China has officially abandoned its controversial one child policy, allowing couples to have a second child amid deepening demographic crisis of shrinking workforce and ageing population in the world’s second largest economy. According to a report published by Price Waterhouse Coopers earlier this month, Chinese people will spend over USD 1.54 trillion from 2016 to 2020 on elderly care, increasing 17 per cent per year. By 2050, China is expected to have nearly 500 million people over 60.

The population debate has never ceased in Africa with most countries being urged by development partners to reduce births. This stand, however embellished with economic terms, does not allow us to view human beings as the ultimate resource. It promotes the thinking that people are a burden and incapable of bettering their conditions. Such thinking promotes acts that do away with people. The truth is quite the obverse: it is warped thinking that is keeping people poor. Trained to be creative and innovative, the human mind brings more and more resources into play from the Earth's bounty. Countries should therefore think about developing the capacity of their populations to make them productive.