Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Saturday 18th April 2020
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 18/04/20
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JUST IN: Kaduna Discharges Three COVID-19 Patients
The Kaduna State Government has discharged three patients, who were being treated for COVID-19 in the state.
According to Amina Mohammed-Baloni, Commissioner for Health in the state, the patients, whose identities were not disclosed, have tested negative for two consecutive tests.
He said, “The three patients are among the six persons that have tested positive for COVID-19 in the state. They have each tested negative for two consecutive tests, and have now been discharged.
“This brings to four the number of persons Kaduna State has discharged this week.
“There are now only two cases of COVID-19 that are yet to be discharged and we look forward to being able to do so soon.
“I wish to acknowledge the sterling efforts of the medical team, surveillance teams, members of the Emergency Operations Committee and other stakeholders involved in the efforts of the Ministry of Health to manage and contain COVID-19.”
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BREAKING: Three Members Of Kano State Task Force On Coronavirus Test Positive
The Kano State Government has announced that three members of the state’s task force on COVID-19 have tested positive for the disease.
Aminu Tsanyawa, Commissioner for Health, who made this known in a statement on Friday, did not give details of the members, who tested positive.
He said, “With a deep sense of sadness and on behalf of the state government, I hereby announce that the Co-Chairman and some members of Kano State Task Force on COVID-19 were tested and three of the results came out positive for Coronavirus.
“Government advises the general public to keep social distancing, avoid overcrowding and stay at home to keep safe as it continues to take measures to contain the spread of the disease in the state.”
He said the three task force members were at the special isolation centre at the Muhammadu Buhari Specialist Hospital, Giginyu quarters, Kano.
Meanwhile, Nasiru Gawuna, deputy governor of Kano, has tested negative for COVID-19.
Hassan Musa, his Press Secretary, disclosed this in a separate statement on Friday.
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BREAKING: Inspector-General Of Police Redeploys Rivers Police Commissioner
The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has ordered the redeployment of Rivers State Commissioner for Police, Dandaura Mustapha, as provost, Federal Headquarters in Abuja.
Joseph Gobum Mukum has been posted to replace him.
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E2%80%99s After Kano COVID-19 Task Force Co-Chairman Tested Positive, Deputy Governor, Ganduje’s Daughter, Two Commissioners Self-isolate
deputy governor, Nasiru Gawuna
Following the discovery of the status of Abdulrazaq Garba Habib, Co-Chairman of the Kano State Task Force on COVID-19, all other members of the task force chaired by the deputy governor, Nasiru Gawuna, have gone into self-isolation.
Other members of the committee include Governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s daughter, Amina Umar, Commissioner for Health, Aminu Tsanyawa, Commissioner for Environment, Kabiru Getso, and Imam Wada, the secretary.
“They have had several meetings together with Prof Abdulrazaq Garba Habib who on Thursday tested positive.
“The best thing to do is for them to self-isolate. Their specimen have been taken already for test, but their results are not out for them to know their status,” a source told SaharaReporters.
Habib had since been admitted at the state isolation centre at Kwanar Dawakin.
He has been actively involved in rapid response to all the confirmed cases in Kano, who contracted the virus during clinical services.
Governor Ganduje had on March 21 inaugurated an action committee aimed at ensuring effective preparation against the dreaded disease.
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Matters ‘Coronally’ Miscellaneous By Ozodinukwe Okenwa
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We are all living dangerously in a deadly season of Coronavirus. With international and national borders closed, schools shut, businesses shattered, peoples confined and social distancing, wearing of face masks and hand gloves a way of life COVID-19 has somewhat effortlessly beaten humanity to a point of submission — even if temporarily. Suddenly our traditional way of life has received a pandemic hit to the extent that the principles of human relationship has taken a redeemable blow.
We no longer shake hands in deference to socio-cultural affinity, we no longer go out at our convenience (sometimes at wee hours of the night) to have fun; we no longer dance, sing, or celebrate or even bury the dead; we no longer travel or visit friends and relations but all confined at home waiting for better days.
The year 2020 would definitely go down in history for centuries and generations to come less for the scientific and technological exploits of the human race and more for its particularly mortal pandemic challenge, a terrible Coronavirus challenge yet to be surmounted medically globally.
President Muhammadu Buhari addressed Nigerians, yet again, last Monday. This time his performance was uncharacteristically upbeat, better than the previous national address fraught with ‘unpresidential’ swing and swagger. Two major decisions could be retained of the broadcast. One, he decided that the residents of the FCT, Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states would have to endure two more weeks of confinement. Two, the President added a million more indigent Nigerians to the social register of the country. That meant that a million more poor folks would be receiving the conditional cash transfer of the National Social Investment Programme.
More social palliatives are needed in these trying times. There is no way crimes and criminality would not rise in a city like Lagos when you force artisans eking out a living by hitting the streets daily in search of opportunities to stay back at home day and night in order not to be ‘killed’ by a disease they never understood fully. They may easily understand HIV/AIDS, Ebola, polio, malaria, fever but this one, ‘Coro’, no!
A recent report by the National Human Rights Commission had indicated that security officers in Nigeria enforcing the stay-at-home restrictions had killed 18 Nigerians in recent times! That means that the security forces had extra-judicially killed more Nigerians than the novel pandemic (having itself killed just a dozen people) within the period of the lockdown.
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COVID-19: FCT Residents Condemn Distribution Pattern Of Palliative Items By Government Officials
Residents of the Federal Capital Territory have expressed concern and faulted the distribution of palliative items to the six area councils in the city meant to cushion the effects of the sit-at-home order put in place by government to curb the spread of Coronavirus in the country.
The FCT Administration had on Friday flagged off the distribution of the materials by handing them over to chairmen of the various area councils on behalf of the people.
FCT Minister of State, Dr Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, said a truckload of 25,000 condiments and 25,000 bags of rice would be taken to Abaji for onward distribution to the vulnerable in rural communities.
A resident of Abuja Municipal Council, who spoke with SaharaReporters expressed worry that the items would be diverted by the council chairmen, who would eventually share it among their loyalists and not those who desperately need them.
“It is a pity that many of the residents will not get anything because supporters of these chairmen have flooded their houses in anticipation of the food items.
“Many vulnerable families who cannot afford decent meals because they don’t have a means of livelihood may not get anything,” the resident said.
Other residents across the city, who voiced their concerns, said the entire exercise was a charade.
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E2%80%99s-support-fighting-banditry-other-forms-crime-state Kaduna Seeks GOC’s Support In Fighting Banditry, Other Forms Of Crime In State
The Kaduna State Government has appealed to the new General Officer Commanding of One Mechanised Division, Major General Usman Mohammed, to dedicate troops that will aggressively patrol some hotspots in four local government areas of the state.
Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, who made the appeal on Friday at the Division headquarters Kaduna, said that there were concerns regarding Igabi, Birnin Gwari, Giwa and Chikun local government areas because bandits were hibernating in some communities in the four area councils.
Aruwan specifically mentioned that armed bandits had killed, kidnapped and injured many people in hotspots like Mile Tara, Ungwan Yako, Labbi and Polewaya, pleading that security needs to be strengthened along those axis.
The commissioner, who congratulated Major General Mohammed as the 36th GOC of One Mechanised Division, said that officers and men of the Division had played very crucial roles in the internal security of Kaduna State.
He said, “In 2015 when we came on board, the state was faced with security challenges like cattle rustling, banditry and other criminalities.
“The Division played a leading role along with other sister services and the police-in quelling the threat, and eventually the situation was adequately contained.”
According to the commissioner, government appreciated the commitment of the Division to contain cases of banditry, kidnappings and other criminalities in Igabi, Giwa, Chikun, and Birnin Gwari LGAs.
Aruwan, who noted that the rainy season was here and most people in rural areas were farmers and traders, said they needed a secured environment to operate.
He said, “Farming is their mainstay along with other small-scale agro-allied activities. Once there is no security to guarantee their livelihood, they will be faced with impoverishment and food insecurity.”
In his response, Major General Mohammed assured Kaduna State Government of the Nigerian Army’s commitment to the internal security of the state.
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BREAKING: China, G-20 Countries To Give Debt Relief To Nigeria, Others
World Bank President, David Malpass, on Friday said China and G-20 countries have agreed to give debt relief to poorest countries in the world classified as IDA countries by the financial institution.
Malpass made this known at the ongoing virtual April 2020 virtual Spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The World Bank had since 1958 been providing Nigeria with low interest rate loans through the International Development Association and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development .
Malpass said, “IDA countries will have bilateral debt relief beginning May 1. That way, they can concentrate their resources on fighting the pandemic and its economic and social consequences.
“I take note that in the G-20 meetings, China is supporting the international agreement to allowing moratorium of debt repayments by IDA countries if they ask for forbearance.
“That’s very important because China is one of the biggest creditors and their participation in that effort is important and was very welcome.”
Countries under the International Development Association are those with per capita income below an established threshold.
The 2020 threshold is $1,175.
Countries such as Nigeria and Pakistan are IDA-eligible based on per capita income levels and are also creditworthy for some IBRD borrowing.
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FMC Bauchi Forces Staff To Attend To Suspected COVID-19 Patients Without Protective Equipment, Workers Express Fear
Medical workers at the Federal Medical Center, Azare, Bauchi State, are presently in fear as they are being forced by the management of the health institution to attend to suspected COVID-19 patients without protective equipment.
The hospital has also threatened to sack workers, who disclose their working conditions during the Coronavirus pandemic to members of the public.
SaharaReporters gathered that two healthcare workers at the facility recently died after exposure to Lassa fever patients at the hospital yet the management has refused to take any genuine steps at protecting staff.
It was gathered that most of the medical worker are turned away by management of the hospital whenever they request for personal protective equipment to attend to patients.
“Staff are apprehensive now that a COVID-19 isolation centre has been set up at the hospital.
“They know they won’t get PPE as usual and the management wants them to be mute.
“FMC Azare staff are asking the Federal Government for help, they’re not afraid to treat COVID-19 patients but they want PPE, they want protection,” a source in the know told SaharaReporters.
To further highlight how the management of the hospital is desperately shrouding everything in secrecy, a memo signed by its Public Relations Officer, Abdu Mohammed, and seen by SaharaReporters banned all staff from speaking about COVID-19.
“I am directed to caution all staff of the centre that with the recent outbreak of Coronavirus, no staff is permitted to speak on groups like Facebook, WhatsApp or any means of passing information.
“Therefore, any member of staff that goes beyond his limit will have himself to blame as management will not take it lightly,” part of the memo read.
According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Bauchi State presently has six cases of Coronavirus while three patients had been discharged.
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Strategising For The Post COVID-19 Pandemic Phase: The Danger Of The Urge To Return To Normalcy By Jaye Gaskia
Even as we, along with rest of the world are trying to contain the spread of the pandemic, and overcome its immediate destructive, debilitating and devastating impact on human health, and on the socioeconomic fabric and polity of the world and our country Nigeria; even as nations are struggling with all embracing and integrated responses to mitigate the impact with respect to economic stimulus and palliative packages; attention is already beginning to be focused on a so-called return to normalcy.
Governments are eager, with a lot of caution, to reopen their societies; and citizens who have borne the brunt of the lockdown, shutdown, self isolations and social distancing, are already on their part eager for things to return to normal.
But why is a return to normalcy such a dangerous thing, such a step in the wrong direction? Why is a return to normalcy potentially a step backwards rather than a step forwards?
The simple response is that a mere return to normalcy would be in reality, a failure to learn any lessons, let alone integrate and build on these lessons in the running of society.
Let’s face facts, it was the conditions existing under the normalcy at the time of the outbreak of the pandemic that has been responsible for everything that has been wrong with, and that has hindered and slowed down the responses from country to country, and in our country Nigeria, to the pandemic.
It was the conditions of normalcy that made the world so inadequately prepared to contain the pandemic in the first place.
It was in the pre pandemic normalcy that all the infectious diseases scenario planning which had projected the potential for the current pandemic and similar, even more devastating ones, were simply discarded and not treated with the seriousness and urgency they deserved.
In Nigeria, six years ago, we had the Ebola outbreak of epidemic proportions. We established isolation and treatment centers, etc. But what did we do as soon as the outbreak was defeated? We went back to business as usual, we went back to normalcy. What happened to the isolation centers and treatment facilities of that time and their equipment? What happened to our public health planning and investment after that? Absolutely nothing.
One would have thought that with that experience, and given the changes happening globally, and in particular environmental changes, which could impact decisively on the development and evolution of various disease pathogens, including the transformation of hitherto harmless (to humans) pathogens into deadly human pathogens, due to changing environmental conditions; one would think that with this emerging scenario, that we would have developed and implemented a public health policy of revamping primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities; and at the very least, establishing centers of excellence for infectious diseases and other diseases across the country – at least one each geopolitical zone. One would further think that these centers of excellence would be equipped with state of the art expandable research, treatment and isolation facilities and capacities.
Let’s take another instance of the ongoing response – the dimension of developing and deploying an effective socioeconomic stimulus package, that will be equitable, socially inclusive and socially just.
Such an effective stimulus would have to be such that economic subsidies and financial support are able to be effectively targeted and appropriate for each category of beneficiary and from the different sectors of the economy.
How do appropriately target and effectively distribute such stimulus to reach MSMEs as well as big businesses? How do you ensure that palliatives reach the poor, the precarious middle class, salary earners, as well as daily income earners?
The only way you can have a basis for achieving these is if as a state, you have a system of registration, keeping and updating of records and documentation of all citizens and residents of the territory of the state.
When you have such a records registry and database, you’d not only be able to reach and appropriately target individual citizens and residents (say for instance tenants and landlords; artisans and market traders; farmers and transporters; etc); but you’d also have been able to better track and reach contacts of index and confirmed cases.
Investing in public health would also have required public investment in education, in research, as well as in industrial production. Investment in education because you require to train healthcare workers, researchers, and industrial and other workers engaged in production and distribution of healthcare equipment for instance.
Ensuring, quick, rapid, and adequate response requires a high level of preparedness capacity, such that we’d have been able to deal very quickly with production and supply of ventilators, respirators, oxygen masks and tents, face masks, hand gloves and other personal protective equipment for health workers, hand sanitisers, pharmaceutical products that are required, etc.
Normalcy, the pre pandemic normalcy, was defined by all of these inadequacies, a dysfunctional state, non inclusivegovernance, and a state system with inadequate public investment in human capital development, and that is based on an economy that is not only monoculture, but also dependent on export of raw crude and other raw materials; an economy that lacks a national industrial production capacity and base.
So, let us be clear, as we look towards the end of the pandemic and beyond, a focus on a return to normalcy is a recipe for disaster.
We cannot return to normalcy with respect to our dysfunctional state and governance system. We cannot be working towards a return to the normalcy of a corrupt system with a failed leadership. We cannot be hungering for a return to the normalcy of a leadership and follwership crises.
Normalcy is what got us into this mess. If we are to move forward and lay the foundations for a new human civilisationbased on social justice, equity and social inclusion, then we must cease the opportunity presented by this current crisis to break with normalcy, to transcend this normalcy, and to take a radical leap forward.
As a people we must emerge from this crisis with a renewed determination to build a new mass popular political movement for radical social transformation; the type of movement driven and built by selflessness acts of sacrifice of organised and mobilised citizens and residents; and that can make the case for, and ensure the radical rethinking of governance and reinvention of the state.
The state type that we need is a biometric and developmental state, that will play a leading role in national and human development, that will direct and target public investment towards delivering effective, accessible, affordable, and quality public services in education, health, housing, energy and power, transport, water and hygiene, as well as basic social infrastructure.
A state type that will deliver socially inclusive and equitable governance on the basis of social justice.
Jaye Gaskia is Director Praxis Centre & Convener Take Back Nigeria Movement.
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