The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • COVID-19 vaccine myths

    COVID-19 vaccine myths

    By Niyi Akinnaso

     

    If you are a reader of this column, you are not likely to believe in the COVID-19 vaccine myths or conspiracy theories. However, if you do, please read this carefully and share it with the myth-makers, conspiracy theorists, and myth peddlers on social media. Educate them about COVID-19, the efficacy of available vaccines, and the need to get the vaccine as soon as it is available.

    Among the myth makers and their believers are subordinate workers, including drivers, gatemen, and domestic workers, who sometimes share the same closed space with you. They may infect you with the virus, while they remain asymptomatic and eventually shake it off. Some high profile COVID-19 deaths in Nigeria caught the virus from some members of this group.

    Tell them that COVID-19 is real. The virus is still around and it will keep circulating and killing people until the vast majority of the world population is vaccinated. The United States provides a test case. Here is a country that manufactures and distributes three of the world’s leading vaccines against COVID-19. Yet, infection rates are rising in some of its 50 states.

    This is particularly so in states, which oppose vaccination for ideological reasons or have vaccine hesitant citizens, who believe in one myth or the other about the vaccine. Such states include Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi, where only about 35% of the population is fully vaccinated. The infection rates, due largely to the Delta variant, are three to five times higher in these states than in others, such as Vermont, where over 60% of the population is fully vaccinated.

    The continued rage of COVID-19 is demonstrated by the global data: As of yesterday, Tuesday, July 13, 2021, it had infected over 186 million and killed over 4 million people worldwide. True, Nigeria has been lucky so far as are many other African countries, yet, nearly 170,000 Nigerians have been infected and over 2,000 have died from the disease. And these are just the reported cases alone!

    In the absence of a cure, the only respite for now is the vaccine. Unfortunately, the vaccine has not circulated around the world, partly because enough has not been produced, partly because of vaccine nationalism, whereby high income countries hoard the available vaccines, and partly because low income countries cannot afford to purchase enough doses for their populations.

    It is doubly unfortunate that vaccine hesitancy, promoted partly by ignorance and largely by misinformation, is preventing some people from taking advantage of the vaccine, even in countries, such as the United States, where there are enough doses to go round.

    There are many myths and conspiracy theories out there. Only a few will be discussed here. One popular myth that has been circulating on social media in Nigeria is the myth of the magnet. This is the idea that the vaccine site on the arm has a magnetic field that can hold magnets or metals, such as a key or even a phone. It is a bogus lie. The myth makers simply tricked the gullible believers, either by sticking the coin to a sweaty vaccine site or rubbing the site with some light transparent glue.

    Another myth is that the vaccine site can light up a bulb. Big lie. The bulb seen in the video has a small flat battery in it, which lights up when held in a particular position or a switch is pushed on the side of the bulb. It is a trick often used by amateur magicians.

    Equally false is the myth that the vaccine will deliver a microchip into the recipients body. This falsehood developed from confusion about digital vaccine records. This simply means that vaccination records are digitally tracked so that the number of vaccine recipients can be easily known: You get the vaccine. It is recorded. Someone enters the record into a computer. And you are tracked. Simple. There are no electronic components whatsoever in the vaccines.

    The microchip myth is tied to another myth that the vaccine will alter the recipient’s DNA or genetic material. It needs emphasizing that no vaccine or immunization enters the cell nucleus, where the DNA resides. Rather, they do their work of combating infection on the periphery or cytoplasm of the cell nucleus.

    Yet another myth is the idea that the vaccine itself will give the recipient COVID-19. Not true. Modern vaccine technologies do not require the use of the virus itself in producing the vaccine. Therefore, none of the available vaccines can give you COVID-19. It’s as simple as that.

    You may then ask, how come the vaccines were produced so quickly, within a year? This is a legitimate safety question. It is because scientists have been working on viruses and various vaccine technologies, including the mRNA technology, for decades. All that was needed this time around was to properly code the virus that causes COVID-19 in order to produce an appropriate, safe, and effective vaccine. Nonetheless, all available vaccines went through rigorous trials and vetting procedures, which were reported from time to time in various medical journals.

    One of the most disturbing myths is the false claim that the vaccines may cause infertility and are unsafe for pregnant women. It is also false that pregnant women were not included in the vaccine trials. These false claims conflated the spike protein on the coronavirus with the spike protein involved in the growth and attachment of the placenta during pregnancy. Yet, the two spike proteins are completely different and distinct.  Therefore, getting the vaccine will not affect pregnancy, fertility, or in vitro fertilisation.

    It is also not true that the old, the infirm, and those with suppressed immune system should not get the vaccine. Indeed, they are often the first in line for the vaccine after health and essential workers. This is so because the vaccine really has no significant side effects.

    Nevertheless, since December 2020, over three billion doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered in over 190 countries, worldwide and the calamities circulated on social media have not materialised.

    Beyond the myths, however, is the availability of the vaccines, now that a more transmissible and deadly variant of the virus is circulating in the country. Yet, not even one percent of the Nigerian population is fully vaccinated (with donated vaccines!) yet, despite the alleged investment of about N40 billion in vaccine procurement. It is now time for Nigerians to demand: Show me the vaccine!

     

  • Before Buhari’s victory lap

    Before Buhari’s victory lap

    By Festus Eriye

     

    The capture of Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu, by Nigeria’s intelligence agencies was a massive coup for an administration that has been reeling under the siege of insecurity across the land.

    The dramatic announcement of the “interception” of Kanu at some unnamed location came out of the blues. It was the stuff of spy movies, something you associate with Americans, Russians or Israelis; not Nigerian security agents who are more adept at cracking down on demonstrators and activists than hardboiled enemies of state.

    Perhaps inspired by that success, the Department of State Services (DSS) stormed the Ibadan lair of Yoruba nation promoter, Chief Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho – leaving in their wake two dead bodies, dead cats and a slew of damaged cars.

    Amidst the shooting the agitator who legend says is endowed with magical powers, and has reinforced the myth by parading in public with a juju bulletproof vest as sartorial accessory, went underground.

    In just one week President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had put two troublesome individuals out of circulation. You could tell how much it meant to the government when the president praised the military for saving Nigeria from disintegration.

    His supporters were over the moon. They hailed Buhari as a professor of linguistics who had spoken to the secessionists and agitators in a language they understood. This referenced his throwaway threat to deal with IPOB and their like “in a language they understand.”

    True, the geographical expression called Nigeria remains whole, but are its different peoples still committed to the one nation ideal? Never before has there been so much division and hate along ethnic and regional lines. It’s one thing to keep an entity united at gunpoint, quite a different proposition securing their commitment to a union by choice. At this point in our history I shudder to think what a referendum will reveal about our true feelings.

    History is replete with countries that were once held together by the force of arms or the iron will of a strongman. Who remembers the once mighty Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) under the vice grip of a succession of communist dictators, or Yugoslavia as one country for as long as Josip Broz Tito had breath in him?

    But a time came when guns, tanks and secret police couldn’t stop things falling apart and they crumbled under the weight of their inner contradictions.

    Now, whether the events of the last two weeks were so perfectly choreographed such that threat morphed into action which produced dramatic result in the form of Kanu’s return to the “zoo”, remains a matter of conjecture. But that’s academic; we’ll assume it was part of some genius plan.

    There’s no doubt that the military crackdown and arrest of the IPOB leader has brought a level of quietude to the Southeast. The daily assaults on police stations and soldiers have virtually stopped and armed militants have gone to ground.

    In the Southwest the picture is quite different. Despite the din generated by Igboho’s activities there’s really no appetite for secession here.

    The separatists and ethnic nationalists are thriving because an enabling environment has been created through the years. What we see with the Kanus and Igbohos are outward manifestations of an inner malaise.

    Those conditions have not disappeared with the legal troubles of two arrowheads, neither does taking the advantage in a shooting war translate into prevailing in the battle for minds.

    If anything, analysing reactions in the Southeast especially since the decommissioning of Kanu, you get the sense that bitterness and a sense of alienation have only increased within the ranks of his supporters.

    Among the elite there may have been sighs of relief, but the younger demographic retain sufficient resentment regarding which those in authority should be concerned. This, after all, is the majority segment of our population.

    Matters are not helped by tone-deaf dialogue between sections of the country and government. Driving the agitations down south are frustrations over inequalities, injustices and sense of exclusion which current leaders are loath to address.

    One of more interesting aspects of the ongoing national exchanges is that those most disturbed by the activities of Kanu and Igboho are majorly from the north. Even those in Zamfara, Kaduna or Borno feel more threatened by the activities of agitators in Imo and Oyo, than the depredations of bandits and insurgents who have turned life upside down across their region.

    We’ve heard rhetoric that suggests bandits are actually very shy and sensitive people that deserve to be treated specially. We’ve been told by Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, that they can’t be compared to Kanu and Igboho because they are lone rangers!

    Well, in the last six months these independent criminals have abducted hundreds and killed scores across the north. Last weekend they murdered 50 people in attacks in Kaduna and Zamfara. A few days ago they upped their game by snatching the Emir of Kajuru.

    As I write 121 students of Bethel Baptist Secondary School remain in captivity. Following their abduction, El-Rufai hurriedly shut a number of schools for security reasons. Even before then many parents had been mulling the wisdom of putting their children in harm’s way by sending them to school! So, slowly but surely Boko Haram’s assault on Western education is being actualised in the north.

    It was perhaps against this back drop the largely reticent former Military Governor of Kaduna State, Abubakar Umar, advised Buhari to focus on the bandits and insurgents, arguing that secessionists were exaggerated threats.

    It wasn’t what the president’s cocky supporters wanted to hear. He was dismissed as an irritant who was frustrated because Buhari wasn’t sharing public funds with prominent Nigerians.

    But truth is the troubled North remains Nigeria’s greatest headache at this point. The insurgency in the Northeast continues to drain valuable resources that could have been deployed to national development.

    The Northwest lies prostrate before bloodthirsty bandits with no viable economic alternative to wean them from their deadly trade.

    In the North-Central zone the unending conflict between herders and farmers continues to leave death and misery in its wake. The telling effect on food production is being felt right across the land.

    So rather than embarking on a premature victory lap, Buhari needs to realise that at the point when he took over, Nigeria was in crisis and that drove the hunger for change. Six years after, that sense of crisis hasn’t disappeared, it has only deepened.

     

     

  • Killer bandits; Wanted :1,000,000-man military

    Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 3,990,000 among 184,400,000 diagnosed cases and 3.4b vaccines worldwide. Nigerian cases approaching 170,000 and 2,130 deaths with 3.9+m vaccine doses with 1.3 fully vaccinated. Delta Covid, third phase is spreading.

    More killings in Kaduna and 43 migrants drowning off Lampedusa Island in the Mediterranean.

    Disgracefully, another 35 defenceless Nigerians murdered by home-invading killers we pretend are just ‘bandits’. Imagine the terror to mother and children as murderous high-powered and explosive machine gun-shooting killers break down the gate, jump over or blow-up the walls, smash the doors, shatter the windows and destroy domestic furniture as the family drowned in terrified fear as complete strangers, perhaps with an informer – domestic or neighbours- search and scatter belongings searching out your hidden children in cupboards, under beds, squeezed behind the fridge but all discovered and dragged away. Nobody to the rescue? And so also for the Emir of Kajuru and 13 family members in Kaduna, and now the provost, College of Animal Science in Zamfara. Security forces thwarted the kidnapping of more people. Thank God. The Presidency must get busy writing yet more condolence letters and reveal to Nigerians how many condolence letters/messages have been vomited by Aso Rock -a new macabre record?

    We are depressed by huge numbers of kidnapped children and youth and murdered fellow Nigerian citizens and five million Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs. Too many remain captives of the killer bandits demanding and apparently receiving rice and food items for themselves and their terror-ridden victims especially the over 120 innocents just seeking knowledge, kidnapped wickedly from the Baptist school. If government can deliver food to an enemy, it must have an address to send food to or a tracking device in the food to get the address. So government can send them rice but cannot free them? A tragedy to every family involved. Can anyone believe that the government is acting with upmost urgency, no matter the statements that dribble from Aso Rocks? Can anyone say we have put enough men, women and modern machinery into the field of battle? More than six years into this administration, we have not seen the increased manpower recruitment into all forces including the Police to adequately protect all the vulnerable Nigerians, nationwide.

    We have lost a lot of time and opportunity for arms and manpower build-up to fight the current wars and coming wars with people bent on mass destruction of life and education and modernity. These people, villains, hate modernity but strangely fully embrace a dangerous product of extreme education and modernity – deadly weaponry- which they embrace with a death-wish for innocents in countries from across the Sahel in Chad and Niger. These imported and sometimes home-grown killer-bandits will gain strength and numbers when the French and perhaps the British leave those countries. The growing forces from those leaving a newly peaceful Libya are anticipated but no national countermeasures, reinforcement of borders and points of easy illegal penetration appear to be in preparation. Let us hope secret war games are being carried out but the first fruit would be an elimination of bandit gangs because Nigeria cannot fight an external force at the border and internal fight, back and front war which will engulf the army surrounded by enemies without the country and in country.

    More football!! Some call it ‘Foolball’. Nigerians miss out through years deprived of coaching, equipment and sport funding with ‘Accidental Hero Sportspersons’.

    Messi score to beat Brazil 1-0 in the Copa America. The Argentinian side including staff is completely white? Why? Google ‘Argentina’s slavery question’. Teach your children the answer. Many countries shouting ‘freedom’ today have cruel and deadly racial human rights records. Racists’ statues removed in the US after a 5-7 year battle in a 200-year antislavery war. Hurray!!  Meanwhile in basketball, Nigeria [US trained stars] beat USA in a friendly pre-Olympic2020/1. Scoreboard  90:87. Hurray! In football’s World Cup, Italy beat England on penalties and Sir Richard Branson and his crew are ‘Astronauts’ having crossed 50miles or 80kilometre to outer space. Hurray!!

    Most complete education includes sport but media pictures of schools of the victim children in Nigeria show the dilapidated classrooms and schools, ill-equipped to deliver the quality deserved by children despite billions from the Universal Basic Education Commission and State UBE Boards and a shamefully negligent national failure to equip Nigeria’s youth for a self-reliant, rewarding future.

    There is a book on Leah Sharibu, kidnapped by Boko haram during the Chibok debacle. The agony is still raw but Nigeria fails to rescue her even though Shekau is dead.

    Why is the cost of freedom from government’s moral failures and inadequacies often death?

    ‘May we be invisible to the enemy’. No dwelling is safe from attack. Endless government commiserations and daylight inspection parades cannot save anyone. Nigeria needs no 1,000,000-man marches. We need a 1,000,000-man military recruitment, quick intense training and quality increase in personnel in all aspects of security services for 24-hour massive security presence. We need to recall our retired reserve officers to help train generation next. We are dragged into a war we never wanted to fight. We will soon also be at war with rebels, mercenaries, fortune hunters from Libya/Sahara, Chad/Niger and ISIS-WA. Is Nigeria being prepared too late to fight an on-going war? Or are we, by complacency or conspiracy and connivance being set for a fall? I have heard Nigeria described as a juice prize.

     

  • Buhari’s calculated diversions

    Buhari’s calculated diversions

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    Neither Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, nor Sunday Adeyemo (Igboho), the leader of Ilana Omo Yoruba, is of major concern to Nigerians, especially those in Southern Nigeria, where the two gentlemen hail from and which has been the sole terrain of their activities. The former has restricted his activities to the Southeast and parts of the South-south, while the latter has restricted his to the Southwest.

    Both men have three things in common. One, they want self actualization for their people. Two, each has a small following. Three, neither man nor his group is fully embraced by his people: local traditional, religious, and political leaders maintain a distance from them.

    It must be noted, however, that they employ different tactics. In the Southeast, Kanu seems to be attacking his own people for not supporting his cause. There are ways in which he may be said to have carried his agenda too far. He also made himself a targe of hunt by jumping bail when he was first indicted.

    Igboho, on the other hand, has been vending off outsiders attacking his own people, mainly herdsmen from the North, and rallying support for his cause of self actualization project by holding rallies across the Southwest. True, Kanu’s followers may have engaged in some skirmishes with his own people in the Southeast, Igboho’s group has gone about its self actualization campaign peacefully. Going after both men with the same zeal is laughable.

    Why are these men and their groups not embraced by their people? It is because the focus of the people’s concerns is different. They are not in favour of secession. They want to remain in Nigeria. But they want optimal security, not word-of-mouth security, so they can live in peace, not in pieces. They want equity-a situation in which everyone is treated equally before the law and in the distribution of political goods and social rewards. They want their country to look like other countries the elite go to get treated, to educate their children, to enjoy a good vacation so that much of the money made in the country could be spent within the country.

     

    Southern Nigerians especially have been vocal about three major wants: One, they want their farms to grow food for local consumption and for sale, rather than to feed cows whose herders carry AK-47 guns to kill the farmers, rape their wives, and waste their children or kidnap their elites (monarchs, businessmen, professors, and so on) for ransom or for murder, if ransom is delayed.

    Second, they want major modifications to how the country is organized and governed. They want a review of how resources are distributed from a distant centre, which turns federating units into beggars. Specifically, they want more powers devolved to the federating units, be they regions or states, depending on the eventual reconfiguration. Such additional powers will include the ability of each regional or state government to manage its own local government areas and control its police in order to maximize local security. They also want a reallocation formula that will allow the federating units to keep much of the money they make and only pay a percentage to the centre. Only such additional resources will allow them to adequately deploy additional powers to full advantage.

    These are not new demands. However, their escalation in recent years is in response to escalating insecurity in the land and the perceived insensitivity of the federal government to the situation. There is a long catalogue of the government’s unresponsiveness. This is especially true of the destructive activities of terrorists and bandits in the North, of Fulani herdsmen in the South and the Middle Belt, and of kidnappers across the country.

    Neither Kanu nor Igboho would have had any agenda to pursue had the federal government provided adequate and needed security and responded to the calls for restructuring the country. It is in this sense that President Muhammadu Buhari may be said to have constructed these two men in their new role, by creating the atmosphere of neglect that led them to agitations for self actualization.

    The enduring zeal with which the government went after Kanu from the days of Python dance to a 2-year international trail and the post-midnight military raid of Igboho’s residence is only negatively matched by the same government’s perpetual neglect of the incessant demand for protection and restructuring by the majority of the population.

    It is in this sense that the arrest and the raid could be regarded as unnecessary diversions. They keep the federal government unnecessarily busy, while neglecting the real problems of terrorism, banditry, herdsmen-farmers conflicts, kidnapping for ransom, and other security breaches.

    Take the case of Igboho for example and compare the totality of his activities with those of marauding herdsmen, wielding AK-47 rifles in the open. How many people have Igbobo and his group members ever killed? Zero, compared to thousands by herdsmen. But how many herdsmen have been arrested and their weapons seized? None, compared to the alleged seizure of weapons and the killings at Igboho’s residence.

    As observers watch the government’s recent actions, questions cannot but be raised about the government’s priorities and about fairness. How can the arrest Kanu and Igboho lead to, or substitute for, large scale security in the land?

    What is unclear to right thinking observers is why the government and its handlers don’t see these actions as reinforcing the people’s belief that this government is either not serious about security or is just buying time until the next election cycle.

    One thing is clear, though. This President continues to leave room for questioning his suitability for democratic governance. The events leading to the banning of Twitter and the raiding of Igboho’s residence show a President uncomfortable with criticism and disrespectful of fundamental rights.

    Whatever method Buhari may have employed to create diversion, Southerners are not buying it. This point was forcefully made on their behalf on Monday by the 17 Southern Governors. In the communique issued after the meeting, they emphasized the need for “the politics of equity, fairness, justice, progress, and peaceful co-existence between and amongst its (the nation’s) people”. In another oblique reference to the President, they also emphasized the need for the Chief Security Officer of the State to be informed, whenever there is need for any security operation. Finally, they touched on key aspects of restructuring in need of attention.

  • Sport; Justice/Equity; Adesina/Okonjo-Iweala

    By Tony Marinho

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 3,990,000 among 184,400,000 diagnosed cases and 3.17b vaccines worldwide. Nigerian cases approaching 168,000 and 2,125 deaths with 3.4+m vaccine doses with 1.170,000+ fully vaccinated.

    Nigeria ‘footfalls’, at football! We lose 4-0 to Mexico (population 130m or so). Yes, sports persons may have mesmerising overnight skills but sports stamina, body building, technique and selfless teamwork take years of coaching and funded support. Sadly in 2021, Nigeria is still a country of ‘Accidental Hero Sportspersons’ individually great, hardworking. Politicians, reaping where they deliberately refused to sow, jump on them like blood-thirsty leaches or pariah, sucking press adoration due solely to the few champions among thousands. Look at our 1985 Under-17 winners in football receiving promised bonuses in 2015, 31 years late due to the irresponsibility of governance caused by the political disease of ‘Personalisation of Political Office’.

    That 31-year delay is a metaphor for Nigeria’s collective failure to support youth development – mental, sport, material and entrepreneurial. One consequence is the current widespread youth anger and helplessness. We did not nurture enough talented young star footballers. Which governors support education and high-class sports access as development strategies -an ‘Ogbemudian Achievement’? A complete education includes sport and a national future in world sport? The test is ‘How many home-grown Nigerian sportspersons will be in the Tokyo Olympics 2020-1 while the USA, EU, UK ad nauseum train potential 2024, 2028, 2032 Olympian hopefuls already?

    Oduduwa nation protests and suppression-July 2021. Easier solution than watercannon -let government and National Assembly, NASS, OBEY Nigeria’s OATH & ANTHEM[S] and make Nigeria a land where TRUTH and JUSTICE [EQUITY] truly REIGN with FAITH, LOYALTY and HONESTY of the political and ethnic classes at all tiers of governance. Period! Not nuclear physics, just LOVE of neighbour, NOT LUST for his property!!!!

    MUST WE DIE, in order to LIVE?

    This coming holiday who is safe. SSS-Safety, Safety and Safety are every Nigerian parent’s terror. All levels from family members, domestics, drivers and travel have all been indicted. The roads are frightening. The village, back home, is often unreachable even after a mountain of prayers invoking ’May we be invisible to the enemy’. No dwelling is safe from marauders and fraudsters. The Kaduna attacks, unchallenged, claim more, murdered for being alive! Endless government commiserations and daylight parades without day and night massive security presence cannot save anyone.

    I saw Akinwunmi Adesina, president, African Development Bank in a French interview on TV. Find his videos for ideas and content for your children. He is a fine role model of a multi-lingual highly diversely knowledgeable global leader. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, DG, WTO has equally inspiring motivational idea-driven interviews and she also is trilingual including French. African supermodels on the world’s stage/runway and great role models for your children.  Adesina’s perfect French and English should be a lesson to Nigerian youth. Our indigenous languages are important and Babandede of Immigration emphasised French and local languages at borders where Customs and Immigration staff are posted. English and French are diplomatic and business languages and more children should be guided to learn them in school, during holidays and using social media. At home start a ‘Let us learn a New Language’ home project. This summer holiday, challenge children to learn a language or deepen knowledge of languages they speak, local or international. The internet has tools for every language. Foreign students in most advanced countries must have language proficiency first usually a 3-6 months immersion language course.

    Often Nigerians ‘twanging’ German, Spanish, Russian and of course French learnt compulsorily while training abroad. Do not be jealous of them. Now it is Chinese-Mandarin. Emulate them. Let your children learn a language as a strategic broad education action to broaden future prospects. Multilingual role models worked doubly hard learning ‘a foreign language’. Kudos to their tenacity and language skills.

    Suggest to your children to think of any language they would like to learn to broaden their career options to fill the ‘boredom gap’. Many children are unknowingly gifted and can take up a useful language as a fun hobby. Talent and tenacity go hand in hand. Most are high on one and low on the other. If you are lucky to have a quadrilingual family, two traditional and two foreign languages deliberately transmit that quadraphonic skill to the children in a fun way by having ‘Language Day’ every week to get the children making home videos in different languages. A Nigerian who has studied Japanese pleasantly shocked a Japanese couple needing some help in London. We have all listened to rude passengers talking about someone else or even you in a ‘secret’ language you also understand. Indeed, any language of limited distribution can become a secret language. The US military used indigenous Indian languages as code. ‘Secret’ can be good and bad. Advanced countries teach all languages and use smaller languages in spy work and listen to conversations to monitor criminals. It is never too early to introduce a new language to a child. Try choosing a language this long holiday. Make it fun. For older youth, prioritise a language for future professional plans. Achieving polished and perfection in any language is hard work, Soyinka read the unabridged English Dictionary not as a reference book but as a study book repeatedly. All our ethnic ancestral languages are full of unlearnt and some lost innuendo and multi-meaning twisted proverbs. Sadly, many teachers were taught badly, unable to grow students.

  • Cuba fights COVID-19 with homegrown vaccines

    Cuba fights COVID-19 with homegrown vaccines

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    Earlier in the year, I provided a review of Cuba’s strategies for combating the scourge of COVID-19, focusing on its biomedical capabilities and the simultaneous pursuit of clinical trials in five different vaccine candidates. The following quote provides a partial summary of the article:

    “Of Cuba’s five vaccine candidates, Soberana 02 and Abdala have reached the most advanced stage of Phase III clinical trials, the former being a little ahead of the latter. Both have proved to be safe and effective in clinical trials, with little or no side effects. Even the World Health Organization has also confirmed that the two vaccine candidates in Phase III clinical trials were effective and safe in previous clinical trials. However, how effective on a large scale remains to be seen” (Cuba’s strategies to combat COVID-19, The Nation, March 31, 2021).

    The verdict is now out. Soberana 02 and Abdala have surpassed significantly the World Health Organization’s 50 percent benchmark for vaccine safety and effectiveness. Specifically, Soberana 02 is 62% effective, while Abdala is 92.28% effective.

    Some clarification is necessary here to explain the discrepancy in the efficacy of the two vaccine candidates. Each of them is a three-shot vaccine. Abdala’s 92.28% efficacy was recorded after all three doses had been administered, whereas Soberana 02’s efficacy was recorded only after two doses. There is a chance, therefore, that Sobera’s efficacy may shoot up after completion of the third dose.

    After three shots, the results put Abdala in the league of COVID-19 vaccines with over 90% efficacy, namely, USA’s Pfizer-BioNTech (95%) and Moderna (94.1.1%) as well Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 (91.6%). The efficacy results of the clinical trials of Abdala also surpass those of other vaccines in use, namely, UK’s Oxford-AstraZeneca (82.4%); and China’s Sinopharm (79%) and CoronaVAC (51%).

    I was not surprised by the high efficacy of the Abdala vaccine. Nor did it surprise Jose Moya of the World Health Organization, who, incidentally, has been in Cuba for the past two years as the representative of the Pan American Health Organization, a regional organization of the WHO with 27 country offices.

    Read Also: How prepared are we for a post oil economy?

    As Moya himself admitted, his trust in the Cuban figures is based on Cuba’s track record: Cuba’s biomedical industry is the most advanced in the Caribbean and Latin America, producing first class medical training and biopharmaceutical research scientists. Not only does Cuba produce over 80% of all vaccines used in the country, it’s healthcare system has also been performing steadily well for decades-so much so that medical staff are among Cuba’s major exports. It’s doctors have been “exported” to over 50 countries worldwide, many even during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

    In addition to safety and high effecacy, Abdala is also significant in creativity. Unlike  Moderna and Pfizer-BinNTech vaccines, which use the mRNA technology and others, such as Oxford-AstraZeneca and Sputnik V, which use some virus as vector, Abdala uses a different approach, which carries a portion of the spike protein that the coronavirus uses to bind to human cells. Yeast is used to bind the protein onto the receptors of the virus’ own spike protein to trigger an immune reaction.

    Cuba’s COVID-19 vaccine feat must be understood against the 62-year punitive embargo placed against the small island nation of 11 million people by the United States. Although President Barack Obama sought to reverse the embargo by visiting Cuba in 2016, former President Donald Trump did all he could to reverse the easing trend. It is now left to incumbent President Joe Biden (who was Obama’s Vice President), to reverse Trump’s re-tightening of the embargo.

    Already, global opinion favours Cuba on the issue. As recently as June 23, 2021, the United Nations again voted overwhelmingly in favour of the resolution on lifting the embargo against Cuba: Of the 189 member nations present, 184 voted in favour, while three abstained. Only the United States and Israel voted against the resolution.

    There are several compelling reasons to lift the embargo now. For one thing, the Soviet Union, which used to assist Cuba is no more and the US-Soviet (now only Russia) cold war has shifted to cyber war between the two countries, with Russia as the aggressor.

    Second, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who defeated the US-backed Cuban government, is no more. Even his brother, who took over from him, has surrendered power. It is high time the US consigned the shame of the defeat to history.

    Third, if only on humanitarian grounds, the embargo should be lifted because of its severe economic strain on the Cuban masses. In his recent presentation to the United Nations General Assembly on the effects of the embargo, the Secretary-General noted that Cuba has recorded billions of dollars in losses over six decades of embargo by the United States. The Secretary-General summed it up this way: “Taking into account the depreciation of the dollar against the price of gold on the international market, the embargo has caused quantifiable losses of more than $1,377,998 million”.

    This economic hardship notwithstanding, Cuba has continued to weather the storm. While other nations were scampering to purchase vaccines made by high-income nations, Cuba declined to do so. It also refused to participate in the COVAX project, viewing both stances as indications of sovereign pride. More importantly, however, it allowed the nation’s scientists to focus on vaccine production.

    There are lessons for the Nigerian government and the world to learn from Cuba. Strong leadership, effective governance strategies, and sustainability of  programmes, projects, and goals. From inception, the Cuban government developed elaborate education, healthcare, and infrastructure projects, which have sustained the country through thick and thin.

    It is as well that Nigeria leads Africa in voting consistently in favour of removing the US embargo on Cuba. It is equally interesting that Nigeria maintains cordial diplomatic relations with the island nation. Interestingly, Nigerian Ambassador Ben Okaye presented his credentials in Havana on the same day that Nigeria voted with Cuba at the General Assembly on removing the embargo on Cuba.

    The Nigerian government will do even better to join other nations in line for Cuba’s vaccine to accelerate the pace of vaccination in Nigeria. Already, over one million Cubans have been fully vaccinated, about the same number as Nigeria. Yet, Cuba’s population is only about 11 million, whereas Nigeria’s is over 200 million.

    Earlier in the year, I even went further to urge the Nigerian government to collaborate with Cuba in vaccine production. It is not too late to do so.

  • Is PDP in terminal decline?

    Is PDP in terminal decline?

    By Festus Eriye

    A little over twenty years ago when the founding fathers of what would become the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were cobbling it together, they had a theory. They argued Nigeria actually had two political parties – civilians on one side and the military on the other – because coups were still common place.

    So they dreamt of a party that would be a grand umbrella to accommodate the mainstream political tendencies – north, south, east and west. It was to be Nigeria’s answer to South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC).

    But for the last minute departure of a rump that became the Alliance for Democracy (AD), they largely succeeded in creating a platform that had the broadest spread.

    Indeed, so big had it become after a few years in power that its leaders boasted about being the biggest political party in Africa and dreamt of governing Nigeria for an uninterrupted 60-year stretch.

    It wasn’t such a fanciful proposition because in order to win the presidency you needed cross-country presence and appeal that the likes of AD, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) or Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) never had. That was until its leaders got consumed by hubris.

    Many have argued that without the backing of All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) would never have gotten to power – because their strength in the Southwest provided a leg that complemented Buhari’s popularity up north, creating the national spread that was required to win the presidency. That certainly was the case.

    Read Also: Ogun, Oyo workers’ fate hangs in the balance

    However, the nascent APC was given a massive helping hand by the arrogance of PDP leaders in 2014.

    In this country a governor is a major political asset, a mini-president in his territory. Imagine that in one day the opposition which barely counted eight governors within their ranks, suddenly found themselves gifted five in one day! They were joined by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Kwara State Governor, Bukola Saraki, and sundry others in that seismic move.

    Rather than realise they were strengthening an opposition that had little or no room for manoeuvre at that point, then President Goodluck Jonathan and National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, celebrated the exit of those they termed ‘trouble makers’ from the ruling party. It was the beginning of the end.

    Imagine if PDP had resolved its internal problems and convinced the defectors to stay. It’s hard to see how the opposition could have seized power without the additional votes, spread and resources that the new entrants brought.

    Six years after that landmark where an incumbent civilian president was toppled in widely-hailed polls, the outlook hasn’t improved for the opposition.

    First, it had to deal with the trauma of going from 16 years of presidential power to contending with life in the political wilderness. All the evidence shows it hasn’t quite made the adjustment.

    Back in 2015, there was no unanimity as to the best way forward in its new life, but many agreed PDP had to reinvent itself. But to do that the party needed honest self-examination as to how it came from defeating Buhari by 10 million votes in 2011 to losing by under three million votes four years later.

    They needed to understand that what happened in 2015 wasn’t just an electoral loss but the evisceration of a political brand and that a radical reinvention was called for. Instead of that soul searching, party leaders were more interested in a speedy return to power in 2019 – offering the same damaged goods to a suspicious electorate.

    It should have occurred to the party that clear differentiation was required because with nothing setting the parties apart, members could flit from one to the other based on self-interest. Today, the only way to know who has the upper hand is by tracking who’s going where.

    In the last one year, three governors have switched parties. In Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, fled to the PDP after he lost the APC gubernatorial ticket. His problem was his erstwhile godfather, Adams Oshiomhole, was opposed to his return. Had they kissed and made up he wouldn’t have moved.

    Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi and his Cross River counterpart, Ben Ayade, have crossed to the ruling party spurred by battle a for control of PDP power structures in their states.

    A fourth governor – Zamfara’s Bello Matawalle, has reportedly skipped to the APC with only the ceremonial singing and dancing left to seal the deal.

    This latest defection is distressing for the opposition. Its spokesman, Kola Ologbodiyan, released a statement warning the governor and his entourage that their action amounted to vacation of their offices under the constitution. Curiously, PDP didn’t make these same legal arguments when it was benefitting from Obaseki joining their ranks.

    But rather than split hairs over what it can’t prevent, the party should worry about something desperately wrong within its ranks. We didn’t see this sort of stampede into the ruling party when ACN governors were in opposition. So what’s eating their PDP colleagues?

    Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has a theory: the corrupt are leaving in hope they would be protected from prosecution by joining the ruling party. But that isn’t logical. Former Abia State Governor, Orji Kalu, joined APC and many said that it was to terminate his prosecution on corruption charges. In the end he went to jail until the court reversed his conviction. Now, the EFCC is vowing to reopen his case. So much for protection.

    The defections may be depressing for PDP, but they are disastrous for an aspiring democracy that could do with a vibrant opposition and alternative governing option.

    Very rarely do governments in countries facing Nigeria’s kinds of challenges retain the level of popularity they attained on Election Day. The longer they stay in the power the less popular they become as they take tough decisions. Their misfortune becomes the opposition’s opportunity.

    But despite all that’s going on with insecurity, ethnic and separatist agitations, herders-farmers, conflicts, Boko Haram insurgency and the economic recession, the opposition isn’t really putting the government on the spot or positioning itself as a credible alternative. Instead, its ranks are being depleted daily.

    It’s almost like some terminal ailment is draining its strength. Unless it can quickly resolve its issues the one-time political leviathan stands in grave danger of being supplanted as Nigeria’s main opposition party by those who can spot the vacuum.

  • Gas: Emergency cross-over points

    By Tony Marinho

     

     

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 3,930,000 among 182,000,000 diagnosed cases and 2.89billion vaccines worldwide. Nigerian cases approaching 168,000 and 2,125 deaths with 1.98+m vaccine doses with 680,000+ fully vaccinated.

    The traumatic dust has not abated on the OPIC Plaza explosion when another multiple gas explosion took place involving five gas tankers in convoy! Where is the promised gas by pipeline and train! A huge insurance cover cost and loss of life and livelihood. Then there is the cost and consequence of burnt vehicles and goods – collateral damage. Another lesson in the gas business.

    Again, we will ignore it. Cost this explosion. Lecturers should task their students to calculate a figure. The road area is newly constructed and may need replacement? The hold-up – perhaps a million passengers, in thousands of vehicles, all fearful and with no information. They had their appointments lost, deadlines missed, goals unachieved, market produce destroyed, unsellable. Musicians, caterers, support staff lost contracts. Add to this the passenger vehicles unable to complete one trip. The total cost is in billions.

    Can there be a class action case against those responsible? Court dignitaries will play ‘judicial ludo’ and ‘cat and mouse’ with ‘jurisdiction’, ‘competence of the court to hear the case’ and sudden mostly ‘fake illnesses like court appearance paralysis and the Oscar Performance of court accused ‘fake fainting’ brought on in any CEO before them. The CEOs would have been taught by Human Resources or lazy lawyers and even doctors those court avoidance tricks!

    Let us also remember that as veterans of Lagos-Ibadan travel via and Sagamu, Abeokuta, Ogere and the old Western Region road network since 1956/7 and especially since 1968, 53 years ago, when I came to the University of Ibadan, many have campaigned for ‘Emergency-Cross-Over-Points’ (ECOP) built into the construction of expressways in Nigeria to manage safety and security issues during total blockage of one side. These ECOPs must have solid but movable barriers/gates, openable by authorities in emergencies to allow supervised two-way traffic for a short 2-5 kilometres to the next ECOP. It must also open for a return to the normal side. This need is shown on the frequently postponed and sometimes abandoned construction of the road now and during the last 15 years. We always knew the contract delay was not the contractor’s, but government’s fault. Not the government in power but the NASS in power which unfortunately has the unfathomably strange power to change budgets. A strange power which, I believe, should be withdrawn.

    Remember in 2019 or 2020, the NASS arrogantly cancelled the budgeted N150b for a speedy finishing of the overdue Lagos-Ibadan contract, shamefully diverting the money to morally and monetarily questionable ‘constituency projects’, CPs. Will the same ‘NASS ‘NASS of The Leaky Roof Infamy’, still hinder the overdue Lagos-Ibadan road? Maybe NASS will designate the funds allocated for the Lagos-Ibadan road for this year’s budget to a special Constitutional Project – a CP to fix ‘The Pothole on the NASS Roof’? No doubt it will be a very expensive hole to fill; NASS has a very big roof. Millions stuck in expressway traffic – ‘suffa on’!!!!

    Because there are no ECOPs timely action to reduce the trauma to travellers was not taken. Do the authorities even have long range communication? Even if such an ECOP existed and vehicles were diverted, how do you inform the authorities further down not to arrest for ‘driving on the wrong side without permission’?  Because there are no Emergency Cross Over Points, many citizens risked their lives, driving off the jammed expressway to find the old Western Region road remnants to escape the horrendous delay.

    George Floyd’s murderer is guilty, denied a retrial and jailed 22.5 years and out in 15 for good behaviour. George Floyd was sentenced to death by the racist immunity and arrogant impunity of police. GF will never be released from his 6+foot cell-coffin in the grave. As Rotary asks- Is it fair to all concerned? Will GF’s murdering policeman be pampered in executive prison by racists guarding their own?

    Lawan, another one of the ‘Lawmaker, Lawbreaker Gang’ in his ‘too many $s in the fila’ and the recipient of billionaire Femi Otedola’s sting operation gets seven years. How many of the ‘Lawmaker-Lawbreaker Gang’ are desperately claiming immunity in NASS having stained Nigeria. Is the Hallowed Chamber a ‘Heaven’ and ‘Haven’ or just a ‘highfaluting’, ‘Hall-For-Looting’ like taking money for untaken trips and shop assistant beatings and questionable democracy behaviour and immoral Constitutional Projects? Telenovela questions: Will the case close or go to the Supreme Court ad nauseum, ad infinitum? Does Otedola get his exhibit A – $500,000 – back or will it be awarded ‘in Federal Character’ to government’s hungry railways to Africa? Watch the next episode.

    Lagos State government congratulates Julius Berger on finishing roads in Ikoyi in 11 instead of 12-months and promptly gives another 12-month contract. Congratulations to both parties. In stark contrast, the same JB is trapped by federal government contract summersaulting confusion on the Lagos end of the unending Lagos-Ibadan road, struggling back to expressway status. The JB success in Lagos says it all. When government keeps to its word and pays, delivery dates are kept and the project is not poor quality, does not overrun in time or money, honey! And with minimum negative impact on the suffering citizenry forced to a 10 year extra ‘suffering for development’.

  • COVID: Governors reports, OPIC

    By Tony Marinho

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 3,880,000 among 188,000,000 diagnosed cases and 2.2b vaccines worldwide. Nigerian cases approaching 168,000 and 2,120 deaths with 2.0m+ vaccine doses. Get your second dose! I just got mine this last Saturday. Get your first dose through your LGA Health division when the next round of first vaccinations starts. Recently Brazil sadly passed the 500,000 deaths mark from Covid. We have no idea what effect or form the third wave will take but we know with certainty that it will come especially with the planned upsurge in travel from and too Nigeria.

    The success of the hot pursuit policy in saving over 100 students recently taken from their school is an attestation to the efficiency of our gallant troops when they are properly equipped and motivated. We only hope that the successful troops will be adequately rewarded and taken care of to encourage others among their ranks to undertake similar enthusiastic pursuits against other groups of terrorists and bandits. Our children are precious gifts from Almighty and not to be used a cannon fodder or pawns in the life-threatening and deadly life-taking activities of a dangerous politics and worse security situation. Children and youth should be untouchable, but they are now a prime target. With such deterioration in the country, most Nigerians have only offered love and service to ensure its growth as a country trying to manoeuvre the minefield with is the transform from a fragmented country into a viable nation. This vision is under serious threat from almost all directions. Increasingly the survival of the state seems under threat.

    It bears repeating that many of the decisions and actions of governments at all levels especially federal level do not lend themselves to the truth tests of ‘truth and peace’ and being ‘faithful, honest’ and especially ‘justice’- the last one encompasses all of the others.

    Governors are producing their Two-Year Reports and some of them are quite impressive. The reports out in the media do not appear to be touched up and photo-shopped to mislead the gullible state citizens and the country in general. They appear to be genuine efforts by hardworking governors to service the needs of their citizens. A cautious bravo if so. If not, the citizens and the opposition parties will soon identify the flaws and broadcast them worldwide. Without naming names, because I have not done full research, let us say that many of them can still do far more. It is common knowledge that over the years, every state had more than enough to ‘Make their state Greater than ever before’. Only each and every governor will know how much they personally diverted, and how much they allowed their henchmen to divert, from the coffers of the states they ‘governed’ and meant for the MDGS and now SDGs since 1999.  Those funds would have changed millions of lives for the better, lifted millions out of poverty, built and strengthened health service capable of keeping the nation’s women alive during delivery, provided a massive off the federal road parallel road system for transport of people and food, and of course provided a strong base of moderately educated youth in properly provided for secondary schools. This would have built a solid small and medium scale business community in every state reducing the number of unemployable youths, neglected young persons, falling through the social safety net of unemployed parents. Ex-governors have lot to answer for, morally if not legally then in their conscience if they have any or ever had any, even as we face the federal government for its own massive and unapologetic lapses, deliberate, tele-guided and malicious policies to emasculate selected citizenry to the advantage for others. We certainly are in a dangerous quagmire of a quandary. Nigerian governors have never been under so much pressure to perform as now as the poor citizens accumulated neglect is being manifest as an increasingly short fuse when confronted with the slightest disagreement or confrontation. The accumulated clouds of past state and almost total LGA maladministration will require a brilliant application of the available resources with little room for error and misappropriation. The governors must make every kobo count not just in their minds but more importantly count in the minds of their people, all the people of the state for every political, ethnic and social persuasion. Any failure will be used against them not only politically but socially! There is no room for fraud in states even by state officials at this time.

    The OPIC Plaza explosion is a terrible lesson to all involved in the dangerous business of transport and installation of the next big thing in power supply in Nigeria – gas, the most dangerous explosive chemical state when not controlled and managed properly. Once again, we have had a deadly result claiming the lives of at least five people who merely planned to do a normal day’s work. An explosion also does tremendous damage to all those children and adults within sight and hearing of the ground zero. No one reported on the collateral damage to hundreds within earshot and concentrated on the tremendous damage to property-buildings and vehicles. With gas appliances spreading around the country and falling grid power, we must increase of consciousness of ’Gas Safety’. We cannot live in the terrifying situation in which ‘if the terrorists don’t get you the gasman’s incompetence will’.

  • The lingering danger of the coronavirus variants

    The lingering danger of the coronavirus variants

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    As of yesterday, Tuesday, June 22, 2021, the coronavirus that came to be known as COVID-19 had infected nearly 180 million people and killed nearly four million worldwide. If the data are correct, compared to high and middle income countries, the figures remain relatively low for African countries, with just over 5 million infections and about 138,000 deaths on a continent with a population of 1.3 billion.

    With its own population at over 200 million and the largest country on the continent, Nigeria could be said to be the luckiest of all, with just 167,292 infections and 2118 deaths (as of June 21, 2021). Nigeria’s luck is better understood against the fate of Brazil with comparable population and climate, but very high levels of infections (nearly 18 million) and deaths (502,817). What made Brazil’s a very bad case is that its President, Jair Bolsonaro, never took the virus seriously and held the vaccine in scorn. As a result, he made no preparations for either of them.

    However, let’s hope that Nigeria’s luck will never be tested as the third wave of infections visits Africa as it has visited Brazil and India lately. While high and middle income countries have been able to cope well with the third (or fourth) wave of infections, Africa’s low income countries may not be able to do as well, because of the triple whammy of weak governance, poor health systems, and low rates of vaccination. Yet, as the Director of the African Center for Disease Control warned last week.

    One of the major factors behind the recent rise in infections is the appearance of new variants of the virus. Right now, there are seven known variants, although some of them are still under investigation. The seven variants and their countries of origin are: Alpha or B.1.17 (United Kingdom); Beta B.1.351 (South Africa); Gamma or P1 (Brazil); Delta or B.1.617.2 and Kappa or B.1.617.1 (India); Epsilon or B.1.427/429 (United States); and Eta or B.1.525. All the variants so far were discovered between March 2020 and January 2021.

    The variants result from genetic mutations in the virus as it evolves during disease outbreak. Usually, the more people there are to infect, the longer a virus stays with the population. The longer the virus is around, the higher the possibility of genetic mutation. That may well be why the variants identified so far occurred in countries with high and enduring infection rates, such as the UK, India, and Brazil.

    The fact that a variant has been identified in Nigeria also speaks to the continued evolution of the virus within the country. Even more importantly, it calls into question the reported low figures of infection for the country. Since infection rates are also a reflection of how many people are tested, it cannot be said that Nigeria captured a reasonable percentage of infected people. For at least 15 months of alleged continuous testing, only 2,266, 591 people were tested in a population of over two million! It is also well known that most people failed to adhere to the recommended mitigation measures, thus increasing the possibility of infection.

    Although some of the variants are still under investigation, especially for their potential for increased virulence, transmissibility, and poor response to available vaccines. So far, at least two of the variants have been found to be quite virulent, highly transmissible, and adamant to the first generation of vaccines.

    Still further bad news: The technology for testing and identifying the new variants is as yet not widely available. It is therefore possible that the variants have travelled further than we think across the African continent. It is safe to assume that all the variants are now present in Nigeria, given the high rate of international travel in recent months.

    The good news, though, is that as soon as the resistance of the new variants to available vaccines were discovered, scientists again went to the lab to tweak the codes once the new variants were genetically sequenced. And that is the beauty of the mRNA vaccine technology. Once an effective vaccine has been made, it can easily be reconfigured to suit the genetic structure of any variant of the virus.

    Even more importantly, this technology is now being tested for protection against a whole host of diseases, including cancer. I will elaborate on this development in another column.

    The bad news, however, is that these new variants are already crisscrossing the globe as their hosts travel from place to place, mirroring the way the original virus was quickly spread across the world. And this is happening at a time when most countries have lowered their guards, with government officials and citizens alike paying little or no attention to the virus. As we have seen, Brazil and India are paying high costs for their leaders laxity (Brazil) or relapse (India) and for putting politics over public health.

    What now can Nigeria do to avert disaster, should the third wave take hold in the country? Having shunned the entreaty to seek partnership with vaccine manufacturers, the best bet for now is to secure enough vaccine doses to vaccinate as many people as possible.

    The appropriate officials chose instead to invest billions in vaccine doses, which have yet to came. This one-off, myopic approach to problem solving is the staple of the government’s approach. It focuses on solving the problem at hand, without planning on how to solve the same or similar problems when they occur in the future. Investment in vaccine manufacturing would have guaranteed the necessary solution to today’s problem, while also preparing local scientists to produce vaccines for similar diseases tomorrow.

    Nevertheless, given the path they’ve chosen to follow, It is high time the officials followed the money and brought the vaccines home. This call is the more urgent now against the threat of a third wave and the abysmally low vaccine rate in the country. As of June 20, 2021, just over 2 million people had received their first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine made available by COVAX, while less than a million have received their second dose.

    In the absence of vaccine supply, it is very important to alert the public again about the potential for a spike in infections and the need to hype adherence to established mitigation measures. At the same time, Nigerians should have known by now that their lives are in their own hands.