Giant_and_Dwarf-FIN

Continent of Gigantic ProblemsObviously this reasoning assumes that the governments of Nigeria, Ethiopia and theCongo are not only able to frame rational national population policy, but also to enforcethem among their citizens. It would require governments that are sufficiently free from religiousideologies, free from ethnic championships in the sadly popular competition “whichis the more numerous tribe?” and of course, strong enough to motivate desirable behavior,whether by incentives or penalties. The Chinese government has all this. African governments—andIndian too—do not command such influence and power over their people,despite the fact that some of these countries have a long history of military dictatorships(e.g. Nigeria and Ethiopia).Unfortunately, it is not only the lack of capacity to pursue intelligent policy; the understandingand political will to formulate such a policy is also often missing. In Nigeria, forexample, 80 % of government revenue comes from oil. The federal funds stemming from oilare then divided among the 36 federal states according to the formula, which is based onpopulation: the more people a state has, the more money state officials get from the federalgovernment. This inevitably leads to a race between individual states to report higherpopulations and—surprise, surprise—their representatives have no interest in a drop inlocal fertility rates. On top of this yet another factor enters the game, long-term tensionsbetween the Muslim north and the Christian south and the mutual fear by both religiousgroups (whose ratio is now about 50:50) that the other group will “overgrow” their own.This creates a truly malignant cocktail.31