The Nation Newspaper

Tag: palaver

  • N30, 000 wage palaver

    Was it necessary for the federal government to have denied approving the N30, 000 national minimum wage recommended by the tripartite committee? Did representatives of the government not consult their bosses fully or were they compelled by a hidden desire to abort the impending strike to endorse the new wage proposal? Was there anything in president Buhari’s speech while receiving the report suggesting he gave approval to a new minimum wage regime?

    These are some of the searing posers brought to the fore by the clarification or denial by the minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed that the N30, 000 minimum wage proposed by the tripartite committee was still a recommendation and had not been approved.  “I think it (N30, 000) was a recommendation.  Mr. President will consider it and make his views known in due course” the minister said.

    Apparently reacting to insinuations that the president had accepted the report and endorsed N30, 000 as the new minimum wage, Mohammed said the president will get back to the committee after he had studied the recommendation. Arguing along the same line, Special Adviser to the president on media and publicity, Femi Adesina contended that at no time either in his speech while receiving the report or elsewhere did the president give approval to the proposed new minimum wage.

    He was piqued by what he called recurring reports alleging that president Buhari had reneged on his earlier acceptance of the N30, 000 recommended as national minimum wage by the tripartite committee. He referenced heavily upon the written speech of the president to buttress the point that at no point did he give endorsement to the proposed minimum wage and expressed displeasure over what he saw as attempts to politicize the issue.

    But organized labour has threatened to embark on strike if the government fails to implement the recommended wage regime. The General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress TUC, Musa Lawal while reacting to the minister’s statement said organized labour shelved its planned strike because the government had expressed the willingness to accept the report of the tripartite committee and warned that anything short of full implementation would be met with stiff opposition.

    But a perusal of the president’s speech showed in very clear terms that the recommendation was only provisional as it will have to pass through some other organs of government before becoming law. The president had noted the challenges encountered by parties to the discussions which hinged on the ability to pay by the governments given their inability to meet current liabilities and the contention of labour that any increase must be meaningful.

    He said all these will be put into consideration in resolving the matter. “As the executive arm commences its review of your submissions, we will continue to engage you all in closing any open areas in this report” the president promised.

    It is thus clear the president was unambiguous in his choice of words as to the current status of the recommendation of the wage review committee. It will still have to pass through the National Council of State, the National Economic Council and the National Assembly. At any of these stages, adjustments could still be made.

    So, what is the source of insinuations and denials that the president had given approval to the new national minimum wage regime? Why have government officials been falling over one another to deny that President Buhari had indeed given approval to the recommended new national wage regime? Could the endorsement of the new wage by representatives of the government be rightly construed as approval by the Buhari regime?

    Could the insinuation be located in a part of the president’s speech in which he said “in constituting this committee, we took into account the need for all stakeholders to be adequately represented- the government, the private sector and most importantly the workers. Our goal was to get an outcome that was consensual”. By extrapolation, the N30, 000 national minimum wage recommendation, having been endorsed by all the parties to the negotiation was consensual. If the outcome was consensual as evidenced by its endorsement by all parties, why the indecent haste in denying that the president had given approval to it? The frenzy with which government functionaries went about denying the president’s approval of the new wage has not helped matters. It raised suspicion and created doubts that its’ representatives may have endorsed the recommendation to buy time given the imminence of an impending strike by labour. It is usual in negotiations of this nature to expect that those who acted at the behest of the government had their confidence to do so.

    The chairperson of the tripartite committee, Ama Pepple equally shared the same sentiments when she said the wage regime will no doubt, boost the purchasing power of workers, increase consumption expenditure and ultimately stimulate business and overall economic growth.

    So why the indecent haste in denying that President Buhari had approved the new national wage regime when his speech was clear on the matter? It would seem the denial did more harm than whatever insinuations that gave rise to it. By regurgitating all the processes the new national minimum wage has to pass through before becoming operational, the government inadvertently dragged the issue into the vortex of high wire politics. It is not surprising that opposition is taking advantage of the denials to accuse it of double speak.

    Since organized labour has called off the strike slated the following day, the government may have achieved its hidden objective albeit, temporarily. It would seem by its reaction organized labour construes the denials as a veiled attempt to renege on the agreement. And they should not be blamed for that since they have no hands in whatever insinuations the government reacted to.

    For now, the hands of organized labour appear tied. They have to await the president to set in motion the processes for the final approval of a national minimum wage. How long that takes, is a matter of conjecture. But given the exigency of the impending national elections, there is everything to suggest that the government will seriously weigh its cards on whatever course of action it finally takes. One thing is clear: whatever decision it finally settles for will play a role in determining the outcome of the coming elections. But the signal one gets is that the minimum wage issue will soon be enmeshed in high wire politics as elections draw nearer. It is going to be a campaign issue.

    Though the government is not comfortable with the N30, 000 minimum wage having proposed N24, 000, it will be hard put to cut down on it to avoid a backlash on its electoral fortunes. The projection here is that the government will play for time before finally making public its position on the N30, 000 wage. With very little time for the election, it will then transmit a bill to the National Assembly.

    The game will change at that point. And in its characteristic manner, the blame will now shift to the National Assembly whose members will be busy canvassing for votes in their constituencies. Alternatively, the government could still approve the new wage only to lobby the National Assembly with its strength as an advantage to get through its desires.

    Beyond all this, the Nigerian worker needs a living wage. N30, 000 may appear high. But if the current wastages, looting and ostentatious life styles of public functionaries, especially governors are pruned down, they will have little problem paying the new wage regime. The nation’s common patrimony should go round rather than serially looted by some rapacious and rogue political elite.

  • Competency palaver

    •As usual, teachers kick against being tested for competence

    A newspaper headlined the story appropriately: “Shock as 21,780 Kaduna Teachers Fail Primary Four Exams”. It is indeed shocking that primary school teachers who are supposed to teach pupils still could not pass the examination set for some of the pupils they were supposed to be teaching.

    The Kaduna State government was apparently aware of this lack of capacity in the teachers, hence its decision to organise competency test for them. Sadly, about 21,780 of the 33,000 teachers who sat for the test could not meet the 75 percent pass mark. The state governor, Nasir el-Rufai, put the situation in perspective on Monday when he received a delegation of the World Bank: “We tested our 33,000 primary school teachers, we gave them primary four examinations and required they must get at least 75 per cent but I am sad to announce that 66 per cent of them failed to get the requirements.” Even his guests must have been scandalised by the result.

    As the saying goes, “if gold rusts, what will iron do”? If teachers could not pass the examination they were supposed to set for some of their pupils, what then do we expect from the pupils they are teaching? Since no one can give what he does not have, it is quite obvious that this set of teachers cannot produce average pupils not to talk of high fliers.

    Yet, education is the bedrock of nation-building. And primary education is fundamental because it is the foundation on which subsequent teaching and learning is built. If the foundation is weak, then whatever is built on it cannot endure. This is why we agree with Governor el-Rufai that there is need for the injection of fresh and competent blood into the teaching profession in the state. According to him, the government is shopping for about 25,000 of such competent hands to replace the ones that have failed to measure up to expectations.

    The protest by the teachers’ union, the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), against the test is understandable. There is nowhere in the country where competency test had been organised for teachers that had gone without hitches. As a matter of fact, the tests had been stonewalled in places like Ekiti and Edo states. In Edo State, the National President of the NUT, Michael Alogba-Olukoya, launched into a long sermon when the state government made its intention to organise the test known; he spoke of the many dimensions of a teacher’s competence. In the present case of Kaduna, the NUT said the test was not in tandem with the country’s laws. In Alogba-Olukoya’s words, “The position of the law as regards supervision of instruction, regulation of teaching and so on lies very squarely with the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN)”. He wants the state government to follow this process.

    While we have nothing against this, if that is what the law says, we still find it curious that some teachers failed the examinations they would have set for primary four pupils. The same way we felt sorry for the NUT when a teacher began to stammer in 2013 when Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State asked her to read her own age declaration affidavit. We wonder where the TRCN was while all these absurdities were happening.

    But the NUT also made some valid points which the state government and indeed, all governments that recruit teachers must ponder in their determination to improve the standard of education. Recruitment of teachers must be on merit, ditto their promotion. Then teachers should also have the benefit of undergoing training and retraining to keep them abreast of developments in their profession. None of these exist in many states; what we have is a situation where once recruited, the teachers are left to their own devices, irrespective of their length of service.

    Things must change if our teachers are to contribute their quota to national development. Born-teachers of old must be wondering what has happened to a profession that was once held in high esteem in the country.

  • The NPA/Intels contract palaver

    SIR: It is no news any more that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has authorized the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to forthwith commence the termination process of the Pilotage Monitoring and Supervision Agreement between NPA and Integrated Logistics Services Nigeria Limited (INTELS) on the ground that the said agreement was void ab initio.

    The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) vide a letter dated September 27, directed the Managing Director of NPA to commence the process. There are several phases or angles to the issue at hand, but since the fulcrum of it lies with the constitutionality or otherwise, we shall look at it from that basis first.

    Going by what is contained in the letter to the Managing Director of NPA, the AGF is only asking NPA to unilaterally determine its relationship with INTELS. It suffices to say that the parties’ mutual agreement is to be terminated.

    Without really applying any sophisticated rule of interpretation it is only commonsensical that the said Sections 80 and 162 of the Constitution that the AGF is relying on simply require that all revenues generated by or on behalf of the federal government be deposited into the Federation Account, an account which is by no means a special one.

    What is more; by S.162 (10) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), it is clear that revenue means “any income or returns accruing to or derived by the government of the federation from any source”.

    And it is not unclear that government makes or earns its revenues from either direct investment or through statutory functions of its agencies, one of which is NPA. NPA being a principal agency of the government generates revenues when a statutory function is efficiently and sufficiently carried out. That is to say when the NPA does not work efficiently it does not earn revenue efficiently for the government too. This is a follow up to S.7 (a) in the NPA Act, which provides that the functions of the NPA shall be to:

    “Provide and operate in the ports such facilities as appear to its best calculated to serve the interest of Nigeria”.

    Another look at S.7 (d) of the NPA Act shows that the NPA is to provide for the approaches to all ports and the territorial waters of Nigeria, such pilotage services and aids including clearing, deepening and improving of all waterways. It therefore means that the NPA has the sole power to provide pilotage services. Choosing to contract such pilotage service(s) here to INTELS is not outside its functions.

    A combined effect of Sections 8 (1)(L) and 9 of the same NPA Act empowers the authority to enter into agreement with any person for the provision or operation of the ports facilities and other functions and power other than the power to make regulations, which is exclusively reserved for the authority.

    Going by the above, it is an emphatic Yes to say that the NPA has been acting under its statutory powers in its agreement with INTELS.

    Reports have it that INTELS as an independent contractor has had a 28% monetary commission for its services rendered. What this means is that the NPA on behalf of the government earns 72% as its revenue after settling independent service provider(s). With utmost respect that 72% money is the final revenue earned by the authority for the government which is to go into the Treasury Single Account (TSA) that the AGF is seemingly canvassing for. At this juncture what makes up revenue for the federal government in this quest as provided for in Sections 80(1) and 162 (1) and (10) respectively is the 72% accruing to NPA and not the 28% accruing to the independent service provider like INTELS.

    But supposing it is true that the contract agreement is unconstitutional, is it within the place of the AGF to instigate a party to unilaterally terminate the said contract other than an originating motion for interpretation? The answer is capital NO.

    What about the principle of pacta sunt servanda governing contracts? It is sad how the AGF was curious without looking at the facts. The issue at hand involves rights and obligations. It is further sad how he was blind to the fact that the said agreement has an arbitration clause that must first be explored.

    Latest reports now have it that INTELS has rendered “apologies” to the government. This is a beautiful public relations approach in sustaining the almost threatened sector. But notwithstanding the apologies from INTELS and without holding brief for the company, this piece is only intended to x-ray the ingredients that make up the contractual relationship between the parties and more importantly, to serve as guide to the AGF against other curious actions that will only end up misleading the citizenry.

     

    • Azibola Omekwe

    Abuja.

  • Pension palaver

    Pension palaver

    •We must work towards ensuring the success of the new scheme 

    It ought to be deeply troubling that some states have neither signed on nor embraced the spirit of one important piece of legislation designed to take stress out of the post-service life of the Nigerian worker. We refer to the Pension Reform Act 2004 signed into law by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    Twelve years after, the implementation across the federation remains largely a mixed grill. According to a Nigerian Pensions Commission (PenCom) report, whereas 26 states have enacted their Pension Reform Law, only 10 have given it practical effect by remitting the funds into the Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA) of their employees.

    Among the lot are Lagos, Ogun, Kaduna, Niger, Delta, Osun, Rivers and Anambra states; these states are said to have commenced remittance of contributions to six Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs) as well as funded their accrued rights. Zamfara State is said to have commenced remittance of contributions to the PFAs but is yet to fund its accrued rights. Whereas Jigawa State is said to have transferred its pension assets to PFAs for management, Kano is yet to do same. As for Imo State, it is yet to commence remittance of pension contributions, although Imo State University currently implements the Contributory Pension Scheme but is however not funding its accrued rights yet.

    The rest of the states – 10 in all, apparently have yet no need for it, hence their being in no hurry to sign on to the new scheme.

    It is unfortunate that several states have continued to dither in the implementation of that important law.

    As imperfect as the new pension law may be– and no law is perfect – the benefits obviously far outweigh whatever benefits the old scheme assumes; the same way that pain (if any) is far more tolerable than the scheme that has come to be associated with tears and needless deaths of our retirees.

    A direct answer to the problem of unbearable burden of pension payment and lack of sustainability, employers under the new pension scheme are mandated to deduct a fixed percentage from employees’ wages to which is then added the contribution from the employer, which is subsequently remitted to the PFA for the benefit of the employee at retirement. This requirement is what is proving to be the albatross on the new scheme.

    Is it that the affected states have yet to appreciate the succour that the scheme has brought to the workers, most of whom, before its coming, have had to endure the agony of endless verifications in order to access their pensions?

    How about the scheme’s potential to boost the pool of investible funds so sorely needed to drive economic and infrastructural development of the country at this time?

    Or, is it another manifestation of the so-called Nigerian factor of the legendary lack of will to drive well-conceived policies through; the absence of institutional discipline which ensures the floundering of policies and plans?

    Whatever the case is, the current situation is certainly inexcusable. It is worth reminding the affected state governments as indeed other defaulting employers that the new scheme came into being precisely because they allowed unbridled corruption and fiscal indiscipline to cripple the former scheme. Having killed the old, we cannot now allow the same virus of indiscipline to kill the new scheme.

    We urge the Nigeria Labour Congress as well as the relevant industrial unions to take up the gauntlet to ensure that the scheme is not allowed to run into troubled waters. Although the signs at the moment are troubling, particularly with 27 states currently in arrears of wages/salaries by several months, under no condition should the workers’ financial future be sacrificed on the altar of current challenges. As for the 10 states yet to sign on to the new scheme, there should be a way to get them to do so without further delay.

  • Budget palaver

    With about a year into the life of the administration of President Muham-madu Buhari, the expected turnaround in the country’s poor profile has been hinged on the implementation of the 2016 Budget.

    The executive believes that its 2016 budgetary proposal to the National Assembly will start to turn around the fortunes of the Nigeria economy when implemented.

    Based on its conviction, it also declared that its main achievements should be measured from the first budget it will implement, which is the 2016 Budget.

    But the fate of the 2016 Budget is now hanging in the balance as massive grey areas between the executive proposal and the figure passed by the National Assembly is working against its assent.

    Beside the removal of N17 billion by the National Assembly from the N6.08 trillion proposal presented by President Buhari on 22nd of December, 2015, the Presidency is grossed that the legislature introduced other projects which were against its core infrastructural development targets.

    Some of the problems the executive uncovered in the budget passed by the legislature included National Assembly’s removal of N60 billion counterpart fund for Coastal Railway project, the Calabar – Lagos rail line project, and reduction of allocation for Idu-Kaduna rail project by N8.7 billion.

    While it reduced allocations for the completion of major road projects in the country, National Assembly was also said to have introduced new road projects whose studies have not been conducted.

    It was also said to have dropped proposals for the purchase of essential drugs for major health campaigns like Polio and AIDS, cancelled and reduced, in some cases, some allocations for diversification projects under Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources.

    Funds for rural health facilities and boreholes were also said to have been diverted by the National Assembly to other projects.

    There is no doubt that the National Assembly is not barred by the constitution from looking at the budgetary proposal from the executive and amending it the way it deems fit.

    Even when there is no need for amendment in a particular budget proposal, the National Assembly may not want to pass the exact figures from the executive in order not to be seen as the rubber stamp of the executive.

    But for executive and legislative harmony and for the interest of the nation, the grey areas in any proposal and any appropriation bill passed by the NASS ought to be minimal.

    The executive now believes that what has been passed by the National Assembly as the 2016 budget has mutilated the executive budget proposal beyond recognition and now impossible to implement.

    With the possible adverse effects delay in implementing the budget will have on Nigerians, it will not be out of place here to dwell a bit on the possible factors that could have led to the wide difference in the President’s budget proposal and what was passed by the National Assembly.

    The reasons for the wide difference might be found in the following posers.

    Has the wide difference got anything to do with the earlier allegation of budget ‘padding’ believed to have been carried out by some civil servants  between the period of the President’s presentation of the budget proposal and when National Assembly resumed from its Christmas and New Year’s break to begin work on the budget?

    Knowing that the National Assembly had raised alarm that a different version of the budget proposal was what it saw before starting work on it, is it possible that it actually worked with a wrong version which introduced the new projects in contention and removed key projects listed in the President’s proposal presented to the National Assembly?

    President Buhari, while addressing the Nigerian Community in Saudi Arabia on the 23rd of February 2016 had vowed to deal with civil servants involved in the budget padding.

    Buhari had said: “The culprits will not go unpunished. I have been a military governor, petroleum minister, military Head of State and headed the Petroleum Trust Fund. Never had I heard the words budget padding. Our Minister of Budget and National Planning did a great job with his team.

    “The Minister became almost half his size during the time, working night and day to get the budget ready, only for some people to pad it.

    “What he gave us was not what was finally being debated. It is very embarrassing and disappointing. We will not allow those who did it to go unpunished.” He stated

    But it is not clear whether those involved in the budget padding then have been identified and silently dealth with by the Presidency or they are still doing what they know how best to do in the system.

    Another possible factor that would have gone a long way to reduce the grey areas in the budget is the issue of lobbying in the preparation of the budget.

    Was the National Assembly properly lobbied and carried along in the preparation of the 2016 budget.

    If that was properly done, it would have made the legislature see things more from the view point of the executive and reduce or totally eliminate grey areas in the two versions.

    The earlier the problems with the 2016 budget are urgently tackled, the better for the country.

    Many Nigerians are already improvised and continued delay in executing projects that will touch their lives and turn around the economy definitely will not be in the interest of the nation.

     

    Shifting the goal post

     

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has shifted its position thrice within a month on when fuel queues will disappear in the country.

    Firstly, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu briefed State House correspondents on Wednesday 23rd of March, 2016, telling them that he could not perform magic to end the fuel scarcity in the country and that the earliest time for queues to disappear would be early May.

    On the same day, Kachikwu ate his words when the heat became unbearable on him. He immediately blamed State House correspondents for misrepresentation.

    Barely a week after, precisely Tuesday 29th of March, Kachikwu, again told the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) that the fuel queues will ease off on or before the 7th of April.

    That day has come and gone, but Kachikwu was still not able to keep his words as fuel scarcity as at last Friday still persisted across the country.

    As if tired of facing the Nigerian public over the issue, Kachikwu on Wednesday 13th of April, directed NNPC management team led by its Chief Executive Officer (Upstream), Bello Rabiu, to brief State House correspondents on the fuel scarcity.

    And his message to Nigerians was that the few scarcity will end in the next few days.

    It is hoped that the ‘few days’ will not extend to May 2016 otherwise it will mean that what Kachikwu first told State House correspondents, which he later denied, was the reality and everything said after it was to deceive Nigerians who continued to suffer and sleep at petrol stations.

    The three different messages within a month appeared like shifting the goal posts in a football match.

    This, definitely, is not good for the image of the Corporation as it gives the public the impression that those in charge could not even properly assess the situation on ground let alone providing a solution.

     

  • Still on Nigeria@52: Where is the love? The rights of Women at work; Police palaver

    Still on Nigeria@52: Where is the love? The rights of Women at work; Police palaver

    Nigeria or at least the electorate is still searching for a truly great selfless Nigerian with the love of Nigeria and the love of Nigerians as the cornerstone of his or her presidential policy thrust. As we ‘celebrate’ 52 years let us ‘cerebrate’ on the huge lack of achievement during that time compared with God-given resources, mineral, manpower and mental. If Ghana had a 100th of what we had, imagine where Ghana and Ghanaians would be now. We are also constantly reminded to look at Indonesia where imaginative leadership motivated by a deep love of Indonesia and Indonesians resulted in that Asian tiger riding on palm oil plantations originating from Nigeria. So we may be one year older, but are we one year better or one year wiser?

    The idea that the federal budget is for stealing needs a change. An anniversary is a good time to swear renewed allegiance and oaths to the country and citizenry. Of course they have been sworn but did they mean anything beyond photo-op for the paparazzi and yawning time for local channel viewers?

    I join millions of fellow Nigerians to apologise to our female police, rank and file, for the law that forbade them to marry or have children for three years after joining up and needing more than automatic permission to marry. Perhaps such a law exists throughout many uniformed and civil service institutions and even some banks et cetera may have such secret policies. I hate to think how many of them were forced to compromise themselves with immoral senior officers in order to get that ‘Permission To Marry’ stamp. In Nigeria nothing is as it seems and exploitation of employees is seen to be a right for the ‘authority figures’. They see nothing wrong with such bestial behaviour as ‘that was what so-and-so did in the ‘glorious past’, so why should they be any better?’ Nigerians will exploit every loophole and this is why we need much more good high level monitored policing from a better equipped, better focused police service than is available at present. Our police service must join the 21st century police services in many areas including human rights and employees’ rights. Giving birth is a national service –hence maternity leave. Some of the police stations are unworthy of the name with no facilities or amenities for the police- male and especially, female.

    The old standard Nigeria Police station should be re-designed with a leaf taken from South African Police stations, though the South African Police let Africa down by creating Soweto Two by shooting 44 miners and then accusing the miners of murder under an old obnoxious apartheid law. Police equipment referred to above includes every police station utilising locally available IT know-how with computerising of the police station and digital cameras to record crime scene and detained suspects for criminal face recognition records and fingerprints to avoid the Ibori incident, intelligence and weapons.

    Every policeman should have a pre-paid cell phone. This ‘no marry’ is blatantly discriminatory as it did not forbid men from doing the same. In these days of men developing cold feet over marriage for financial and other reasons, such a law complicates an already difficult situation further. Let us remember that reproducing is a national responsibility which keeps the population steady or growing. This obnoxious rule should have been thrown out years ago by the Police Service Commission and must be thrown out by the NASS if it has not already done so. It is as bad as the old Maternity Leave Law which gave ‘Six weeks before and six weeks after delivery’ under which most Nigerian mothers in employment would lose days and weeks if she gave birth earlier than was predicted by her Last Menstrual Period (LMP) or did not start leave early enough. Most women have always desired to work longer to around 36 weeks so as to get about 8-10 weeks with the baby post-delivery before having to send them to creche or give them up to a nanny at home. It was an avenue for extortion from the helpless women by unscrupulous doctors who had to sign the maternity leave forms especially for civil servants. I personally fought for years, and successfully, to get the Maternity Leave Law to be a consolidated to read ‘12 weeks maternity leave, regardless of the date of delivery’. Unfortunately some retrogressive elements in the federal and state governments are still living in the past and insisting on cancelling any leave not used fully if the delivery comes before six weeks into the maternity leave. By using the ’12 weeks consolidated Maternity Leave’ we were able to eliminate frustration of the mothers, a mountain of paperwork as the date the mother wanted was when the leave started and fraud from medical personnel colluding for money to alter maternity dates. The women in NASS and state assemblies should fight to ensure that the ’A Pregnant Woman is Entitled To 12 weeks Consolidated Maternity Leave’ is what is being practiced in their areas. Enough of cheating women. Women must demand their rights to pregnancy and full three months maternity leave. For Police or the public, ‘Pregnancy is a National Service’ lasting much longer than nine months and still too many fellow Nigerian women die trying to complete this service. What will Nigeria@53 bring? Is there any ‘Love for Nigeria’ out there?