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President Muhammadu Buhari says brain drain has created a gap in the provision of quality medical treatment in Africa.

Buhari said this on Tuesday during the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE), a hospital project that aims to transform the healthcare sector in the West African sub-region.

The project is being implemented by African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in partnership with the federal government, King’s College Hospital, London, University of Wisconsin Teaching Hospital, USA and Christie Hospital, Manchester.

Speaking virtually, Buhari said the “flight of doctors and nurses to other continents” and inadequate medical infrastructure have created poor access to quality healthcare and increased death rates from diseases such as diabetes and cancer in Africa.

“Cardiovascular ailments, cancers and hematological disorders have increasingly become matters of concern to public healthcare. These ailments are now the highest contributors to non-communicable disease (NCD) mortalities, representing more than 81 percent of all NCD deaths in West Africa,” he said.

“The World Health Organisation projects that deaths on the African continent attributable to cancer and diabetes are expected to rise over the next 10 years. The rising NCD burden coupled with inadequate medical infrastructure on the continent threatens the future of our people.

“This problem is further exacerbated by the significant brain drain experienced by the continent. The flight of doctors and nurses to other continents has resulted in a significant gap between the required treatments for NCDs and the available treatments and care.

“The above challenges combine to create a regional health market with poor access to critical services and low perception of quality of care available.’’

The president, however, said stronger partnership with the private sector will help in improving health facilities on the continent, adding that the AMCE, when completed, will provide world-class medical services at par with the world’s best hospitals.

He thanked the management of Afreximbank and all the partners for their commitment to Africa, and for the action-oriented approach to resolving the challenges that the continent faces on its path to development.

“The success of the AMCE will pave the way for future investments and partnerships in the sector while raising the local standard of healthcare and providing a blueprint for quality of services required to address Nigeria’s and Africa’s healthcare and economic challenges,” he said.

“The AMCE represents a return to fundamentals, and the understanding that there is no African development agenda without able-bodied Africans to execute our vision of transformation.”

On his part, Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, said all hands are on deck to ensure that the project is actualised in a way that is beneficial to all parties.

In his remarks, Benedict Oramah, president of Afreximbank, said the facility will contribute significantly to the provision of quality healthcare for Africans.

“The ceremony is one step towards self-reliance for Africa’s healthcare delivery. The project will pool world-class technology and global talents, particularly the African diaspora, to provide a full spectrum of quality medical services in oncology, hematology, cardiology, and general healthcare services,” he said.

He added that the AMCE will also engage in world-class research, offer educational services to develop talent, and catalyse the emergence of top healthcare delivery in Nigeria and in Africa.

Lorcan Woods, chief financial officer, King’s College Hospital (KCH), promised that KCH will do everything to support Afreximbank and Nigeria in establishing the new AMCE to become a beacon of excellence in West Africa.

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

Members of the house of representatives say the recent ban imposed by the United Kingdom (UK) on Nigeria over the Omicron COVID variant is a wake-up call to fix the country.

The lawmakers spoke during plenary session on Tuesday while contributing to a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Ndudi Elumelu, minority leader of the house, on the need to intervene in the suspension of issuance of visitor visas to Nigerians by the UK.

TheCable had reported that the UK put the country on its red list after detecting cases of the Omicron variant reportedly linked to Nigeria.

The development has elicited criticism from the federal government, while the senate has described it as an “attack on our diplomatic relationship“.

Speaking on the floor of the house, Nnaji Nwaedozie, a lawmaker from Enugu, said the ban is an indication that all is not right in Nigeria.

“We also need to understand that this thing is a wake-up call for Nigeria. It is not just about the UK; all over the world they are trying to block us. They are trying to tell us to go to hell, to go and fix our country,” he said.

“The problem we have is that we are not fixing this country and that is why we are having all these problems. At some point, we had issues with Ghana, they blocked us. At some point, we had issues with South Africa, they blocked us. Just last year, we had an issue with UAE, they blocked us; even our darling UK has now blocked us.

“It is not about racism; it is about telling us to go and fix our country. We have to sit down and fix our education, fix our health so that we don’t have a lot of people travelling out for medical check-up and educational support. In all sense, I believe that we should sit and find a way to solve our problem so that we won’t be getting this kind of insult from other countries.”

Also speaking, Onofiok Luke from Akwa Ibom, said Nigerians need to shun ethnicity, as well as religious or political affiliations and focus on developing the country.

“Our greater concern is the need for introspection. If we had built our country to be the giant of Africa, where we all join hands with the leadership to make sure that the right things are done, the right facilities are being put in place and we make sure that there a right assessment for any indices whether in the healthcare or education or even in tourism that leads our people to go en mass into other countries, I believe that we will not be much bothered with these challenges that we are faced with today,” he said.

“Wheresoever we are, wheresoever we come from, we have to rise in unison to support the leadership of this country. This is the time for us to fix our country. If there is any time that we must do the right thing and fix our country so that we avoid this embarrassment before us, the time is now. While we are blaming others, let us look inwards and fix ourselves.”

In his contribution, Garba Muhammad, a lawmaker from Kaduna, called for the review of Nigeria’s membership of the Commonwealth, adding that the UK has always “been treating Nigerians with maximum contempt”.

“We have been in the Commonwealth, I don’t know the benefit we derive as members of the Commonwealth. In support of this motion, let us review our membership of the commonwealth,” he said.

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

dfrost:
Na true sà. God create person finish, e wan re-create e sef.

The ministries of finance and environment and other stakeholders in the environment sector on Monday rejected a bill that seeks to prohibit open defecation and urination in the country.

The bill titled: “Clean Nigeria Agency (Establishment) Bill, was sponsored by Senator Clifford Ordia (PDP Edo).

The ministries and other critical stakeholders spoke against the piece of legislation at a one-day public hearing on the bill organised by the Senate Committee on Water Resources at the National Assembly, Abuja.

They said it was unnecessary to establish a new agency to fight open urination and defecation in a country with an estimated 46 million people with no access to toilets.

In his opening remarks, Chairman, Senate Committee on Water Resources, Senator Bello Mandiya (APC, Katsina), noted that there was an urgent need to eradicate open urination and defecation in the country because of their adverse effect on the environment and health of the people.

Mandiya said: “This Bill seeks to create an agency to prohibit open urination and defecation in the country.

“This is very clear because we know what this causes.

“Unfortunately for this purpose, Nigeria is among the highest if not the highest country practising open defecation.

“So there is a need to do everything possible to eradicate it.”

Senator Ordia, in his presentation, said the bill seeks to make rules and issue guidelines and regulations for the construction and operations of public toilets.

He said the agency, when established, would certify public toilet facilities to be fit for use by members of the public.

He also said the agency would have powers to shut down any public place that does not meet the required standard of public toilet facility prescribed by the agency, among others.

However, the Director of Legal Services, Ministry of Environment, Mrs Obayagbo Helen, said the ministry was opposed to the passage of the bill.

Obayagbo said: “Creating an agency for a fragment of one component of sanitation would mean creating more than 15 agencies for sanitation issues alone.

“This would mean wastage of scarce government resources. Besides, there are too many federal government agencies in existence currently and most of them self-sustaining but depend on the already very thin resources of the Federal Government.”

The Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, represented by its Assistant Director, Legal, Mrs Ate Amali, said there were agencies of government already performing roles being envisaged for the proposed agency.

The National President, Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria (EHOAN), Mr Jamilu Shuaibu, said the bill was inconsistent with the provisions of the fourth schedule of the 1999 constitution as amended.

He said the constitution vested the local government councils with the role of maintenance and regulations of public convenience.

He said the 774 local government areas have been implementing the role through their environmental health services department and units.

Shuaibu said the agency if established, would be an additional liability and additional cost of governance.

He, however, recommended that the relevant Federal Government Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) responsible for environmental sanitation be empowered to produce a national policy with corresponding guidelines in toilets and urinals in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.

He also recommended that existing agencies in the federal, state and local governments should be strengthened to perform their functions more effectively.

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The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has revealed that Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria are now over 70,000.

The UN Refugee agency also appealed to international community for urgent additional support for refugees in Nigeria.

UNHCR, while stating that of the over 70,000 refugees, added that nearly 80 per cent of them are women and children.

The UNHCR’s Country Representative, Chansa Kapaya, in a statement on Monday, said: “This is not just a number, these are people behind these numbers, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, people just like you and I, that have been forced to flee their homes to seek safety and save their lives. 70,000 refugees are 70,000 daughters and sons.”

She lamented that their dreams and plans were disrupted by violence in the North-west and South-west regions of Cameroon where a conflict between secessionist non-state armed groups and the army are displacing people from their homes since 2017.

She noted that recent arrivals and UNHCR’s protection monitoring confirmed killings, abductions, forced evictions and other forms of violence, with armed groups attacking schools and hospitals.

She said over 8,000 Cameroonian women, men and children have arrived in Nigeria’s Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Benue, Enugu, Cross River and Taraba States in the past 12 months, many in hard-to-reach rural areas.

She disclosed that UNHCR, together with the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and IDPs, registered them, with 59 per cent refugees found in local communities and the rest live in four settlements which UNHCR helped built on land generously provided by the government.

The statement said Nigeria has a progressive open-door approach to refugees, allowing refugee girls and boys to go to school just like nationals and their parents to work where they can, and with support from UNHCR, Nigeria provides primary health care to refugees and nationals alike.

Kapaya said: “UNHCR commends Nigeria because it is on its way to become a champion in implementing the Global Compact on Refugees, but Nigeria needs support.”

She said the most pressing needs of Cameroonian refugees are food, shelter, improved health care and education as well as livelihood opportunities.

She said with rising food prices, the economic impact of COVID-19 and the refugee influx, needs are on the rise with serious risks of gender-based violence and negative copying mechanisms such as begging and survival sex.

The amount of support UNHCR can deliver is increasingly falling short. Cash for food, for instance, had to be reduced since 2019 due to insufficient funding.

The statement said $97.7 million is needed to respond to the needs of a total of some 78,000 refugees and asylum-seekers of different nationalities and to IDP needs – protection, camp management/coordination, shelter and non-food items such as blankets and jerry cans.

The statement lamented that so far, not even half of this amount (45 per cent, as of 23 November) has been received.

Racoon:
Meanwhile, the minister concerned has long moved to the US to give birth flexing their entitlements.

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) says a report that N18 billion was moved by the Islamic State in West African Province (ISWAP) through the country’s financial system is stale.

On Sunday, the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa, a body established by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to check the flow of illicit funds, said about N18 billion generated from trading and taxing communities yearly in the Lake Chad region was moved through the country’s financial system.

In its 2021 mutual evaluation report, the group said President Muhammadu Buhari failed to confiscate the assets of terrorists as demanded in the global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regulations.

“A study estimated ISWAP’s revenues, deemed larger than Boko Haram’s, at up to USD$36m annually, much of it from trading activity and taxation in the Lake Chad region,” the report said.

But in a statement on Monday, Ahmed Dikko, NFIU chief media analyst, said the report by the organisation is based on a 2019 country evaluation report “which is literally stale and irrelevant today”.

“It is to the knowledge of the international community, our populace and the formal media organisations that several arrests were made through the ongoing Operation Service Wide approved by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA),” Dikko said.

“The exercise is continuing and far from over. In addition all funding of violence from all sections of the country are being evidently analysed and reported to all relevant authorities according to law.

“It is true that recently Nigeria fell victim to illicit financial flows but overt and far reaching efforts are being executed by the government to stem the bad practice.

“The ECOWAS body released its report to justify putting Nigeria’s Financial System under enhanced review process alongside other countries in the Sahel.

“We had formally faulted the report to the ECOWAS body while agreeing to partner with them to carry out further review processes to jointly attain global best practices on all counter measures against local and cross border violent crimes disturbing the entire West Africa presently.

“All our neighbours have proofs of our exchange of terrorist financial intelligence with them real time.”

President Muhammadu Buhari has commissioned the Nenwe, Oduma and Uburu communities in Enugu and Ebonyi States, a 40.37-kilometre facility, linking the two South-eastern states.

It brings to three the number of roads commissioned across the country in the last two weeks by the president.

The other two roads commissioned by the president included the 304 kilometre Sokoto-Tambuwal-Jega-Kontagora-Makera Road, inaugurated last Thursday and the 24-kilometre Vandeikya-Obudu Cattle Ranch Road (Phases I and II) in Benue State officially flagged off on Monday, November 29.

In his remarks before the official inauguration at the Ezinike-Oduma Village, Buhari, who was represented at the event by the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, said the move represented the commitment of his administration to improving road transport infrastructure, ease of doing business and job creation.

He observed that one element of change in those roads was “the travel experience on new and well-built roads” as opposed to the not-too-distant unpleasant experiences from the old and previously “unmotorable” roads.

He noted that reduced journey times as a result of the improvement in the road network meant reduced expense on travel, pointing out that reduction in travel expense also meant more money in the pockets of travellers.

He explained that a situation where the previous travel time on a road, which averaged one hour 30 minutes before construction, was reduced to 30 minutes after the completion of the road, meant both money and time had been saved.

Urging commuters not to abuse the road and to obey traffic rules and regulations, Buhari, who reiterated that the roads have been built to the highest quality, urged them not to abuse the roads.

“Road abuse takes many forms such as overloading of vehicles and trucks which accelerates pavement damage, spilling of petroleum products, which dissolves all the components and allows water to penetrate.

“It also involves converting the road shoulders to permanent parking places, that brings the onset of road failure from the shoulder”, the president said.

In his remarks, the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola said the commissioning underscored the Buhari administration’s investment in road transportation and the impact on the citizenry.

According to Fashola, who was represented by the Director Highways, South-east zone, Mr. Bola Aganaba, it represented another example of what the country would experience in more days and weeks to come.

He listed the other handovers that will follow to include the 142.2×2 dual kilometres between Shuwarin and Azare connecting Jigawa and Bauchi States and Section III of the 106.3×2 kilometres between Azare and Potiskum connecting Bauchi and Yobe States.

In his remarks, the Enugu State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who was represented by the Commissioner for Works in the State, Mr. Greg Nnaji described road construction as the cradle of civilisation.

He recalled the harrowing experience that commuters went through before the Buhari administration took the road to completion stage.

He added that with the completion, the people of Enugu and Ebonyi, who he said are farmers, would easily bring their farm produce to the various markets with ease.

The Federal Government on Sunday ruled out the possibility of restricting foreign travellers from visiting Nigeria despite travel bans on the country by Canada, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

This is just as the government stated that most of the in-bound passengers that tested positive for COVID-19 were from the UK.

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said this on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme on Sunday which was monitored by The PUNCH.

Ehanire described as unfortunate the knee-jerk reaction of some countries to the Omicron strain. He noted that even the World Health Organisation had said recently that countries should focus more on collaboration rather than shutting borders.

“At the moment we have no plans restricting anybody coming from another country,” he said.

The PUNCH reports that the WHO had two weeks ago designated the omicron variant as a variant of concern.The NCDC had last week announced that the country had reported three cases of the variant. Before this, the Canadian government had announced that it found two individuals with the variant who had travel history to Nigeria.

The UK on Saturday night also announced that it found 21 cases of the omicron variant which were linked to Nigeria. It announced that it would, from Monday (today), restrict all flights emanating from Nigeria.

It also suspended all pending visa applications in Nigeria due to the ban on flights from Nigeria due to the Omicron variant.

In a statement on Sunday, the commission said, “To support the UK Government’s aim to protect public health from COVID-19 and associated variants of concern, UK Visas and Immigration will pause making decisions on visitor visa applications in all red list countries, including Nigeria, until travel restrictions are lifted.

“If you apply for a visit visa in a red list country and you meet the UK Immigration Rules, your application will be paused. You will not receive a decision on your visit visa application whilst red list travel restrictions remain in place. You will not be able to request a refund of your visa fee once you have given your biometrics at a Visa Application Centre. If you already hold a valid visit visa and are intending to travel to England as a visitor from a red list country, you will not be allowed to enter.”

The UK said there are only very limited exemptions to travel and entry requirements for critical workers and medical and compassionate cases.”

But the minister said the Omicron strain could not yet be declared as a deadly strain because no deaths had so far been recorded across the world.

“We are watching what the science community is saying and of course not rushing to judgment and we are also not applauding any lockdowns or any prohibitions or banning of flights or movement of people until we know more.

“We believe that the harm it will do to livelihoods and economies may be more that the perceived value that will be derived from shutting movement between countries. I believe countries should come together to take a common approach and that includes the UK and other countries contemplating a red list,” Ehanire added.

When asked why there was a large number of outbound Nigerian passengers testing positive abroad despite testing negative in Nigeria, Ehanire admitted that indeed, some fake test results were being presented by passengers.

The minister said the government had tightened its mechanism for spotting fake results and vaccination cards.

He, however, argued that the development was not peculiar to Nigeria, adding that most of the inbound passengers that tested positive in Nigeria were actually from the UK.

“Because of the very large volume of travellers from the UK, we also have the most positive COVID-19 virus coming from the UK too,” the minister said.

When asked if anyone had been prosecuted for presenting a fake vaccination certificate or test result, Ehanire explained that the normal procedure was to quarantine such people before handing them over to the police. He admitted that he never followed up to know what happened to such people

Ehanire said the government was exploring the option of setting up vaccination centres at supermarkets and worship centres.

The minister added that the government was looking at vaccinating at least 70 per cent of the population against coronavirus.

He stated that Nigeria had about 100 million doses which would be delivered to the country in phases.

On the possibility of vaccine production, Ehanire said the Federal Government was seriously looking towards that, adding that it would be a collaborative effort with the private sector.

Regarding the possible spike in COVID-19 infections during the Yuletide, Ehanire said the government would continue to encourage non-pharmaceutical interventions like wearing of masks, social distancing and use of hand sanitisers.

When asked if Nigeria was already facing another wave of COVID-19 infections, he responded in the affirmative, adding that the 4th wave had been predicted long ago and this may just be it.

Ehanire stated, “We had the so-called third wave already with the Delta variant. This is what we are looking at as the 4th wave and it was predicted as far back as a month ago that there might be a 4th wave in Nigeria and perhaps the world and it is already accurately manifesting. We hope it doesn’t get to be that and if it becomes the 4th wave, it will not be deadly to our citizens.”

Between Nov 22 and Nov 28, 67 inbound passengers tested positive – NCDC report

Meanwhile, more inbound passengers are testing positive to COVID-19, an analysis of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control’s weekly situation report has shown.

The report obtained from the NCDC website on Sunday indicated that positivity rate among inbound travellers had increased by 74.6 per cent.

It was also gathered that 48 out of the 94 test centres for inbound persons of interest had not sent in reports of persons tested for three weeks.According to the NCDC, in its latest situation report, a total of 17 inbound passengers tested positive between November 15 and November 21.

It however added that between November 22 and November 28, a total of 67 passengers tested positive signifying a 74.6 per cent increase.

Meanwhile, The PUNCH also observed that 48 laboratories meant to test inbound passengers failed to submit test results to the NCDC.

Our correspondents who monitored the trends from the beginning of November observed that while other laboratories sent test results, the 48 laboratories consistently failed to submit reports.

The Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 had made preparations for the testing of inbound passengers of interest. Recently, the PSC had accused some passengers of continually shunning testing.

Also, the NCDC maintained on its website that only three people had so far tested positive for the new Omicron COVID-19 strain despite the fact that at least 23 travellers from Nigeria tested positive in the United Kingdom and Canada.

The development came just as Canada stated that it would no longer accept any PCR test that was conducted in Nigeria. The development comes just days after Canada barred persons from Nigeria from visiting the country.

An inquiry sent to the NCDC on Sunday had not yet been responded to as of press time.

A travel advisory on its website read in part, “Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and people with status under the Indian Act who have been in these countries—Botswana, Egypt, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe—in the 14 days before travel to Canada will be required to: Obtain, within 72 hours of departure, a valid negative COVID-19 molecular test in a third country before continuing their journey to Canada.”

US demands negative test from travellers regardless of vaccination status

In a related development, the United States has said all travellers two years and older must present negative test results before boarding a flight, regardless of vaccination status or citizenship.

The US Centre for Disease Control in an updated travel advisory said the passengers’ test results should be taken no more than one day before travel, or documentation of having recovered from COVID-19 in the past 90 days, before they board their flight.

The regulation, updated on December 2, amended its October 25, 2021 Order, titled, ‘Requirement for Proof of Negative COVID-19 Test or Recovery from COVID-19 for All Air Passengers Arriving in the United States.’

It takes effect from December 6.

On a day that the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists shattered the peace of Borno State with multiple bombings, the Federal Government charged the intelligence community to adopt analytical, empirical, and data-driven approaches to tackle worsening insecurity in the country.

The mortar bombs, which jolted the military and residents of the state early yesterday, exploded at about 6 am, when residents were still indoors, before the three-hour monthly sanitation exercise.

At the Maiduguri Housing Estate, the explosion destroyed some apartments in the process. The other apartments destroyed are located at the Ngormari Community, near the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) base.

Besides injuring a girl at House 2589, there were no casualties in the dawn attack on residents of 1, 000 housing estates along Damaturu Road.

An eyewitness and resident, Alim Audu told The Guardian, yesterday, that when he heard of the explosion, he rushed out to find what was happening.

“The mortar bomb landed and exploded near my house,” he said, adding that upon rushing out to the scene, he saw the bomb inside a house.

“This is how I concluded that it was a mortar bomb attack on residents of the estate,” he said.

It was also learnt that the housing estate shares the same perimeter fence with the Maiduguri Hajj Camp.

According to State’s Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), over 19, 000 repentant Boko Haram terrorists and their families have been sheltered in the camp since last July.

Last February, over two dozen people were killed after multiple rockets were fired into Gwange Community in the Maiduguri metropolis.

THE State Police Command said a six-month-old baby was injured when the terrorists fired five mortar bombs into Maiduguri.

The Commissioner of Police (CP), Abdul Umar, told journalists that the terrorists fired the bombs from the outskirts of Ngomari Old Airport, behind Borno State University, adding that the mortars landed in different locations within the city causing minor damage.

The CP added that the first bomb landed inside a house belonging to one Ibrahim Abba-Fori, burning down a Honda Civic car, while another destroyed a room in Alhaji Bukar Modu-Kullima’s house, and injured the six-month-old baby, Fatima Alhaji-Bukar.

“Another one landed at Gambari Njimtilo Ward near the house of Ahmed Yahaya, where the fence of the house was destroyed. The last explosive landed in a farm at Shuwarin Atom Village,” he said.

Umar explained that the 6-month-old victim was treated for minor injuries at the Umaru Shehu Ultra-Modern Hospital and discharged.

ON its part, the Nigerian Army High Command said troops of Joint Task Force (JTF) North East, Operation HADIN KAI (OPHK) responded to the security breach by the insurgents.

According to an army spokesman, Brig. General Onyema Nwachukwu, “This unfortunate incident has caused some level of damage and apprehension in residential areas. Although, no life was lost, sadly a minor sustained injury.

“Ground troops in conjunction with the Air Component of OPHK responded swiftly and dominated the area with ground and air interdictions that successfully neutralised the threats and infiltration attempt by the terrorists.

“The general public is urged not to panic as troops are on the ground and aggressively dominating the city to effectively take out any perceived threat. The good people of Maiduguri are equally enjoined to go about their normal socio-economic activities and provide actionable information on the movement of these criminal elements,” the military chief said.

THE Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, in his address at the graduation ceremony of the Executive Intelligence Management Course (EIMC) 14 of the National Institute for Security Studies, Abuja, said it has become imperative to step up the modus operandi of intelligence agencies.

While enjoining participants drawn from Nigeria, the Gambia, Ghana, and Liberia, to apply the knowledge obtained during the 10-month programme to tackle the myriad of security challenges across the West African Sub-region, he stressed: “We cannot police the country with human security alone; we must leverage technology.

“Security and intelligence agencies must adopt artificial intelligence and must be proactive, not reactive” in dealing with issues of insecurity in the country.

“It is the unpredictable events that we must be prepared for; we must try especially because we have been given the responsibility to think ahead of a nation of this size and of this complexity; it falls upon our lives to plan ahead and to be imaginative.

“It is not enough for intelligence services to anticipate the threat that we have a clear line of sight too; indeed, given the resource constraint that we face, we cannot afford to wait for the threat to become manifest dangers before we react,” the professor of law said, adding, “our intelligence services must be proactive rather than reactive; ahead of the curve, rather than behind it, threats must be identified and addressed well before they evolve into manifest spheres.

He continued: “It is a very heavy burden indeed; but the truth is that the intelligence community, by the very nature of its mandate, is charged with being several steps ahead of the rest of us.

“This requires a high capacity for imagination; in fact, I will go so far as to say that, in many respects, a failure of intelligence is a failure of imagination,” he added.

Earlier, the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr. Yusuf Bichi, urged the graduands to be strategic in their approach to tackling insecurity.

He pledged that “the NISS will continue to develop strategies,” that will equip participants with the capacity to degrade terrorists and sundry criminal elements.

Among the dignitaries that attended the ceremony, where the First Lady, Hajiyya Aisha Buhari, wives of governors, ministers, legislators, monarchs, politicians, as well as captains of industries.

Nigeria got no revenue from crude oil export in the month of October despite an average daily oil production of 1.417 million barrels in the month of September, latest report by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has shown.

NNPC on its report to the Federation Account allocation Committee (FAAC) released at the weekend disclosed that petrol subsidy for October was N199 billion.

The amount would be deducted from November revenue due to FAAC in December, the corporation stated.

According to the report, “The overall NNPC crude oil lifting of 11.49Mbbls (Export & Domestic Crude) in September 2021 recorded 98.5 percent increase relative to the 5.79Mbbls lifted in August 2021.

“Nigeria recorded 1.417 million daily production in September, 2021”.

On export crude oil, the report added: “No Crude Oil export revenue for the month.

“Gas: Domestic Gas and other receipts in the month was N6.78 billion. The Domestic Gas (NGL) in the month was N4.07 billion. NLNG: Feedstock valued at $59.43 million was sold to NLNG during the period out of which $52.57 million was received during the month. The difference being MCA obligations, Gas reconciliation and Credit Notes

“Other Receipts: The sum of $95.63Mn being miscellaneous receipts, Gas and Ullage fees and Interest income was received in October 2021”.

NNPC explained that “the sum of N252,968,629,898.13 was the Gross Domestic Crude Oil and Gas revenue for the month of October, 2021. “The recoveries were: Strategic Holding Cost and Pipeline repairs amounting to N7,757,631,778.84, Product losses worth N143,386,571.87 and value short fall of N163,709,314,928.61(This comprised of the N123,709,314,928.61 for September 2021 and N40,000,000,000.00 value shortfall deferred in June 2021.

“The October, 2021 value shortfall of N199,007,758,422.75 is to be recovered from the November, 2021 proceeds due for sharing at the December, 2021 FAAC meeting”, it added.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says President Muhammadu Buhari is doing his best to fix the insecurity of Nigeria.

The VP spoke on Thursday at the Presidential Villa when he received the Muhammadu Buhari Osinbajo (MBO) Dynamic Support Group.

Osinbajo assured that security challenges will be resolved for a stronger and greater.

The Senior Advocate Nigeria (SAN) appealed to citizens to ensure that the ideals of the nation are kept.

“Mr President has always remained steadfast and focused on resolving the problems of the country beginning with security.

“He is a steady hand, not panicky, focused, looking at the security issues every day, and trying to advance the best possible solutions”, he said.

Osinbajo stressed the importance of recognizing that when problems are being faced, the government requires support from all.

The VP further maintained that the unity of Nigeria is important for all ethnicities and religions.

“For a country that is the largest economy in Africa, to start thinking in terms of fragmenting itself.

“If you fragment, the problems are going to multiply, poverty will multiply”, he added.

Sirano and his team used special metal blades to slowly and carefully chip away at the lava rock that has kept the man trapped for 1,942 years.

Beastus:
Skull miners. How far?

The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, has lamented the accommodation problems faced by members of the force.

According to the IGP, the NPF is facing a housing deficit with over 90 per cent of its personnel in barracks lacking proper accommodation.

He made this known while speaking at the quarter four 2021 public-private partnership units consultative (3PUCF) meeting organised by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) in Abuja.

The IGP was represented by Zanna Ibrahim, the Deputy Inspector-General (DIG), logistics and supply.

He argued that a good living condition is important for optimal service delivery as housing is considered a fundamental physiological human need and the foundation on which to develop higher human motivation.

“It will surprise you to know that with a workforce of over 350,000 in staff strength, the NPF has less than 10 per cent of its personnel quartered in befitting barracks accommodation,” he said.

“The state of disrepair and integrity failure in our barracks needs no emphasis and we are really in dire need of befitting accommodation to enable us to tackle the art and act of policing the nation optimally.

“Suffice to add that there is an ongoing initiative to recruit 10,000 constables for the next six years annually, thereby increasing the housing needs for police officers,” he said.

Baba also said the force remained resolute in following due process based on extant laws in the pursuit of infrastructural development through PPP.

The IGP said the decay in police infrastructure, negative maintenance culture, years of neglect due to poor budgetary allocation, destruction of police facilities resulting from the #EndSARS protests, banditry, Boko Haram/IPOB activities are still being grappled with.

However, in spite of the challenges, the force is seeking better collaboration with critical stakeholders toward revamping, improving and sustaining a better security architecture for the nation, the IGP noted.

His comments come days after the federal government launched the portal for the sale of houses completed under its National Housing Programme, NHP.

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, who launched the portal, said the houses were in one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom and duplex categories.

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

The Senate Committee on Agriculture on Wednesday in Abuja said about two million metric tons of rice is currently being imported or smuggled into the country.

This is just as the committee said, in 2021, the production of milled rice in Nigeria was estimated to amount to five million metric tons.

Vice Chairman of the Committee, Muhammad Enagi, disclosed this at the meeting with multi stakeholder group on rice council advocacy bill promotion.

The interactive meeting was organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – Global Environment Facility (GEF), in collaboration with Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN), among others.

Mr Enagi stated that Nigeria’s rice rose from 3.7 million metric tons in 2017 to 5.0 metric tons in 2021.

He said; ”Inspite of this, 6.7 million metric tons of rice is consumed in Nigeria annually, resulting in a deficit of about two million metric tons which is either imported or smuggled illegally into the country”.

Mr Enagi stated that he sponsored a bill to establish the National Rice Development Council of Nigeria to provide guidance on the rice research, comprehensive development of the rice sector and the organiation of the rice stakeholders to enhance local production.

The Bill, he said, seeks to establish a rallying point and a comprehensive national operational and governance structure for a complete rice value chain.

According to him, “Nigeria should consider putting in place a National Rice Development Council and a comprehensive national rice development roadmap that will guide the country into self-sufficiency and export”.

He added that the establishment of the National Rice Development Council will transform the activities of rice farmers, processors, millers, researchers, marketers and other relevant stakeholders across the rice value chain.

”With our natural competitive advantage in the area of rice production, Nigeria should put in place a National Rice Development Council and a comprehensive national rice development roadmap that will guide us not only into a regime of self-sufficiency in rice production, but also for export.

”The Nigerian rice industry exists in the abstract as there appears to be no form of coordination in the absence of a properly structured rallying point. We have Paddy Rice Dealers Association of Nigeria (PRIDAN), Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIMAN), among others.

Earlier, Executive Director of WOFAN, Salamatu Garba, expressed concern over the high rate of food importation into the country.

She said importation of agricultural produce, especially grains, “is still witnessed to a higher degree than imagined, leading to worsening food inflation and subsequently fueling hunger, poverty and insecurity”.

“Nigeria’s worsening food insecurity in the wake of climate change challenges, insecurity, low financing of the agriculture sector especially mechanization and poor situation of the country’s research institutions are threatening the economic stability of our nation,” she said.

She noted that the Nigerian Rice Council Advocacy would empower rice farmers to grow more rice in a sustainable way and increase paddy production to 30 million metric tons in five years.

In her remarks, the Project Manager, UNDP-GEF-IAP Resilient Food Security Project, Rhoda Dia, said the Nigerian rice revolution will enhance extension and research delivery services to ensure quality control in rice production.

She said the project is in seven states in northern Nigeria, 14 local governments and 70 communities to achieve long term sustainability of food security system to build greater community resilience for climate change to help drive for food insecurity.

Ms Dia added that the advocacy will reduce foreign exchange for rice imports.

President Muhammadu Buhari accompanied by 10 ministers, on Wednesday, travelled to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, a few hours after Nigeria recorded three cases of the new coronavirus variant named Omicron.

They were accompanied by multiple aides as well as representatives of the business community to participate in an exhibition tagged ‘EXPO 2020 Dubai’.

Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, said in a statement yesterday that Buhari was accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Health, Osagie Ehanire; Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami; Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo; Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; Defence, Bashir Magashi; Aviation, Hadi Sirika and Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammad Abubakar.

Others are the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite; State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Maryam Katagum, the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno; the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Rufai and the Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

Adesina said EXPO 2020 Dubai, with the theme, ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ created the environment for Nigeria to join over 190 countries to forge true and meaningful partnerships “To build a better future for everyone.”

Even though there was yet no international protocol barring foreign trips, some pundits and health officials wondered why the president chose to travel out with 10 ministers and other key government officials at a time they were supposed to be at home to fine-tune the national response against the new coronavirus variant.

A health official in Abuja said, “It is not wrong for the president to travel but there is time for everything. I think what is at stake deserves more attention than an exhibition in Dubai.

“We are fine here in Nigeria for now; we just recorded three cases but there is the fear of the unknown around the world…Who knows, as you can see, dozens of our leaders are going to mingle with other people out there,” he said.

A lawyer and an activist, Abubakar Sani Aliyu, said, “The president should have asked the trade minister and one or two people to go. It is not necessary that he must go everywhere and it is more appalling that he travelled with no fewer than ten ministers and those at the helm of the security architecture of the country.”

The Executive Director, Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), Dr Ibrahim M. Zikirullahi, said, “It is unfortunate that officials turn the overseas journey to jamboree and avenue for making money and not in the interest of the country or of the people.”

Daily Trust reports that many countries around the world were rolling out new measures among them restricting inbound passengers from some countries while working on probable lockdown to contain the spread of Omicron.

Omicron is said to be deadlier and transmissible than other COVID-19 variants.

The world is said to be in the race against time as at least 22 countries have so far recorded the variant.

The countries include South Africa with 77 cases, the United Kingdom (20), Netherlands (16), Portugal (13), Australia (7), Austria (1), Botswana (19), Brazil (2), Canada (6), Czech Republic (1), Belgium (1), Denmark (4), France (1), Germany (9), Hong Kong (4), Israel (4), Italy (9), Japan (2), Nigeria (3), Norway (2), Saudi Arabia (1), Spain (2), and Sweden 3 cases.

On November 26, 2021, the World Health Organisation (WHO) designated Omicron a variant of concern on the advice of its Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE).

This decision was based on the evidence presented to the committee that Omicron has several mutations that may have an impact on how it behaves, for example, on how easily it spreads or the severity of illness it causes.

How Omicron came to Nigeria

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said yesterday that it has detected three confirmed cases of the variant in the country.

The agency in a statement signed by the Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, said the Omicron, also known as lineage B.1.1.529 was detected in three persons with a history of travel to South Africa.

The NCDC said the 3 cases were found after collection of samples for the stipulated day two test for all travellers to Nigeria.

“These cases were recent arrivals in the country in the past week. Follow up to ensure isolation, linkage to clinical care, contact tracing and other relevant response activities have commenced.

“Arrangements are also being made to notify the country where travel originated according to the provisions of the International Health Regulations,” the statement said.

“The NCDC assumes Omicron is widespread globally given the increasing number of countries reporting this variant. Therefore, it is a matter of when, not if, we will identify more cases,” the organisation said.

Ramaphosa’s visit successful despite Omicron scare – President

Before he departed to Dubai yesterday, President Buhari had said that the State Visit of President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa was successful despite the scare generated by the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

Buhari, who hosted his South African counterpart at the Presidential Villa said, “Despite the scare generated by the new COVID-19 variant, we have been able to hold successful meetings while observing strict COVID-19 protocols through fraternal cooperation and understanding.

“I sincerely wish to thank my brother and colleague, President Cyril Ramaphosa for honouring my invitation. I equally wish to thank members of the South African delegation and the experts that worked tirelessly during the Senior Officials Meeting,” the President said at a joint press conference with the visiting South African president.

He underscored the need to enhance people-to-people relations between South Africa and Nigeria to avoid unhealthy competition.

Buhari had earlier at the opening of the 10th Session of Nigeria-South Africa Bi-National Commission (BNC) held in his office, said such relations were necessary to evolve a bond that would be of benefit to both countries and the entire African continent.

He said, “In this regard, we need improvement in educational and scientific cooperation, mines and energy resources, transport and aviation, tourism, youth exchange programmes, trade and investment and military cooperation, to mention but a few.”

Ramaphosa, who landed in Nigeria Tuesday, is on a three-day working visit.

The visit which was planned long before the Omicron was flagged was perfected at a time many countries were shutting their doors to South Africa.

South Africa was the first country that reported the new strain of the virus.

The action against South Africa over the variant had triggered a backlash as the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, had voiced displeasure over the “stigmatisation and penalisation” of Africa for new COVID-19 variants discovered on the continent.

The AfDB president, who wrote on his Twitter handle, stressed that Africa was not the source of the COVID-19 virus, which had continued to put the world on edge.

Nigeria and Senegal among other African countries have also shown solidarity to South Africa and its neighbours in what could be described as a clear departure from what was obtained during the COVID-19 break in late 2019.

Ramaphosa had severally said his country was being needlessly punished for unravelling an existing problem in the West.

On Tuesday, Dutch health authorities said the Omicron variant was present in the Netherlands earlier than previously thought and before South Africa had first reported the new strain of COVID.

COVID-19: FG’s directive wobbles as unvaccinated workers allowed into offices

The federal government’s directive barring unvaccinated federal workers from their offices, effective from December 1 (yesterday) only lasted a few hours.

Daily Trust reports that civil servants without proof of COVID-19 vaccination were allowed into their offices at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja after initial resistance by law enforcement agents deployed with other health officials to the Secretariat complex, Abuja on Wednesday to ensure compliance.

The federal government in October mandated civil servants to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk being barred from office from December 1.

Our correspondents who went round yesterday observed that civil servants without vaccination proof or negative PCR tests were only barred from entering their offices for a few hours.

Those with the vaccination cards and a few with negative PCR test results were all allowed passage at the entrances to access their offices.

However, in the afternoon, the sternness of the enforcement of the order was relaxed as the security officials stopped asking for the cards and were more concerned with the wearing of facemasks. It was also observed that many civil servants and other Nigerians queued up at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) vaccination centres opposite the Federal Ministries of Health and Education to get vaccinated.

Some workers told Daily Trust that they did not see anything wrong in the government’s directive, as it was in the national interest.

Contacted, the Director, Communication, Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHoCSF), Malam Abdulganiyu Aminu, told Daily Trust that there was no compromise in the enforcement of the government directive.

“I have my vaccination card and I saw many others with theirs. I also saw that those without their cards or the test results were prevented from entering here.

“Your question that the effect of the order was relaxed in the afternoon may not be correct. Some workers would have to move in and out of the complex on a few occasions. If they were recognised by the security operatives, there may not be the need to be asking them for their cards especially that they may have shown their cards on more than one occasion,” he said.

The supervisor in charge of the vaccines at the Federal Secretariat, Yakubu Musa, said the speculation that they would stop giving the vaccines yesterday has created a huge crowd in the centre, adding that, unlike other days, at least 150 persons were vaccinated at the three desks he was supervising when Daily Trust visited at about 2: pm.

“We have enough vaccines here and if it is finished we will ask for more,” he said.

MrOkenwa:
righteousness?
na question i ask, i o mention name.

MelesZenawi:
Not only eri but eriri eri.

It is only Ipobs that are always son and daughter to whom they don't know.

If they are not Jews, they will become Eri through Jews or any shit that suits their lying machine.

Those who kill by sword will die by it.