82.9m Nigerians below poverty line — NBS
By Elizabeth Adegbesan The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, said yesterday that over 82.9 million or about 40 per cent of the country’s population were classified as poor in 2019. The bureau disclosed this yesterday in its 2019 Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria: Executive Summary Report. The NBS report was, however, trailed by mixed reactions….
Liberating Nigeria
The lagos state governor suspends okada, Lagos tests 1.5 million households
Dayo Ojerinde The Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has directed the suspension of commercial motorcycles, popularly known as okada in all areas of the state till further notice. Sanwo-Olu, at a briefing on Wednesday, said the suspension was to check the spread of COVID-19 in the state. The governor also said the state had…
States, security agencies must allow movement of essential goods — Presidency
THE Presidency, yesterday, told state governments and law enforcement agencies to ensure easy movement of food trucks at different checkpoints around the country. It explained that the need to ensure easy facilitation of movement of the vehicles was to prevent the food items which serve as palliatives to cushion the effect of lockdown do not…
NMA laments inadequate testing, worries over rejection of patients by hospitals
The Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, yesterday expressed concern over hospitals’ refusal to treat patients with other ailments, lamenting the low rate of testing in the country. This came as Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, in a report, said 26 percent or 203 of the 782 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria as of April 21…
Undergraduate commits suicide over SARS harassment
An undergraduate of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Seyi Akinade, has reportedly committed suicide. The victim, in a lengthy post on Twitter before his death, said he could no longer live with the continuous harassment by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, which he claimed led to his decision to kill himself. His stepbrother,…
Court fines Ekiti pastors N.1m for lockdown violation
An Ado Ekiti Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday convicted two pastors, Abiodun Daramola and Sunday Akinwande, for violating the lockdown order of the state government. The Magistrate, Mr Lanre Owoleso, who found the clerics guilty of the two counts preferred against them, ordered them to pay N50,000 fine each and as well as engage in one…
Fix hospitals to honour Kyari, Falana tells Buhari
Ade Adesomoju, Abuja Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Femi Falana, said on Sunday the greatest tribute the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), could pay to the 19 deceased victims of COVID-19 in Nigeria, including his former Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, who died on Friday, was for governments at all levels to fix public…
Taraba clash: Violence never settles problems ― Buhari
By Johnbosco Agbakwuru PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday evening said that the renewed communal clash in Taraba State was disturbing. President Buhari who condemned the latest ethnic violence in the state which left a large number of people dead said that violence was never the option to settle disputes. Reacting to the incident, Buhari said that…
How to use face masks properly
On Tuesday, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) recommended the use of masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus, but only as a voluntary measure which it said must be done in addition to other directives such as social distancing and regular handwashing. While doing so, however, it is important to wear the…
COVID-19 vs hunger virus: Buhari, lockdown is not sustainable
The conundrum: Do we sustain the lockdown to contain coronavirus and risk the upsurge of insecurity and citizens’ unrest or do we lift the restrictions and find other means of controlling the spread of COVID-19? For a country like Nigeria with complexities and deprecable socio-economic indices, imposing restrictions on movement for an extended period of…