JUXTAPOSED with our population, Nigeria’s Coronavirus numbers are among the smallest in Africa and the world at large. With 782 confirmed cases, 197 recoveries and 25 deaths as at Wednesday, April 22, 2020, a false sense of being on top of the pandemic might be difficult to shake off, especially among politically-minded elements in government. […]

THE responses of state governors to the Coronavirus pandemic seem to have fallen into two broad categories: those ready to take charge and those waiting, as usual, to be spoon-fed by the Federal Government before they do the needful in their states. It was in this pandemic that those who had doubted the leadership capacities […]

THE sad demise and burial of Mallam Abba Kyari, the late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, after contracting the Coronavirus has exposed the typical irresponsible attitude of high government officials. This sort of misbehaviour has made it difficult for governance to produce fruitful results in Nigeria. It has demonstrated in the full glare […]

THE Advanced English Dictionary and Thesaurus defines “stigmatise” thus: “To accuse or condemn or openly or formally brand as disgraceful”. Persons suffering social stigma are avoided, marginalised, rejected, or banished, with unsavoury rumours peddled about them. Two main sources of stigmatisation are the commission of abomination and being inflicted with a terrible, contagious disease, such […]

LAST week Wednesday (April 15, 2020) the enforcement of the Coronavirus lockdowns in some states, especially Anambra, Ebonyi, Delta and Kaduna turned bloody, with at least 21 people shot dead. Media analysts quickly observed that this death toll in one day of bizarre law enforcement almost doubled the number of deaths linked to the pandemic […]

TO their credit, the All Progressives Congress, APC, was the first major political party in Nigeria that made monetary payments to the poorest and most vulnerable in our society part of their campaign promises in 2015, though some officials of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government initially attempted to deny it. Public pressure, criticisms and the benevolence […]

EVEN though President Muhammadu Buhari chose to use the Quarantine Law rather than the State of Emergency instrument to compel compliance with efforts to fight the Coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria, we are nonetheless in a situation of emergency. The world is at war with an invisible and dangerous enemy. Unfortunately, our security agencies have not […]

UNLIKE most national leaders, President Muhammadu Buhari has largely been in the background in the daily management of the Nigerian Coronavirus pandemic. However, the Presidential Task Force, PTF and the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, have performed creditably thus far, earning the plaudits of Nigerians and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Antonio […]

NIGERIANS do not need the tension that is developing between the Federal Government and the Rivers State Government over the alleged contravention of the closure of the state’s borders to prevent further rise of the new Coronavirus pandemic in the state. In line with the general trend of State governors shutting their borders and restricting […]

FROM regime to regime, the Federal Government has been visionless in its approaches toward the revival of our moribund refineries and resumption of local refining of petroleum products in Nigeria. We had hoped that the Muhammadu Buhari regime would live up to the All Progressive Congress, APC’s “Change” mantra, but it has not worked out […]

THE new Coronavirus pandemic has sent the world’s fighting forces on temporary vacation. Apart from areas where Islamic insurgents are active, the world’s armies are in a virtual quarantine. As the common enemy that faces mankind is invisible, vicious and unpredictable, a different kind of troops have been deployed to exterminate it: medical personnel, consisting […]

THERE is a growing consensus that the Coronavirus pandemic is bound to become a change agent by the time it is over. The way the disease has generated mortalities even in the developed world (Europe, Asia and America) despite their advanced health systems will surely rush political leaders and experts back to the drawing boards […]

THE Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, returned to its old “hobby” of indefinite strikes on Monday, March 23, 2020. This came after its two-week “warning strike” which commenced on March 9, 2020. According to the Union’s President, Biodun Ogunyemi penultimate Monday, the strike became necessary because “the Nigerian government has chosen to use hunger […]

WE are proud of Nigerian medical doctors and health professionals who have unanimously rejected Federal Government’s plan to import 18 Chinese doctors to assist Nigeria in tackling COVID-19 spread in the country. On Friday, April 3, 2020 the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, disclosed that a special flight would bring the Chinese doctors along […]

ON Sunday, March 29, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari addressed the nation, outlining the policy direction for combating the new Coronavirus pandemic. The highlight of that event was the imposition of total lockdowns on Lagos, Abuja and Ogun State. Legal luminaries, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN; Femi Falana, SAN; Ebun Adegboruwa, SAN; Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka and others, […]