Education is a very effective way of decreasing fertility in Nigeria as fertility declines tend to correlate with rising educational aspirations. Contraceptive use or family planning was strongly associated with women's religion and educational attainment. Although school participation remains a challenge in Nigeria, females are more relatively deprived of education compared to males in Nigeria due to social-cultural and economic reasons, as female's educational opportunities tend to be restricted by common patriarchal attitude at play in the society. Lack of access to basic education and the long-held tradition that looks at female education as only secondary to that of male usually act as a limitation to female engagement in the formal sector and this, in turn, causes females into early marriage and teenage pregnancy in the north. These common religious practices put girls at a disadvantage, especially in the Northern.

Feyisetan & Bankole (2008) noted that conditions that will favor a decline in fertility in the Northern part of Nigeria are almost absent. This situation may due to Muslim teachings, such as `sharia' and also the teachings of Muslim fundamentalist sect “Boko Haram” which project the western ideologies as forbidden (Adesoji, 2010). In addition, Boko Haram targets female education as it opposes western-style of education and hopes to relegate women exclusively to the household (Peters, 2014).

Education in Nigeria is also a crucial factor in determining the age at marriage and birth because of things being equal; women generally give birth soon after marriage. Hence, women with no education that marry as early as 18 years will most likely give birth at 19-20 years, whilst the educated ones that marry between 25 -30 years and would deliver later. With childbirth at a later age, fertility and overall population growth are reduced.

Figure 5.2: Figure showing Nigeria, Educational attainment (%), 2013, National, Urban-Rural Combined, Female, EPDC extraction of DHS dataset

(Accessed via https://bit.ly/2w44Rd0 )

Education is particularly important when discussing the effect of religion because most religious institutions in Nigeria operates by providing academic benefits along with religious duties, a strategy that they have borrowed from the earliest missionaries, hence the proliferation of religious institutions with academic structures ranging from playschool, primary school up to universities owned by religious institutions.

5.2 NORTH-CENTRAL GEO-POLITICAL ZONE

The effect of religion on fertility and use of the contraceptives in the north-central (or middle-belt) part of Nigeria was not significant (p>0.1). This could be attributed to the fact that the most of the inhabitants of this region are majorly Muslims with a negligible number of Christians. Hence, a lower significance of Christian religiosity compared to Muslim religiosity for fertility.

The effect of primary education on female fertility was not significant (p>0.1) while women with secondary education were almost six times less likely to have one more child (p<0.1) than those with no education (women with higher education were almost three times less likely to have one more child compared to those with no education). Although the lower fertility results were expected with increasing education, these values were not anticipated because women with higher education would have been expected to have lower fertility than those with secondary education. The higher result for secondary education and the lower result for higher education could have been because of the datasets which have 14,407 data for secondary education and 3,697 data for higher education.

5.3 NORTH-EAST GEO-POLITICAL ZONE

Like the results from north-central, the effect of religion on fertility in the north-eastern part of Nigeria was not significant (p>0.1) and this could be attributed to the women in that region being predominantly Muslims with a negligible number of Christians in the region. With education in the north-central, it was also observed that the effect of primary education on the fertility of women was not significant while women with secondary education were almost nine times less likely to have one more child than those with no education. Women with higher education were almost four times less likely to have one more child than those with no education.

The effect of the use of contraceptives was only significant for the modern method of contraceptives as women in north central part that use contraceptives are one times more likely to have one more child than those who don't.

Of key importance is Bornu State in the north-east Nigeria which is currently one of the places being terrorized by Boko Haram and the irony being that it was one of the first areas in colonial northern Nigeria that Christianity started from in the early effort to Christianize the northern part of Nigeria (Ayandele, 1966).

5.4 NORTH-WEST GEO-POLITICAL ZONE

Unlike the north-central and north-east, the effect of religion on fertility in north-west Nigeria was significant (p < 0.05). Those who had Islam as their religion were one time more likely to have one more child than Christians while the same was also true for those who were neither Christian nor Muslim as they were one time more likely to have one more child than Christians.

Like the north-central and north-east, primary education was not significant in the north-west. Women with secondary education were almost seven times less likely to have one more child than those with no education compared with women with higher education, who was almost five times less likely to have one more child than those with no education.

Like north-central and north-east, the effect of the use of contraceptives was only significant for the modern method of contraceptives as women that use contraceptives are one times more likely to have one more child than those who don't which is an unusual result as the reverse would have been expected.

5.5 SOUTH-EAST GEO-POLITICAL ZONE

The effect of religion on fertility was not significant and this might also be due to the south having a negligible number of Muslims.

On the effect of education on fertility, there is a continuous trend of primary education having insignificant values. Also, like previous results, women with secondary education are about 6 times less likely to have one more child while women with higher education are about three times less likely to have more child than those without education. Similar to the north-central region, the use of contraceptives was not significant (p>0.1).

5.6 SOUTH-SOUTH GEO-POLITICAL ZONE

The effect of religion on fertility in south-south was not significant.

The effect of education on fertility, as seen in other regions continued as a trend and was not significant for those with primary education. Women with secondary education were seen to be about eight times less likely to have one more child while women with higher education are about three times less likely to have more child than those without education.

Like the north-central and southeast regions, the use of contraceptives was not significant (p>0.1).

5.7 SOUTH-WEST GEO-POLITICAL ZONE

The effect of religion on fertility in southwest Nigeria like north-central, north-east, northwest, southeast and south-south was not significant (p>0.1). The effect of education on fertility also proved to be non-significant for primary education, while women with secondary education were about nine times less likely to have one more child compared with women with higher education who were about three times less likely to have one more child than those without education.

Like the north-central, south-east and south-south regions, the use of contraceptives was not significant (p>0.1).

UNESCO (2013) estimated that the net enrolment rate at primary school for girls was put at 56% while 61% for boys. Drop-out rates were reported highest at the final year of primary education and were shown to be more among girls compared to boys. Across the country, 40% of women and 28% of men have never been to school. About two-thirds of women in the north-west and north-east regions have never been to school, compared to less than 15% in the south-south (Abuja, 2008).

CHAPTER SIX. CONCLUSION AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1 SUMMARY

The results showed that although education has an unmistakable influence on women's fertility, other factors such as religion also play a significant role in women's fertility across Nigeria as it was observed to be a statistical predictor of fertility in Nigeria and the north-west region.

The hypothesis drawn in the study confirmed that women with Islam as their religion had a higher chance of having one more child than those had Christianity as their religion.

Theoretical reasoning and previous studies suggest that religions may exert both direct and indirect influence on individuals' fertility behavior. Differing fertility norms between religions may, for example, have a direct impact on how members use contraceptives.

The government and non-governmental agencies (NGOs) need to formulate policies for working with local communities and religious leaders to promote female's education, especially for the Muslims by showing how Islam values female education.

Also, the recruitment of more female teachers will encourage Muslim parents and guardians to send girls to school when the teacher is a woman. Also, across the country, women with secondary education were seen to be about less likely to have one more child compared to women with either primary or higher education.

This shows the importance of education in powering women to effectively take charge of fertility decisions.

Government at all levels (national, state and local) and nongovernmental agencies need to formulate Policies that could encourage women to attain a minimum of secondary education in Nigeria could effectively help in reducing fertility rates.

Across the geopolitical regions, Muslim women living in the north-west were more likely to have one more child compared to those who were Christians. Regional policies to address the zonal disparities will effectively target women and empower their fertility decisions.

6.2 RESEARCH QUESTION

This study showed that religion indeed does influence fertility rates across the regions in Nigeria.

6.3 HYPOTHESIS

The result of the regression confirmed my hypothesis that:

d) Women with religious affiliation have a higher number of children ever born compared to those without religious affiliation across the regions in Nigeria

e) Muslim women have a higher number of children ever born than Christian women across the regions in Nigeria; and

f) Women with the least education (or no education) have the higher number of children than educated women across the regions in Nigeria.

6.4 RECOMMENDATIONS

In this course of the paper, it has been shown that women's religion should not be neglected in the policy development of fertility in Nigeria. Considering the findings, the following recommendations are made:

Since religious institution is one of the key ways people are educated in Nigeria (especially in the North), the government should implement policies and provide resources to sensitize important opinion leaders in religious institutions on issues such as encouraging the use of contraceptives and other family planning methods.

The government should provide enabling environments for women to access education, hence empowerment in Nigeria.

Create a safe academic environment for girls, especially in the North East zone.

The policymakers in education need to develop practically oriented mechanisms targeted at ensuring gender equality as regards education

Ensure that women who stopped school because of family responsibilities are provided with the opportunity to complete their education.

6.5 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

One of the limitations is that this paper is principally focused on adherence to a particular religion and does not say much about the degree of religiousness which focuses more on how often one practice specific religious norms or how often one attends religious services. Furthermore, Christianity could not be further sub-divided into Catholics and Protestants because the dataset did not have such subsets.

Also, there are a lot of other factors that can also influence female fertility such as health and other social-economic parameters such as intergenerational transmission of values, rising income, female labor participation and possible social support from relatives and friends that are not discussed (Bledsoe et. al., 1999).

Other limitations beyond this study including the spouse's religious affiliation which might affect fertility outcomes in a heterogamous marriage between followers of different religions (Lehrer, 1996).

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APPENDIX

Table of Goodness fit test for each model

(Using the Stata command: estat gof)

Table 2: Post-estimation test for collinearity diagnostics

(Using the Stata command: collin religion education region ageGroup knowledgeContraceptives maritalStatus )

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