Take your contraceptives… or not
The USAID funding cut has made child planning harder
Good morning, Big Brains. I hope you have at least 10 more deep sighs in you because you’ll need it for this edition. Best of luck o!
- Margaret
Word count: ~ 1, 000
Reading time ~ 5 mins
Let’s get into today’s edition:
The USAID funding cut has made child planning harder
Nigeria’s newest terrorist group is at it again
The Big Deal
The USAID funding cut has made child planning harder
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was many things to Nigeria, including a sponsor and a golden ex that isn’t easy to move on from.
You’ve most likely read about the obvious effects of Trump’s decision to pause USAID funding, but there’s a less popular effect that is coming back to bite Nigeria in the ass— family planning.
Dr Saleh Abba, a family physician in Borno State, has confirmed what many experts feared—USAID’s funding cut has made access to contraceptives a luxury instead of a basic health service. According to him, the fund suspension has caused a “severe shortage” of family planning supplies, especially in rural and conflict-hit areas.
In Borno, family planning uptake dropped from 13,000 in January to just 3,000 in February. Dr Abba believes that USAID’s exit is largely responsible for this drop because Nigeria's family planning heavily depends on donor funding.
Why is this a big deal?
The Nigerian government hasn’t acted like it gives two shits about family planning since international donors took over the responsibility. Back in 2012, at the London Summit on Family Planning, FG made a promise to pour $3 million into family planning annually. Later, they increased it to $4 million. But since 2020, it’s been crickets; not a single kobo has been released.
And now, with USAID also pulling out, the situation has gone from bad to straight-up catastrophic. Even before this funding cut, the 2024 World Population Data Sheet already warned that if Nigeria doesn’t take family planning seriously, our population will increase by 54% by 2050. That’s like 140 million extra humans in just 26 years. Now, imagine what that number would look like with even less access to contraception.
Meanwhile, the government just squeezed ₦4.8 billion into the 2025 budget to cover HIV treatments affected by USAID’s withdrawal. This is the same budget that’s already running on a deficit, yet here we are, adding more unplanned expenses because the government didn’t see the importance of handling these issues before they spiralled out of control. If they had been proactive about family planning, this wouldn’t even be something that caught us by surprise.
Less family planning access means more unplanned pregnancies, higher maternal deaths, and a growing population that our already struggling healthcare, education, and economy cannot support. Nigeria just doesn’t have what it takes to handle a bigger population with zero preparation.
Nigeria’s newest terrorist group is at it again
It’s hard to say who Nigeria offended, but that person doesn't seem to be backing down anytime soon.
In November, a new terrorist group called Lakurawa found its way into Nigeria, and it’s been chaos since then. Last week, Nigerian security forces raised our hopes when they announced that the group’s top guy, Maigemu, had been killed. You’d think that would send a strong “back off” warning to the terrorist group, but Maigemu’s death had the opposite effect.
In what appears to be a brutal revenge attack, suspected Lakurawa terrorists stormed Birnin Dede village in Kebbi state on Sunday, March 9, killing 13 people and setting at least eight villages on fire. The only village that was spared was the one guarded by the Army.
According to local sources, the attack was a direct response to Maigemu’s death. The Chairman of Arewa Local Government, Sani Aliyu, confirmed the attack, but the details are still coming together.
It’s bad enough that Nigeria has Boko Haram. Despite declaring its leaders wanted, Lakurawa has continued to grow into a major threat, even to the Army.
The Nigerian government budgeted over ₦4.9 trillion for security and defence, let’s just hope that makes an actual difference in 2025.
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This Week’s Big Question
”Are you still team “stay in Nigeria” or team japa?”
Laura’s response - “Team Japa ooo! Not after all these nonsense they are doing in this country. Any opportunity to leave, I'll grab it with two hands and legs.”
You can also share your response here, and if it’s as interesting as Laura’s, we’ll feature it in the next edition.
Take a quiz before you leave
Do You Deserve Nigeria?: Share your results and tag us on social media.