The Nation Newspaper

Category: Special Report

  • Why persons with disabilities count

    Why persons with disabilities count

    The rights of persons with disabilities took the centre stage at the 15th session of the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (COSP15) in New York. Sara Minkara, the Special Advisor to the United States government on International Disability Rights, who led a U.S. delegation to the conference, briefed journalists on the role of persons with disabilities in achieving peace and security, among others, reports United States Bureau Chief OLUKOREDE YISHAU

    Sara Minkara, the Special Advisor to the United States government on International Disability Rights, was in New York between June 13 and 17. She led the U.S. Observer Delegation to the 15th session of the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (COSP15). The delegation included members from the Department of State, the U.S. Mission to the UN (USUN), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The theme of the meeting is “Building disability-inclusive and participatory societies in the COVID context and beyond.”

    During her visit, Minkara hosted a virtual event entitled “Disability Inclusive Democracy: Building Participatory Societies” on June 13. It was organised by the U.S. Department of State, USAID, USUN, and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. The interactive dialogue identified challenges, best practices, and resources that promote equitable principles and practices for over one billion persons with disabilities across the world.  Special Advisor Minkara also met with government and civil society leaders and attended side events, and co-chaired the Global Action on Disability (GLAD) Network meeting on Friday, June 17.

    Speaking at the interactive session with journalists hosted by the New York Foreign Press Centre, Ms Minkara said for a country and the world to have peace, persons with disabilities must not be relegated. “From accessing voting rights to political participation to development of policies, let’s make sure persons with disabilities are part of the conversation, but not just from a rights-based perspective.  It’s from a value-based perspective:  How do we really get our systems to believe that the inclusion of persons with disabilities into our democratic process is a value for everyone?  And when we really put forward that value-based narrative, we tend to find ways and solutions and address challenges to really include persons with disabilities into our democratic process,” she said.

    Ms Minkara added that persons with disabilities are forgotten during most moments of crisis and seen from a pity lens, adding that it was time the focus must be on how to ensure that the needs of persons with disabilities were addressed and “also seen as a source of solution and value when we’re talking about response and negotiations in peace and rebuilding.”

    He said the American government was priotising how to see persons with disabilities from a value-based lens. “Ultimately, you can have all the policies and all the legislations right, but who implements the policies?  It’s the people.  And how do we really make sure people see the value in the inclusion of persons with disabilities, don’t see it as a favour, as an add-on, as a charity, or as just the right thing to do, but truly believe it’s the – it brings value to society at large,” she explained.

    Also speaking at the briefing, Vladimir Cuk, the executive director of International Disability Alliance, said it was time to promote disability-inclusive development and humanitarian action.  “And why is that?  Because we noticed that we did receive a lot of political commitments over time, and in many cases, in many moments of time, global leaders, world leaders, were really strongly committing to, like, promoting disability rights.  But never these particular commitments were followed up with concrete financial and human resources commitments.  So this part was never there enough, at least, or when it was happening, it was happening in such a small way and a slow progress way.

    “So we wanted to create this network, and it was first made with the UK Government and then leadership was to cover from – with DFAT Australia, and then back to UK, and then Norway, and now U.S. will take this leadership together with us forward.

    “This is incredibly important because without financial commitments and the human resources commitments to development, we cannot advance and we cannot include 1 billion persons with disabilities in sustainable development, and without those, we cannot have sustainable development.  So it is incredibly important.  And what we notice is that really this network is one of or maybe the most impactful tool the disability rights movement globally have today.  And that is – so, Sara, you are coming into very instrumental role, and we can do a lot, and especially now, coming out of – hopefully coming out of COVID crisis – let’s say like that – and faced with the Ukraine war, faced with the financial crisis that is looming every day more and more,” Cuk said.

    He said it was important to get leaders to priotise disabilities. “So now it’s more than ever when typically world leader says disabilities maybe not so important right now, let’s deal with that next week – and we should remind them that, no, we have to talk about that right now,” he explained.

    Explaining how disability rights intersect with other global issues like climate crisis or gender inequality, Ms Minkara said persons with disabilities were not part of the response to crisis management, adding that it was important to get countries to take into consideration the perspective of persons with disability into crisis response.

    “How do we make sure, also, persons with disabilities are part of the long-term solution in addressing climate change?  Because people with disabilities are like any other community – there’s value to be brought forward.  So, disability in general intersects with all aspects within our society, in our system,” she said.

     

    Limitations

     

    Ms Minkara said though her mandate is global she wished there was the capacity to do every country. “I mean, that would be the dream.  But we are going to be visiting Africa, a couple of countries in Africa in the fall,” she said.

    On Africa, Cuk said International Disability Alliance, a global network of organisations representing persons with disabilities, includes the African Disability Forum.  He added that there is a significant increase in the financial investment in the disability rights on the continent, especially Sub-Sahara Africa, especially Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ghana.

    “Things are starting to shape, starting to move, and what we are seeing over the last couple of years is very promising developments.  Simply, it is focus of international community is finally having some smaller results but still, like, visible results.  There are many donors that are prioritizing disability in Sub-Saharan Africa, and we are documenting this and seeing that, like, things are changing,” he explained.

     

    U.S. and persons with disabilities in conflict areas

     

    On what the United States is doing to support people with disabilities who are impacted by conflict, Ms Minkara said when the war started in Ukraine, the Department of State organised a session with the civilians, leaders and organisations in Ukraine to hear their experiences and challenges. It then shared those experiences and challenges with its implementing partners, international agencies and organisations.

    “And then we institutionalise a weekly and biweekly international NGO working group so we can keep on sharing what’s happening and sharing that back into our internal work,” she said.

    She added: “When a crisis hits, and imagine you are in your building and you’re not able to leave because of your disability, you’re not able to evacuate, leave your building, or access evacuation.  Or when you access evacuation, you get to a bomb shelter and it’s not accessible.  Let’s say information is not accessible.  Let’s say when you get to the border you’re denied crossing the border because of certain criteria.  This is what persons with disabilities are facing.  We face access barriers across the board.  We need to be addressing these.  We need to be explicitly mentioning them.  We need to be hearing what’s happening on the ground, and we need to make sure that agencies and international organizations that are doing crisis response, disability organisations and individuals with disabilities are part of the process in that development of those crisis response.”

  • African lawmakers chart new path for continental growth

    African lawmakers chart new path for continental growth

    A forum of Africa’s heads of parliaments, a brainchild of Nigeria’s Speaker of House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, met recently in Abuja to chart a fresh path for a continent bogged down by humongous debt burden, diseases, hunger and bad governance. TONY AKOWE reports

    One of the objectives for the establishment of the Conference of Speakers and Heads of African Parliaments was to help governments across the continent fight against bad governance. To this, lately is added, debt cancellation.

    Undoubtedly, the continent has suffered a plague of bad rulers. While Africans heading global bodies have continued to demonstrate credibility and capacity to deliver, this has yet to cascade to the continent, as corruption, insurrections, diseases, among others, have continued to ravage Africa and its peoples.

    When the Speaker of House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, mooted the idea of a Conference of African Speakers and Heads of Parliaments, his colleagues from across the continent keyed in. Little wonder, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, in his keynote address at the opening forum, described the maiden event as a true expression of democracy because it represented the assembly of African peoples’ representatives.

    At the event, Osinbajo canvassed a truly African synergy, adding that “only this could engender strong and visionary leadership.” The Vice President believed that the COVID-19 pandemic provided the opportunity for African leaders and parliamentarian to show strong will in addressing the health needs of the continent and prepare the continent to develop appropriate response for future health challenges as the pandemic exposed the decay in health infrastructures across the continent; even though Africa witnessed far less deaths than other continents.

    He said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a widespread effect on economies across the world, destabilising health systems, upending supply chains, disrupting industries and led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.” He argued that records available from the World Bank revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic successfully pushed 26 to 40 million people into extreme poverty on the continent. Osinbajo urged the forum to work with the executive arm of government on the continent to boost the relatively weak economic situation.

    He disclosed that the Nigerian government rolled out a stimulus package of about $7billion (about N2.3 trillion) to stabilise the economy, adding that the implications of the huge deficits from these supplementary budgets must have kept legislatures and the executive awake at night, but many realised and performed these hugely risky but historical assignments.

    For him, a post-COVID economic recovery strategy for Africa must go beyond efforts of individual countries to forging greater collaboration and integration to drive sustainable economic growth and recovery across the African continent. To achieve this, he said: “our parliaments have a central role to play. It is to them that the power to enact laws, oversee government budgeting and international borrowing belongs. And there are many opportunities for their proactive collaborative intervention. A crucial concern for all African economies is how to improve liquidity, reduce the debt burden and improve our balance of payments positions, especially in the wake of the huge damage done to our finances by the pandemic.”

    Stressing the need for debt cancellation, Osinbajo said one of the key issues discussed and agreed to at the preparatory meeting for this inaugural meeting was debt cancellation for African countries, and this is already gaining considerable traction. “A practical initiative introduced in the immediate aftermath of COVID-19 was the new SDR (Special Drawing Rights) reallocation of $650billion, which was implemented in August 2021. The allocation improved our balance of payments position by increasing the share of SDRs in the reserve assets of our countries, thereby providing direct liquidity without raising our debt burdens. So, I think that African countries speaking in one voice can seek more SDR support vehicles, such as the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility (LSF), a trust for middle-income countries, multilateral and regional development banks as well as the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT).”

    Presenting a paper on gender-inclusive budgeting and planning in the COVID-19 era, UN Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Beatrice Eyong, said well-structured and resourced parliament is essential to a vibrant democracy, maintaining peace, upholding the rule of law and human rights, advancing gender equality and youth participation, increasing economic prosperity, and promoting social justice. Parliaments’ growing legislative, oversight and representative responsibilities in these areas imply that all citizens have a vital stake in the institution, she said.

    She argued further that there was a strong desire by many parliaments on the continent and beyond to develop their capacities in response to the growing expectations of people for more efficient and effective service delivery from their representatives. She said: “Gender inclusive or responsive planning and budgeting can enable parliaments to achieve these expectations and thereby contribute to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Experiences from previous pandemics and large-scale shocks show that these crises often affect men and women differently. COVID 19 was not different.”

    According to her, parliaments have a key role to play in every step that needs to be taken to address the key variables affecting the continent and its people. She advocated for strong parliaments with strategic leadership, adding that the speakers should enact gender-responsive legislations that provide a favourable legislative and policy environment for gender equality and gender inclusive or responsive planning and budgeting as well as women’s political participation.

    She argued further that “since parliaments should oblige ministerial budgets to provide evidence of mainstreaming gender in their policies, programmes, and budgets, parliaments should follow up through studies carried out with specific GRB tools if the needs of the various social groups they represent are being satisfied on a yearly basis have been included in development planning and budgeting”

    The representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Nigeria, Mohammed Yahya, said the global agency recognises the central role that Parliaments and Houses of Assembly play in advancing national development agendas and its democratic values, considering the fact that parliaments as platforms of elected representatives of citizens have a critical role to play in advancing people-centered development, promoting peace, inclusive governance and advancing a nation’s value system.

    He stressed that “human capital development is a process of building skills, expertise, and innovation that allows the individual to do their task more productively. In other words, it is the aggregate of investments in key areas such as health, education, training, and talent migration that have propensity of enhancing productivity in the labour market. As we all know, the citizens that parliamentarians represent are the greatest assets of any country, thus they must be invested in order to propagate the development of any nation.”

    Proffering the ways forward, the UNDP chief canvassed “sound advocacy for policies and institutional reforms that position the health sector as a core aspect of social economic transformation. In this regard, there is a need for parliaments, in playing its oversight role, to pay attention to incentivising the systems to retain health sector professionals in developing countries and reverse the growing brain drain. Secondly, there is a need for strong advocacy on strengthening the country and continental research and development capacity. One such area is the ongoing discussions on the capacity of the continent to produce vaccines and limit dependency on donations.”

    Osinbajo, on his part, believes that Africa’s post-COVID recovery must leverage the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). “The AfCFTA is a unique opportunity to consolidate Africa’s enormously large market, which will create and recover millions of jobs, reduce Africa’s import dependency, boost intra-Africa trade and exports; and strengthen intra-Africa cross-border ties and trade relations. The opportunities are simply mind-blowing, but they will involve the magic word – collaboration.

    “Recently, Afrexim and the AfCFTA secretariat working jointly launched the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), which provides a robust financial market infrastructure connecting African markets. The system enables instant cross-border payments in the respective local African currencies. This is a big boost for cross-border trade and will save African economies almost $5billion annually. Afrexim Bank as the main Settlement Agent for PAPSS provides settlement guarantees on the payment system and overdraft facilities to all settlement agents, in partnership with Africa’s participating Central Banks. PAPSS will effectively eliminate Africa’s financial borders, formalise and integrate Africa’s payment systems, and simply make trade within Africa using local currencies easier. This is the way to go. Domestic legislation will be required as time goes on; we must anticipate and be prepared to act on these promptly.”

    Gbajabiamila drew home the need for Africans to come together to advance their cause and ensure good governance. He lamented the fact that the continent has failed to advance the cause of democracy over the years as military incursion and insecurity posed threats to democracy. He said democracy on the African continent was under threat by military incursion in some Francophone countries and loss of confidence on democratic government by the people. He stressed that even in places where democratic governance is still in place; confidence in public institutions has been at its lowest ebb.

    “Africa has come of age. Yet there is no gainsaying that we are far from achieving the highest capability. Across the continent, democracy is under threat and in retreat. From Sudan to Mali, Guinea and Chad, elected governments have been usurped by military junta, overturning years of progress and the hopes of millions. Even in the places where elected governments are still in charge, public faith in the governing institutions is at an all-time low. When citizens lose confidence that democratic governments can meet their expectations, democracy loses credibility and support and begins a death spiral. This is the reality in too many places across our continent.”

    He argued that Africa’s destiny is not cast in stone. “our tomorrow is a consequence of today’s choices; the commitments we make and the priorities we choose to pursue. Despite the real challenges and present dangers, this is also a time of abundant promise and possibility for us in Africa. Technology has remade our world into a global village where a child with a computer and internet connection in Lagos or Addis Ababa can compete in and succeed in a global marketplace that prioritises ideas and talent over religion, ethnicity and tribe.

    “As leaders in this new world, there is no decision more consequential than investing in Africa’s young people, protecting them, ensuring their health and wellbeing and providing them with a solid education upon which to build their future.” On insecurity, he said “the present insecurity and the rampaging uncertainty across the continent represent the single biggest threat to the well-being of our children.”

    Like the Vice President, Gbajabiamila said the COVID-19 has exposed the dire conditions of our social infrastructure and brought into stark relief the massive effort required to ensure that we are better prepared for next time. He warned that “there will be a next time.” He however said that despite predictions of disaster, Africa, for the most part, has managed this disease with evenness, and the actions of many governments across the continent worked to keep the worst outcomes from manifesting on our shores.

    But there is a lot of work to do, he said. Much of that work will fall to parliaments across the continent. He told his colleagues that “as advocates and representatives of the people, it is our responsibility to set the terms of our national development and ensure that government priorities reflect our citizens’ most pressing needs and highest aspirations. We live in a time fraught with potential and danger, and every governing decision we make and every action we take has the potential to substantially remake our world for good or ill. This is, in effect, one of those defining historical moments.”

    The Speakers resolved that there was the need for African countries to make special provisions in their laws that will tie loans to specific projects and programmes, while taking steps to free themselves from lender nations and organisations. Africa, they said, must take appropriate steps to develop local institutions and inter-African trade enact laws that will put in place serious measures against military intervention in governance on the Africa continent. They want strong punitive measures for unconstitutional overthrow of governments on the African continent, saying “African parliaments must stand together to resist military coups in all parts of the continent and jointly advocate for more punitive measures, collectively as defenders of our democracies.”

    They want African countries to institutionalise mandatory regular reporting and publication of public debt reports, adding that there should be legislation requiring approval from the legislature on any borrowing as well as limits and properly documented plans for borrowing tied to specific projects and programmes. The Speakers also said that African parliaments must ensure proper oversight to proactively reduce Africa’s debt profile while there should be greater oversight and increased budgetary allocations to ensure enhanced agricultural productivity and building of internal capacity for food production to eliminate Africa’s import dependency. Also they stressed the need to develop mechanisms to increase coverage and scope of social protection to aid citizens who live in poverty, especially those affected by the recent pandemic.

    “Legislative interventions are needed to ensure that across our continent; we cater to the needs of the poorest and weakest as well as calling for support for operationalisation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement  (AfCFTA) to develop competitive regional and global value chains, enhance domestic resource mobilisation, including effective public private partnership frameworks for infrastructure delivery.”

    On debt cancellation, the speakers insisted that debt cancellation from

    international financial institutions is required to enable African countries to invest more revenue in social protection programme; while the Conference of Speakers should press for this as a collective entity. They also called for the building of internal capacity and local industries to enable local production and processing of raw materials for export, while building resilience against external and internal shocks, eliminating dependency on external institutions, lenders and grantors.

    President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, however, warned of an imminent food crisis, saying African countries must begin to produce their own foods and stop relying on imports from developed nations. He said many African countries rely on the importation of grains from either Ukraine or Russia, pointing out that the continent has the capacity to produce its own food.

    “The Russian war in Ukraine has added another challenge to what we are facing in Africa. The dependency of African countries on Russia and Ukraine, the war disruption has added to the looming food crisis in Africa. The African Development Bank has designed a $1.5 billion emergency food production plan to support African countries to avert the looming food crisis. Africa should be decoupled from food import dependency. Africa must feed itself and do so with pride. The economic recovery must be felt in the day to day lives of people. The recovery must create jobs and recover jobs lost, focus on MSMEs; the recovery must focus on youths and tackle debts of Africa. The recovery will require close partnership with the executive arm and legislative arm of government. Regardless of the challenges facing our country, be the solution providers, drive for an economic recovery that’s felt by all.”

    While challenging the Speakers and Heads of Parliament to help find a solution to the food and health crisis on the continent, he said: “The COVID-19 pandemic affected the growth and development of Africa as well the rest of the world. Africa’s confirmed COVID-19 cases stand at 11.5 million people with 253,000 deaths. Africa’s economic growth declined by minus -1.5 percent, while over 26 million people fell further into poverty, with about 30 million jobs lost. The trajectory of economic recovery from the pandemic is shaped by access to vaccines, and on this, the divergence between developed economies and developing economies is stuck. Developed countries accounted for 63% of the people vaccinated globally, Africa our continent have only 16 percent of these people fully vaccinated which is extremely low compared to 63 percent of North America, 69 percent for Asia and so on. “We must not be complacent. The next pandemic is just around the corner. Africa must build a Healthcare Defence System. This must include development of local vaccines and building quality healthcare infrastructure.”

  • ‘My father surrendered himself to gunmen as they were pumping bullets into our toilet hideout’

    ‘My father surrendered himself to gunmen as they were pumping bullets into our toilet hideout’

    Upon a visit to the country home of Zakari Umaru Kigbu,  a former federal commissioner with the National Population Commission (NPC) assassinated by gunmen on May 28, it was easy to realise that his death amounted to losing a gem and life support for members of his immediate and extended families.

    The gloomy faces and the sober mien that pervaded his country home in Azuba Bashayi, Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, were proofs that his family was shattered by his death.

    The gunmen had also kidnapped one of his sons, 22-year-old Umar Musa Anzaku and one of his relations Hadiza Zakari, who is about 30 years old. The duo was kidnapped after Kigbu was killed and all the phones in the house were collected except the one belonging to him, which he was said to have used in making calls to the police before he was killed.

    Aged 60, the retired Air Force officer was untill his death a lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, lsa Mustapha Agwai Polytechnic, Lafia (IMAP).

    According to one of the sympathisers who thronged the family house upon learning about his death, the deceased lecturer was the sole breadwinner of the family of six because his wife had no job.

    As tears flowed freely from family members and friends and neighbours battled to console the deceased’s widow and children, our correspondent was not spared of the outflow of emotions, especially when his 29-year-old daughter, Umaru Hajiya Asheku, tearfully narrated how her father was killed by his attackers.

    Asheku said: “I am the fifth of Zakari Umaru Kigbu’s children and his only daughter.

    “On that fateful day, I was in the parlour of our house with my father, mother and siblings, watching a programme on the television.

    “While we were watching the TV, my father and mother went into their room to sleep. Some of my siblings also went in to sleep, because the incident happened around 11pm

    “I was left in the parlour with one of my  brothers who was transferring some files to his computer.

    “Suddenly, we heard a gunshot in our compound. One of my siblings immediately ran to lock the kitchen door leading to the backyard.

    “Some of us ran into our father’s room to hide while others went to hide in our mother’s room.

    “The criminals, who were fully armed, forced the entrance door open and were coming straight to our father’s room.

    “When my father noticed that they were coming towards his room, he told all of us in the room to go out and hide in the store.

    “The attackers tried to break his door but they could not because it is a strong door, so they began to search for us.

    “When we noticed that they could easily find us in the store, we went into our mother’s toilet to hide while praying that God should help us out of the situation.

    “They kept searching for us in the house and they were wondering where we could be.

    Read Also: ‘How gunmen invaded church, killed many in Owo’

    “While they were searching all over the house, they heard us whispering in the toilet where we were hiding.

    “They then asked us to come out or they would break down the door and shoot all of us.

    “Because we were scared, we refused to come out, so, they told some of their members who were standing outside to shoot us through the toilet window.

    “So, they started shooting but we were all bending down while they were shooting.

    “As the attack went on, my father made several attempts to call the police and the military to come to our aid but he did not get a positive response.

    “So, he had no other option but to come out of his room in order to protect us, and that was when they shot him.

    “When we heard the gunshot, we all rushed out and saw him on the ground in a pool of blood.”

    Asheku said the attackers were four in number, adding that she did not know whether the attack was politically motivated.

    “My father was very close to politicians but we don’t know the reason for the attack,” she added.

    “When the attackers came that night, they were shouting that we should open the door because the days of my father were over.

    “They said they must kill him before leaving the house that night

    “When they shot him and we all came out and saw blood all over the place, he looked at us passionately but could not speak because he was already weak. Minutes later, he died.”

    Asheku said her father was “a very easy-going man. He always prayed for all of us to be successful in our chosen careers.

    “He also prayed for extended family members and friends. He taught us how to forgive those who hurt us.

    “My father was a good man. He wanted my siblings and I to finish from school and get good jobs so that we can be independent.

    “His plan was for us to become financially stable in the future so that we can also help the underprivileged in society.”

    She said it had not been easy for the family since the unfortunate incident of the 28th of last month.

    “We have all been crying since the incident. Our father was shot dead in our presence. The pains are unbearable and our future looks blink because he was the sole breadwinner of the family as my mother is not working,” she said.

    Also speaking to our correspondent, a former minister of information and 2022 PDP governorship aspirant in Nasarawa State, Labaran Maku, said the late Kigbu was his friend and political ally

    Maku said: “We met many years ago in Lagos State. We were quite young then but we supported each other and lived happily.

    “At that time, he was working with the Nigerian Air Force. He later left the job and we both returned to Nasarawa State.

    “Since our return, he had served as president of our cultural group, the Eggon Cultural and Development Association. He also worked with the state owned Isa Mustapha Agwai Polytechnic in Lafia and he served as the National Population Commission as the federal commissioner in Nasarawa State. military using his secondary school certificate. But after that, he acquired two different degrees in Mass Communication and Law.

    “He was waiting to go to the Law School while he was also studying to be a PhD holder at the Nasarawa State University in Keffi.”

    Maku further said he was pained that for close to two hours when the criminals were to break into his house, Kigbu tried calling the police and the military but they were not able to rescue him.

    He said: “Some people went to report at the police station in the area and the police sent only two personnel who came with just one gun. But when they noticed that the criminals were fully armed they went back and left Zakari and his family in the situation.

    “What surprised me is that his house is not far from the road in Azuba Bashayi, Lafia North Development Area.

    “By the time the military arrived, he had already been killed and they took two of his children away.

    “My prayer is that God Almighty should accept his soul and grant him eternal rest.”

    The former minister described the late Kigbu as a man of peace.

    “He loves God so much. Anytime we met, he always spoke about living a good life that would make God happy.

    “He was very concerned about how he lived with people. He was not a trouble maker.

    “He never slept at night with anger in his mind. If anyone offended him, he always forgave the person before going to bed at night.

  • ‘We’ll rather contract monkey pox than stop hunting, consuming bush meat’

    ‘We’ll rather contract monkey pox than stop hunting, consuming bush meat’

    Responding to the outbreak of monkey pox virus in parts of the country and acting to prevent further spread of the disease, the federal government recently announced its plan to ban the consumption of bush meat. But the move has sparked protests from hunters, traders and lovers of the delicacy, our correspondents OKUNGBOWA AIWERIE, SIMON UTEBOR, BASSEY ANTHONY, CHRIS NJOKU, SUNNY NWANKWO, OGOCHUKWU ANIOK, NSA GILL, DAMIAN DURUIHEOMA and EMMA ELEKWA report.

    • Hunters, traders, consumers dismiss FG’s call for boycott of popular delicacy

    • Demand alternative means of livelihood

    Asuquo Okon Andy, a resident of Ifiayong village, Uruan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, has been in the business of selling bush meat for more than 34 years. He has for over three decades depended on the proceeds from the business to fend for his family, pay the children’s school fees and attend to other family needs.

    “I started this business when I was only a boy, and I have always operated from this place,” he said in a voice that revealed how much joy he derived from the business.

    For him, bush meat business is all he has known all his life. In fact, he gets excited each time there is a discussion around it. But his love for the venture suffered a big blow last week as the federal government called  for an end to the business as part of plans to check the spread of monkey pox epidemic.

    Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Abubakar, made the announcement when he urged hunters and dealers in bush meat to stop the business in order to prevent the spread of monkeypox in parts of the country that have witnessed its outbreak.

    Disturbing as the announcement was, Asuquo said it is incapable of making him to quit his bush meat business, describing the statement as laughable and insensitive.

    “I have been doing this business for years without any complaint that a customer has fallen sick from consuming bush meat,” he said, arguing that the Federal Government does not have sufficient grounds to take away their source of livelihood.

    He said: “I have been doing this business for more than 34 years. I sell virtually all types of bush meat including alligator, antelope, tortoise and porcupine. No customer has ever complained of chicken pox or other sicknesses because of bush meat.

    “Besides, I prepare it very well. Most of my customers are guests who lodge at the Ibom Icon Hotel and Golf Resort.”

    His position was shared by other traders and hunters who described the venture as the life wire without which they would cease to exist.

    Ekpenyong Udoh Etim, another bush meat seller on Urua Ekpa Road, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, said there is no truth in the claim that monkeypox is caused by bush meat.

    Etim said: “I don’t think the government knows what they are talking about. I feed my family and train my children in school from this business. I can’t stop my business because of what government is saying.”

    A hunter, Unyime Akpanika, said the federal government’s decision to ban bush meat consumption was laughable because it won’t work in Akwa Ibom.

    He said: “I can tell you that the government lacks something to do. It is not possible to ban the consumption of bush meat because even top government people book bush meat with me.

    “Ask them (the government) what they want us to do for a living if they ban bush meat. Maybe they want us to start stealing or begging for survival.”

    A bush meat consumer, Ekponta Abasifreke, said there was no amount of antics by the government that would make him stop consuming bush meat. He insisted that Akwa Ibom people are very neat and as such are very conscious of what they eat and how they prepare them.

    He said: “Bush meat sellers in the state observe strict hygiene conditions in its preparation. Many of the animals are caught with traps, not by crude or harmful methods.

    “So the use of monkey pox to scare people like us away from bush meat will not work in Akwa Ibom. Let the federal government look for better policies to improve the economy of the country, not imposing a ban on bush meat consumption.”

    Bush meat dealers in Delta State have also vowed to defy the order.

    A 45 year old hunter, Obinna Nwabueni who lives in Ibusa, Oshimili North LGA, condemned the ban, saying he has no other means of livelihood than the business he has engaged in since he was a teenager, having learnt the trade from his father.

    Aside from being a hunter, Nwabueni has a bar where he sells palm wine and bush meat pepper soup. Business is booming for Nwabueni as many residents who live in the vicinity spend their evenings at his bar.

    According to Nwabueni, he cannot afford to obey the ban because he has a family to cater for. He believes than the ban on bush meat is a ploy to increase the hardship bedeviling the masses.

    His words: “My brother, how can I obey such a ban? How can I feed my family if I don’t hunt and also run this bar where I sell palmi (palm wine) to my customers? I have children in primary and secondary school.”

    Mrs Angela Nwaka sells bush meat along the Asaba-Ughelli Road by Olloa-Ogwashi-Uku Junction in Aniocha South LGA.

    She said she sells bush meat, yam and cassava. She fends for her family with the proceeds of her business and cannot contemplate stopping it despite the ban, which she said she was not even aware of.

    Residents, mainly women from nearby communities, converge on Olloa-Ogwashi-Uku Junction to sell and transform it into a thriving business hub dotted with several bars.

    For motorists plying the route, Olloa-Ogwashi-Uku is a place to purchase cheap foodstuff.

    A commercial driver, Uchenna Sorokwu, who plies the Asaba/Kwale route, dismissed the ban, arguing that the federal government must provide an alternative means of survival for the poor rural women who are trying to eke out a living from selling the bush meat delicacy.

    He said he makes regular stops at Olloa-Ogwashi-Uku to wind down with palm wine and pepper soup. He argued that the ban would be difficult to implement as many poor rural dwellers in the vicinity depend on the business for their livelihood.

    Many of the shop owners, he said, live on bush meat and cassava they buy from hunters and farmers.

    Madam Nwaka, on her part, said in pidgin: “Oga, I no go fit leave dis my market of bush meat and yam. How I go take feed my children. My husband no get work, na this business we dey take manage. I never hear dis ban wen you say government put for bush meat business.”

    Mile Five, Ugbolu community, along the ever-busy Asaba-Illah Road is another spot where bush meat delicacy is sold. were unaware of  any such ban.

    A shop owner, who asked not to be named, said the federal government has not placed any such ban on bush meat business and accused the reporter of making it up.

    He said he and other shop owners in the area would have no other means of livelihood if such a ban was imposed.

    He noted that “Mile Five” has been in existence since the creation of Delta State, urging the state government to assist their small scale businesses with soft loans.

    You can’t afford to compound our woes – Bayelsa bush meat dealers

    The announcement of a ban on the sales and consumption of bush meat delicacy was described by Charles Peters, a bush meat seller in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, as a plot to compound the economic challenges of the people.

    Peters, who sells palm wine with varieties of bush meat, said the government’s action was meant to further make life difficult for people in the country.

    He said: “The government’s ban will no doubt make life more difficult for people. There are people who depend on bush meat sales for their livelihood and with the ban, their business is closed. How do you expect them to survive?

    “Before the outbreak of monkey pox, people have been eating bush meat. So, I don’t believe that bush meat consumption is responsible for the virus.

    “Government should try to find out what is happening instead of throwing many people, hunters and bush meat sellers alike, into joblessness.

    “I find it difficult to understand why the government is always looking for ways to cause grief and pain for its citizens.

    “I believe the ban is another means for the government to make a fortune from the virus that has affected some persons.”

    Peters said that because of the ban, he and other dealers in bush meat had been careful about incurring much loss. Hence they had reduced their stock of bush meat.

    He noted that the ban had not actually reduced the consumption rate as many of his customers were still demanding for it.

    He said: “I can tell you that many customers don’t even mind the government’s ban. They don’t believe the government.

    “Instead, they feel that government officials are trying to use the opportunity to frighten people in order to advance their own selfish interest.

    “The people that eat monkey have not contracted monkey pox let alone those who eat other kinds of bush meat like antelope, grasscutter and bush pig. We are appealing to the government not to destroy our business in the name of stopping the spread of monkey pox.

    “They should find a way to deal with the scourge and not deprive hunters and traders of their means of livelihood.”

    For hunters and sellers of bush meat in Anambra State, this has really not been the best of times. Even before the news reverberated across the state, there had been scarcity of bush meat in the state due to growing insecurity. Hunters rarely visit the bushes for fear of being attacked by gunmen who have taken over most of the forests in the state.

    Besides, the threat by government to raid and subsequently seize any forest colonised by gunmen as camps has increased hunters’ fears about such locations where the animals are harvested.

    The foregoing has reportedly led to its scarcity, with attendant increase in prices where available. There are also challenges of low patronage of the delicacy by owners of restaurants and joints across the state.

    One of the hunters, Onyekachi Akujobi, said he had resolved to look for another source of livelihood to take care of his family.

    “The insecurity in the state has affected us badly. Moving into the bush now is like signing your death warrant. You can’t predict what you’ll meet there,” he said.

    Another hunter, who identified himself simply as Jude, said gone were the days when bush meat business was lucrative. He regretted that the news about the ban would further worsen the situation.

    Jude said: “I remember those good old days when bush meat hardly stayed in our hands. As soon as you come out from the bush and stand at the roadside, a potential buyer is already standing by to pick one or two.

    “But now, going into the bush to hunt is a big problem, not to talk of selling the meat. Vehicles will keep passing by without anyone stopping to price one.”

    Jonas Ewurum, an owner of one of the eateries in Onitsha, said it has been many months since they stopped selling the delicacy.

    “Why will we continue to keep meat when no one is ready to buy them? We’re now concentrating on suya and nkwobi,” he added.

    Ban not meant for us – Abia dealers

    Hunters, sellers and consumers of bush meat in Abia State have said that the current warning by the federal government against the consumption of bush meat following the outbreak of monkey pox will not stop them from hunting, selling and consuming the local delicacy.

    Our correspondent who visited some bush meat spots in the two major cities of the state like Aba and Umuahia and also spoke to some respondents reports that it was business as usual as customers that patronise such spots were seen enjoying their favourite bush meat with their special brand of drinks.

    Some of the sellers told our correspondent that they were yet to record low sales since the warning was issued, stressing that they were yet to meet the demand of their customers who throng their shops for bush meat.

    One of the respondents who gave his name as Goodluck said: “This was the same scenario that we faced during the ebola crisis.

    “We heard the announcement from the federal government concerning the outbreak of monkey pox, but I want to say that it has not in any way affected our business.

    “The patronage has not dropped, but our challenge is the availability of bush meat.

    “The demand for bush meat is high such that hunters sell their kills before they even get to their houses.

    “To ensure that we have regular supply, we even book meat before they kill and I don’t see anything changing anytime soon.”

    A bush meat lover, Mr. Walter Chigozie, said he was not thinking of changing his preference for bush meat despite the threat of monkeypox in the country.

    For Chigozie, monkeypox will soon become a thing of the past like ebola, adding that the only advice that they will give to those cooking and selling bush meat is to ensure that they cook and prepare their meat under hygienic conditions.

    In Ebonyi State, it was gathered that many dealers and consumers were not yet aware of the ban on bush meat and vehemently stated their resolve not to adhere to it.

    A bush meat seller in Afikpo, Mrs Stella Nnachi, said the federal government cannot ban the consumption of the product. She boasted that she and other dealers were not aware of the ban and would not adhere to it.

    “Well, this is the first time I am hearing of it. Do they have any other source of livelihood for us? What do they expect us to do to survive or do they want us and our families to go hungry?” she queried.

    Mr Okpani James, a resident of Amasiri, a town in Afikpo noted for the sale and consumption of bushmeat, laughed off the ban.

    He said: “Bush meat is a popular food in this area, so it is impossible for the ban to work.

    “You have been to Amasiri and seen the number of joints selling bush meat including the number of those hawking it on the road. How do you intend to stop all of them?

    “Are you also going to stop the buyers from patronising them?  It is going to be very difficult to enforce,” he said.

    We’re not aware of ban on bush meat consumption -Enugu hunters, dealers

    Some hunters our correspondent spoke with in Enugu State claimed that they were not aware of the ban on consumption of bush meat in the country.

    To this end, they said, their business was going on unhindered while their customers were not showing any sign that they would comply with the ban.

    Speaking in separate interviews with our correspondent, some of the hunters said even if they were aware of the ban, it would not stop their business.

    They disclosed that the only time they noticed a ban on their business was during the outbreak of ebola virus some years ago.

    One of them, who identified himself simply as Uzodimma, said that any ban on bush meat hunting was bound to fail because no consumer has been reported ill for eating them.

    Uzodimma, who was at the New Market, Enugu to sell some of his kills, said:

    “I’m not sure those who want us to stop eating bush meat know what brought about the so-called monkey pox.

    “They tried this during the time of Jonathan when they said that our bush meat was responsible for Ebola, but eventually, they found that it was not bush meat.

    “Now, they have come again with another tale of monkeypox, asking us to stop eating bush meat.

    “I think they should find something else that brought monkeypox to them. I’m sure it is not bush meat. We’ve been eating it without any problem for generations.”

    Sellers, like Joseph Agada, said if people had believed in the ban or observed it, his business would have been adversely affected.

    Agada, who said he was not aware of the ban, added: “As I am talking to you, bush meat, like every other commodity, has become very expensive and it is not meant for the poor.

    “So, if people believed the ban, most of my customers, who are largely public servants and traders, would have stopped patronising me.

    “The only time we witnessed the ban was during the time of Goodluck Jonathan. Because people believed it and were afraid of contracting Ebola, it affected my business then. But not too long after, my business picked up again.

    “Even during the time of COVID-19, similar things were said but nobody cared and nobody got sick from consuming bush meat.

    “This is the market I have been doing for 36 years and I am training my children with it and taking care of my family too.

    “I’m sure nothing can stop it unless my customers stop coming, God forbid!”

    Many dealers and sellers of bush meat in Cross River State are not aware of the recent directives from the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control urging caution in the consumption of bush meat following the  reported cases of monkey pox diseases in some areas across the country.

    In a survey carried out among a cluster of bush meat sellers on the outskirts of Calabar, Atimbo Road in particular, all the respondents said they were not aware of any directive or warning about monkey pox. Rather, they expressed hope that no situation will arise for them to shut down like they did during the Ebola outbreak.

    “Please, God of the poor, help us. It wasn’t easy. Our children are in school. We feed from these businesses and it was not kind for us,” one of them, who gave her name as Mary, said.

    “Monkeys are not part of the bush meat we deal in. We deal in antelope and grasscutter, but we can also prepare any bush meat for you,” she added.

    Meanwhile, the Cross River State Government through the Director General of the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Janet Ekpenyong, has debunked reports of active cases of monkeypox in the state.

    The DG, who spoke in a telephone interview, said so far, there was no active case of monkey pox in any of the 18 local government areas in the state, noting that the state government was held headstrong to the detection and management of related cases.

    Ekpenyong noted that a well constituted health awareness and sensitization team as well as a rapid surveillance team was on ground to checkmate the outbreak of any epidemic or pandemic.

    She urged residents of the state not to panic for any reason, noting that the health authorities in the state were seriously working on a preventive medical approach while advising residents to comply with medical advice given to them by the health team.

    According to her, “Cross River State has always been a state with proactive approach to outbreak responses from the onset.

    “We try to activate immediate search and border control measures as it can be traced as far back as the poliomyelitis control, COV-19, Lassa fever where almost all of our neigbouring states recorded substantial number of cases, and that will continue to be our approach to safeguard our people.”

    However, she revealed that sometime in February, the state only had two cases which were well managed by the state government.

    “We also traced those they had one on one contact with so that we would be assured of a pandemic-free state.

    “Notwithstanding, we won’t relent in our efforts to prevent the spread of the disease since we are aware of how transmittable it can be with a lot of people coming into Cross River from states where there are active cases even in the month of May.

    Nigeria cannot enforce the law – Zoologist

    The General Manager of Imo State Zoological Garden, Francis Abisoye, commended the Federal Government for the positive step.

    He said that the ban, if implemented, would help in balancing the nation’s ecosystem.

    “It is a positive step because it will promote conservation. It means many of the animals will be saved, which in turn will balance the ecosystem if those animals are allowed to regenerate and re-procreate,” he said.

    He however doubted if the ban would be enforced because Nigerians make laws but do not enforce them.

    “Most of these wealthy men will not allow the ban to stay because they patronise the hunters and sellers of these bush meats,” he said.

    A hunter who gave his name as Matthias Igwe said that most of the bushes in Imo State do not have monkeys and wondered how monkeypox could spread.

    “We hunters here do not even kill monkeys, so we do not kill and eat monkeys. How can we contact the virus?” Igwe wondered.

    He warned the Federal Government not to be quick in implementing the ban on bush meat because “most wealthy men depend on it to survive just as we depend on the game for our survival.”

    Another hunter, Kalu Ndubuisi, said he had trained five of his children to university level from the sales of bush meat.

    “We depend on it to survive. Will the government provide us with alternative jobs to train and feed our families?” he asked.

  • ‘How we survived Ondo church massacre’

    ‘How we survived Ondo church massacre’

    Lucky survivors of last Sunday’s vicious attack by gunmen on St Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State are thanking their stars while church leaders are having a change in mindset with regard to securing the lives of worshippers, particularly in the Southwest, report OSAGIE OTABOR, GBENGA ADERANTI and ADEOLA OGUNLADE.

    • Lucky survivors Owo killings recall close shave with death

    • Anxiety in churches as leaders review security arrangements

    • We had report of imminent attack on Southwest, says Amotekun DG

    Owaluwa Street in Owo Local Government Area, Ondo State remains desolate almost one week after some dare-devil gunmen invaded St Francis Catholic Church, killing no fewer than 40 worshippers and leaving scores of others critically injured. Many shops on the street were yet to reopen when our correspondent visited yesterday while commercial activities were far from returning fully.

    The bloodstained floor of the church interior was strewn with the shoes of victims while signs of the last ditch efforts made by many of them to escape the attack were visible with the trail of bloodstains.

    Our reporter gathered that it was by sheer divine providence that Ondo State governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and a huge crowd that accompanied him on a visit to the church after the incident escaped death as unexploded improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were discovered while they were inside the church inspecting the damage.

    “Three unexploded bombs were found when the governor was around during inspection. Policemen were also there,” an eyewitness said.

    The governor’s luck would be better appreciated against the fate that befell many of the victims of the vicious attack.

    A member of the church and Captain Men of Order Discipline, Anagwu James, said he survived the attack by lying on the floor.

    He said: “The mass service had ended and I being the person that stays at the door was the first to see two men with guns entering through the gate. The well armed men crossed the gate and started shooting.

    “I told others that were coming out of the church to go back and we forcefully closed the door. They went through the sides and threw two bombs. They were shooting at everybody. “Five persons from my home town died after the shooting. I was there with my two sons and my mother in-law escaped.

    “The gunmen ran away before the second bomb exploded. The first two I saw did not cover their faces.”

    Mrs. Susan Obi who hails from Anambra State lost a sister and a niece to the attack. She said she has lived in Owo for 38 years. She escaped by scaling the perimeter fence of the church despite heavy gunfire.

    She said: “As we were about to finish the mass, I heard gunshots. When it became rampant, we rushed to the altar.

    “They threw dynamite towards the altar, and as it exploded, I made for the fence but the guns were still booming. There was gunshot everywhere. My husband and children managed to escape.

    “That day was our meeting day for the women so we came in our uniform.

    “My sister died in the incident. They shot her and her grandchild. Her second grandchild did not die but still in the hospital.

    “As Christians we are taught to forgive. We are praying for them to repent.”

    A younger brother to Mr. Cletus Okafor and his son died during the attack. They hail from Enugu State. Cletus said he was called that his brother had died in the attack.

    He said: “I was not in church. It was my younger brother and his son. He used to be in my shop.

    “I met him last on Saturday night and we spoke. On Sunday morning, I went to Anglican Church. I was later called while in church that my brother and his son were dead.

    “I came and rushed them to the FMC. His son was shot in the head while he was shot in the stomach.

    “It will not be easy to forgive the killers. Government must find them and give them instant justice.”

    Peter Shaibu lost his close friends both husbands and wives. He said he was about leaving when the gunmen started shooting and they had to close the entrance door.

    “I hid under a chair. They entered inside the church and were shooting at people. The explosives caused smoke everywhere. I was lucky because many people were lying on top of me; some of those people got hit by bullets.

    “The church was packed full because we had only one mass service. It was the Sunday we celebrate thanksgivings and other things. My two friends and their wives died.”

    At the Federal Medical Centre, Owo and the St Luke’s Hospital where victims were rushed to, relatives and sympathisers have continued to throng the place to offer support including blood donation.

    Some of the victims said they were overwhelmed with the support from the state government and other non-governmental organisations.

    Mr. Alex Micheal said he had been having nightmares since the attack. He said his joy was that he used his body to ensure his children were not hurt.

    He said: “Before we knew it, they had started shooting people and many people died.

    “I was with my kids and I tried to defend them. We had to hide under the pew when the shooting was going on. But the place could not contain us so my legs were outside and they shot my legs. But thank God nothing happened to my kids.

    “What we need now is justice and support.”

    John Nwogwu said he joined others to hide at the back of the altar.

    “We started hearinggunshots at the entrance of the church, and before we knew it, they had started shooting and killing people.

    “Before we could know what was going on, we had been surrounded and we had to hide at the back of the altar.

    “We heard a loud explosion and the ceiling fell on us. Even at that they were still shooting at us and at the door of the place where we were hiding.

    “I saw one of our choir masters; he was hit with the bullet. I can’t even say about his condition because he was so weak when we left the church.

    “Where I was hiding, I was able to see one of the attackers. He wore a Khaki that looked like that of Man O’ War. He was the one that set fire to the altar.

    “In the attacks, we lost husbands, wives and children. God was the one who kept us alive.

    Benjamin Ozulumba, who was shot in the legs, said he was shattered by the death of his mother during the attack even though his wife and children escaped unhurt.

    He said: “When we were about to close, we just heard sound of gun within the compound of the church. Before we knew it, they started shooting everybody and also threw dynamites.

    “It was while the shooting was going on that I was shot in the leg. I lost my mother in the attack but the remaining members of my family are safe. My mother is over 70 years.

    “With blood already gushing out of my leg, I mustered strength to move to the back of the catechist when there was an explosion. On getting to the backyard, I saw a ladder and I escaped through the ladder.

    “When I was trying to escape, I saw more bodies on the ground. The bodies were just too many.

    “I went to the church with my wife, children and mother. But nothing happened to my wife and children.”

    The explosives thrown by the attackers shattered the legs of Mrs. Margret Attah, 43.

    Her two legs were subsequently amputated to save her life.

    She was writhing in pains and could only said she was yet to comprehend all that happened on Sunday.

    A resident who gave his name as Eugene said his wife was still in shock because she was inside the church during the shooting but came out alive. “My wife has not been herself since last Sunday. She is in shock and appears lost at times.

    “I was at home when I started hearing gunshots. I hid somewhere, and it was after the shooting I learnt that many people were killed inside the church.

    “I ran into the church and found that my wife survived it.”

    A police patrol van was stationed in front of the church when our correspondent visited yesterday. Shops in the area remained under lock and key. The small market adjacent the church was also closed for business.

    Our reporter learnt that almost everybody living in the area or operating businesses within the vicinity was a victim of the attack in one way or the other. It was either they themselves were killed or injured or somebody closed to them was a victim.

    The gunmen had stormed the church when the service was almost ended. Besides being the day of Pentecost, it was also a thanksgiving day for individual members among other activities. Being a Sunday the church holds only one mass service, the church’s auditorium was filled with members.

    It was gathered that the gunmen took to shooting from the sides of the church after some brave church members managed to shut the main entrance door. Many of the church members that ran towards the altar to escape stray bullets were shattered by an explosive thrown into the church.

    Two of the gunmen were said to have gained access into the church and shot worshippers at close range. The operation lasted about 20 minutes.

    The sound of gunshots and explosives reverberated across Owo community, causing residents to scamper for safety. An okada (commercial motorcycle) rider, who gave his name as James, said they had to rush home because they were not sure of what was happening until they got information that the Catholic Church was attacked.

    Mr. Ijanusi Dbadebo, spokesman for the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, said gunshots from the attack made him and others to flee from their church. Dbadebo said the town became desolate as everybody fled home.

    He said: “We were in our church when we heard heavy shooting and then the explosion. Everybody had to run home for safety. The whole town was deserted.”

    His Grace Arch Bishop Gabriel Adelakun, the Archbishop Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province, said he had never seen human blood spilled as he witnessed after visiting the scene. He said: “There is no atom of God spirit in those who committed this act. I have never seen human blood spilled like this.

    “The destruction is devilish. We are asking for God’s mercy.

    “These kinds of people are not supposed to be living in this world. They are to be taken where they belong. What happened here is beyond human expression. “

    There are however uncertainty over burial arrangements for the deceased victims. Official figures placed the number of deaths at 40 and 61 hospitalised out of 127 persons affected in the attack.

    A clergy in the church said those to be given mass burial were those whose corpses could not be identified by their relatives.

    He said bodies would be released to families who want to give private burial after proper verification.

    A clergy in the church said: “There are plans to give mass burial to those who lost their lives in the Sunday attack.

    “The decision was taken due to the nature of their deaths. So we have to bury them instead of them just lying in the morgue.

    “Those that will be given mass burial are those whose bodies could not be identified by anyone.

    “Definitely, when the necessary arrangements have been concluded, the church will notify the public on when the mass burial will be done.”

    Security beef-up in churches

    Until some dare-devil gunmen attacked St Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State during the church service last Sunday, killing no fewer than 40 worshippers and leaving scores of others severely injured, nobody seemed to give a thought to the possibility of such an attack on a congregation, particularly in a semi-urban settlement like Owo.

    Since the incident occurred, however, the atmosphere in many churches in the Southwest has been that of anxiety and fear.

    A visit one of our correspondents paid to the headquarters of a Pentecostal church in one of the Ogun communities during the week revealed a change in the church’s security arrangement. Unlike the period before Sunday’s deadly attack when a visitor could come in and out at will, visitors to the church were subjected to thorough scrutiny.

    “We have contacted the police to help us in securing this place. We have security experts as members of the church and we will be making very good use of them now. We can no longer afford to leave anything to chance,” the administrator of the church, who asked not to be named, said, adding that the church had resolved to install the close circuit television (CCTV) with a view to monitoring the activities of strangers.

    In a new memo sent from some churches, including the Deeper Life Bible Church and Mountain of Fire Ministry, their members have been advised to suspend vigils for now while the weekly service times have been reviewed to allow worshippers get to their homes in good time.

    “There will be screening at our entrance to the church complex and car parks on meeting days. All bags should be kept at home as they will not be allowed into the church premises.

    “Also, women have been advised to avoid coming with big bags to the church. Only normal handbags and small bags that contain Bibles, writing materials and hymn books will be allowed.

    “Members should avoid coming to the Church with metallic objects. We are to be security conscious in all our District and Location Churches.

    “For members coming with Church buses, checks should be carried out before departure from our various bus stops and advise that members should cooperate with the Security brethren and Ushers at all times,” the memo reads.”

    On his part, the South West Chairman of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Arch bishop Osa Oni, said while there had always been security at the headquarters of his church, they would need to sit down and put security in place in sister churches.

    He said: “What happened in Owo was specifically attacking the church. I think it is Governor (Akeredolu) that they were after. God was on the side of the Governor.

    “It is not that they were after the church, but we need to wake up to protect ourselves. If the government cannot protect us, we have to protect ourselves.

    “We are working and putting a lot of check in place before people come into the church. It is very important people are checked at the gate.

    “I was in Ibadan and our plans are to engage Nigeria Police, Amotekun and the Nigeria Navy in guiding our churches.

    “Recently, government collected arms from people and they have refused to give licences to people to protect themselves.

    “Government must review it policy on licensing of guns in the spirit of fairness and equity as bandits are running riot across the South West.

    “It is obvious now that the whole of the South is under the siege of terrorist’s attacks and government is not doing enough to protect the people.”

    Exasperated by the attack on the Ondo church, the leader of Living Faith Bible Church a.k.a Winners Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo, had said that the attackers would be punished.

    “The devil is very scared of the church because that is where God empowers his people to rule in the midst of the enemies,” he said during a sermon in which he expressed anger at the level of insecurity in the country.

    “That is why those vagabonds were out there in Ondo State to kill. I can tell you this, if they escape death, God has not sent me. Their generation will smell and the people who sent them will smell. They shall be forgotten. The back of their camel is already broken.

    “Everybody living is created by God. All the gang-up from hell against the well-being of this nation has come under a curse. Curse be to all those causing attacks in this country.”

    While the headquarters of most of the big Pentecostal churches had before now adopted what could be termed state-of-the-art security measures, the Owo incident has forced most of them to further beef up security around their premises.

    It was gathered, for instance, that the Mountain of Fire Bible Church has suspended vigils till further notice. Members are also not allowed to stay in the church beyond 6 pm.

    Yet there are other churches whose leaders appear to be oblivious of the security threats indicated by the Owo incident.

    “It is God that protects. If they come to attack us, we are not armed. What are we going to use in defending ourselves?” a worshipper in one of the Pentecostal churches queried.

    We had report of imminent attack on Southwest —Amotekun DG

    As the nation smarts from the deadly attack that claimed the lives of no fewer than 40 worshippers at the St Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State last Sunday, the Osun State Director General of the Southwest Security

  • Tinubu’s victory deserved, say Sanwo-Olu, Zulum, Ganduje, senators

    Tinubu’s victory deserved, say Sanwo-Olu, Zulum, Ganduje, senators

    More prominent Nigerians yesterday applauded the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate for next year’s general elections.

    They included Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Babagana Zulum (Borno), Mai Mal;a Buni (Yobe ) and Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa).

    Congratulatory messages also came from Senators Ali Ndume, Opeyemi Bamidele, Tokunbo Abiru, Solomon Adeola, Aliyu Wamakko, Ajibola Basiru and Ladi Dakuut as well as House of Representatives members – Abiola Makinde and Tolulope Akande-Sadipe.

    Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara; APC governorship candidate Biodun Oyebanji (Ekiti State), his Cross River State counterpart Bassey Otu; and former governorship aspirant of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN) for Rivers State, Tonye Princewill, also congratulated the former Lagos State governor.

    Others were the Southwest Vice-Chairman of the ruling party, Isaacs Kekemeke; a founding member of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Tanko Yakassai and Nasarawa State House of Assembly Speaker Ibrahim Abdullahi.

    In his congratulatory message, Governor Sanwo-Olu described Tinubu as a ‘visionary, consistent, loyal, enigmatic and master strategist, who can use his brain, skills and knowledge to bring about radical and positive change in the country.’

     

      Governors hail APC candidate

    Sanwo-Olu, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Gboyega Akosile, implored APC leaders and members to be united for the party’s victory next year.

    He also appealed to those who contested against Tinubu to show the spirit of sportsmanship and join him for APC to retain power.

    His words: “I congratulate our National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on his landslide victory at the primaries and his emergence as the presidential candidate. His victory is a testimony to his many years of good gestures and political networks across the country.

    “I believe in the mandate, vision and commitment of our great leader in building a prosperous and safe Nigeria. Asiwaju Tinubu is tested and trusted to provide leadership in uniting the country, solving security challenges, accelerating infrastructural development and growing our economy.

    “Ever consistent in his thoughts and actions about the development of the country, not many leaders in contemporary Nigeria are as detribalised as Tinubu, whose heart accommodates every section of the country.

    “I believe strongly that he will be a good president if he succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari next year.

    Sanwo-Olu also praised Buhari, leaders and members of APC for the success of the special convention.

    Lagos State Chairman of the APC, Cornelius Ojelabi, said Tinubu’s victory was for all progressives who believe Nigeria would return to greatness. He described the victory as a “landslide and a testimony of Tinubu’s political sagacity and doggedness.”

    Governor Lalong, who is also the Northern Governors’ Forum chairman, said the victory of Tinubu was well–deserved considering his experience, capacity and investment in the growth of Nigeria’s democracy.

    He added that the victory vindicated the position of progressive governors of Northern extraction that power should shift to the South in the interest of equity, justice and unity.

    He expressed confidence that Tinubu’s victory affirmed APC’s belief that the former governor had the capacity to lead it to victory next year.

    Assuring the former governor of support and collaboration for the battle ahead, Lalong urged him to use his wide reach and political sagacity to ensure that the process of reconciliation and unity was pursued with vigour.

    Ganduje said Tinubu’s victory has shown how Northerners love him and accept his candidacy.

    “The landslide victory of Tinubu in the just concluded and officially announced the presidential primary election of our great party (APC) shows his high degree of acceptability in the North, as a bridge builder,” Ganduje said in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS) Abba Anwar.

    The governor added that “Asiwaju’s victory also shows his high degree in investment in politics, especially in human development.”

    Sule, who is Ganduje’s counterpart in Nasarawa State described the APC presidential flag bearer as a man with experience and political sagacity to win the 2023 presidential election.

    “There is no doubt that  Asiwaju Tinubu possess the requisite experience and political sagacity to represent the APC and go on to win the 2023 presidential election

    “Even more heartwarming is your posture that you bear no grudges against equally credible party men who contested with you,” Sule said in a statement.

    Zulum felicitated with Tinubu and expressed optimism that he would like he did as governor of Lagos State, assemble leaders to help him take Nigeria to a higher level.

    Zulum said: “Without the slightest doubt, Asiwaju’s antecedents as a freedom fighter (for the entrenchment of democracy in Nigeria) which culminated into his founding role in the APC’s formation, makes his choice very unique for our party.

    “Among his many attributes, Asiwaju is known for his exceptional wisdom in identifying, nurturing and assembling talented persons regardless of their ethnic and religious identities.

    “Asiwaju is also known to reward such talented and productive persons by supporting and building them into becoming highly resourceful leaders, as we have seen across the southwest and possibly beyond.”

    “This uncommon trait has made Asiwaju stand out in the comity of leaders.”

    Buni described Tinubu as “a well-grounded politician who can lead the party to victory in the 2023 general elections”.

    He called on other aspirants to embrace the former governor to ensure the success of the party in the presidential election

    “The primary is over, we should all rally round our Presidential candidate to ensure the party’s victory in the general election,” Buni said

     

    ‘Victory not by accident’

    APC governorship candidate for Ekiti State, Oyebanji described Tinubu’s emergence as a signal for a brighter future for the ruling party.

    He pointed out that the former governor’s victory was “not by accident, considering his years of great and strategic contributions to human capital development and his sacrifice for the party.”

    Oyebanji added that “with his (Tinubu) emergence, one can be sure of a brighter future for our party.”

    The candidate also lauded Buhari and Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi for their inputs and the aspirants for their courage and patriotism.

    National Deputy Publicity Secretary of the APC Yakubu Ajaka, called Tinubu’s success in the shadow election “a deserved reward for his many years of Investment in building men across Nigeria.”

    Ajaka said: “Tinubu’s emergence is a testament to your sagacity as a person, your astuteness as a politician and your doggedness in pursuing your ideals.”

     

    Dogara: Tinubu a bridge-builder

    Former Speaker Dogara said that Tibubu’s victory was the beginning of good things to happen in Nigeria.

    He appealed to all the contestants not to see their defeat as a failure because” in a contest, only one person will emerge.”

    Dogara described the former governor as “a bridge-builder with a very large political followership across the country.

    He said: “I am confident that with him as the presidential candidate of the APC, victory is assured at the 2023 general elections,’”

    Former defunct ACN governorship candidate Princewill, also said that the emergence oF Tinubu was a big lesson in political party primaries.

    Princewill noted in a statement in that the process that led to Tinubu’s victory was free and fair and a lesson for other parties.

     

    Abiru, Wamakko, Ndume, Bamidele  rejoice

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Basiru, said the primary represented a “payback time for a man who stands as the rock of Gibraltar, living not only for himself but largely for others.”

    “Your (Tibubu) emergence as the presidential standard bearer of our great party is a reflection of the love people have for you, having served as a political bulwark for others at the expense of your own meteoric rise and building a political empire, all of which have combined to form a platform for this titanic victory. Congratulations sir,’ his congratulatory message read in part.

    The chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Adeola said as a follower of Asiwaju for over two decades, he has no doubt that he has all it takes to take Nigeria to greater heights.

    “I am glad that our party took the right decision with the massive votes of the delegates to elect Asiwaju Tinubu as the presidential candidate of the party. His victory is a victory for national unity, equity and equity which is needed at this time of our national development,” he stated.

    Senator Wamakko noted how Tinubu stood his ground that the APC must organise a free, fair and transparent presidential primary if it wanted to remain the party to beat.

    He stated that Tinubu’s resilience “resulted in making the party come out peaceful and victorious in the end.”

    Wamakko, who is the Senate Committee chairman on Defence, pointed out that ” with Tinubu’s victory, APC stands a good chance of retaining power in 2023, considering his years of contributions to Nigeria’s development in many spheres.”

    Former Leader of the Senate, Ali Ndume, welcomed the emergence of Tinubu, saying he would personally work with the former governor to ensure the success of APC in the general elections.

    He, however, called on Tinubu to be magnanimous in victory and carry every member of the party along.

    Ndume added that as an advocate of power shift to the South, he was satisfied with the outcome of the primary.

    Ndume, who was the director-general of Rotimi Amaechi Campaign Organisation, said: “As a faithful party man, I’ll work assiduously to ensure that the APC wins in all elections next year. There is a lot of work to be done and we need to start doing that right now.”

    Senator Abiru said by choosing the former Lagos State governor, the APC made the best decision in its determination to retain power next year.

    Abiru, who is the chairman of Senate Committee on Industries, said: “Only Tinubu has the capacity to confront the opposition and secure victory for the ruling party in the 2023 general elections.

    “I heartily congratulate our revered Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his victory at the APC presidential primary election.”

    Senator representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District Opeyemi Bamidele said Tinubu’s emergence shows how his “wizardry in politicking and strong stature had become in national politics.”

    Bamidele, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, said that with Tinubu as the APC candidate, victory was certain for the ruling party next year.

    “The National Leader of our great party, the ACP, Tinubu, is an enigma with a wide and electrifying network of friends, and development partners who can facilitate victory for APC,” the lawmaker added.

    House of Representatives member Akande-Sadipe said that the APC National Leader’s emergence was “a victory for internal democracy within the party and a progressive step in protecting national interest.”

    Akande-Sadipe, who is the chairman of the House Committee on Diaspora, described Tinubu as an intellectual with great skills in strategy and human capacity building

     Kekemeke, Dare, Yakassai, others react

    A former Secretary to the Ondo State Government (SSG), Isaacs Kekemeke, expressed confidence that Tinubu would lead Nigeria to prosperity.

    Kekemeke, who is the Southwest National Vice-Chairman of the APC, said the party has been reinvented with the victory of Asiwaju.

    He added: “There are so many other patriotic and visionary leaders who can be best described as progressives in body and spirit, who walked the long walk side by side with our leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, into this victory. God will bless and reward them.

    “The Southwest executive of our great party can safely assure the All Progressives Congress and Nigeria, indeed, that the journey for a better, peaceful and prosperous Nigeria has just begun.”

    Youth and Sports Development Minister Sunday Dare said the outcome of the primary had validated Tinubu’s “political astuteness and stewardship over the decades.”

    He said he was elated that the former governor has “been called to a higher service at a time Nigeria needs more experienced hands to help solve our prevailing challenges”

    An elder statesman and ACF founding member Yakasai said Tinubu’s victory signified an important political development for Nigeria.

    “The election of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the APC presidential flag bearer is indeed an important political development in our country, ” he said.

    According to him, “this transition will be a milestone and will lead us to a full-fledged democracy.”

    APC Governorship candidate for Cross River State, Senator Otu, said that Tinubu would use his vast political experience and networks to ensure victory for the ruling during the general elections

    He said: “Your Excellency, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, your victory at the just concluded APC presidential primary election of our great party and subsequent emergence as our party’s presidential candidate and flag bearer for the 2023 elections is indeed, victory for the Nigerian project because you have the ability to provide the necessary leadership to consolidate and build on the country’s democratic gains.”

    Nasarawa Assembly Speaker Abdullahi said the victory recorded by Tinubu was a clear indication of his general acceptance by Nigerians.

    While noting that the election that ushered in Tinubu as the APC flag bearer was one of the most interesting, peaceful and transparent primary, the Speaker called for better strategies by the party ahead of the general elections.

    SWAGA, APC Lagos, UK, South Africa chapters happy

    A political group, South West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA’23), also lauded APC Northern governors for their role in Tinubu’s victory.

    The group, in a statement by its National Chairman, Dayo Adeyeye and National Secretary Bosun Oladele, thanked the governors for supporting Tinubu.

    SWAGA described their gesture as deepening the love and unity between the country’s two regions.

    It described their gesture as aimed at ensuring fairness, saying that the Southwest will not take it for granted.

    Similarly, the APC in Lagos, through its chairman Cornelius Ojelabi, congratulated Tinubu. It noted that his winning the ticket proves his commitment to a life of hard work and sacrifices for others.

    Also, the APC Frontier Forum and Movement for Actualisation of Tinubu (MFAT) Presidency 2023, headed by Eric Olugbenga, congratulated Tinubu.

    It said the former governor’s emergence was not surprising given his background, landmark achievements and contributions to APC’s unity

    Members of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Solidarity Vanguard (BATSV) in Kwara State also congratulated Tinubu.

    Their Chairman, Taiwo Joseph, said they were “happy to see Tinubu lead from the front.”

    APC South Africa said the wide margin of votes Tinubu polled to win the presidential ticket was “a valid proof of his acceptability.”

    The chapter’s Interim National Chairman and Public Affairs Officer, Legend Asuelime and Kingsley Nze, said Tinubu’s victory was well-deserved.

    To APC Ghana, Tinubu’s emergence is a major step to achieving the Nigeria they envisaged

  • How teleworking is changing the world

    How teleworking is changing the world

    In May 2020, the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes was founded in response to the dramatic impact of COVID-19 on working arrangements. This monthly online survey is run jointly by the University of Chicago, ITAM, MIT, and Stanford University. The survey’s concerns include whether work from home (WFH) will continue post-pandemic and if work from home will destroy city centres. The team is led by Nick Bloom. He briefs on how his team’s research addresses these questions and forecasts how working arrangements might evolve in the longer-term after the end of COVID-19 globally. United States Bureau Chief OLUKOREDE YISHAU reports

    Nick Bloom, a professor of economics at the Stanford University, United States, has been researching working from home for almost 20 years, winning a Guggenheim Fellowship for this effort this year.  The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, BBC, Financial Times, and The Economist have featured him on stories about remote working.  Fortune Magazine sees him as the “prophet of working from home” and Business Insider describes him as “America’s best work-from-home expert.”

    Speaking at a briefing organised by the Washington Foreign Press Centre, Bloom said around the world, people were working on average one to two days a week from home, adding that pre-pandemic, it would be less than half. “So globally, not surprisingly, there’s been a huge surge in working from home,” Bloom said.

    He said famous tech firms like Airbnb, Quora, Upwork, Automattic have gone fully remote and that over time they were going to spread out and move out of the U.S. to countries such as Mexico, India, South America and African countries. “Basically I’ve talked to a lot of companies that have said: we’ve discovered these roles work really well fully remote, and in the long run we’re thinking of moving outside the U.S.  So I think there’s about to be a huge surge of offshoring of American companies moving jobs abroad, and European companies as well,” Bloom said.

     

    Benefits of working from home

     

    According to Bloom, people like working from home because they would not have to commute to workplaces.  He added that flexibility was another reason people like to work remotely. “So when people work from home, a typical hybrid plan – take the plan, say – the company I was in yesterday was a start-up.  They have a plan that’s basically the same as Apple’s until recently, which is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday you’re in the office; Wednesday and Friday you work from home.  And the idea is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday it’s, like, really social days, lots of meetings, presentations, events, meeting with clients.  Wednesday, Friday, it’s more quiet reading and writing work.

    “The upside of that is on Wednesday, Fridays, if you want to go for a run, go pick your kids up from school, go to the dentist, you can do it.  And in fact, I’ve heard anecdotes that would make a great story that various people have told me: the golf courses or the park has never been as – this full in the middle of the week.  People are working from home, but they’re slipping out to go play a round of golf, go to the dentist, go to the doctor.  So that pre-pandemic thing of Saturday, Sunday we did all these activities, Monday to Friday we were in work, is disappearing, and life is much more kind of evenly balanced throughout the week.

    “Employees really like hybrid work from home.  Here’s, again, international data.  We asked people how they value it.  Typically, it’s valued about the same as a 5-percent pay increase.  So, this is one of the reasons Tesla’s going to be in trouble.  In the U.S., these numbers are a bit higher.  This is 6 percent here, it’s 8 percent in another survey, but Americans in particular – I mean, most people value work from home.  Americans seem to value it more highly.  But if you’re going to have employees that are currently working from home two, three days a week, and force them back to the office full-time, to stop a bunch of them quitting you’re going to have to put up their pay.  You’re looking at putting up their pay probably about 5 to 10 percent,” Bloom explained.

    He said in the summer of 2020, everyone thought work from home was a temporary thing to deal with the pandemic, and then post-pandemic everyone would go back into the office. For one month, the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes asked 5,000 Americans what their employers told them to do post-pandemic. It found out that in August 2020 employers were mostly saying: “My employer’s told me I’m typically coming back.  I might get to work from home one, two days a week after the pandemic.” But, as the pandemic stretched on, work from home has become more and more popular.

    “Last summer, you’re as close to two.  It’s now raising in the later stages up to kind of 2.3, 2.4 days a week.  So, what’s happened is over the last two years, people have discovered work from home works, employees like it, firms like it, performances and profits have been great, and it looks like it’s here to stay,” he said.

     

    Elon Musk’s anti-work-at-home stance

     

    Bloom referred to an email, which last Wednesday was leaked from inside Tesla quoting its owner, Elon Musk, as saying staff have got to be back 40 hours a week or they should leave. “Elon Musk reinforced that with a tweet saying yes, they better work that or they should get out of here.  So, I got bombarded with people asking what that’s going to mean.  I’m going to give you the responses I tweeted out based on data.

    “So we’ve been surveying 5,000 Americans a month.  We have – of those, of those that work from home, which is about half of them, we asked them this question, which is:  If you were asked to return full-time to the office, what would you do?  So again, this is roughly two and a half thousand Americans a month that are currently working from home typically two, three days a week.  We asked them:  If you are asking to return to the office full-time, what would you do?

    “About 7 percent say they’ll quit on the spot, they just would not go back, they’d quit immediately.  About 35 percent say they’d go back, but they’d look for another job while they’re back.  And the remaining roughly 60 percent would go back and return.

    “So, if you apply this to Tesla, I think the predictions are for Tesla, if you’re a cutting-edge engineer working on some amazing driverless car, you probably would go back to the office.  There isn’t really much else to compare to Tesla out there, maybe Lucid and – there are a few other driverless car companies, but it is a pretty unique company.  But that’s not most of their employees.  Most of Tesla employees are in finance, IT, HR, back office.  These people are almost certainly thinking, ‘If I have to go back to the office five days a week, why don’t I go work for Google or Apple or Amazon or Microsoft?  They’ll let me work from home three days a week and pay me probably just as much.’

    “So I think Tesla is looking at a large increase in quit rates over the next six months to a year if they enforce that.  They could, of course, as I make out here, pay people 10 percent more as compensation.  It doesn’t sound like they’re going to do that, so I think the front cutting-edge engineers will go back.  They’re going to find a lot of their back office, IT support staff will quit,” he said.

    He added: “In fact, recruiters tell me they’re actively now targeting Tesla employees, going to LinkedIn, search for Tesla, find all the Tesla employees, send them a message saying, ‘Hey, I know you’re supposed to come back to the office.  I have a client of mine that would like to interview you, and you can stay working from home.’  So, I think this is going to be costly for Tesla.  They’re going to lose a lot of staff because of this.”

     

    Is working from home here to stay?

     

    Bloom argued that work from home has come to stay, adding that it keeps employees happy, it allows employees to save a bit of space, it is useful for diversity and helps productivity. “It looks like probably work from home employees are maybe more productive.  All of those four reasons are not particularly cyclical.  So even if there is a recession, I don’t see work from home dropping back that much.  The drivers of work from home are not the business cycle; they’re more fundamental, long-run things,” Bloom said.

     

    Characteristics of working from home

     

    Bloom and his team researched how much time people spent getting ready when they go to work versus when they work from home.  “Turns out people spent 10 minutes a day, or 9 minutes a day, less grooming, as in getting ready for work, when they work from home versus when they go into the office.  Why is that?  Well, people are less likely to wash, they’re less likely to wear fresh clothes working from home, they’re less likely to brush their teeth, much less likely to shave, much less likely to put on makeup, less likely to put on deodorant.

    “For me, one of the most amazing things is actually the blue bar, the number of people that are going into work – 15 percent that apparently haven’t washed, 6 percent haven’t worn clean clothes, 5 percent that don’t brush their teeth when they go.  I mean, some of these numbers are pretty scary.  But you can read this either way, but I think it’s a very interesting fact.  It’s clear that working from home is leading us to spend less time getting ready, but there’s also a scary number of people that don’t seem to properly wash or brush their teeth even when they go to the office,” Bloom said.

     

    Future offices

     

    Bloom added that because of the new normal, offices were being redesigned and future offices would not have lots of individual offices where people sit and quietly work.  He predicted that offices should have more open plan areas, more meeting rooms, more together space, more canteens. “So in future offices are more focused on larger groups spending time together, and less like the American TV show Mad Men whereby people just sit in their own office all day,” he concluded.

  • Survivors recall horror scenes at Port Harcourt church stampede

    Survivors recall horror scenes at Port Harcourt church stampede

    • I watched my daughter shout for help till she passed out, says widow

    • How my five-year-old son slipped off my hand and was marched to death’

    • I nearly lost my life trying to save a child — Survivor

    Mrs. Jennifer Jackson has been grappling with nightmares since May 28. Jennifer, whose husband died in 2020, saw death on that day but cheated it by divine grace.

    Her 15-year-old daughter, Precious, was however not as fortunate. The fragile soul, who would have turned 16 in October, was marched to death and her feeble bones crushed during the stampede that happened at Polo Club, Port Harcourt, in the early hours of that day.

    Jennifer said amid sobs: “I can no longer sleep. I have been having nightmares since the incident occurred.

    “I haven’t received any medical treatment myself. On Sunday, I almost died because I fainted but my mother brought me back to life.

    “I don’t have money to go to the hospital after surviving that stampede. My face is swollen and I have injuries all over my body.

    “I was busy trying to save my daughter. But I lost her.”

    The journey that snuffed life out of her daughter and almost took hers started when a member of the King’s Assembly, a new generation church based in Port Harcourt, informed her about a give-away programme tagged ‘Shop-for-Free, which the church organised at the Polo Club in GRA.

    She said:  “One lady on our street just saw me. We moved into the area newly. She told me they had something to share in their church.

    “On Friday last week, I went to her and asked her about the time for the programme. She said they would open the gate by 4 am on Saturday.

    “She said some people were already there on Friday night to sleep over. She advised me to go on time so that I would be able to enter.

    “I told my daughter and my younger brother that the three of us would go to the place together. So, on that Saturday, I woke up at about 3 am and woke my daughter also and we left before 4 am.

    “When we got there, the crowd was not much. They didn’t open the gate, so we stood there and others were worried that the gate was not opened.

    “As we stood there, many other people were coming. After some time, a car came and someone asked us to form a line.

    “After we formed a line, more people were still coming. Then we saw some people entering the venue and we wondered where they passed through.

    “Some people suggested that we should move closer. When we got closer, we discovered that the gate was still shut but people were inside.

    “We later discovered that there was small gate behind that those people used to gain access to the place. But I told my daughter we should wait.

    “I held her hand. We were at the middle of the line. But many people were behind us and were also at various corners.”

    Jennifer recalled that as the line started moving, there was a sudden surge of the crowd from different corners towards the gate. She fell down with her daughter as the crowd pushed with ferocity. While she cried out faintly gasping for breath, she heard a cacophony of weary voices begging for help. Her daughter let out a dying outcry.

    She said: “We fell and I saw myself dying. I heard my daughter shout faintly. Others on the ground were shouting. I shouted too. I discovered that I was dying but I kept praying inside of me. I told God that I came because of food and that he should not allow His servant to die.

    “I called on the Holy Spirit to give me strength. ‘Holy Spirit, help me. I am your worker, give me strength. I don’t want to die here,’ I prayed.

    “By that time, I didn’t hear my daughter’s voice again. I didn’t feel her shaking too. But I kept praying for help. As I opened my eyes, I saw a crowd of dead bodies lying on the ground.

    “I saw my daughter’s face come down. But I had no strength to carry her. I kept saying, ‘My daughter, please wake up. Both of us came together, you cannot leave me. Please wake up. You are the only helper I have even the food we came to collect, we haven’t seen anything, please wake up’.

    “I had lost my strength so I couldn’t carry her.”

    Jennifer said people came to pick their loved ones and a man helped her to carry Precious out of the gate. She lamented that vehicles evacuated her daughter and other victims to the hospital, but there was no immediate medical treatment. She said all the victims were kept in an open field but no medical personnel did anything to revive the dying victims.

    She said: “I couldn’t hold my daughter because my hands were weak. But the man helped me to carry the girl out of the gate.

    “I had no money to carry her out of the place. Some cars came and took us to the hospital. But as we got there, they dropped us on the field. There was no emergency treatment.

    “They lay them on the field. I said, ‘You brought us here but you are not trying to see whether you can revive these people.’

    “I was begging them to help me revive my daughter. I wanted to call my mother but I had no phone. I started calling my daughter.

    “I screamed for help to remove her from there to either my house or to my pastor, Ibiyeomi. I didn’t have money.

    begged a man who gave me N1,500 to call a cab. I called a taxi and asked him to take me to my pastor.

    “As we reached, I wanted to carry the girl into the church and shout to see whether my pastor would hear my voice, but they didn’t allow me to enter. We waited and the pastors came, prayed and anointed her.

    “They asked me to carry her to the church’s Save Our Life Hospital. As I got there, a doctor checked her eyes, but I said nothing would happen to her.

    “I took her home and started calling her repeatedly. I called another pastor who came and prayed for her, but he told me that the girl was already gone.”

    Jennifer, who was still inconsolable, said her late daughter was preparing to write the external examination conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) when the incident occurred. She could not also wear the uniform she sewed to mark the Children’s Day programme at the church on May 29.

    “I have been suffering to raise my daughter. We live in poverty, no money or food, and that was why we went there to see whether we could get food.

    “I have not received any good treatment since the incident occurred because I have no money,” she said.

    Jennifer’s mother, Comfort Belema, is also a widow. Her husband died in 2019. She lamented the loss of her granddaughter and prayed for help to enable Jennifer get proper medical attention.

    Another victim, Friday Eugine, said the military hospital they were taken to after the incident only gave them first aid. Eugine said he fractured his left leg and that after waiting in vain for the hospital to commence full treatment, his family relocated him to the state-owned Braithwaite Memorial Hospital (BMH).

    Recalling the incident, he said he was able to save a child who was trapped, adding that he almost lost his life in the process of saving the child.

    He said: “My brother told me of a programme organised by a church holding in Port Harcourt that he heard over the radio that I should try and attend. I was curious to know about the things I could shop for free so I went early to the venue.

    “As I got there, I saw people gathered in huge numbers at the gate. I was thinking that everything was over, so I rushed in to ask some people that were standing.

    “The question had not dropped from my mouth when people started pushing to enter through the gate.

    “I saw a little child that fell and I dragged the child out. It was just God that saved me as I pulled with all my strength and my legs were entangled with those of other people and I managed to drag it out broken.

    “I don’t know the parents of the child, but I handed the child over to the people that took us to the hospital.

    “Although the bones of my left leg are fractured, I thank God for my life and that of the child I saved.”

    Other horror tales

    Madam Abigail travelled all the way from her village in Ahoada to attend the programme. But the poor woman only ended up with a dislocated waist after the stampede. She had since gone back home to look for a professional masseuse to fix her waist after waiting in vain for medical treatment.

    She said: “I specifically came to Port Harcourt from Ahoada for the programme because of the good stories my neighbour’s told me.

    “I slept over at my sister’s place to arrive in time because I was told that many people came last year and there was no space to accommodate them.

    “I got there by 5:30 am but quarreled with the gatemen for not allowing us in since there were still seats yet to be occupied.

    “I just sat at a corner waiting when the gatemen shouted that we should move away from the gate; that it was not yet time to admit people.

    “I don’t know what or how it happened, but the wood I was sitting fell on the ground and I hit my waist. That was when I realised that I should have gone back home after the qaurrel.

    “I could not stand because of the pains. I have gone for massage but the pain is still there. I didn’t attend the programme but my waist is dislocated.”

    Eyewitnesses blame security operatives

    Samuel Orji-Eke has been in severe pains since the incident happened. His five-year-old son was among those that died in the stampede. But he said his son would not have died if he had received medical attention on time.

    Eke would have lost more than the son because he went there with three of his children as well as his wife. He blamed the church for the incident, saying there was no arrangement for crowd management.

    He said: “My son was five years old. Around 6:30 am, I attended the church programme with my three children. I was holding my son and carrying my six-month-old daughter in my arm and my wife was holding the other one.

    “When we got there, the gate was locked and the crowd was not much. People were refused entry, and in such a church event, the gate was not supposed to be locked.

    “This made the crowd to swell and it became too much that the entire road was blocked. That was when they opened the gate and there was a mad rush to enter. It was in that process the stampede occurred.

    “We had entered the gate properly when people started to fall and the ones coming behind trampled on them. That was when they marched me and broke my hand, and my son slipped off and was marched to death.

    “At the time the incident happened, there was no presence of police officers but only ushers. It was when the place became rowdy that policemen came and started shooting in the air to disperse the crowd after the damage had been done.

    “My son did not die immediately but when it happened, there was no help, no first aid. I am calling for justice for a church to openly invite people and no proper logistics.”

    Felix Sylvester Emizibo,a taxi driver, said he was at the scene when the stampede occurred, having conveyed one of his customers to the venue of the programme.

    The customer, Patience Emesiobi, whom he described as a friend, died after the stampede. He, however, said it was the gunshots that were fired in the air by security operatives that triggered the stampede.

    He said some operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) later arrived at the scene when a mammoth crowd was struggling to enter the venue. He said there was pandemonium after the gunshot.

    Emizibo said: “After dropping off my family friend, Patience Emesiobi, I had to stay around a little further to see the items the church was going to give and how they really wanted to do it.

    “About 10 minutes after I dropped my friend, who is also a neighbour, I saw the crowd trying to access the premises through a pedestrian gate, pushing themselves in the process.

    “Not quite long after that, we heard gunshots from the security personnel there.

    “After we got there, it didn’t take more than four to five minutes before men of the civil defence came. The police came later than the civil defence. I think the first set of security operatives that arrived at the venue was the civil defence, followed by the police.

    “I really never got a glimpse at the security operatives that fired the shots, but I heard it was the civil defence personnel that fired three shots.

    “There was pandemonium immediately after the gunshots. There was this mad rush of people with children, some of them pregnant ladies and the elderly. They were all rushing through the gate to get into the premises, and in the process, the stampede happened.

    “I saw a lot of dead bodies. Many of them were lifeless. Children were marched by the crowd. When I finally found my friend Patience, she was equally lifeless. “Those of us that had vehicles conveyed the victims to the military hospital. I took my friend Patience Emesiobi to the military hospital, where a doctor confirmed her dead.”

    He, however, said the hospital attended to the victims based on its capacity. He said many could not be admitted because on their arrival, they were pronounced dead, adding that his friend was confirmed dead on a stretcher and could no longer be admitted in the hospital.

    He said others, whose loved ones were pronounced dead, took them to other hospitals for confirmation. He said although the church tried to put measures in place for crowd management, its efforts were not adequate.

    “I think the church did not expect that a lot of persons would come, and that was why they even hired Polo Club as the venue.

    “The church must have thought that Polo Club was wide enough to accommodate the crowd they were expecting, but the church failed in managing that crowd in good time,” he said.

    Felix insisted that though the incident happened before the 9 am the church scheduled to commence the programme, they should have started their crowd management earlier.

    He said: “I will first and foremost blame our attitude as a people, as Nigerians generally. When it comes to issues like this, they rush.

    “At least we need to have some level of self control, show some kind of dignity whenever we find ourselves in public places.

    “I will also blame the church. If you give an open invitation to a number of persons like this, you should expect that things like this are possible.

    “Arrangements ought to have been on ground to control the crowd to avert a stampede of this kind.

    “I will blame the government too. The government has never taken the welfare of the people seriously. I think there is hunger in the land.”

    Black Saturday

    May 28th was, indeed, a black Saturday. Although the police said 31 persons including children died in the stampede, the death toll, it was later gathered, was more than 50. Their lifeless bodies littered the ground of the Polo Club.

    The victims had gone in search of free food and other gift items promised them by the church, but they died even before the distribution of the items could begin. Individuals who escaped with injuries like Jennifer had been abandoned to cater for their medical needs.

    The acting Police Public Relations Officer, Iringe Grace Koko, said the police would probe the incident to determine its remote and immediate causes. The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, also vowed to constitute a panel to probe the tragedy.

    Despite the promises, nothing has been said of the tragedy about one week after it occurred. People have since been going about their normal activities as if nothing had happened.

    King’s Assembly, whose outreach programme caused the stampede has only regretted the disaster but has not taken further steps to ameliorate the pains of the victims and deceased families.

    The church, in a statement, signed by its Director of Administration, Chimeka Elem, tried to give an excuse that the stampede happened before the commencement of its “benevolent and outreach programme called Shop-for-Free”.

    Elem described the programme as nondenominational and said its purpose was to share with the less privileged the gifts provided by members of the church, friends and partners.

    “Unfortunately, lives were lost and several people sustained varying degrees of injuries,” he said.

    Elem added: “While the incident has been reported to the Nigerian Police Force, the church has commissioned a team of safety specialists to establish the immediate causes of the stampede to enable us provide the authorities all required information in compliance with public safety laws.

    “Our Shop-for-Free programme was started in 2014 as our annual benevolent outreach and our choice of the large venue, Polo Club, was to accommodate the projected attendance.

    “This year’s turnout, buildup and the attendant circumstances were absolutely unanticipated. The crowd converged overnight long before the security team for the event took formation.”

  • ‘My daughter’s killer tied her, slit her throat, bathed on her body in white wrapper’

    ‘My daughter’s killer tied her, slit her throat, bathed on her body in white wrapper’

    The bereaved mother of a 21-year-old apprentice hairdresser allegedly killed by a suspected hemp seller in Mowe area of Ogun State has claimed that the young girl was cruelly murdered for money rituals by her killer who is still in police custody, KUNLE AKINRINADE reports.

    Brief was etched on the face of Oluwatoyin Odubanjo. For some moments, she tried to talk but no words were forthcoming from her trembling lips.

    Sandwiched between a relatives and one of her daughters, she sat on a bench to let out a sorrowful moan over the killing of her daughter, Tunrayo, but she struggled to find the right words to convey her sorrow.

    The distraught mother of four recalled how a hemp seller identified simply as Toba allegedly slit the throat of her daughter, Tunrayo Odubanjo, his girlfriend, and dumped her body in a building inside a bush in Kara-Kekere community, Ogunrun, Mowe in Obafemi Owode area of Ogun State.

    The bereaved mother said: “My name is Oluwatoyin Odubanjo, a resident of Zion Estate, Pakuro, whose daughter was killed by her purported boyfriend named Toba.

    “The incident occurred at Kara Kekere in the Magbon area of Mowe on May 18, 2022.

    “My daughter told me she was going to work and left home in the morning for her boss’ salon at Ogunrun village.

    “I asked why she was leaving home very early in the morning and she explained that they had a lot of work to do at the salon.

    “I gave her money for her meals and transportation and she left home before 8 am, hoping that she would return home in the evening as usual.”

    Odubanjo, it turned out, had no inkling of the tragic fate that awaited her beautiful 21-year-old daughter. Barely two hours after Tunrayo left home, however, Odubanjo received the shocking news of her daughter’s gruesome death.

    “Around 10 am, one of her friends rushed home and broke the news of her death to me.

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    “She said that my daughter had been killed by one Toba who I didn’t know and had never seen before the incident happened,” she said.

    Contrary to reports that Tunrayo was allegedly killed by Toba for wearing his slippers when the deceased visited her alleged killer, her mother insists that she was actually killed by Toba for money rituals.

    Tunrayo’s killer, according to Odubanjo, subjected her to brutal death for the purpose of money rituals and brazenly bathed on her lifeless body in a white wrapper during which he was caught by residents.

    “A woman called Peju, who happens to be a neighbour and witnessed the incident, told us that the said Toba had drugged my daughter before killing her.

    “The woman said that the fateful day was the first time my daughter would be visiting Toba who recently moved into the building.

    “She said she tried to prevent Toba from killing my daughter but he attacked her too with stones and she had to run for her life for fear of being killed with her new baby strapped to her back.

    “When Toba overheard my daughter calling her boss on the phone and raising the alarm that she was in danger, he quickly tied her with a rope and sliced her throat with a sharp end of ceramic tiles.

    “On the floor of the building, we saw the rope, tile and bottle of soft drink he allegedly gave my daughter before killing her.

    “The woman who lives in the neighbourhood was the one that alerted some boys who stormed the building and found Toba bathing on Tunrayo’s lifeless body with a white cloth wrapped around his waist and the mob apprehend him.

    “He said that his money would increase when he returns from police custody and that the larger the crowd condemning him the more money he would make, having killed my daughter for money rituals.

    “The sympathisers were the ones that invited the police and her remains have been evacuated to the mortuary by men of Sagamu Division for autopsy while Toba has since been detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) of the Ogun State Police Command.

    “Although, her boss denied that she came to the salon before she left for Toba’s home, we learnt from some of her colleagues at the salon that she actually came to the shop and swept the floor of the salon with a broom and that one of her junior colleagues told her that Toba asked her to come to his new site and gave her money as transport fare.

    “The boy called Toba must not be released from police custody. He must also be killed like he cruelly snuffed the life out of my daughter.”

    An elder sister of the deceased, Mariam Odubanjo, said her sister did not introduce any man to the family as her boyfriend, noting that Toba was a total stranger.

    She said: “We were four girls and she is the second child. She did not introduce anyone to us as her boyfriend. She was very reserved and hardly talked.

    “She had promised to help me fix my hair when she returned home that day she was killed.

    “One of her friends named Rasheedat was the one that rushed home to inform us that she had been stabbed to death by Toba.

    “We have not buried her remains because her body is still in the morgue awaiting autopsy. However, we don’t have the sum of N150,000 demanded for post-mortem examination.

    “We don’t want Toba to be released from police custody at the state police command in Eleweran, Abeokuta, and we want him to be sentenced to death too for the heartless killing of Tunrayo.”

    Contacted, police spokesman, Mr. Abimbola Oyeyemi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said the suspect was still in custody and would be charged to court soon.

    Oyeyemi said: The case is being handled by the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) of the state command at Eleweran.

    “Although the suspect insists he didn’t kill the lady (Tunrayo), we are not releasing him. We are continuing with our investigations and he would be arraigned in court soon.”

    On the allegation by the family in respect of the money being demanded for the autopsy, Oyeyemi explained that the pathologists are the ones requesting payment from the family for the autopsy.

    “Autopsy is not the duty of the police, rather, pathologists, who are specialised in carrying out the post-mortem on bodies are the ones that would be paid for such services, and the police are not involved in such exercise and cannot pay for it,” Oyeyemi said.

  • Family‘s last moments with Nigerian female pilot of ill-fated aircraft in Cameroon

    Family‘s last moments with Nigerian female pilot of ill-fated aircraft in Cameroon

    She dreamt of becoming a pilot from age four, says father ex-Senator Ewuga

    Bereaved ex-FCT minister takes solace in deceased daughter being Nasarawa’s first female pilot

    It is almost two weeks since the Ewuga family in Nasarawa State lost their pilot daughter in a plane crash, but they are still far from getting over the disaster.

    Tragedy had befallen the family whose members include a former Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State Solomon Ewuga when the mini aircraft belonging to Caverton Aviation, a subsidiary of Lagos-based Caverton Offshore support group and  operators of Caverton Helicopters, crashed in Central Cameroon, killing Adzuayi, the 31-year-old second daughter of former FCT minister, Senator Solomon Ewuga. Ten other people on board the ill-fated aircraft also lost their lives.

    Adzuayi was flying the aircraft from Nsimalen Airport in Cameroonian capital Yaounde to Belabo in the eastern part of the country when the air traffic services lost radio contact.

    Since then, he has been grappling with an experience his fragile posture can hardly bear as every new day sees his mind is crowded with thoughts of his deceased daughter.

    “I was shocked to hear of her sudden death,” he said as he recalled the good moments he shared with Adzuayi, her school days, university and overseas training, her job as a pilot and then her unfortunate death.

    The former Senator, who was reluctant to talk about the life and times of his deceased daughter, said he would continue to miss her because there is no one on earth that can fill the void Adzuayi left in his life.

    Tears flowed ceaselessly from the eyes of Adzuayi’s elder sister, Luraghi, as she could not but wonder how her promising younger sister would kiss death so early in her life.

    The late Adzuayi had fallen in love with the sky very early in her life and seized every opportunity to actualise her dream of flying an aeroplane until she met her untimely death in the Cameroon disaster.

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    As early as age four, it was already clear to her parents that their daughter was destined for a career as a pilot. Unfortunately, the realisation of her dream was short-lived as the aircraft she was flying from Yaounde to Belabo lost contact with the air traffic control and crashed, killing all the people on board.

    “She had always wanted to fly since the age of four. She always had her eyes on planes and how they operated.

    “So we knew that one day she was going to fly. It was her dream, and she did it,” Adzuayi’s sister, Mrs Akayika Yei-Dei Luraghi, said.

    Looking frail and obviously devasted, Senator Ewuga betrayed emotions as he tried to speak further to our correspondent on the incident. He admitted being devastated by the news of his daughter’s death.

    Recalling Adzuayi’s passion for aviation, Senator Ewuga confirmed that from age of four, she had started showing interest in flying and would often march to a plane’s cockpit to see the pilot whenever they boarded a plane.

    “I never thought that death could come this early to snatch my 31-year-old pilot daughter,” he lamented.

    Ewuga said his daughter read Marketing, with a degree in Computer Graphics at the Cleveland State University, USA. After her first degree, she returned to Nigeria for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme and later worked in an oil and gas company as a liaison officer in Abuja.

    But she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a pilot and enrolled at the Phoenix East Aviation Beach, Florida in the USA. There, she underwent a 14-month training and received a commercial pilot licence in 2015.

    Recalling their last conversation, Senator Ewuga said they had communicated a night before the crash, and she was due to return home on June 14.

    “We discussed her coming, and she wanted to renew her American visa in a drop box. We talked about the renewal, which I had started and was looking forward to her return,” he said.

    He explained further that her job warranted that she worked eight weeks in and eight weeks off, so she had just finished the eight weeks and was getting ready to return to Nigeria to reunite with the family. Senator Ewuga however took solace in that as the first female pilot from Nasarawa State, his daughter had made the family and the state proud.

    Luraghi, her 35-year-old only sister, said she was more than a sister to her.

    “She was my friend. Now, I look at everything in the house and it is just like I am seeing her. We were not able to see every day due to the nature of her job, but we used to talk.

    “Her death has devastated me. It threw me into a state of confusion. Loosing somebody that is a part of my life has been painful,” an emotionally stricken Luraghi said.

    Recalling their last conversation, she said her younger sister had asked if she could give someone her phone number to contact her and deliver some items.

    She also said that Adzuayi, who had been in Cameroon for over three years, recently travelled to Canada to spend a few days before her untimely death.

    She disclosed that the chairman of the airways Adzuayi worked with, Mr Bilden Mason Njora, had paid the family a condolence visit.

    “She was lovely, chatty, fun. She always wanted to engage people. Even if you wouldn’t want to talk, she would still talk to you; she would disturb you somehow.

    “She was also very caring. She always put people first and made sure that everyone was well treated, even when it inconvenienced her.

    “She was disciplined, hardworking and humble. We saw all of that in her, even at work.

    “Those were some of the things she exemplified, and everybody was happy and comfortable around her because she was friendly and easy to relate with,” Luraghi said, weeping.

    For Zeni Dogun, who had been Adzuayi’s friend since the age of two, losing a friend like her is nothing but devastating.

    She described her late friend as brave, independent, honest and energetic, adding that they attended kindergarten together in Jos, Plateau State.

    She said although they went to different secondary schools, they remained close and attended the same university.

    Dogun said: “We spent weekends, holidays and evenings together in each other’s houses while growing up.

    “Our houses were within walking distances and we used to walk each other home for almost an hour, going back and forth and never running out of what to say.

    “When we passed out from our respective secondary schools, we attended the same universities – Dordt College in Iowa, USA, then Cleveland State University, Ohio, also in the US, where we graduated.”

    She said her late friend made an impact wherever she went and encouraged people to embrace and enjoy one another.

    “As long as I can remember, she always wanted to be a pilot.

    “She was focused, dedicated and achieved her dream. She had the ability to light up a room. She loved flying and the view in the clouds,” she added.

    Describing her late friend’s dedication to work, Dogun said that throughout the COVID-19 period, Adzuayi worked tirelessly in her company, spending months away from her family and friends.

    “She will be deeply missed and always loved,” Dogun concluded.