burden on already stretched household incomes. Water is not a luxury; it is fundamental to life, health, sanitation, agriculture and economic activity.

Electricity presents another enormous obstacle. We cannot build a modern local economy on unreliable electricity. Businesses spend scarce capital on generators and alternative sources of power. Households pay more simply to keep basic appliances running. Small businesses that should be creating employment instead spend a significant portion of their income trying to generate the electricity they need to remain open. For many people, electricity is either notoriously unreliable, prohibitively expensive or simply unavailable.

Our roads and transportation infrastructure add another layer to the problem. Poor roads increase the cost of almost everything—moving farm produce, transporting goods, getting children to school, reaching hospitals and doing business. A community cannot grow economically when its internal and external arteries are constantly compromised. When it costs too much to move people and goods, everyone ultimately pays the price.

And then comes the biggest question of all. where are the economic opportunities?
Where are the factories? Where are the industries? Where are the large-scale agricultural investments? Where are the processing plants that can turn our agricultural products into wealth? Where are the vocational and technical centres producing employable young people? Where are the businesses capable of absorbing the thousands of young men and women entering the labour market every year? This is where the population conversation becomes uncomfortable. Population by itself is not necessarily the problem. Population without corresponding investment is the problem.

Ten children growing up in a prosperous, educated and economically productive family are one thing. Ten children growing up in a household struggling to provide food, healthcare, education, clothing and shelter are another. And when thousands of such households exist within a community where infrastructure, employment and economic opportunities are already inadequate, the pressure becomes enormous.

We then complain about youth unemployment. We complain about insecurity. We complain about drug abuse. We complain about school dropouts. We complain about early marriage. We complain about poverty. We complain about migration. We complain about the decline of agriculture and the absence of meaningful opportunities for our young people.

But perhaps we need to step back and examine the entire equation. More people require more schools. More people require more hospitals. More people require more water. More people require more electricity. More people require more roads. More people require more food. More people require more jobs. More people require more housing and more economic opportunities. If these things do not grow alongside the population, the gap becomes poverty. And poverty eventually becomes desperation.

This is not about telling Potiskum families how many children to have. That is a deeply personal, cultural and religious matter. It is about encouraging responsible parenthood, child spacing, investment in education and a serious conversation about the economic realities facing our families. It is about asking ourselves a simple but profound question. Can I adequately feed, educate, clothe, protect and provide healthcare for the children I bring into this world? This is not an anti-child question. It is a question of responsibility.

But government has an equally important responsibility. We cannot tell families to plan while government fails to plan for the population. Government must count us. Government must plan for us. Government must invest in us. And our leaders must stop treating basic infrastructure as a luxury or as a favour to be bestowed upon communities.

Potiskum needs an integrated development conversation—not just politics, not just appointments, not just roads before elections, not just promises of electricity and not just occasional distribution of palliatives. We need to talk about water, electricity, healthcare, education, roads, agriculture, markets, small businesses, vocational skills, digital opportunities and industrial development as one connected economic system.

These things are not separate. Electricity powers businesses. Roads move people and goods. Water supports households and agriculture. Education produces skills. Healthcare protects human capital. Agriculture produces food and livelihoods. Industry creates employment. Employment reduces desperation and gives young people a stake in the future.

That is how a community develops. And this is why I believe the Potiskum Parliament must keep this conversation alive. We have always said that our platform is about Potiskum. Being about Potiskum means we must sometimes discuss uncomfortable issues—not merely the issues that are convenient, popular or politically safe. Our population is growing. Our resources are limited. Our infrastructure is inadequate. Our economic base remains weak. Our young people need opportunities. Our children deserve better. We cannot simply continue adding mouths to the table while leaving the table the same size. We must expand the table.

We must produce more food. We must create more jobs. We must build more schools. We must strengthen healthcare. We must secure reliable water. We must demand dependable electricity. We must improve our roads. We must support farmers and businesses. We must equip our young people with skills and create an environment in which enterprise can flourish.

And at the family level, we must encourage responsible parenthood and child spacing where appropriate and consistent with families’ values and faith. The objective should not simply be fewer children. The objective should be better opportunities for every child we bring into this world. A child should not enter this world already condemned to poverty simply because the society around him or her failed to plan. Every child deserves the opportunity to grow, learn, acquire skills, remain healthy and become a productive member of society.

That brings us back to the central message. Potiskum cannot afford to be merely a growing population. We must become a growing economy. We must move from simply counting how many of us we are to asking what kind of society we are building for all of us.

Let us count our people. Let us count our resources. Let us count our needs. Let us count the opportunities we are creating—or failing to create. And then let us ask the most important question. Are we building the Potiskum our growing population deserves? If the answer is NO, then the time to begin changing the equation is now.

Hf Dauda MoiSoro
_September 20, 2026_