World Population Day: Oyo NOA Calls on Citizens to Turn Population Boom into Youth Opportunity
As nations around the globe mark World Population Day 2025, the Oyo State Directorate of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) is urging Nigerians to view the country’s soaring population not as a burden, but as a springboard for large-scale youth empowerment.
In a statement personally signed and released in Ibadan, State Director Mrs Ajolayo Sinmiat Akande reminded citizens that Nigeria’s demographic strength lies in its unprecedented number of young people. “An untrained child is a ticking time-bomb,” she warned, “but a well-nurtured youth becomes a powerhouse for national progress.”
This year’s global theme “Empowering Youth to Build the Families They Want”—frames the conversation around giving young Nigerians the skills, education, and agency they need to make informed reproductive and economic choices. Mrs Akande said the slogan is “very apt for a country blessed with one of the world’s largest generations of young people.”
She called on policy-makers, parents, and community leaders to channel population growth into productive avenues, noting that sheer numbers alone do not confer prosperity. “Population size is no trophy,” she added. “It only becomes an asset when it fuels innovation, enterprise, and inclusive development.”
According to the NOA chief, youth-focused investment in education, vocational training, and entrepreneurship will equip Nigerian youngsters to compete worldwide and to “shun vices, embrace ethical values, and drive nation-building.”
Mrs Akande also linked population management to poverty reduction and gender equity, stressing that “equal opportunities for all” must underpin development strategies. She urged families to provide boys and girls the same access to quality schooling, regardless of traditional gender expectations.
Addressing reproductive health, the director encouraged wider uptake of family-planning services, describing them as essential tools “for securing the brighter future every parent desires.” She argued that informed family-size decisions directly support economic stability and healthier households.
The NOA further pledged to amplify public-awareness campaigns on human-rights-based approaches to population issues, ensuring that young citizens understand both their rights and the responsibilities that accompany them.
Concluding her message, Mrs Akande appealed to all tiers of government and the private sector to collaborate in building a “golden path” for Nigerian youth, transforming today’s demographic boom into tomorrow’s national prosperity.
The statement ends with a renewed commitment from the Oyo State NOA to keep population matters “at the centre of public discourse” and to support every initiative that turns Nigeria’s numbers into a competitive advantage.