Category: Special Report

By Precious Igbonwelundu

The explosion in Abule-Ado, a suburb of Lagos, was caused by too much pressure on pipeline, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Monday.

NEMA Southwest Coordinator Ibrahim Farinloye told reporters that the explosions had nothing to do with bomb blast or Improvised Explosives Devices (IED). Preliminary security analysis, he said, shows that eight-tonne truck laden with core stone, which was parked on the pipeline, exerted too much pressure on it.

According to Farinloye, the truck stayed on the pipeline overnight and exerted too much pressure on the pipeline.

The NEMA boss explained that fuel that escaped the pipeline saturated the atmosphere, formed a whitish substance and exploded.

Commissioner of Police (CP) in charge of the Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Maikudi Shehu told our correspondent that there was no IED at the scene, adding that his men were still conducting investigations from samples collected.

“I can tell you that there was no IED there. The blast was not caused by IED. I am still expecting the report of findings from my officers to know exactly what happened,” he said.

Residents claimed the truck, which was moving into the street to a construction site, got stuck on the pipeline overnight and exerted its weight there.

“The truck stayed there for so long and with its weight on the pipeline, the fuel in the pipe which is about eight-foot deep was trying to force its way out. That was how a smoke-like substance started forming from under the truck and soon developed into a cloud that covered the entire area and then the blast,” said a man who claimed to be an engineer.

Some residents were moving into nearby houses of their friends while businesses resumed inside the International Trade Fair market.

More residents count losses

Forty-six-year-old Shedrack Okoyeze whose house was affected lamented that the disaster also affected his brother’s.

“My house has been destroyed and my brother’s house was also affected, his wife, who is not in Nigeria, has been calling to know his whereabouts. Later, I received a call from Navy Town Hospital and I told them to be taking care of him. I was told that they are demanding N45,000 and I told my friend to pay so that treatment could commence. At the moment, I have not seen my friend, Chucks.

“When I got to Navy Town, I was told that his situation has gone critical and they need to take him to LUTH and that they don’t have enough bed space in the hospital. All his head has been bandaged.

“My brother told me to come to his house to search for money. I have been searching the rubble to get money for his recovery in the hospital. I cannot even start scattering here.”

A trader, Uche Ugboaja, said: “It is only God that can compensate us, we do not know what could have happened if we were around. We were in church when this incident happened and we thank God our lives were secured.

“I cannot give an estimate of what I have lost, it is a tremendous loss. We are still gathering our things. I do not know it is only God that will decide. We are looking up to God for onward direction. We started parking this morning because we could not get here yesterday because of the crowd and the fire that was still burning.

“The explosion happened directly opposite our house so we could not get into the compound. We lost three lives here. A man, wife and a relative were the victims. We are appealing to the government to come to our aid.”

More relatives searching for their loved ones visited hospitals and the scene to identity bodies.

While some wailed uncontrollably, others were seen consoling them as emergency workers battled to control the crowd for the second day.

Udeze Lillianzita, who worked with the Bethlehem School, said she had already left for church when she got a distress call. She said: “I wouldn’t have survived the incident if I had not left for church. I am unhappy that some of my colleagues were lost to the incident. I was with Irene and others before I left for the church; unfortunately, I didn’t meet them alive.”

Haruna Kani said he lost his sibling, Ali Kani, 50, a guard at the college to the disaster. He said his brother worked there for about 20 years and was trapped while on duty.

Another man identified simply as Adams said he lost his younger sister, Irene Uwakwu, a cook at the college. He said her body was among those recovered yesterday.

As at 7:12 pm, over 148 persons of the affected population have registered at the information desk opened at the scene.

Though the night seems darker still across Europe as Coronavirus continued its mindless killing rage, Nigeria seems to hold out new hope, as as 40 quarantined persons exposed to the index case was declared free by the World Health Organisation, (WHO), write ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE, KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE, GBENGA OMOKHUNU, LUCAS AJANAKU, VINCENT IKUOMOLA, MOSES EMORINKEN, MIKE ODIEGWU.

• WHO declares 40 quarantined persons free in Ogun
• Debt servicing threatened, says DMO

For the West African sub-region, the education sector became the latest casualty of the ravaging Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, with the postponement by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), of its 68th Annual Council Meeting (ACM), scheduled to hold March 23 to 27 in Monrovia, Liberia.

The WAEC Registrar, Mr. Pateh Bah, announced the postponement on Monday.

Bah said: “Under the current unfortunate circumstances, the International Administrative and Finance Committee, at its 176th (Special) Meeting held in Accra on Thursday, March 12, 2020, had to take a difficult decision to suspend the 68th Annual Council Meeting until the global health situation improves.”

WAEC would have announced the best three countries as well as the best three candidates in the West African School Certificate Examinations (WAEC).

WAEC with member countries being Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Liberia and Sierra-Leone remains the only colonial institution to have survived the post-independence era in the sub-region.

March 16, each year is usually set aside for the celebration of the birth of WAEC and it is 68 years old today.

WHO declares 40 isolated contacts free

But there was a cherry new from Ogun State where the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the 40 people who had contact with the COVID-19 index case in Ogun State, virus free. It said the quarantined people would be released soon.

Officer in Charge of WHO Nigeria, Dr. Braka Fiona, made this known when she led her team, in company of the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker, to the State Deputy Governor, Engr. Noimot Salako-Oyedele in Abeokuta.

Dr. Fiona however urged the state not be complacent as there are likelihood of the outbreak as Ogun state shares an international border, thus making it the gateway to passengers travelling through the rest of the country.

Osun screens

The Osun Government says it is ready to work with various agencies to fight Coronavirus.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Health, Mr Siji Olamiju, said the state government had screened foreigners in the state for COVID-19.

“Majority of the foreigners screened were Chinese personnel working at the gold mines at Ife-Ijesa axis of the state and none of them tested positive to the Coronavirus,” he said.

NYSC sensitises Corps members

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), in Kebbi, said all the 1,563 Batch A stream I corps members have been sensitised against coronavirus.

Facebook fights to keep Nigeria safe

Facebook has promised to limit misinformation and harmful content on its platform. “Our global network of third-party fact-checkers is continuing their work in reviewing content and debunking false claims that are spreading related to the coronavirus. In Nigeria this includes AFP and AfricaCheck, with the latter supporting local languages including Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa.

Facebook’s Head of Public Policy for Anglophone West Africa, Adaora Ikenze said: “We are committed to partnering with governments, technology companies, and civil society to respond to the immense challenges presented at this time.

Ebola has taught us valuable lessons

Nigeria has gathered enough experience and capacity to tackle Covid-19, former Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Ado Mohammed has said.

Mohammed who was an active player in the country’s fight to contain Ebola in 2014 said the country has learnt a lot from that experience which has now become handy in dealing with the current global virus disease-Covid-19.

The former NPHCDA boss said the Ebola experience was one that has increased the capacity of the country’s health care system.

Debts service plan threatened

The Debt Management Office on Monday raised the alarm that the pandemic poses a great threat to Federal Government’s debt service plans.

The DMO said that Nigeria’s total public debt grew from $17,349.69million in 2006 to $85.4 billion, which amounted to about N26.2 trillion in September 2019.

It said the recent approval of $22.7 billion loan by the Senate under the 2016 – 2018 external borrowing plan would further push the nation’s debt stock to about N33 trillion with Debt to GDP ratio of about 21 per cent.

The Director-General of the DMO, Patience Oniha, made the disclosure in his goodwill message at a public lecture titled: “Public debt in Nigeria: Trend, Sustainability and Management,” organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in Abuja.

Oniha put the total domestic debts at about N18 trillion (or $58.4b) which is 68.45 per cent of the total public debts of the country.

Economy diversification justified

The Federal Government said the pandemic has reinforced its resolve to diversify the economy of the country from oil.

The Minister of Finance, Hajia Zainab Ahmed, who made this known on Monday in Abuja, during the international conference on Nigeria’s Commodities Market by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), explained that our country is well-endowed with various commodities, comprising agriculture, energy and metal resources, and the capital market community can provide the platform and voice for the much needed diversification.

The Acting Director-General of the SEC, Ms. Mary Uduk, said: “The good news is that the capital market can be used as an avenue to unlock these potentials and diversify the nation’s economy, while providing jobs, creating values and contributing to governments’ revenue.

“We believe that if we can develop and institutionalise a vibrant commodities trading ecosystem in Nigeria, we can substantially address problems such as lack of storage, poor pricing, non-standardisation, as well as low foreign exchange earnings affecting our agriculture and other commodities sub-sectors”.

The Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, in his remark, said: “As we are all aware, Nigeria is working on diversifying its economy as well as its revenue sources. The need to develop other channels of generating revenue and foreign exchange is critical. This need is further underscored by the recent drop in the global price of crude oil, which also constitutes a major threat to achieving planned government expenditure.

“In realisation of these, the Federal Government has put many initiatives in place to develop the agriculture and solid mineral sectors.

NDDC office complex delayed

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has decried the effects of the Coronavirus saying it has caused setback on the construction of its new headquarters.

The commission in a statement signed by its Director, Corporate Communication, Charles Odili, said the pandemic was delaying importation of essential components for the project.

The statement quoted the NDDC Acting Executive Director of Projects, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, as speaking during an inspection of the high-rise office complex at the Eastern By-Pass

Ojougbon noted that the initial deadline of March 31, 2020 for the completion of the headquarters was no longer feasible.

Delta on red alert

The Delta Commissioner for Health, Dr Mordi Ononye, says the state government has put modalities in place to contain any incident of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the state.

Ononye, during a joint press briefing with the Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, and the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Chiedu Ebie, said the state’s Rapid Response Team (RRT), an emergency committee set up following the outbreak of COVID-19, was on top of the issue.

The commissioner said the government would not ban social gatherings, but “all such gatherings must observe caution to ensure safety”

CBN rolls out interventions

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced reduction of interest rates in all its intervention facilities from nine per cent to five per cent per annum for one year to ameliorate the effect of coronavirus pandemic.

The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele made this known while addressing newsmen in Abuja.

Emefiele said the reduction of the interest rates took effect from March 1.

He disclosed that the bank had also extended moratorium of all CBN intervention facilities on all principal repayment for one year effective from March 1.

Chinese embassy stops news letter

The Chinese embassy has ceased issuing daily newsletter on fighting COVID-19 in China.

The Embassy said it stopped the daily newsletter since the peak of the outbreak of COVID-19 is over in China.

44th edition of the newsletter was issued at the weekend.

According to the edition dated Saturday 14th March, 2020, eleven confirmed cases was recorded on 13th March, 2020 on Chinese mainland, thereby bringing the number of confirmed cases to 80,824.

The number of fatal cases is 13, bringing the cumulative number to 3,189. 17 suspected cases (in total 115 suspected cases pending test results); 1,430 cured and discharged cases (cumulative 65,541); Hong Kong SAR 6 confirmed cases (cumulative 137, incl. 78 cured and 4 fatal), Macao SAR 0 case (cumulative 10, all cured) and Taiwan Province 1 case (cumulative 50, incl. 20 cured and 1 fatal).

We are prepared, says FEMA

The Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Alh. Idriss Abbas has said the Agency is poised to handle any outbreak of the Coronavirus in the FCT.

He said FEMA has acquired modern protective kits for its rescue team in case of eventuality.

 Sam Omatseye

 

HE is a slight man, but that was partly his sin because they could not make him slighted. They thought he made too many important people slight. Muhammadu Sanusi II had thought much about ambition all his life, but the only one that drew his brawn and mind was the one he could not hold.

“All this noise over the CBN Governor does not bother me,” he once told me over the phone, “the only thing that will make me happy is to become the Emir of Kano.” He was to announce this sentiment in an interview with Sanya Oni – this newspaper’s editorial page editor – and I had with him subsequently. He was to echo this heartfelt quest over again all over the world, to the British media, to CNN.

So, when it happened he seemed a dream. Few people, especially in this clime, trumpet ambition and ride the crest like he did. He conquered his dream, though, before it outran him. That was the irony of a man, whose whole life is a trajectory of triumphs and failures, a rollercoaster of engagements. He was a prince who sometimes acted as a pauper. He was a technocrat who craved anarchy. He was a king who spoke as a subject. He was a controversialist on a throne of controls. He beat a populist drum when he could be a victim. He was at once a feudalist and a revolutionary. Some thought he was devout and epicurean, simultaneously worshipping Allah and the flesh. Many thought he was a rabble rouser who did not understand his rabble. He was a fop when he should dress sober. An orator who followed glibly Apostle Paul’s injunction to preachers to be “instant in season, out of season.”

When he was removed as emir, he suffered the two worlds within 24 hours. Once on the throne, then he was whisked away. The convoy changed from a cavalcade of dignity to a siege in motion. The crowd was there. They did not cheer, their faces overtaken with wonder and pity. He was visiting another kingdom in the so-called caliphate, but this time no royal was waiting with a train. He suffered like most ordinary people he had bewailed in his famous rhetorics. He traveled almost seven hours in dust-laden roads. A deposed Sultan of Sokoto passed through similar grind.

Sanusi’s new home was a small place, lacking the grand portal, rooms, rites and grandeur of the Kano palace. Loko was no Kano. His humiliation had been choreographed. His lawyers say they will challenge his banishment. That was the first that threw up the contradiction in dealing with a man of contradiction. How could we accept the banishment of a king when the law forbids even the banishment of a beggar? Here, the republican constitution is at odds with a monarchical culture. A former monarch, the Emir of Gwandu, Mustapha Jokolo, was uprooted also to Nasarawa State, and the court upturned it.

Yet, the Kano State Governor, in a language of ambivalence, is saying he was not ostracized. So why is he in Awe, a dusty retreat, and not in Lagos with his family? This is not the first we see monarchs in conflict with the democratic setting. It reechoes the manipulation of monarchy. Politicians use them for ego and validation. When they want election, they seek their support. When they want honour, they bow to chieftaincy rituals. When they don’t get these plums, they fire them.

Intellectuals and social conscience often cavil at the thriving of the traditional institution. But no one has come with a formula to root them out. They represent our dilemma. We want them; we loathe them. They have become a sort of delicious albatross. In Oyo State, it became a cause celebre under Governor Abiola Ajimobi. Over two decades ago, in the Second Republic, the Awujale was dethroned under Governor Bisi Onobanjo, but Oba Adetona still graces his throne, while his tormentor is now dust. The courts reinstated him. Under General Muhammadu Buhari as head of state, two monarchs, the Ado Bayero, Sanusi’s predecessor, and the former of Oni of Ife, Oba Sijuwade, were placed under palace arrests. They became birds in golden cages. It inspired roars. But the roars were impotent.

The colonial authorities were the first to demystify the traditional throne. They did it with soldiers and guns. They turned traditional rulers into ciphers in what they called indirect rule. District officers, who were white men, became superior. That structure was transposed on our constitutions from Bourdillon to Independence, and from civilian administrations to military dictatorships to civilian administrations.

What happened to Sanusi is the continuation of the humiliation of the traditional throne. They have become boys of the democratic viceroys. Their advantage tends to be longevity. If they play the game well, they outlast the governors and presidents. But they have to keep playing coy to remain royals. Our educated men and women who succeed still need traditional titles. What would happen to the chiefs, and Otunbas, etc. if we cancel the throne?

It is such a contradiction as well as the intersection of the traditional and modern that played out in the Sanusi story. The Sanusi story is an account of a modern tragedy, except that this is not the Aristotelian or Greek version of tragedy in its pure frock. Thankfully, there is no death.

Sanusi was a born a prince. His grandfather was an Emir of Kano. He attended Nigeria’s Eton of those days, King’s College. He absorbed the crowd of the southwest. He can speak Yoruba. He became a prince who followed the path of banking. He rose to the top of his profession, soaring from United Bank For Africa (UBA) to become executive director and managing director of First Bank, before he became CBN Governor.

He embraced all these. He was a prince in suits. He wanted another fashion. He not only desired the throne but also its hoods and turban, its full regalia. We remember the picture of him in that royal apparel waltzing into the halls of the CBN. It was an extravagance of royal hauteur but a statement of Sanusi’s conquest of Sanusi the banker, the autocrat over the technocrat. But a certain rebel still boiled inside. Where did it come from? He already had become an emir, so why was he still fuming at his peers, his class, the elite? He had exposed the banking and political elite, exposing the showy greed and emptiness of their wealth. Bank MDs were excised from the system. Many who owed to show off were shown up. He was a rebel because the throne did not give him the revenge he wanted. That was because he was the grandson of Sanusi 1, but he had another grandfather. An ideological rumble from the 1950’s up till the 1980’s: Alhaji Aminu Kano. Kano was the soul and inspirer of the talakawas. He connected with them. He spoke and they did not just hear him. They felt him. He coursed in their blood.

He was a socialist, who gave the north NEPU and later PRP. He was the Weberian charismatic leader, devout, spartan, fierce, defiant, uncompromising, above scandal. But Sanusi wanted to be his grandfather of the flesh and the one of the ideology in the same soul. It was an ambiguous ambition. So he became emir, but he wanted to be Kano as well. He loved the grandeur and perks of office.  He wanted the luxury, the motorcade, sitting at court, controlling millions of Naira, travelling in lavish style. Yet, he railed against the society for tormenting the poor. He wanted the north to catch up with the south. He was against the rashness of policy towards the almajiri, but he would embrace them and feed them in his palace. How could you sustain the system while asking for it to be abolished? But that was a contradiction he could abide. It meant his sympathy was divided. He wanted them fed while the system remained.

He spoke about the homeless, the statistics that made the north a drag on the nation. He riled against the educational backwardness. Boko Haram, kidnappings, killings were all indications of a north out of touch with its young. His northern peers knew it was true, but how could he, a beneficiary, be so loud and unsparing. He was a hypocrite. But he didn’t see it that way. He thought it was a fight he could abide. And he did abide it for a while. But an audience hailed him. That audience was not his audience. He was a king, but his crowd was elsewhere: the south. He was saying it to an audience that would not keep him on the throne. It was like Barack Obama who preferred to impress the Republicans and talk to Fox News. Or Mahatma Ghandi who fasted as a Hindu but wanted peace with the Muslims. His Hindu kin loathed him for that. Or Mark Anthony who relocated to Alexandria  to romp with his heartthrob Cleopatra and mingled with Greek philosophers while his throne in Rome slipped out of his hands to Octavian Caesar. To quote Shakespeare in the play, “he was more beloving than beloved.”

The northern elite, including its intellectuals, were not comfortable with his visceral rhetoric. But for most part, he did not connect with his own talakawa that he so fought for. This was unlike the story of his predecessor during the tenure of one of Kano’s lieutenants, Abubakar Rimi. Rimi issued Ado Bayero a query, and the city of Kano lighted with protests, with his main ideological brain box, Bala Mohammed, consumed in the inferno. Ado Bayero highlighted the exception in monarchs who can challenge democratic authority and survive and even prevail.

Sanusi could not prevail. He was accused of insubordination. The truth was insubordinate? In our democracy, truth can be very ominous even to the teller. But the story of Sanusi is not just a man who understood truth but who was naïve about the enterprise of truth telling. He was like the character in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart in which somebody said it is in the house of the coward that you point to the ruins of a brave man’s house. He had the qualities of a tragic hero. Everyone saw that the end was coming, but he either did not see it or he saw it but did not care.

Reconciliation efforts foundered. Sanusi was going to say what Sanusi was going to say. Sanusi was going to do what Sanusi was going to do. It was like King Oedipus who was assailed by what the literary critic said of Okonkwo. He suffered from “insistent fatality.”

But his contradiction gave him a very human richness, a character craved by poets, playwrights, novelists, biographers. Remember that while we moan his exile and whisking out of town, we cannot forget his role in the saga of Ese, the young girl from Bayelsa State, who was ferreted out of her home because she was put in the family way by a subject under Sanusi.

But the contradiction does not lie with him alone. Governor Ganduje may have been at war with Sanusi, a Fulani, but he – Ganduje – as a Hausa man was partly getting his pound of Fulani flesh. It was a fatal blow to Uthman Dan Fodio’s political geography who had carved up the Kano Emirate after the 1804 Jihad. Ganduje first clipped Sanusi by breaking the Emirates. The new Emir was given Bichi against the protests of his brothers. Now, they all have accepted the pruning of their father’s throne. So, the irony was lost on the new emir when he bowed to his father grave in homage. Was he consecrating the shrinking of his father’s imperial sway? It is part of the Hausa rebellion against the Fulani across the north, especially in Zamfara, Jigawa, Katsina played out in the herdsmen crisis and rash of kidnappings.

Sanusi may be out of the throne, but his capital error was not so much that he was blunt, but that he was not conscious of the powers of the governor over him. Now, he has repeated history. The man he wanted to avenge may not be happy that he, too, fell. Some people say the sins of the fathers have been visited upon the sons. If he was at peace with Ganduje, he might have survived to nettle the tormentors of the talakawa. Maybe, he didn’t care.

Now, what would he be musing? Would he be defiant in his soul or he would be saying to himself what the Historian Plutarch reported Brutus to have said when he faced the sword and was bleeding to death: “O wretched virtue, thou wert but a name, and yet I worshipped thee as real indeed: but now, it seems, thou were but fortune’s slave.”

Sanusi and El Rufai: Odd Couple

Both are small men, but their words can unleash earthquakes. One is royal, the other is apparently republican in spite of his tempests. Both are men of extraordinary impact on their generations, for ill or for good. That point may not have been lost on Nigerians when Kaduna State Governor appointed deposed Emir Sanusi the chancellor of Kaduna State University.

Sanusi threw his last major bombshell during the 60th birthday of the Kaduna State Governor. Maybe Malam Nasir El Rufai wanted to compensate him. Or did he feel a little guilt that the man took the platform of his celebration to lunge at the northern establishment. El Rufai is one of the few northern governors in sync with the philosophical rhythm of the former emir. He has done quite a bit to challenge the inequalities in the north by opening the school doors to the Al majairis, especially the introduction of school feeding and meritocracy in the staffing and promotions. He even showed off his son and his credentials as serious by enlisting his son in one of the public schools in Kaduna State.

Making Sanusi a chancellor also shows he is not in agreement with his governor colleague Ganduje, and it may also well be not so much a love of Sanusi’s ideas but a way of getting back at a governor who belongs to a different divide in an increasingly fractious All Progressive Congress.

But it is a good vindication for a former emir who has been in the news for years lamenting the educational backwardness in the north. It is not a reinstatement, it saves his face somewhat even if it seems the benefactor is only pursuing a grudge match. El Rufai knows a thing or two about grudge matches.

Maybe if Sanusi was an Emir in Kaduna, a less storied throne, he might have gotten along well with El-Rufai. Well, that is speculative. They are the odd couple of the day.

Coronavirus continued its global dislocations on Tuesday. From Nigeria where a scary economic meltdown now looms with shrinking revenue as oil money goes downhill, to the global canvass where the Coronavirus scare has forced the United Nations General Assembly to cancel its Beijing assembly, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE, BOLAJI OGUNDELE, GRACE OBIKE and OMOWALEAYO WALE-OLAITAN

THE reality of a worrisome economic meltdown as a result of the touring Coronavirus, which as at last count has touched down on 90 countries, came closer home on Tuesday, with President Muhammadu Buhari, admitting that the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has started affecting the nation’s revenue negatively.

The President made this known when workers in the health sector, under the auspices of Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and Assembly Healthcare Professionals Associations (AHPA), paid him a courtesy call in his office.

The President, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, appealed to the health workers to consider the current state of the economy and be moderate in their demands, assuring that government was looking into their issues with a view to resolving them.

He said: “Your case is certainly receiving attention, but you must bear in mind the condition that the country is in now. Coronavirus is not improving matters. It is affecting what we very much depend on, the petroleum industry and therefore revenue,” he said.

President Buhari also called on the visitors to appeal to the patriotic sentiments of their members in these trying times and continue to work for further development of the country.

“So please try and help us with your people. Let us be patriotic, let us look at the ways and means of the government and appeal for restraint.

“We have to emphasize that it is very important we maintain cohesion together, because if we allow sentiments or popularity to overwhelm our reasoning faculties, we will be in trouble and it will be too late for us to adjust, so please bear with us,” said the President.

JOHESU, an amalgam of five registered trade unions and AHPA, under the leadership of Comrade Biobelemoye Joy Josiah, had come to intimate the President with some of the contentious issues in the sector and to thank him for some of the positive developments.

 UNGA cancels session

The much anticipated 25th special session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on the Beijing implementation action plan on women, has been cancelled.

The session which was to be held, was the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW64) for 9-20 March 2020.

Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, said the UNGA’s 25th anniversary was being cancelled due to the outbreak in China and New York that has claimed hundreds of lives.

She said the session was to discuss issues affecting women and children by analyzing how far the implementation of the action plan had been met in the last 25 years since the Beijing conference of 1995.

While calling on well-meaning Nigerians to ensure that the girl child is educated, confirmed that the issue of the girl child is top on the agenda of the present government.

The Minister said this yesterday in Abuja, at the Osasu show foundation press conference held to lunch the foundations women and girls empowerment program.

She added that the United Nations (UN) has 2020 as the decade for action for women and children.

She said, “This year, we are celebrating the decade for equality and the United Nations (UN) has declared Each4Equal, the UN has declared this decade as one for action for women and children, we are also celebrating 25 years Beijing toss as a time for us to reflect on issues that concerns women and children.

She said, “Since inception, the Osasu Show Foundation has implemented sustainable small scale interventions in the six geopolitical zones of the country, conducted sample surveys in the communities where we work. Recording successes, we realized the need to create a 10 year strategic plan to tackle developmental issues in support of Sustainable Development Goals, with particular focus on goals 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10 and 16.

ACF also suspends 20th anniversary

Just as the UNGA had to cancel its 25th anniversary of the Beijing summit, in Nigeria, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) also announced the suspension of its  20th Anniversary slated for later in the month.

ACF’s Secretary-General Anthony Sani, stated this at the ACF General Assembly in Kaduna.

“The planning and organisation of the ceremony commenced six months ago, but the recent resurgence of kidnappings and killings in some parts of the North and Kaduna state in particular as well as the global outbreak of Coronavirus made the leadership to keep the event on hold till further notice.

Ekiti begins free distribution of sanitisers

Meanwhile, the Ekiti State Government said it was making frantic efforts to stop the rampaging virus from knocking on the door of the state.

The Commissioner of Health and Human Services, Dr Mojisola Yaya-Kolade, said her ministry has started the free distribution of hand sanitisers, hand gloves and face masks to all public primary and secondary schools in the state.

She said: “The efforts of Ekiti Government at combating the virus cannot be quantified and this include the recent setting up of a 40-man committee headed by the governor of the state, apart from releasing money for immediate action”, she said.

Yaya-Kolade urged the general public to disregard rumour about the virus adding that they should only believe information from reliable and authorised sources.

The commissioner encouraged the residents observe strict personal and environmental hygiene as a measure of curtailing infectious diseases.

 Monitor all cases beyond 14 days

An expert, Dr Bamidele Iwalokun has praised the Federal Government’s intervention strategies which according to him has led to the curbing of the spread of the disease.

Iwalokun, of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Lagos, however advised that all monitored COVID-19 cases should be quarantined beyond 14 days.

Iwalokun, who is the Deputy Director of Research in the department, gave the advice in his office on Tuesday.

He said the confirmation of the second COVID-19 case in the country had shown that the manifestation of symptoms could prolong beyond 14 days.

“The second case of COVID-19 in Nigeria is an attestation to the fact that clinical manifestation may occur in an affected person after 14 days.

“We should not expect manifestation to start within 14 days in all cases; it can be prolonged. So, contacts should be quarantined beyond 14 days.

“All contacts of the index case are potential sources of transmission of the virus. Government needs to strengthen preparedness to respond to secondary cases that may further arise.

“Contact tracing should be followed by isolation for proper monitoring that should go beyond 14 days to curb the spread of the virus,’’ he said.

The deputy director of research also canvassed for the establishment of more screening centres across the country to reduce logistics challenge of confirming new cases.

LASUTH denies admitting Lassa fever, COVID-19

The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Lagos, says no patient with Lassa fever or COVID-19 symptoms was admitted into its health facility.

Dr Oladeji Adewunmi, Medical Officer, Clinical Service Department in LASUTH, made the clarification in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.

Adewunmi said decisions on management of patients were made in compliance with strict standard protocol, and not at the whims of any person.

He said all cases were confirmed and verified by the hospital’s infection control specialist, after proper examination, history taken and laboratory check were necessary.

“The protocol is that if a patient comes and exhibits suspected symptoms of COVID-19 or Lassa fever, the patient would be isolated and tests conducted.

“This patient is a 39-year-old man, he was admitted on Feb. 28 and was discharged on March 2.

“On presentation, the tentative diagnosis was Viral Exanthem, Viral Haemorrhagic Fever or Coronavirus, but on further examination; the microbiology and infection control team said it was Viral Exanthem.

“Further testing confirmed the diagnosis.

“He was initially put in the holding area at the medical emergency before review by the medical microbiology and infection control team, and then, transferred to the isolation room in the medical ward.

“After the screening tests, he was transferred to the general pool of patients,” he said.

Responding to why a patient with Viral Exanthem was placed in the general ward with other patients, Adewunmi said the laboratory results showed that he was not infectious.