The UNFPA population report is out and the big news is that Africa’s population has passed the 1 billion mark, doubling in 27 years. Nigeria and Uganda are the main culprits with the highest growth rates. The UNFPA is not (and has never been) happy about this; so what do they do: they link growing population to climate change bringing to the fore another of the many hidden agendas being smuggled into Copenhagen under the guise of climate change.

The logic is simple, “each birth results not only in the emissions attributable to that person in his or her lifetime, but also the emissions of all his or her descendants.” It will be $25(N3,750) cheaper to reduce emissions by one ton through family planning than by using alternative energy resources.

The myth of overpopulation has proven hard to kill. From Malthus to Planned Parenthood to the UNFPA the real problem and the source of all the problems afflicting mankind is that there are too many people and unless something is done to control population we will either fight to death for scarce resources or grow mad from having to put up with more people or now increase global warming. Population control usually means family planning meaning contraceptive and abortion (explaining Planned Parenthood’s involvement) all under the guise of ‘reproductive rights’.

The plan will probably be to canvass for part of the funding intended for the fight against global warming to be set aside for funding family planning (a green planned parenthood). The bottom line is that we expect to see more condoms thrown at Africa and more pressure on our politicians to allow legal abortions for the sake of the climate.

The funny thing is that the so called call to reduce population is focused on the developing world meaning Africa. Are we really overpopulated? With a land mass 3 times that of china we just passed the billion mark. It is true that large families are the most hit by under development but that they have large families is not the cause of underdevelopment. The most productive and developed parts of Africa are the most densely populated. The same can be said in around the world. Africa’s state is a result of bad leadership and bringing up population again will only shift the blame from our guilty leaders.

There was a lively discussion on the BBC’s Africa Have Your Say where Ms. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid director of the UNFPA was on air and from the initial statement of ’slowing down population to win time in the fight against climate change’ to helping women to have the right to choose how many children they want to have and the unfounded statement that ‘most African women want smaller families’ she backpedalled to insisting on the quality of life for the children and on the challenge of proper education and jobs which are a function of the quality of leadership when she was blasted by African Women who protested the flimsy use of the climate question to try to impose on families the number of children they should have. It is as so clear that underdevelopment in Africa is a result of bad leadership that it is baffling why there still so much insistence from the UN and agencies who should know that population control is not the cure all for the world’s problems.

It is cheap propaganda by the UNFPA very reminiscent of their anti-population agitation in Cairo 1994. Let us hope our leaders are not carried away.