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 […]