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Big-name celebrities and artists have been going online to entertain their fans during the pandemic.

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The BBC's Cody Godwin invites some robots to entertain her - and her dog Bogart - during lockdown.

Nigeria has recorded 87 new Coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of confirmed infections in the country to 1182. 

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control disclosed this in a tweet on SATURDAY night.

The cases were reported in nine states. 

The agency said; “87 new cases of ‪#COVID19‬ have been reported; 33 in Lagos, 18 in Borno, 12 in Osun, nine in Katsina, four in Kano, four in Ekiti, three in Edo, three in Bauchi and one in Imo.

“As at 11:55pm 25th April, there are 1182 confirmed cases of ‪#COVID19‬ reported in Nigeria. Discharged: 222, deaths: 35.”
 

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Borno State Committee on COVID-19 has announced the death of one more person as a result of the virus.

This brings the number of those dead in the state as a result of Coronavirus to three, including the index case.

Commissioner for Health in the state, Dr Salisu Kwayabura, made this known on Saturday while addressing journalists in Maiduguri, the capital. 

Kwayabura, who is also Secretary of the state’s High Powered Response Team for Prevention and Control of COVID-19 said no new case had been recorded in the last 24 hours.

He announced that 17 persons in Pulka, Gwoza Local Government Area of the state suspected to have made close contacts with the index case all tested negative to the virus.

He said, “The state however, recorded one more death from the 15 positive cases recorded as at Thursday.

“Presently, there are 15 cases in Borno, seven patients are receiving medical attention at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and five patients are at Brigadier General Abba Kyari Isolation centre, managed by the state government, also in Maiduguri. Remaining three cases are the deaths recorded.”

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The Katsina State Government has discharged four COVID-19 patients after they made full recovery from the virus.

Chairman of Coronavirus Public Enlightenment Committee in Daura Local Government Area, Alhaji Hussaini Umar Rafindadi, made this known while speaking to journalists on Saturday. Google

Rafindadi said the discharged patients were family members of the late Dr Aliyu Yakubu Daura, the state index case, who died from complications of the virus.

He said they have tested negative twice for the virus and has been discharged.
 

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The Lagos State Government has said 10 COVID-19 patients have been discharged from its isolation center at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.

This was made known by the state's Ministry of Health via its Twitter handle on Saturday.

It said, “Six more COVID-19 patients; three females and three males, were today discharged from the @LUTHofficial isolation facility to reunite with the society.

“The number of patients successfully managed and discharged in Lagos now 123.”

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A Twitter user, Ben Peterside, has narrated how policemen at a checkpoint in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, caused the death of his mother on Friday morning. 

According to Peterside, the policemen stopped him from taking his mother to hospital after he failed to give them a bribe of N20,000 for driving within the city during the lockdown order in place to curb the spread of Coronavirus in the state. 

The young man disclosed that his mother had been living with hypertension for over 20 years and that he was taking her for urgent medical care when the callousness of the policemen caused her death.  Ben Peterside

In a post on his Twitter handle, Peterside said, “This morning, my mom who had been managing hypertension for over 20 years passed away right in the car while I was taking her to the hospital simply because men of @policeNG insisted that I have to part with N20,000 before they let us pass.

“I am in pains right now. I have now become an orphan all because of this lockdown. 

"My mother would not have died if we had arrived at the hospital early enough. I even offered to make a transfer, these officers refused, they said they will be traced, they need cash.

“So after pleading with them for over an hour, these heartless officers refused us to move. 

"They made me sit down and watch my mom pass away before my eyes. I doubt if I will ever be normal again after this. I hate this country.”

Shortly after making the post on Twitter, Peterside removed it after being contacted by the police leadership in the state, SaharaReporters gathered. 

Not too long after that period, his Twitter account was completely deactivated. 

A friend of Peter later hinted that he had been under immense pressure from the police since posting the sad experience on Twitter, forcing him to exit the popular social networking platform.

SaharaReporters also gathered that the young man had been warned not to talk about the incident on social media again by senior police officers in the state.

When contacted by SaharaReporters on Saturday, spokesperson for the police in Rivers State, Nnamdi Omoni, said he was not aware of the incident.

He said, “I don’t have any information about the incident. 

"Which checkpoint did he say it happened?

"If the guy is sure, give me his number so that I can call him to give more information about the incident."

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There is palpable fear in Ondo State at the moment as a man suspected of having Coronavirus has absconded from the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital Complex in ondo town. 

The patient, who was admitted at the Accident and Emergency unit of the facility, reportedly took to his heels on Saturday evening. 

SaharaReporters gathered that the situation was already causing anxiety among some of the medical practitioners at the hospital, who were on duty at the time of the incident. 

A senior consultant, who works at the hospital, confirmed the incident to SaharaReporters.

He noted that though the case was still being suspected, the patient was showing symptoms of the virus. 

He said, "The suspected COVID-19 patient is Ehibhanre Hansen, age 26 and was reported to have arrived from Edo State.

"Some of the symptoms presented was nasal discharge, dry cough, body weakness, difficulty in breathing. The patient however, appears stable in face mask and dirty disposable gloves.

“We should be on the lookout as patient might probably show up anywhere for treatment."
 

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The Yemeni government has warned of "dangerous and catastrophic consequences" of the move.

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Testing remains a key problem across the US but some states have started to lift restrictions.

Last week, conversations on the kind of man and the type of life lived by Malam Abba Kyari, late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari – especially in the last five years or so of his life – almost deposed the narratives of the tragic coronavirus war Nigerians are fighting. Lest I forget, I apologize for my last week err of affixing 82 years as the late CoS’ years on earth, instead of 67.  As Kyari was shrouded in shawls of panegyrics by those who encountered him, those who saw him as a villain didn’t allow themselves to be outmaneuvered.

While a few who whitewashed his memory had a field day, the late CoS was literally mauled by the social media mob. A few features that both those who sought to beatify him and the gang that saw him as the locus of the perceived stagnation of the Buhari presidency, and as such Nigeria, identified these as his strongest points: his wit, brilliance, controversial disdain for overtness, even when he was a journalist/writer, the illness that was his life, (before the COVID-19) an alleged stubborn stickling for what he believed in, no matter whose ox was gored and, to one or two people who wrote about him, his lacerating tongue.

As Kyari was buried in this expansive apparel of elegies, I wondered how those elegies he was decorated with bore striking similarity with that of French Enlightenmentwriter, philosopher and historian famous for his wit called François-Marie Arouet, otherwise known as Voltaire.Stubborn, brilliant and iconoclastic like Kyari whose brilliance reportedly shone while carrying the pall of ill-health before he contracted the coronavirus that eventually took him to the graveyard, Voltaire also lived a life of illness. While Kyari’s was diabetic, this French philosopher battled chronic dyspepsia, even from infancy and was a constant figure at the infirmary for catarrhal bronchitis, deafness, aphonia and febrile attacks. On the illness-strewn life he lived, Voltaire once said of life, “that long disease, my life” and throwing his usual wit on his death bed when priests sought to get him to “renounce Satan,” having been engaged in a long-drawn battle with the Roman Catholic church, he had said, "Now is not the time for making new enemies.”  Festus Adedayo

Unfortunately for the beatify-Kyari gang, their torrents of elegies, to many Nigerians, got easily classified as the usual African white-washing of the dead. When Bola Ahmed Tinubu – who many knew was embroiled in unspoken power fisticuffs with the late Kyari for the control of the heart of the Villa – engaged in the ramp-up of the narrative by white-washing the corpse of the late Chief of Staff, he completed the beatification circus as the usual African lip-service to the dead. Personally, I have always differed from traditional African concept of “not speaking ill of the dead.” Yes, Africa’s defence is that the dead cannot defend themselves but I submit that this is chief reason why despots, evil-doers and Africa’s colony of evil doers didn’t think twice as their malfeasances festered. Once they escaped planet earth, their evil deeds would be interred with their bones, they reason. Perhaps, if we begin to turn the narrative by speaking ill of the dead, it will be wake-up call on the living to leave imprints of good deeds at their departure?

Even when Beatify-Kyari gang tried to drape his effigy in the satin of “a modest man”, they slid into equivocation. What then was the real extent of his power in office? Kyari had no hand in the rife MTN graft story; he was a detribalized Nigerian who valued the brain ahead of clan; his brilliance was such that no minister or aide to Buhari possessed his mental acuity, were the Kyari refrain. None of them saw the counterfactuals in a modest presidential aide who held tightly to the levers of power as they claimed he did and on whose table the buck did a personal advertisement as the place where it stops, rather than his master’s. Without dressing him in any robe of satin, Nigerians know that Kyari was hyper powerful. A Kyari who had a spat in the full glare of the klieg with erstwhile Head of Service, Winifred Oyo-Ita, which marked her eventual departure from office and a suborning by the Almighty EFCC, cannot but be powerful. And the source of his awesome powers is so evident that even the blind could see it.

Try as the presidential media apparatchik have done in the last five years to make Buhari wear similar, even if not higher, mental cap with erstwhile holders of Nigeria’s presidential office, Nigerians know that Buhari stands on his own as the most vacant leader in Nigeria’s history. Not because his school certificate is yet contentious or that he waffles in mental deliveries that require him to speak extempore, there doesn’t seem to be anything mentally exhilarating, sparkling or challenging about the president. And it is not strictly about academic certificate. The only formal certificate known with Olusegun Obasanjo (before his theological certificates), aside the military qualifications, was a school certificate. He developed himself and could spar mentally with a professor. From the oratorical Tafawa Balewa, Yakubu Gowon, eclectic Murtala Muhammed, down to Sani Abacha, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Umar Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, no Nigerian leader has exhibited this crass crossroads with mental matters as President Buhari.

The history of such dilemma of the mind dates back to his time as military Head of State. I have searched the archives for off-the-cuff nuggets that Buhari could be remembered by in his 20-month reign and couldn’t find any. Those who knew have also attributed the only glow in the less-than- sparkling governance of that era to his Chief of Staff, Tunde Idiagbon. It will seem that the kind of Buhari would always attract a powerful Man Friday assistant. That was why Idiagbon and Kyari were awfully powerful and why anyone who takes over from the late Chief of Staff cannot but be powerful. Nature abhors a vacuum.  

From 1999, except during Jonathan’s second term, I am not aware of any Chief of Staff to the President with reputedly awesome powers attributed to Kyari. General Abdullahi Mohammed, Obasanjo’s and Yar’Adua’s Chief of Staff, was almost unknown. Jonathan’s Mike Oghiadomhe was same and it was only during the illness of Yar’Adua that a cabal came to the fore. Why a cabal and a powerful Chief of Staff narrative became the singsong during Buhari’s era is unambiguously because the man called the C-in-C ostensibly lacks grips and grits.

Nigerians are beginning to violate the unwritten African code of beatification of the dead which dictates that even when they wore clothes stained with crimson, departed persons considered evil doers should be shrouded in wrappers as white as snow and made not to receive cudgels on account of their bequeathals. For this set of people, their bile wasn’t strictly directed at the person of Kyari. And their logic for excoriating the departed Chief of Staff is unassailable. If Kyari was as powerful as reputed to be and which was manifestly so, with a President adjudged to be a titular and who openly literally announced you as his alter ego and his Mr. Be-it-all, you deserved expletives for the stagnation of Nigeria. Under Kyari’s watch, the Nigerian government ran one of the most insensitive and insensate governments ever, with a Northernization policy that was never heard of since the days of Murtala Mohammed. The only passport that entitled you to top security, intelligence positions was your ethnicity. If Kyari was the power alter ego that he was said to be, it would be wrong to divorce him from all the legion of ills and mis-governance of the Buhari government in the last five years.

Yes, on a personal level, Kyari could have been the avuncular neighbor next door they said he was. The day someone told me how friendly and sympathetic Sani Abacha was, especially as a squash player in Ibadan during his days as the GOC, I marveled. On the public level, however, Kyari could not have been the good administrator they claimed he was. The ills of the government he literally ran were too legion for that level of unwarranted beatification. Granted, Nigeria is too complex for anyone to make a clean job of its governance, the Buhari government has comparatively misbehaved in the annals of governance, so much that it would be criminal to allow those who control or controlled its critical levers to be conferred with unmerited sainthood. 

Whether the widespread flaunt of bile by those who crucify Kyari at his departure was appropriate only in his lifetime and not at his death is a different ball game entirely. That conversation should continue as a form of a postmortem on the Abba Kyari years, so as to deepen the narrative of the public space. Again, as the cliché goes, may Kyari’s soul rest in peace. Same cliché we may be lucky to be greeted with at our individual departure from this mortal world That is however the prerogative of the Creator

The politics of a contaminated rice

A very nauseating contribution from an apparently party-blind All Progressives Congress (APC) apologist yesterday jarred my nerves while listening to a Saturday morning broadcast on an Ibadan-based radio station. The caller had sought to contribute to the news of the allegedly weevil-infested 1,800 bags of rice sent by the Federal Government to the Oyo State people via their governor. The state government had said it would return the said bags of rice to where they came from. However, this caller saw it as “infantile politicking” as Buhari was “magnanimous” to the state and that, labeling the rice as weevil-infested was continuation of politics.

I have always maintained that the day we learn to see good and evil as what they are, defrosted of the unnecessary icing of APC or PDP, is the day amnesty would come to the minds of shackled Nigerians. The main problem is with our minds which is a fecund ground for the manacles of the powers-that-be. We have failed to realize that PDP, APC or whatever, are mere boring prefixes which politicians use to bamboozle and continue the lockdown of our minds. In reality, the difference between each of those parties is the proverbial six and half a dozen. In those political parties are the same despots, selfish rulers, thieves and outlaws.

Now to the issue of the weevil-laden rice. When COVID-19 lockdown aftermath bared its fangs of hunger and government expressed its willingness to order the Nigerian Customs Service to release seized rice from smugglers to Nigerians to cushion the burning effect, many Nigerians reminded government of the statement by the Director General of Customs that the bags of rice were not fit for human consumption. Apparently wanting to play politics and come clean in the sight of people as meaning well, the federal government pretended not to hear these comments. It engaged in the abstruse arithmetic of sharing the bags of rice to states and upon the rice being opened, many states were said to have found out the earlier truth of the Custom boss’ claim.

Apparently, the so-called political party affiliations and restraint from being in the black books of the presidency hamstrung many of the states from complaining about the poisonous consignments sent to them by the Federal Government. Good enough for them. They probably incinerated the weevil-infested bags of rice or blinded their eyes to its poison and shared them to their people like that. However, any state that chooses to bite the bullet and bring out this embarrassing muck from the eyes of the federal government should not be harangued.

What magnanimity is there in a government which knew, or had prior notice of its poisoned chalice, yet stubbornly continued on this pact, egged on only by the kudos it would receive by so doing? Did these bags of rice belong to individuals in government, rather than the people of Nigeria, enough for anyone to infer its magnanimity? If it was politics, both the federal government which shared contaminated rice and the opposition government which brought out this muck in its eyes are not guiltless. Methinks the guiltier was one who didn’t care about the health of its people.       

Are defamatory words of a talking drum actionable? 

Having been a journalist for close to three decades now and one who takes special delight in the laws of defamation, whether or not a talking drum’s bilious defamation is actionable has posed a mental dilemma to me. Put differently, are drummed lyrics which damage the reputation of the victim actionable? For instance, in the hypothetical case of a gathering at a party, with one who holds the talking-drum drumming to abuse his victim by impugning his character as an armed robber, can the victim sue?

What brought this hypothesis was the clash among the musical family of Late Ayinla Omowura, Yoruba Apala music genre lord, which I dissected in my forthcoming book, Ayinla Omowura: Life and Times of an Apala Legend which would be available on bookstands from May 6, the 40th anniversary of the assassination of this bohemian musician.

Alao Adewole, who is now about 95 years, was the lead drummer of the Ayinla band. He claimed that he owned the band and merely invited a younger Omowura to be his lead singer. However, in the mid-70s, a feud ensued between the duo and Adewole abandoned the band.

Like the scenario which played out between the late Jamaican reggae star, Bob Marley and his friends, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingstone, the same equation could be said to have been replicated in the rift between Omowura and Adewole. In the former case, while the trio happened to be friends who lived in Kingston and discovered they each had talents that could he jointly harnessed to reach stardom, they were set apart for a life-long acrimony when Briton, Chris Blackwell came to Jamaica seeking reggae stars to promote for his record label, Island Records. Before the advent of Blackwell, the group was merely The Wailing Wailers but at his entrance, the same could not be maintained. While Bob was mulatto, the other two were black and their skin pigmentations sold them out. On their first tour out of Jamaica, to the United Kingdom, Blackwell reportedly promoted the group as Bob Marley and the Wailers, ostensibly for commercial purposes because, a Bob leading the group would appeal more to the white British audience, than a set of weed-smoking, awkward dreadlocks haired non-conformist blacks on stage. In the Omowura and Adewole case too, it was the white men who owned EMI who dictated who the boss was and who to relate with, said Adewole Oniluola when I interviewed him. 

“Oyinbo people at EMI were the ones who made him the boss of all of us; they said that the person who was the lead singer was the person they reckoned to be the boss and who they could relate with. They said they couldn’t take the signature of anyone else. I had to take it because that was what they said they wanted and I also didn’t want the disintegration of the band,” Adewole said. 

Pronto, Omowura engaged the drumming services of his old time friend named Yebere Adisa, who became Omowura’s lead drummer. He sang Volumes 13 to 17 of the 20 volumes Ayinla did for EMI. It was said that Yebere, so called because he was an Abiku, had inundated his friend and boss with demands for a car and Ayinla reportedly contacted EMI management. Yebere, it was gathered, had been specific about the kind of car he wanted – a Peugeot 504 saloon car. 

Whether Ayinla didn’t agree with Yebere’s choice of a car but requested for a different type from EMI or that he changed his mind on the agreement with Yebere, a Datsun 120Y was eventually supplied to Ayinla’s Itoko, Abeokuta home by the recording company which Ayinla, proudly, handed over to Yebere. Feeling insulted by the abridgement of the agreement he entered into with Ayinla, Yebere was reported to have stormed out of Ayinla’s house. Annoyed at his insolence, Omowura reportedly ordered that the car be immediately repainted in an Abeokuta taxi colour, which he handed over to his erstwhile driver called Alasiri. Alasiri is alive and was interviewed in my book. He drove the Datsun and gave Omowura daily returns.

Yebere took his anger with Ayinla a step further: he stopped going for musical rehearsals and disconnected from Omowura. By this time, Rasaki Isegoju, Raufu Adeola and other friends of both Ayinla and Adewole had stepped up their attempts to reconcile both.

Upon the resolution of their tiff, Adewole drummed for Ayinla from Volume 17 to 20. This was why, as the flipside of the album Omi tuntun ti ru with the track entitled Pansaga ranti ojo ola began, (This track was an acidic sting of women who changed men’s houses as frequently as a diabetic visits the loo), Adewole drummed to attack the man who held the forte for him in the interregnum. He called him an ingrate who was exposed to wealth and wanted to destroy the house where the wealth was incubated. He also accused Yebere of sowing discord in a house built with toils. This, he drummed: Yebere, oku’gbe, abatenije, o fe b’egbe wa je, Omo aije’beri, oku’gbe, Ajabes’aya, ko ma b’egbe wa je…

So, assuming this scathing talking drum from Adewole was defamatory, could Yebere sue? 

Opinion AddThis :  Original Author :  Festus Adedayo Disable advertisements : 
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Ekiti State has recorded four new cases of Coronavirus, bringing to eight the number of confirmed infections in the city.

Governor Kayode Fayemi made this known in a statement on Saturday.

Fayemi said that the victims contracted the disease from the state’s fourth case, a 45-year-old medical doctor, who also contracted the virus from the pregnant woman that sneaked into the state. 

The statement explained that the new cases were stable and showed no symptoms of the deadly disease. 

It was further disclosed that they have been transferred to an isolation centre for treatment.
 

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A Regional Manager with First Bank Nigeria named Abdullahi Lawal has died of Coronavirus in Kano.

Family sources said Lawal was in his early 50’s at the time of his death.

“He was rushed to a private clinic after he suffered high fever, intermittent cough, and respiratory hiccups without getting medical care before he gave up the ghost. 

“He was feeling well on Friday and was first put on admission at a private clinic in Kano from where he was referred to Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital,” the source said.

As a result of his death, the bank has shut the regional branch.

Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications of First Bank, Folake Ani-Mumuney, in a statement asked all staff and customers, who may have been in contact with the late Lawal, to follow the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control guidelines and self-isolate. 

The statement reads, “First Bank mourns as we confirm the loss of our staff, Abdullahi Lawal, who until his passing worked at our Kano Main Branch.
 
“Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time. 

“We have immediately therefore shut down access to the premises as we disinfect the entire location and ask all staff and customers who may have been in contact with our late colleague to follow the NCDC guidelines and self-isolate."
 

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Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has said residents in the state are now allowed to conduct burials of their love ones as long as they adhered to the rules on social distancing and other measures to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.

The governor further said that if the state didn’t see a decongestion of mortuaries in the state within the next two weeks, the government will be forced to conduct mass burial.

Sanwo-Olu made this known on Saturday while giving updates on the COVID-19 pandemic in the state.

He said, “If we’re unable to see a decongestion of mortuaries across the state within the next two weeks, Lagos State Government will now be compelled to have a mass burial and we would not want to force this on anybody, which is why we are asking for the cooperation of all of us.

“This is not the time when you need to wait for your brother or your sister or your sibling, who is 10,000km or 6,000km away from here for them to come back before you can have the funeral.

“These are very difficult times and I can imagine that families and relatives and siblings will understand that we need to have this and we need to put this behind us.

“So, we are reiterating it again that we’ll give two weeks window and we’ll expect a lot of people to comply after which the state government might have to take other decisions in that manner.”

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Its family name is Coronavirus. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, gave its first name as COVID-19. The name is realised from an amalgamation of letters “co” from corona; “vi” from virus and letter “d” from disease. And since the assumption was that the mutation from bat to human or if you like from a lab (I hesitate to say which lab as we do not know many things as at today), took place in 2019, the last two figures of the year got added. Voila, COVID-19!

Today, knowledge on the index case on planet earth is less crucial in comparison to finding ameliorative life-saving answers. Viruses have always lived with human beings and unlike bacteria, humans have not found ways to cure viruses with exception of vaccines to incapacitate them. The immune system naturally fights off viruses. Opportunistic diseases kill when viruses attack humans and the immune system meant to fight diseases is compromised hence unable to fight it off. COVID-19, a vaccine is being sought but probably not realizable until 12 months from now at the earliest.

While it attacks men and women about equally, death from it has tended to be more of a male experience than female. COVID-19 seems to confirm that men are indeed more fragile than women. A scholar on Christiane Amanpour’s show seems to be suggesting that the XX chromosome for females as opposed to the XY for males endowed women with extra firepower of the second X to neutralize COVID-19.

Why has it been ravaging black people in America more as compared to whites? That is simpler to explain. It is the same reason that will make Africans more susceptible: sustaining social (actually should have been called physical) distancing is a difficult issue for the economic realities of Africans/African-Americans; when CNN’s Sanjay Gupta tries to show the example on how to prevent COVID-19 by washing hands with soap singing happy birthday twice, he let the water run as he picked the paper towel to mop up in order to show how to safely turn of the tap. Many in our world have never seen running water from a tap because leaders as thieves, stole resources instead of expanding the pre-independence pipe-borne water infrastructure; and lockdown to prevent COVID-19 jumping around populations is only possible when one is not living from hand to mouth (as we put the state of poverty) in this part of the world. 

COVID-19 has not been selective between rulers and the ruled. It attacked Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, and that country’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. In Nigeria, Mallam Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari a.k.a de-facto President of Nigeria; the governors of Oyo, Bauchi and Kaduna states were also infected by COVID-19. Since anyone can get it, stigmatization was a little avoided unlike in the case of HIV/AIDS.

As many infected people in Nigeria are coming out of the sickness as statistically expected, some are not making it. One of such who succumbed to the cold hands of death was Mallam Abba Kyari, President Buhari’s CoS/Nigeria’s de-facto President. This 67 year old Mallam Abba Kyari is different from Brigadier Abba Kyari who would have been 82 years old now if he were still alive. It is usual for many Nigerians from the North to adopt the name of their village (in this case Kyari), as their surname. 

Many cultures, including mine as a Yoruba enjoin us not to speak ill of the dead. The suggestion is that we only say positive things about the dead or keep quiet. In Islam, the practice is to pray that Allah forgives the short comings of the dead, and grant him/her paradise. I used to hold on to this position. Today, however, I feel the need to jettison such position like we are more and more agreeing to jettison female genital mutilation, caste system etc., as harmful culture. We need assess every death that’s worth it. The purpose is not to make a difference on the post life judgement for the dead, but as lessons to the living. Alfred Nobel benefited from reading the caustic account that was published about him when he was mistakenly taken as dead. He changed his ways for the better and his name lives on. It is not that late Abba Kyari could still regain consciousness like the Biblical Lazarus. It is to fathom the possibility of his successors-in-title in Nigeria changing for the better.

The title CoS originated from the military and found its way into the American presidential system of government about 60 years ago. The spread continued into large organizations like the United Nations where American influence used to be relatively very strong. Since Nigeria copied the American presidential system, Nigeria equally pasted the CoS accessory into its own presidential arrangement.

I was twice appointed as a CoS during my UN years within two complex UN peace operations: UNIOGBIS and JMST/UNAMID. Please forgive me for not breaking down the acronyms. The UN loves acronyms and I am trying to forget them. However, Google should surely help. I played the role under two different bosses at UNIOGBIS. And worked with a boss at JMST/UNAMID to wind-up the post. Being a CoS is not an easy job. I will save the account on how this job aggravated a sickness I had developed about 2005 - acid reflux and only got cured not by use of the medicine I was told I needed for life but after I stopped being a CoS.

I must hasten to point out that a CoS at the UN and being President Buhari’s CoS are fundamentally different things, at least during my own times. I had a Terms of Reference (ToR) that was given by the UN HQ. Though the boss was very powerful, the buck did not stop on his table. Furthermore, I had a fixed term appointment that was practically a permanent appointment given the UN’s internal justice system. So, loyalty is to the organization. There’s no Article or Clause on the CoS in the Nigerian Constitution. The holder of the post occupies it at the behest of the President. Very expensively, loyalty is to the President and not the country. As President Buhari lamented in his Abba Kyari eulogy, he lost a loyal friend.

Those who knew Mallam Abba Kyari said he was not as arrogant as some including one or two who wanted to succeed him.  However, he, like many a Nigerian from the Northwest and Northeast geopolitical zones with normal brain-power and exposure to Western Education clearly benefited from sectional dominance at the political level. With basic qualifications in Sociology and Law, the sky was his limit. Unlike a commentator, Remi Oyeyemi suggested, he came from a weaker ethnic group but understood the power structure in Nigeria and aligned appropriately with it. He meteorically moved within the top levels till he clinched the CoS post. 

He obviously had friends from other parts of Nigeria like Simon Kolawole, Geoffrey Onyema and Femi Fani-Kayode who, on the basis of their relationship with him, would have us believe that he was a detribalized Nigerian. He was not. That slave owners in America of yore made love with some house slaves did not change the slave-owners’ attitude to black people, in general as less than human. Abba Kyari, like his boss, saw/see their time in power as meant for the consolidation of the jugular hold of a minority ethnic group within the North on political power in Nigeria. The case was well made in the condolence message on Abba Kyari by the Head of the EU delegation in Nigeria. For Ambassador Ketil Karlsen, "He ... was an inspiration with his passionate approach to development of Nigeria in general and the North in particular’’. 

In this respect, he took after his boss who had, in his earlier reincarnation, disrupted the development of Lagos by cancelling a well-conceived mass transit system in 1984. It has since been impossible to solve the Lagos transportation challenge on which Nigeria ended up paying for Buhari’s infraction at arbitration but without the service. 

Late Abba Kyari, like his boss, had an inordinate passion for Northern Nigeria. This definitely was not healthy enough for national interest. This indictment can be assessed from the projects supported by the Buhari government for execution by international organizations as well as the ethnic profile of Nigerians sponsored for external positions under President Buhari. The sponsorships have been realizing some notable failures because those shenanigans do not work, most of the time, at the international level. Nigeria’s clout is weaker in Africa and when average achievers are thrown up, the international community have tended to reject them except in very few cases in which candidates have personal clout. In one case, payment of the annual dues of Nigeria was used by the government to wring out, a lesser post after losing in the external competition that many over-qualified Nigerians, including from the North-Central would easily have clinched with minimal support from Nigeria.

On corruption, Simon Kolawole, though unconvincingly shared a suggestion to the effect that late CoS shared with him the idea of an individual who abhor corruption but only decided not to defend himself on the several allegations ranging from huge sums supposedly looted/shared and nepotism. I do not want to belabour the issue of corruption under President Buhari on which I have an academic publication. Anyone interested could look at other writers, including: Oludolapo Adelana, “Timeline: The many ‘sins’ of Pres. Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari” YNaija, January 6, 2017; Sahara Reporters, “How Abba Kyari, Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abuses His Office for Personal Gain”, August 16, 2016; Wale Odunsi, “Alleged abuse of office: CSNAC charges Buhari to sack Chief of Staff”, Daily Post, September 1st, 2016; Sahara Reporters, “Buhari presented with Evidences His Chief of Staff took N500 million to Help MTN Reduce Fine”, September 20, 2016; Owolola Adebola, “Power tussle, nepotism tear EFCC apart”, The Point, 24th June, 2016 etc.

For me however, that late Abba Kyari aided and abetted on corruption whether for personal aggrandizement and/or loyal protection of his principal is best illustrated in a continuing saga. Despite there being an arrest warrant out for the former Chairman of the Pensions Reforms Commission, Abdulrasheed Maina, with respect to allegations that he enriched himself to the tune of billions of naira from the nation’s pensioners, he was allowed to quietly re-enter the country with the knowledge of President Buhari. The President remained silent on the matter, despite, having been personally warned by the Head of the Civil Service, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita after initially writing a memo. The Vice-President’s supervised Nollywood video of the Federal Executive Council was illustrative. Like was rightly done (even if with unsalutary motivation)  to remove the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria who wanted to come to equity without clean hands, Madam Oyo-Ita now appears to have also been living in a glass house herself but chose to throw stones. She was ignominiously pushed out of office as she went on her knees unlike the former CJN who thought he could fight with the encouragement of some senior lawyers. The vindictiveness of the duo of President Buhari and his accomplices (I cannot say much on the role of late Abba Kyari), is sustaining criminal charges against Madam Oyo-Ita.

Muhammadu Buhari’s immediate Chief of Staff, the late Abba Kyari, who spoke little in life but was always in controversies in the last five years of his life and even in his death was not as rosy as beneficiaries of his friendship from Southern Nigeria would like to sell to Nigerians in the several eulogies and condolence messages after ruthless COVID-19 unfortunately took his life. I agree with Yoruba culture that we must not dance at any human life that’s lost for we do not know the circumstances of who the bell tolls next. Besides, with COVID-19 hitting hard in Nigeria, with strong suggestions on many more deaths to come, we are not sure who is already infected unknowingly, who would die next, or how many would be alive after this experience.

I am sad that late Mallam Abba Kyari succumbed to COVID-19 for many reasons, especially is the need for some accountability. I wish he had lived to answer questions on why there is no single health care facility that our President, the only person he owes allegiance and responsibility to could entrust with his health and well-being. I wish he could answer on why there was no national preparedness of pandemic attacks in spite of the deceit told to CNN that Nigeria was very prepared since the country had handled very well, a totally different virus that was easily visible (symptomatic).

I wish Mallam Abba Kyari could still answer the First Lady’s question on where the budgetary allocations for the Aso Rock clinic had been going for he would at the very least be criminally negligent since he has oversight responsibilities on behalf of his friend and master – President Buhari. I would have liked to know why he was flown to Lagos since the borders had been closed and the UK was no longer an option. It should have been interesting to know through him how many ventilators and other gadgets we have at the Gwagwalada national hospital where a good man like General Tunde Idiagbon among many others like Major-General Joe Garba succumbed.

Importantly, I would have liked to know why he had to lead the Minister of State for Power to Germany on the follow-up to the Siemens contract when actually we have someone being paid as the Sovereign representative of Nigeria in Germany. Could it be lack of trust that similarly made him sideline the constitutional duties of the V-P to be acting President when he took the Petroleum Bill to his unwell master in the UK and publicized the signing just to humiliate the Professor they jokingly referred to as V-P academic? Or was it that he needed to have koro koro eyes side negotiations with the boss of Siemens without records on possible looting? Does it also mean as CoS, his job description had no limits?

I know some of these questions bother many Nigerians, who for certain reasons, feel Nigerians are not deserving of asking questions in seeking for a better country. I hope that Simon Kolawole and our Foreign Minister may share more private stuff entrusted to them, if for nothing, but for the learning that comes with knowledge sharing.

A CoS is as powerful as the person on whose table the buck stops, allows him/her. Mallam Abba Kyari made more of a difference for a section of Nigeria and was very loyal to his principal. We should, as Nigerians, stop being in denial by seeking answers from the dead when the principal is still alive. Adieu Mallam Abba Kyari.

Opinion AddThis :  Original Author :  Babafemi A. Badejo, Ph.D Disable advertisements : 
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With the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, businesses in Africa and the rest of the world are finding themselves in a catch-22 situation.

On one hand, the disruption occasioned by the highly contagious disease is already painting a bleak economic outlook for the short to long term, with pay cuts and layoffs being considered to slash running costs and stay afloat. On the other hand, these companies have to take into consideration welfare of staff in their employ, who derive livelihoods from the firm and would be impacted by the layoffs.

It does not help that this unprecedented pandemic remains largely uncertain. No one can say for sure when the coast will be finally clear for business to roar back to life, normally or in whatever shape. In addition to this, even when business resumes, the future is blurred with risk of a lull kicking in initially or snowballing into the forecasted full-blown economic recession on a global scale.

With every additional confirmed infection and death, the noose tightens around necks of executives to pull the plug to maintain the business as a going concern. Productivity is at bare minimum, revenues are dwindling or totally drying up, with no reprieve in sight, yet there is payroll, alongside other fixed costs. Besides, the pandemic has introduced some new budget lines to cater for personal protective equipment, sanitizer, face masks, among others, in addition to the pressure to demonstrate good corporate citizenship by supporting causes against the virus.

While many businesses are increasingly being left with no option but to close shop, or at a bare minimum, enforce a pay cut, others are rethinking their strategy on the fly, to ensure business continuity. This has been the case with Kitui County Textiles Center in Kenya that has taken up production of face masks to meet surging demand and keep staff in jobs. This has helped it evade inevitable austerity measures as has been the case globally, where major carmakers and airlines have announced halting of operations, accompanied by suspension of staff contracts. In Kenya, many flower firms that were amongst the first to be hit by the restriction in travel froze pay and sent workers home. 

In the midst of all this, some firms have taken the bold decision to publicly declare that no member of staff will be negatively impacted by the prevailing pandemic. One such firm is Philip Morris International that is promising employment security, financial stability and special recognition to its staff. It argues that support to staff is an integral part of its efforts to address impact of the pandemic on communities. In an announcement, the firm indicated that there will be no termination of employment during the crisis and all planned restructuring has been put on hold. Staff have also been assured of compensation during this period, irrespective of their ability to deliver on their duties.

In a recent interview the Human Resources Director, Sub Saharan African Region, Philip Morris International, Khady M.N.Sarr, said, “It is precisely in such difficult and unprecedented circumstances that as an employer we need to stick together with our employees. Whatever the impact the COVID 19 crisis will have on our business, we commit not to terminate any employment and to continue paying salaries whether or not our colleagues can fulfill their professional obligations. People are our greatest assets and here we are putting our money where our mouth is”.

On its part, Unilever has committed to protect its workforce from ‘sudden drops in pay, as a result of market disruption or being unable to perform their role, for up to three months’. The firm has undertaken to cover ‘employees, contractors and others who we manage or who work on our sites, on a full or part-time basis’. This is in addition to supplying all staff with a weekly supply of ‘safety hamper’ that includes hand sanitizer, hand wash, disinfectant and bleach. This is to help staff keep the virus at bay.

MTN Group, on the other hand, has opted to raise a KSh225 million (R40 million) Global Staff Emergency Fund from directors, management and staff to support those amongst them worst affected by the pandemic. This is in addition to MTN Nigeria as disclosed in a notification by the company secretary, Uto Ukpanah.

The bulk of enterprises however, have had to rely on measures by governments to cushion them from effects of the pandemic and safeguard livelihoods of staff. This has ranged from stimulus packages, tax relief, restructuring of credit and concessional financing. It is unlikely that these measures will be able to fully assuage demand for this much-needed leg up to totally avert job losses.

So far, some of the worst affected industries have been aviation and hospitality, which play an important economic role, with restricted movement grounding operations. Already, Kenya Airways has announced a pay cut for its senior executives and board members.

This is a difficult time for corporate leaders, striking a delicate balance to ensure long term interests of employees, alongside other stakeholder groups are taken into consideration. It is also a good time for firms to demonstrate that they really care about the welfare of staff, in their times of desperation.

Opinion AddThis :  Original Author :  Bidemi Oyebanjo Disable advertisements : 
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Normally a time when people gather to break their fasts and pray, many are marking Ramadan alone.

Osun State has recorded 12 new Coronavirus cases, SaharaReporters has gathered.

Commissioner for Health in the state, Rafiu Isamotu, said the cases were recorded in Osogbo, Ife, Ede, Ikire and Ejigbo.

He explained that out of the 167 fresh Coronavirus tests conducted in the state, 12 returned positive.

Isamotu said the fresh tests were carried out in the last two weeks of the lockdown, adding that the lockdown had proven effective in containing the spread of the virus.

He said this brings the number of active COVID-19 cases in the state to 13.

The commissioner said that the ban on public gatherings remains in force, urging residents to take the wearing of face masks seriously as it was now compulsory across the state.

PUBLIC HEALTH News AddThis :  Original Author :  Saharareporters, New York Disable advertisements : 
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The police in Lagos have released the General Overseer, Resurrection Praise Ministries for Africa, Bishop Samson Benjamin, after he was arrested on Wednesday and charged to the Igbosere Magistrate Court for protesting the ill treatment of Nigerians in China in front of the Chinese Embassy in Victoria Island.

A senior member of the cleric’s church told SaharaReporters on Saturday that he had been finally released after being held for the reason by the police despite meeting his bail conditions. 

A judge at the Igbosere Magistrate Court had granted him bail in the sum of N1m with two sureties in like sum but some policemen at Panti Division in the Yaba are of Lagos refused to let him despite the fulfilment of every of the condition.

Benjamin was accused of violating the lockdown order put in place by President Muhammadu Buhari in Lagos, Ogun and Federal Capital Territory to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

The police also accused him of being in company with over 100 persons during his protest but video of the incident seen by SaharaReporters showed nothing of such as Benjamin was alone during the demonstration while only a few passers-by paused momentarily to take a glance at him.

During the protest that got him arrested by the police in Lagos, the cleric had said that it was unacceptable for the Chinese, who caused the outbreak of Coronavirus, to be enjoyingroyal treatment in Nigeria while Nigerians and other Africans in China were being humiliated and dehumanised for no reason.

Nigerians, who expressed overwhelming support for Benjamin, condemned the police for trying to infringe on his right to freely express himself.

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A fresh case of Coronavirus has been confirmed in Ondo State, bringing to four the total number of infections so far in the state.

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, who made the confirmation in a series of tweets on Saturday, said the new case was a police officer.

Akeredolu explained that the policeman was tested in Lagos but while awaiting his result travelled to Ondo State.

He said, "Earlier today, I got news of another positive case of #COVID-19 admitted to our facility in Akure. The case of this individual who is a police officer is unique.  Governor Rotimi Akeredolu

"He was tested in Lagos but came to Ondo State while awaiting his results. Upon receiving a positive result, he claimed to have returned back to Lagos.

"According to him, he waited a few days in Lagos to be picked up. When this failed, he panicked and rushed back to Akure for treatment.

"While we appreciate the confidence reposed in our facilities, we do find it most reckless on the part of the officer of the law to risk the lives of others. 

"I am most disappointed in the level of porosity of the entry points to the state. The police officer should know better.

“I have contacted the Commissioner of Police to double up on securing our entry point."

PUBLIC HEALTH Breaking News News AddThis :  Original Author :  Saharareporters, New York Disable advertisements : 
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Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, has announced the death of another Coronavirus patient.

Abayomi disclosed this on Saturday via Twitter during the state’s daily Coronavirus update.

He said, “80 new cases of COVID-19 infections confirmed. Total confirmed cases in Lagos now 670. 

“Five previously confirmed COVID-19 Lagos patients were however transferred to Ogun State. Total transferred now 13.

“10 more COVID-19 Lagos patients; three females and seven males including three foreign nationals – two Indians and one Filipino were discharged after full recovery and testing negative twice consecutively.

“With this, the number of patients successfully managed and discharged in Lagos now 117.”

 

PUBLIC HEALTH News AddThis :  Original Author :  SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements : 
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Fans of the song contest are re-watching old competitions as "a distraction from all the bad stuff".

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A Belarus orphanage says it has at least 23 cases, and that some of the children are "extremely ill".

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The judge who jailed the man for the attack at an anti-government protest said he was a victim.

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The funny moments of a New York man isolated in his small apartment.

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No evidence people who develop antibodies after recovering are protected against a second infection.

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Lam Wing-kee was detained in China after selling material critical of the political elite there.

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Only half of staff are allowed to work and must take precautions such as wearing face masks.

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It comes after former justice minister Sergio Moro accused the president of political interference.