CHIEF Medical Director of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti (FETHI) Prof. Adekunke Ajayi has enjoined Nigerians to keep observing COVID-19 safety measures and avoid unnecessary travelling during the Yuletide.
He said this is the only way that will guarantee safe environment and curb the spread of Coronavirus.
The CMD, who spoke on behalf of the board and management of the tertiary institution in a statement at the weekend, felicitated with staff and members of the hospital community.
The statement signed by FETHI Director, Information and Corporate Affairs, Bank-Akinnuoye A. F., said: “Despite all odds and challenges faced due to Covid-19 in this year 2020, we rejoice with the Christian faithful, staff and clients of the hospital for witnessing this year celebrations.
“Christmas comes once in a year and we are expected to love within the teachings of Jesus Christ, which admonished us to be at peace with one another and love our neighbours as ourselves. “We wish you all a Merry Christmas and fulfilling New Year ahead,” he said.
THE Osun State has reiterated its new directives aimed at curbing the spread of the Coronavirus.
Specifically, the government said there will be no countdown to New Year ceremonies and crossover nights under whatever guise by religious bodies during the New Year eve.
These are contained in a statement issued on behalf of the government by the Secretary to State Government (SSG), Prince Wole Oyebamiji.
According to the statement, the government has directed the security operatives to enforce the directives without exception.
The government said: “The ban on youth carnivals still subsists. Also, all social clubs, hotels, departmental stores, supermarkets, event centres and allied centres are to henceforth operate at half of their capacities and observe COVID-19 protocols. Wearing of face masks at public places is equally compulsory.
“We want to appeal to residents and citizens to cut down on social gatherings, including weddings, naming ceremonies and funeral ceremonies so as to reduce the spate of exposure and contact with possible carriers visiting the state during the Yuletide period.
“Also, all towns and cities are to put on hold the annual days through physical attendance and change such to the virtual version.”
“This is to inform the general public that after undergoing a test carried out on myself and members of my family, my result returned positive while that of members of my family tested negative,” she said.
“Currently, I am asymptomatic and have gone into isolation during the period of treatment. Please keep me in your prayers and I implore you all to stay safe and observe all COVID19 protocols as we grapple with this pandemic.”
She urged the public to take responsibility in order to protect the country.
NIGER State Police Command has arrested the head of Tungan-Iliya village and 10 others for alleged banditry in Mashegu Local Government.
Spokesman ASP Wasiu Abiodun said in a statement on Sunday in Minna that following intelligence report received on December 25, a police team went on a clearance operation of suspected bandits’ hideouts at Tunga-iliya forest.
“The team engaged the suspected bandits in a gun duel and arrested 11 of them, while five others were injured.
“Among the suspects were the head of Tunga-iliya village and Summaya Bello, who harbours and gives information to bandits,’’ he said.
ARMED men, who claimed to be policemen from the Force Headquarters, Abuja, have killed the traditional ruler of Oruku community in Nkanu East Local Government of Enugu State, Igwe Emmanuel Chidiebere Mba.
The purported policemen, led by one Inspector Danladi, took away Mr. Agozie Ani from Oruku town hall where the deceased monarch addressed the indigenes at a meeting. The gunmen, who invaded the venue of the meeting in a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) and a Sienna bus about 2pm on Boxing Day, according to an eyewitness, moved into the hall and sought to see the royal father.
The armed men were reportedly escorted to the town hall by three indigenes. They came and left in the same vehicles that brought the armed men, the eyewitness said.
It was learnt that when the traditional ruler, who presided over the meeting, was identified by the three indigenes, one of the ‘policemen’ immediately shot him on the thigh and he fell down and bled.
The Nation gathered that pandemonium ensued after the royal father was shot, as the indigenes ran helter-skelter amid sporadic shooting by the armed men, who made attempts to arrest some of the indigenes. The source said the bleeding royal father and Mr. Ani were taken away by the armed men to Parklane Hospital, Enugu, but Igwe Mba could not be admitted due to lack of bed space.
They were reportedly referred to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, but on arrival, doctors at the Emergency Unit confirmed the monarch dead. It was learnt that the royal father, who was elected by his community on December 26, 2019, reportedly bled to death before he could get medical attention.
His body was deposited at the hospital mortuary, while the whereabouts of Ani is unknown. The FORD Pick-up van driven to the aborted meeting by the deceased royal father, taken away by the team, is yet to be found.
Checks by leaders of the community at the police command headquarters to ascertain the identity and motive of the “invading policemen” proved abortive, as they were told that there was no such entry made at any police station to that effect.
Following the incident, the aggrieved members of Oruku community reportedly regrouped last Saturday evening and attacked the homes of some indigenes believed to be behind the murder of the traditional ruler.
THE General Overseer, Power and Wisdom of God Church, Badagry, Lagos State, Pastor Idowu Ayadi, has said efforts by the government to fix the country may not achieve results unless Nigerians contribute to the nation’s development.
He spoke in Badagry at the weekend during a celebration to mark Christmas.
Ayadi attributed most of the problems facing the country to the “spirit of cheating”.
Speaking about a message titled: ‘The Spirit Troubling the Nigerian Nation’, the cleric said: “Efforts by the government to improve our roads and power supply have not yielded the desired results, because of the spirit of cheating in people who are frustrating the efforts.
“Infrastructural decay is the major contributor to our economic problems.
“There will not be economic prosperity in any nation where there is no efficient infrastructure to support the production of goods and services.”
He said the spirit of cheating made the perpetrators of insecurity believe that what they could not get legally might be got through cruel and dubious means.
“We should not pass the total blame of insecurity in our society on the current administration alone.
“It is the effect of the long term accumulated failures of some of our leaders, who the spirit of cheating has deceived to believe that as long as they and their families are comfortable, what happens to others is not their concern,” Ayadi said.
He urged the government to set aside an hour once in a week to pray with Psalm 124:1-8 for security of the country.
“Against all odds, we took it as a matter of importance to shower this kind of gesture on our members. It is a great feat that needs to be appreciated and celebrated, hence our presence and gathering here today to give thanks to God,” Oshilaja said.
He thanked those who contributed to the success of the event, namely the board of trustees, their patrons, especially Prince Tajudeen Olusi, Oba of Ijoraland, Oba Fatai Aromire, Alhaji Ayokunle Daniel Folorunso, Mrs. Kehinde Fagbenro and others.
Oshilaja appealed to the Federal Government to tackle increase in the prices of food items.
The representatives of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Headquarters, Ebute-Metta, Lagos, under the leadership of Pastor Funsho Odeshola, encouraged the people to live in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
The beneficiaries, including men and women with disabilities, thanked CDI, saying their lives had been touched positively through the annual programme.
A TRADITIONAL ruler in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Etsu Kwali, Dr Shabban Audu Nizazu III, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to prioritise security.
He lamented that people were being kidnapped on a daily basis in Kwali Area Council of the FCT.
The monarch enjoined the President not to decline assent to the Peace Corps of Nigeria (PCN) Establishment Bill when sent to him.
Speaking at a lecture titled “Nation Building and Security Challenges: Advancing an All Inclusive Security Architecture”, organised by the PCN to mark the end of 2020, the royal father said the country needs the Corps to tackle insecurity.
He said from his interactions, he found out that the Corps officers were well trained and highly educated, adding that they would do well for the country in intelligence gathering that would help other security agencies to combat insecurity.
The monarch, who expressed happiness that President Buhari is aware of the enormity of the insecurity engulfing the nation, pleaded that the Corps be allowed to join the security architecture to enable it contribute in the fight against terrorism, banditry and armed robbery.
PCN National Commandant Amb. Dickson Akoh lamented the growing insecurity ravaging the country.
He said the Corps is worried that the ugly trend has worsened to the extent that pupils and students have become the target of attacks, adding that the recent kidnapping of secondary school pupils at Kankara in Katsina State is a sad reminder of how the security situation has degenerated.
The experience of primary school head teachers compared to secondary school principals in managing their schools in a COVID-impacted period is like comparing Israel-Occupied Goshen to Egypt while the biblical plagues lasted. KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIEreports on how head teachers stretch their meagre N20,000 running cost each month.
“DID you see my generator?” Mrs. Bukola Famutimi pointed proudly to an electricity generating set at one end of the long corridor of the first floor of her school building. But that was the only thing she seemed happy about when talking about how she runs the Anwar-U-Islam Primary School, Ogba Road, Agege, in keeping with COVID-19 safety protocols.
The generator is important. Without it she cannot pump water from the school’s borehole as its power supply had been cut off because of a debt of over N50,000. Without pumping water, the school would be lacking a key requirement to safeguard against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS COV-2) which causes COVID-19.
If funding did not matter before to public schools, it assumed new importance in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hygiene, distancing and personal protective equipment are needed to prevent the spread of the virus. However, it is challenging getting and maintaining them in public schools because of lack of infrastructure and high pupil-population.
In Lagos State, prior to resumption of schools in August (for SS3 pupils taking public examinations) and later in September and October for other classes, there was palpable concern about how public schools would safely resume when many lacked running water, toilets, adequate classrooms and furniture, among others.
According to the Self-Assessment and Safety Checklist for Reopening of Schools published by the Office of Education Quality Assurance (OEQA), Lagos State Ministry of Education (downloaded from https://oeqalagos.com/schools-reopening-process/), availability of running water and soap, hand sanitizers, toilets monitored by janitors, classrooms arranged according to social distancing spacing of 1.5 metres, among others, are part of the safety standard infractructure for public and private schools.
While the Lagos State Government attended to emergency infrastructural needs of its 1,016 primary and 676 secondary schools through the Ministry of Education (for secondary schools) and the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LSUBEB for primary schools), school managers were given funds to manage the day-to-day running of their schools.
However, The Nation found that the disparity between funds disbursed to primary and secondary schools affected how well these managers were able to follow the stringent COVID-19 protocols. While secondary school principals, which had their running cost increased from N50,000 (for junior secondary schools) or N100,000 (for senior secondary schools) to N250,000 got paid a lump sum of the backlog (from March to August when schools were shut) to prepare for COVID-19 resumption, primary school head teachers got only N50,000 to put their schools in order ahead of resumption in October. Before schools closed for the first term holidays last Friday, they had only received N20,000 more as monthly running cost.
Head teachers, who spoke to The Nation about the challenges in running their schools in the COVID-19 era, said they spent more than the N50,000 they got from SUBEB to clean their schools, cut grass and do minor repairs.
Mrs. Famutimi said she spent more than twice the amount ahead of resumption.
“After sometime, they (SUBEB) gave us N50,000 after we had spent almost N120,000 cutting the grass and buying other things. The money was not enough but we thank God,” she said.
The Head Teacher of St Agnes Primary School, Maryland, Comrade Felix Orisaheyi, said he also spent over N100,000 cutting the grass and fixing the school’s overhead tank – this was apart from the loss he suffered as a result of vandalised and stolen equipment from his office and the school during the long closure.
He said: “For the past six months now, we have not had anything like running cost. As big as this school is, the running cost I met here was N20,000 and that N20,000 would not come until four or five months in arrears. They don’t pay in bulk. For the past six months, we have not had any running cost.
“The NUT, during resumption, pressurised the government and it decided to give something for resumption. They gave N50,000 to each primary school for resumption. I used it to complement the money I spent. I spent over N100,000 and I was given N50,000.
“On the pre-resumption day, when the chairman came here, our tank almost fell off, so we had to buy either iron or plank. I took the chairman to check it and called the plumber. The plumber said to put the tank back with wood and some other things would cost up to N45,000 to N50,000 . He said I should not buy iron but water wood; that I would be paid some money from which I could carry out the project . When the money came, we were to cut the grass. We invited somebody to cut the grass and he demanded N50,000 but we could not pay the amount. The gutter was also filled up and blocked. To pack the gutter, they demanded N40,000.”
Head Teacher of Oluwole Primary School, Akoka (names withheld) said she was able to manage the N50,000 she got to put her school in order ahead of resumption. She said she used the funds for minor repairs and cleaning the environment.
“I was able to manage the money to do some repairs and clean the compound,” she told this reporter at the school.
She said the N20,000 running cost for November was paid a day before this reporter visited on December 8, 2020. She however said the money was barely enough to cover the cost of running the school.Like her counterpart at Anwar-Ul-Islam, the Oluwole Primary School head teacher said her school depended on generators for power because it been cut off because of a power bill of N178,000.
“We are owing N178,000 electricity bill. We were cut off since September last year. Who is going to pay the money? Since then, we have been running generator. The government is renovating the school and doing the wiring but when they finished it, where is the light? Why must they bill us? Is it not a govenremnt school? They should help us. We really need light to pump water,” she said.
In the absence of power, the head teacher said she spentds N1,000 buying fuel for the generator almost daily. She also has to spend money on repairs and other cost.
“We buy fuel of at least N1,000 or N500 every day. We pump water almost every day. I spend my salary. I repaired the generator last week for N1,500. When we wanted to pump water recently, the rope (for the generator) got cut. I had to buy another one,” she said.
Mrs. Famutimi also said she spends her salary running the school. She said though about N20,000 out of the school’s N80,000 electricity bill was paid by the Parent’s Forum, there was no hope of raising the money from anywhere.
“We have borehole. We don’t have light. We have to buy petrol for the generator to pump water and we pump water every two days. When I got here, the school owed eighty something thousand naira. That was last year. The parents tried; they settled part of the bill – maybe twenty something thousand naira. They (IKEDC) now sent me a message to come and paythe remaining part of the bill. Where is the money? The parents can barely feed; majority are suffering. Imagine! Little children cannot enjoy light,” she said.
The Head teacher of Akoka Primary School, Akoka, was not around when The Nation visited. However, the Assistant Head Teacher, Mrs. Sarah Onikeku, confirmed that the school had no light. She said it had its own borehole independent of that of Oluwole Primary School with which it shares premises. She said she had no information about the electricity bill being owed.
“We follow the safety protocol. We have hand washing stations on each floor. We have two wash hand basins on each floor. We have a borehole; we have a generator we use to pump water. We pump twice a week at least. The Parents Forum tried to help us with the bill but that has been long. Electricity will make a difference. If we have electricity the children will learn better,” she said.
St Agnes Primary School has a prepaid metre. But Orisaheyi said the school did not have electricity because they could not afford the N3,000 to load the electricity card weekly. He said his office and a part of the school enjoys power tapped from SUBEB which has some of its offices within the school’s compound.
I’m only managing light from SUBEB office. They ran their line down from their two offices. The former chairman gave me light so that I can be using it to operate my office. There is no light in the building apart from SUBEB offices and my office.
“When I got here on April 9, 2018, I did not meet power. There was a time the school was trying to use prepaid metre but within four days they will spent over N3,000 for prepaid. The funding is too expensive; nobody is sponsoring us,” he said.
With bulk money at their disposal, public secondary school managers were able to do much more than their primary school counterparts.
When SS3 pupils resumed in August, Principal of Ilupeju Senior Grammar School, Ilupeju, who did not wish to be named, said the government “over prepared for resumption”.
The principal said the school had made adequate provision for hand washing and sanitation – with six newly-constructed sinks by the side of one of the school’s buildings. All the taps were running, and each sink had a bottle of soap for hand washing.
He also said two more toilets were built for the pupils. The toilets are manned by a sanitation manager who sits at the entrance.
However, by November, when this reporter visited the school, there was no bottle of soap on any of the sinks. This was not the case at Gbagada Junior Comprehensive High School, Gbagada, where practically all the 11 handwashing stations by the gate had bottles of soap.
Its Principal, Mrs. Ovinuyon Buhari, says the school adheres strictly to the COVID-19 protocols to the extent of ensuring the pupils take breaks to wash their hands.
“We have staggered attendance so they don’t come in together at the same time. We have different days for JSS one and JSS two. So when they come in we have 11 washing stations at the entrance and we have 20 washing stations inside. Their temperature is taken, we have safety officers and the security man has also been trained to check temperature. Once their temperature qualifies them to come in, they come into the school. If we have high temperature, we call parents to take them home.
“During break, they have hand washing period. On the corridors of their classrooms, they have buckets of water with soap and sanitizer so they do hand washing frequently. When they go for break, at the food vendors shed, they also wash their hands,” she said.
With large classes, Mrs. Ovinuyon said the pupils were able to maintain physical distancing adequately.
“The classrooms are very big so we maintain the distance of 1.5 meters in the sitting arrangements. It depends on the class coming in. When it was JSS 3 only, we had 25 students and all of them spread out. The JSS 1 students are more so we can have up to 50 in a class but they are still widely spaced. The classrooms are big enough to accommodate them,” she said.
Mrs. Ovinuyon said her school was able to maintain a high standard of hygiene because it had the funds to do so.
“We also provided personal protective equipment; we have face masks; we have isolation centre; we have sick bay. We have other disinfecting safety equipment in the school. I have sanitation managers for every floor. That is the only way I can maintain toilets. We have 50 toilets in the school with water running in them and they are all clean. They (sanitation managers) guide the children when they come to use the toilet and make sure they use the toilets properly. The toilets have water and soap.
“The toilets were not this functional when I got here so out of the running cost we used to do plumping work, fixed the generator. We have three generators – one is dedicated for water and one is in the ICT room for the children’s training; then I have one that runs in the office,” she added.
Apart from meeting the COVID-19 protocols, Mrs. Ovinuyon said the school catered for home-learning needs on days some of the over 2,000 pupils did not come to school because of staggered classes.
‘’Sometimes, we have to give the students work to take home when they are not in school, so we are able to do photocopies. I have photocopier in the school so we can share their work with them. We also use data because we do online classes. As they don’t come every day, when they are not in school they will be at home doing online classes,” she said.
Mrs. Ovinuyon said the increased running cost helped the school to run more effectively.
“The running cost made a whole lot of difference. It is not comparable because the difference is so much. We can do a lot more now and it is with monitoring because if you just give account of the money and you don’t monitor, you know money can go in different ways,” she said.
Principal of Oriwu Junior Model College, Ikorodu, Mrs. Folasade Alimi, said keeping COVID-19 protocol was also easier in her boarding school thanks to increased funding.
She said: “When you get to my school from the gate you cannot enter without your face mask and we have a set of water closets to wash your hands and the nurse is on ground to check your temperature and ensure you put on a face mask. The Lagos State government provided all the equipment to curb COVID -19. Yes they have increased the running cost and we are earning a lot of money at the end of the month. I am not praising them but the government is trying.
“The funds allocated to my school were used for repairs, such as broken furniture; now we have eight boreholes in my school so we can get water for the daily activities; a big generator and small generators and also inverter provided by the Lagos State government work 24/7. So we have everything necessary. “Power supply is not regular and that is normal. They didn’t cut our school light; the light is not just regular. We use to have light from 8am to 4pm; from 4pm to 7pm there we either put on the generator or inverter. The inverter is there from 6pm-8pm in the evening so the children will use it for their prep class. In the night the inverter is off and NEPA will bring light – that is how we do it.”
Unhappy about the situation in primary schools, Orisaheyi is seeking equity in the disbursement of funds between primary and secondary schools.
He said: “Secondary school principals are our colleagues. We have the same certificate; we control the same population of pupils. They are collecting running cost of N250,000 in the same community and society we belong to as stakeholders, whereas primary schools that is known as the bedrock of education, the solid rock that others will be mounted on is collecting N20,000 as running cost.”
Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Lagos Wing, Comrade Adedoyin Adesina urged the Lagos State government to make amends.
“If it is decentralised, and head teachers are given that responsibility the way secondary schools have done theirs, I think it will be better.
“The bulk money was not given to the primary schools but was given to the secondary schools. It is money they use to set up the washing hand basins that is fixed at strategic places, toilets and all those things. They are fantastic. So it shows that if money is entrusted in the hands of the school administrators, they will do better.
•Some of the sinks stationed by the school gate for hand washing
Responding to questions on supplying primary schools with sanitary products, Chairman of Lagos SUBEB, Mr. Wahab Alawiye-King, said primary schools were supplied with sanitary supplies based on need.
“It depends on the on the number of schools per Local Government Education Authority. It is based on that data that we have supplied them. The term has just ended, we are preparing for another set of sanitary materials to be given to them and we are currently working on that,” he said.
He also said the Board monitors COVID-19 compliance in schools.
“We have our basic education quality assurance officers that go around and monitor; guidance and counseling unit also monitor what is happening in our schools. So it is a multi-layered supervisory and monitoring aspect of the programme.
Regarding the meagre running cost, Alawiye-King said the board was aware of the challenges head teachers faced running schools with minimal funds and was already working with the government to propose an increment.
“We are also working in that direction. A proposal has been made to the House of Assembly.
They are working with us to make sure that the running cost to all our schools is increased to ensure that so many areas are covered. The state government also gave us some special funds when we were about to resume and we distributed it across all the schools in the state.
“We are also aware of some of the challenges you raised and that is why I said we are working with the House of Assembly to ensure that the running cost to schools is increased,” he said.
He was however silent on how much the more primary schools would be getting.
“That is supposed to be an internal thing until it is approved, so I can’t divulge such information,” he added.
The National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) has challenged the government to ensure the implementation of recommendations of the various judicial panels of enquiry set up to investigate cases of police brutality across the country aftermath the EndSARS protests.
The NAS Capoon, Mr Abiola Owoaje stated this in commemoration of the Umalokun massacre –an event used to remember six members of the association murdered in cold blood by men of the Nigeria Police in Ughelli on December 24 1983.
The Nigeria Police had admitted killing the victims, namely Kester Aghogho Sobotie, Joseph Uloho, Victor Oyailo, Anthony Teddy Omakor, Bernard Obi and Princely Otegho Otaye, unlawfully and promised to bring the killers to justice.
Owoaje in a press statement titled “Umalokun Massacre: An Unlawful Murder Among Many Past & Present that Blights the History of Nigerian Police” to mark the 37 th anniversary of the unlawful killing lamented that the Police have not been able to bring the killers to justice.
He restated the support of the association for the ideals that informed the recent #EndSARS protest across Nigeria noting that the Umalokun massacre like many other cases of extra –judicial killings remains a stain in the history of Nigeria Police Force,
According to him the protests and the support it received from Nigerians across social status has “reinforced our belief that Nigerians are in tandem on calls for an improved and effective Nigeria Police and a fully functional, justice system through far reaching reforms”.
Owoaje tasked the government to ensure that the purpose for setting up the judicial panel of enquiry which is to get justice for victims is fulfilled.
The statement read in part “It is important that as sittings go underway in various states, citizens are allowed unconditional liberty to table their grievances in the most conducive atmosphere of tolerance in the course to get justice. The government must resist the temptation to muzzle victims of police brutality or attempt to suppress evidence in their endeavour to get justice.
“More significantly, we need to emphasize that the setting up of the Judicial Panel of Enquiry and its commencement of sitting is not an end in itself but a means to an end. The end result is justice for victims and this should not be compromised. The reports of the panel(s) must not be allowed to gather dust like others before it. Government must act decisively on the anticipated reports and punish all those indicted.
“The Umalokun massacre and other incidents of extra judicial killings remain a sad chapter in the history of our country, the Police and our justice system. The Judicial Panel of Enquiry offers a golden opportunity for the government to redeem its image of negligently or wilfully shielding from justice, suspected criminal elements in the Nigeria Police. The government should further demonstrate its sincerity by implementing recommendation(s) to be submitted to it from the various Judicial Panels of Enquiry. The Government and the leadership of the Nigeria Police should be bold enough to summon therequired political will to accelerate the needed Police reforms in our country”
