Author: Chief Editor

A 103-year-old woman in Iran has recovered after being infected with the new coronavirus, state media reported, despite overwhelming evidence the elderly are most at risk from the disease. The unnamed woman had been hospitalised in the central city of Semnan for about a week, IRNA news agency said. But she was “discharged after making a complete recovery”, Semnan University of Medical Sciences head Navid Danayi was quoted as saying by IRNA late Tuesday. The woman was the second elderly patient in Iran to have survived the disease. The other was a 91-year-old man from Kerman, in the southeast of…

A six weeks old baby is one of the five coronavirus index cases, Nigeria’s health minister Osagie Ehanire said on Wednesday. Briefing journalists in Abuja, Ehanire disclosed that the baby along with the mother tested positive for the virus. With 8 cases confirmed in Nigeria in total, the six weeks old baby is the youngest coronavirus patient in Nigeria since the first confirmed case on Thursday, February 28 2020. Out of the five new cases, three arrived from the United States, while two came in from the United Kingdom. Ehanire disclosed that the two cases from the UK are Nigerians.…

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has suspended the ongoing orientation course for the 2020 Batch “A” Stream 1 corps members. According to a press release on Wednesday morning and signed by the Director, Press and Public Relation, Mr. Adenike Adeyemi, the management of the NYSC said: “Sequel to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which led to the cancellation of the National Sports Festival, management of the National Youth Service Corps scheme wishes to announce the suspension of the ongoing Orientation course for the 2020 Batch ‘A’ Stream 1 corps members. “Therefore, the corps members shall be posted to…

As different countries of the world pool resources to combat the coronavirus crisis, doctors in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Tuesday announced they were proceeding on an “indefinite strike”. The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Abuja chapter, announced their decision about an hour after the third case of Covid19 was confirmed in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos. The doctors said they deliberated extensively on the health threat posed by the coronavirus scare, their work conditions, and patient care before arriving at the “difficult decision.” In a statement signed by its president, Roland Aigbovo, the association said the mass action followed the…

The Lagos state government has confirmed a third case of coronavirus in the state. Akin Abayomi, the state’s commissioner of health, disclosed this at a press conference, on Tuesday. This development comes days after the state government confirmed that the second case was now free of the virus. https://twitter.com/LSMOH/status/1239842260512051200 [The Cable]

By Luke Onyekakeyah It is disheartening and lamentable that anytime there is shock in the price of oil, no matter how small, the Nigerian economy goes into tantrum and the “economic managers” begin to run helter-skelter looking for “oxygen mask” to put it on life-support. This episodic tantrum is a national embarrassment that the country’s leadership don’t want to appreciate and address, which explains why the problem persists. Each time the national budget is being prepared, the “experts” recognise that the dollar benchmark could change. They recognise that should the change point downwards, the budget would be messed up. While…

By Ray Ekpu It seemed to be a setting of stark contrasts and contradictions that did not have much chance from the get-go of ending differently from the way it ended on Monday March 9. Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II was a well known, well educated and well heeled public intellectual who carried the badge of a radical ideologue haughtily. Brilliant, uncompromising, cosmopolitan, urbane technocrat, Sanusi was not afraid to utilise his sharp tongue in demolishing traditional values, feudal practices and any and every practice that he considered to be antithetical to development in northern Nigeria specifically and Nigeria generally.…

China reported on Tuesday just one new domestic coronavirus infection but found 20 more cases imported from abroad, threatening to spoil its progress against the disease. The single case in Wuhan will boost China’s view that it has “basically curbed” the spread of a disease that is believed to have emerged in a live animal market in the central city in December. Wuhan and its 11 million people were placed under strict quarantine on January 23, with the rest of Hubei province going under lockdown in the following days. Authorities tightened restrictions in the city even further on February 11,…

· Receives report on containment of COVID-19 outbreak The federal government yesterday added three new countries- Germany, France and Spain- to the list of five high-risk countries with widespread community transmission of COVID-19 virus for which it has issued travel caution. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo also confirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari has received the report of the committee set up by the federal government to assess the health and economic impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 on the country. Briefing journalists on efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic in the country, the Minister of State for Health, Senator…

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has described the response of the federal government to its request on records of spendings and exact amount of public funds stolen by late military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha as “insufficient.” SERAP had accused federal government of having no records of the spending of about $5 billion recovered Abacha loot for the period between 1999 and 2015. The government’s response followed SERAP’s Freedom of Information (FoI) requests sent to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abukabar Malami, (SAN), and Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning,…