POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT Population has its effects on development and mostly when its rate is increasing, underdevelopment occurs. High population growth especially in Nigeria Is a challenge for three major reasons. First, rapid population growth puts a lot of stress on ecosystems. Many different issues such as food security, land tenure, environmental degradation and water supply do have a demographic background. Civil strife is also often caused by population pressure on scarce resources. Secondly, rapid population growth impacts on the economy because governments need to provide human capital investments for their population --education, health, etc. When population grows too fast such investments become logistically and