ABSTRACT
Since her attainment of political independence in 1960, Nigeria has experienced a number of demographic experiments. These experiments were designed to facilitate good governance, strengthen her economy, assist in poverty reduction and provide meaningful data for the uplifting of the lives of her populations. Also since the 1963 census, administrative changes in the number of states and local governments have informed the population dynamics by varying degrees. The physical and effective relocation of the federal capital to the centre, lack of uniform nature, direction and quantum of changes in population movements, differential in mortality and fertility rates, season of enumeration, differential in seasonal migration, and lately, the Niger Delta crisis have all influenced the country’s population. Based on published literature and other media sources, this paper examines the dynamics of Nigeria’s population policies. To achieve this, the paper was anchored on the concepts of demographic transition and population explosion. Efforts are made to historicize the country’s population policies, her demographic experiments, and their attendant controversies. Finally, the paper identifies the prospects for population policies.
