Population Growth, Available Resources and Quality of Life: A Goal Programming Model Approach

The study examined population growth, available resources, and quality of life using an optimization tool of goal programming. The decision variable of the goal programming analysis was generated from the 4-year average of key variables of interest, namely population growth, available resource proxied by energy consumption, and quality of life proxied by the human development index, ranging from 2000 to 2023. The optimization technique of simplex goal programming analysis was adopted for the analysis. Based on the decision variables obtained from the averages of the relevant variables, the goal programming solutions could not satisfy any of the aspirational targets; hence, the non-optimization of the objective function after substituting the respective deviations into the objective function. The study, therefore, highlights the endemic flashpoint of the Nigerian economy wherein potentials and resource endowment are not sufficiently harnessed, hence the poor quality of life. The study therefore recommends urgent government intervention in the form of broad-based master plan on how to harness our resource endowment, both human and material, for the sole aim of promoting increased and sustainable improvement in the quality of life.