Awards for super parents

There was this notice I saw on the social media at the weekend, that Abigborodo community of Warri North Local Government of Delta State was doing a special presentation of awards to citizens of the community who gave birth to ten children and above. The big event was scheduled to take place at the community town hall yesterday, December 29.

The statement, signed by the community’s Executive Chairman Monday Agbeyi, invited the general public “especially the custodians of Itsekiri culture and tradition” to the curious event. Well, everyone should uphold his culture and tradition but the question I want to ask Mr. Agbeyi is this: is Abigborodo community facing extinction or is it experiencing a drastic fall in its population as to publicly encourage couples to produce more than ten children? Nigeria’s population growth rate at present is 2.6% per annum. In fact, our population is projected to hit 400million by 2050. Is Abigborodo community left behind in these figures?

What about the small matter of housing, feeding and clothing these children, paying their school fees and their hospital bills? The most curious sentence in the invitation letter was the very last one. It said, “It is a must attend ceremony because the labour of our heroes past must not be in vain.” What? All these years that we have been reciting those lines in the national anthem, was that the kind of “labour” we were talking about? If so, why was it not mentioned in the new minimum wage act?