₦airaland Forum

The senate has asked the federal government to give dollar to the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) and Nigeria Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC) at an exchange rate of N200 to a dollar.

This recommendation was made by the committee on foreign affairs.

The committee said the concession will bring pilgrimage cost to a bearable level for interested parties. In a motion moved on June 7, the senate had urged the federal government to review the 2017 Hajj fee.

Monsurat Sunmonu, a lawmaker, advised the federal government to hold discussions with the Saudi government to review the 50-50 carriage of pilgrims between Nigeria and Saudi Arabian airlines.

“This is with a view to providing opportunities for more indigenous Nigerian airlines to participate in the hajj operations. This will give Nigeria varieties in choosing the air carrier,” she said.

“The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria should expedite action on the establishment of Hajj Savings Schemes in compliance with section 7(1 and 2) of the NAHCON act.

“The Nigerian government and its economic team must do everything possible to improve on the Nigerian monetary policy which would expectedly guarantee a long-time stable relationship of the Naira with other currencies.”

Sunmonu said 98% of the entire hajj operations are dollar-denominated and only two percent is carried out in naira.

In his remarks, Bukola Saraki, senate president, said “we passed the 2017-2019 medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) and based on it, we have passed what should be the exchange rate which is N305 to a dollar.

“We should make laws that are truly going to guide our people because we have MTEF which says the exchange is N305. If with passing MTEF nobody should be given N200, but businessmen are getting N200, then, definitely pilgrims deserve N200 as well.”

Saraki said the senate must put an end to the money-making venture because pilgrimage was a religious activity and should not be for money-making.

In 2016, there was controversy as to whether the Central Bank of Nigeria and the federal government subsidised forex for pilgrims after the CBN released a circular showing that 65,167 pilgrims got forex at N197 to a dollar, which was against the foreign exchange policy at that time.

Fertility is a continuous process, which parameters change with time. It is not a die-cut situation that you can ever fully predict who is and who is not. So, if you have some of the points raised here go against you, it doesn't mean that you should become forlorn as the situation can be changed by taking the right steps.

You might be able to assess your possible level of fertility by honestly answering the fertility questions here.


Are you thin as bones?

Being slim is good and healthy, even attractive but being too thin is a fertility problem.

We are animals, higher animals but animals nonetheless and in nature,you will not see an animal with all its bones jutting out due to malnutrition mating during their mating season. It won’t happen; you know why? Nature would, through such an animal’s brain instruct it to get food first and not the erm *cough*

It is same with humans. When your brain detects that you don’t have enough body fat, the hormones that it would send to you would not be the one to enable implantation occur in your womb, it would probably be the one that would make you go and eat first. That is why some women become so thin that their periods stop. That is nature’s way of saying there is time for everything. A time to eat and …If you have a BMI (Body Mass Index) lower than 18, try and get it up to between 19 and 24.5 to improve fertility.

Are you overweight?

Too much of everything is bad, so the saying goes. Because it’s not good to be all bones doesn’t mean you should be overweight. Being overweight is also detrimental to your fertility.

You are overweight if your BMI is over 25. To get your BMI, divide your weight in kilograms (kg) by your height in metres (m)

then divide the answer by your height again. That is your BMI.



Do you get less than seven to eight hours of sleep every night?

For women, getting less than seven to eight hours of sleep causes reduced amounts of Leptin in their system the next day. Leptin is the protein that regulates the menstrual cycle so lack of it can signal infertility.



Do you drink like a fish?

Consuming alcohol has direct effects on fertility which includes a decreased chance of conceiving and a longer time taken to conceive. A study shows that women that consumed two or more alcoholic drinks per day were 60 percent more likely to be infertile.


Do you boil your ‘jewels’

As a man, do not take the word ‘Laptop’ too literally. Because it is called Laptop doesn’t mean your laps should be its home. The heat produced by the laptop, or any heat source for that matter is very detrimental to fertility. So, hard-boiled eggs mean fertility issues.


Are your periods irregular like PHCN power?

If your period is off by a couple of days, that is not a problem as it happens to the best of us, but if it is so irregular that you don’t even bother to keep track of it anymore, then, that is a big problem because irregular ovulation accounts for 30 to 40 percent of ALL infertility cases.


Are you over 40 years of age?

When me and women get to 40 years of age, fertility drops. I know many would say there are many people conceiving and being fertile past this age; yes, it’s true but the simple biological fact is that after 40 years of age, fertility drops.

To illustrate this, a man under 25 years gets a woman pregnant in an average of 4 and half months but for a man over 40 years, the average is 2 years! For a woman, by the time she has clocked 40, her fertility would have dropped by 50 percent.


Is your monthly period a nuclear war?

Many of us experience pain when we have our periods but if the pain is extreme, it might indicate underlying present or future conditions like hormonal imbalances, endometriosis, fibroids and polyps which threaten fertility. If you notice blood in your urine or bowel movements, that could mean you have un-diagnosed endometriosis which might be the source of the pain.

Many infertile women present with these conditions much more than their fertile counterparts.


Do you have very light monthly bleeding

In as much as you might be happy that your period is light and maybe not even up to the usual 5 days, what you should know is that your monthly period is because of the shedding of your uterine lining. So, if you have light bleeding, it means you don’t have much of a uterine wall to shed. Bear in mind that the wall is where implantation occurs and if the embryo doesn’t have ‘solid ground’ to implant into, that can lead to fertility issues.


Is your cycle much longer than 28 days...or less?

It is imperative that a woman's monthly cycle be between 28 to 32 days for their fertility. A 28-day cycle allows plenty of time for the egg to mature properly and gives enough time for implantation, leaving ample time in case implantation is required. So, if the cycle is shorter or much longer, this normal window is missed. Fertility can be reduced by up to 50% in such cases.

There are many commonly misused, misspelled, and mispronounced words in English. I will try to mention, to the best of my knowledge and experience, the most commonly abused words here.

HEARING: The word HEAR is a verb. The incorrect use of hearing is usually over phone communication for example “I am not hearing you’’ This is wrong. The correct way to say this is: “I cannot hear you’’

There are legal uses of the word though. There is the noun hearing which means the ability to perceive sounds. e.g. There are people who have very acute hearing.

Also, another noun form of hearing means an opportunity to state one’s case e.g. I think I had a fair hearing in court.


ATE: As we all know, ate is the past tense of eat. The problem with this word for most people is not so much in the use as in the pronunciation.

Very many people pronounce the word as “ETE’’ as in TETE, whatever that means.

The correct pronunciation of this word is ATE as in HATE without the “H’’

It might be embarrassing to mispronounce this simple word in public.


REVERT: Haven’t we all seen it in email correspondences, “Please Revert’’ or in some cases, “Revert Back’’.

Contrary to what many think, revert doesn’t mean reply.

Revert means return to (a previous state, practice etc.) For example, “You look so much better now that you are on a diet; please don’t revert to eating junk food’’.

If revert is used correctly as above, it would suffice on its own and not require the inclusion of “Back’’ as in “Revert back’’ as this would be redundancy.


MISCHIEVOUS: When someone is full of mischief, that person is said to be mischievous. People know this already but the problem with this word is the pronunciation.

The word is pronounced MIS-CHIEVIOUS by many. Blink and you miss it. Did you spot the difference? Yes, the letter “I’’. There is no letter “I’’ after the letter “V’’ and there isn’t supposed to be one, not in the spelling and definitely not in the pronunciation.


DEFINITELY: Definitely means beyond doubt. The problem with this word for many is not in the usage or the spelling, but like in the previous word, the problem is in the pronunciation.

This word is pronounced by many as DEF-I-NATE-LY.

It should instead be pronounced as it is written. DEF-I-NITE-LY.


PRONUNCIATION: This list would not be complete without this commonly mispronounced word. (No pun intended)

Pronounce is a verb and the noun form of it is pronunciation.

I believe the origin of the problem with this word is the disparity in the spelling of the verb and the noun.

Many people already know the word pronounce and they know how to spell it, so they probably just apply the modification from pronounce to pronounciation directly which is wrong. The correct spelling does not have the second “O’’.

The correct spelling and pronunciation is PRO-NUN-CI-A-TION. I reiterate, no pun intended.

So, to avoid embarrassment, please take note of these words and correct yourself appropriately.