₦airaland Forum

Indiana University, the flagship institution of a staunch Republican state, will require its more than 100,000 students and employees to be vaccinated against the new coronavirus because it opened a new page in a strange pandemic school year. "It's saving lives, it's that simple," said University President Michael A. McCrobbie. "This will allow us to have a normal fall semester."
Purdue University, which is also prominent in Indiana, strongly encourages students and employees to be vaccinated, but avoids enforcement. Purdue University President Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. said that a campaign of personal choice and responsibility will achieve better public health outcomes than demands that "may appear clumsy and authoritarian."
Two public universities, two different methods, and the same goal: to maximize vaccinations before college students return to school in the fall. Colleges and universities around the world are facing daunting logistical and political challenges as they try to create safe campus spaces to live and study in a country that is tired of the coronavirus and is divided by masks and vaccines.
The school has overcome the crisis of the past year through a variety of strategies: distance learning, wearing masks, frequent virus testing, outdoor tents, isolation and isolation bedrooms, plastic barriers in lecture halls, and so on.
Now, even if the covid-19 death toll in the United States exceeds 600,000, the threat of the pandemic seems to be easing, especially in places with high vaccination rates. However, maintaining public health in crowded campuses with large numbers of unvaccinated students and employees can be difficult. Universities may need to constantly ask students to wipe their noses or spit in test tubes to check if the virus has come back or the variant is spreading.
Gerri Taylor, co-chair of the covid-19 working group of the American University Health Association, said: "Because we want to see more students on campus and have closer contact with others... We can't be complacent." "Universities really have to pay attention to cases and use them. Observed from the dashboard,'are the numbers rising?' If necessary, they need to make appropriate plans to make adjustments."
In order to avoid the recurrence of the pandemic interruption, educators will do their best to carry out mass vaccination in the next few weeks. The Health Association recommends that universities require vaccinations for on-campus students when permitted by state law.
"I think all universities want to resume business as usual and provide the college experience students missed last year and desperately wanted," Taylor said. "I think their best opportunity is to provide high-level immunizations on campus, but they did."
Purdue is pushing for incentives. Students who record the coronavirus injection before July 15 will be eligible for a lottery draw and receive a prize of $9,992, which is equivalent to one year of in-state tuition. They can also skip the surveillance test for the virus, and they may enjoy what officials call “more choices” for campus activities. What this additional option means remains to be determined.
Indiana University officials stated that their mission will promote equal treatment of students and effectively raise meaningless questions about who has been vaccinated and who has not. Officials said they did not want to monitor the individual's vaccine status while walking around the campus. The university will only require students to "certify" that they have been vaccinated, for medical and religious reasons and only online students will be exempted. It urges but does not require students to upload immunization documents.
But on Monday, several students filed a federal lawsuit against Indiana University, claiming that the authorization violated their constitutional rights and the state's law prohibiting "vaccine passports." They said the exemptions allowed by the school were very limited and claimed that even if other institutions eased the coronavirus restrictions, the school threatened to take drastic measures. "This is extreme and unreasonable," IU graduate James Bopp Jr. told The Washington Post.
Indiana University spokesperson Chuck Carney said in a written statement that the requirement is still valid and will help support the restoration of safe and more normal operations in the fall. Carney pointed out that after the Indiana Attorney General's comments, the university revised the process and no longer required people to upload vaccination certificates. "The attorney general's opinion confirms our right to request vaccinations," he said.

Nigeria is expecting a second shipment of nearly 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by early august, and plans to resume giving out first doses, which had been halted to save its supply for second doses.
Africa’s most populous nation has so far given the first dose to only around 2 million of its 200 million people. Fewer than 700 000 having received a second dose.
Nigeria has been rationing 3.92 million doses it received through the COVAX global vaccine sharing programme in March, with its future supplies put in doubt by an export ban from India.
The government told states in April to stop giving first doses once half of the supply was used, to ensure there would be enough for second doses.
But Faisal Shuaib, the director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, said that restriction was no longer necessary. Nigeria now expects the second shipment of 3.92million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine by the end of July or early August.
Vaccination centres will be reopened to adults over the age of 18 seeking first doses, he said.
“We have been inundated with requests by Nigerians to be vaccinated,” Shuaib said at a media briefing in Abuja.
He did not specify where the new doses would come from but pointed to a commitment last week by G7 leaders to deliver at least 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to the world over the next year.
Like other African countries, Nigeria is struggling with a lack of supply and inadequate healthcare infrastructure for rapid mass rollout. Vaccine hesitancy rooted in misinformation is also a problem.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said last week that about 90% of African countries would miss a September target to vaccinate at least 10% of their populations.
As of Tuesday, Nigeria had 167 078 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2 117 deaths.
Experts say those figures probably understate the extent of the outbreak, given low testing rates.



Under the current situation of epidemic prevention and control, global cooperation needs to strengthen cooperation, especially vaccine sharing, to provide help for developing countries to fight the epidemic.

The United States is donating one million additional doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Canada. 
The doses, which were produced in the U.S., will arrive in Toronto later today, according to a White House official speaking on the condition they not be named, as they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. White House COVID-19 co-ordinator Jeffrey Zients later confirmed doses were arriving in Canada on Thursday in a briefing to the media.
This delivery is part of a broad donation strategy previously announced by the Biden administration.
By the end of this month, the U.S. is expected to have donated some 80 million doses worldwide. The one million shots being sent to Canada are a part of this allocation. 
In addition, U.S. President Joe Biden announced during the G7 summit in the U.K. that the U.S. will purchase and donate 500 million Pfizer doses over the next year.
At that same meeting, Canada also pledged to donate up to 100 million doses as part of the global effort to end the pandemic. 
The U.S. also loaned 1.5 million doses of Astra Zeneca to Canada earlier this year. 
Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand confirmed the new doses are set to arrive this evening, and thanked the Biden administration for its partnership.

"We continue to work with partners around the world, including the United States, to ensure access to vaccines for Canadians, as well as to help meet demands internationally," she said in a statement to CBC News.
Why does it matter? 
While Canada's vaccine rollout has sped up in recent weeks, it still lags behind the U.S. when it comes to delivering second doses.
So far, over 44 per cent of the American population is considered fully vaccinated. In Canada, that number is just over 14 per cent.
Overall, vaccine enthusiasm appears to be much higher in Canada. Some 65 per cent of Canadians have had a first dose.
That number in the U.S., according to the Centres for Disease Control, is 52 per cent.
Some American politicians are keen to see more Canadians become fully vaccinated, in the hopes that the Trudeau government will start lifting border restrictions. 
Ottawa has said that it hopes to lift some border restrictions by early July, though would not commit to a specific time frame. 
What's next?
In addition to this U.S. allotment, Canada was already set to receive about 8.2 million shots this week - 5.8 million from Moderna and another 2.4 million from Pfizer.

GENEVA — The United States is planning to send 1.35 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to Mexico on Tuesday morning, according to a White House official, the latest example of the Biden administration’s global pandemic response in the battle against Covid-19.
It follows a promise from Vice President Kamala Harris to provide surplus doses to our Southern neighbor when she was in the country last week.
The new shipment, which will arrive at Toluca International Airport early Tuesday, comes after the U.S. directed 2.72 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Mexico in late March and early April, the official said. Mexico has had nearly 2.5 million coronavirus cases and over 230,000 deaths, according to an NBC News tally.
President Joe Biden has committed to distributing 80 million doses worldwide by the end of June. In addition to the $2 billion donated to COVAX, the global vaccination effort, the White House announced this week the U.S. would purchase another 500 million Pfizer vaccines to send them to the African Union and 92 lower and middle-income countries.
At the G-7 summit in the United Kingdom over the weekend, leaders vowed an extra 500 million doses for the world, amounting to a pledge of one billion doses.
And at the NATO summit on Monday, Biden acknowledged the more than 600,000 Americans have lost their lives to the coronavirus. He pleaded with anyone who has access to a vaccine to do so “as soon as possible,” noting that the U.S. has plenty of supply.
Boosting global vaccination rates has been a theme of his first foreign trip as president, as beating the pandemic figures into most conversations with world leaders.
The first batch of excess shots from the U.S. went to South Korea, with crates containing about one million Johnson & Johnson doses arriving in the country earlier this month.

Beautiful bronze sculptures and castings from West Africa have long been exhibited in some of the world's most august institutions, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Wednesday it's returning three of these artworks to Nigeria. They include two 16th-century brass plaques created at the Court of Benin, and a brass head produced in Ife around the 14th century.
"The ... plaques produced at the Court of Benin, Warrior Chief and Junior Court Official, were among the works removed from the Royal Palace in 1897 during the British military occupation of Benin," the Met explained in a statement. (Borders have shifted over the years and the erstwhile Kingdom of Benin, from whence these artworks originated, is in what's now southern Nigeria.)
"Following that military campaign, they entered the collection of the British Museum, London, from 1898 to 1950," the statement continues. "In 1950–51, the British Museum transferred these two plaques (and 24 others) to the National Museum in Lagos. Although they were never deaccessioned by the National Museum, the two plaques entered the international art market at an unknown date and under unclear circumstances and were eventually acquired by a New York collector."
The mysterious collector donated the works — and his other Benin bronzes — to the Met in 1991. Over the past year, the Met said it's researched their provenance, in collaboration with the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments. It decided to return the works to Nigeria. The Ife Head, originally from Nigeria's Wunmonije Compound, was offered to the Met for sale, and the museum brokered its return.
"The Met is not saying these objects were stolen, so morally, legally we've decided to give them back," noted journalist Barnaby Phillips, author of the recently released book LOOT: Britain and the Benin Bronzes. " They want to be seen as willing and helpful and good partners to Nigeria. And it was noticeable in the statement they're also offering their support for the the proposed Edo Museum of West African art, a museum that does not yet exist."
One day, Phillips explains, backers hope the Edo Museum of West African Art will be built in Benin City to house a world-class collection of Benin bronzes, including ones that were taken illegally and displayed in the West for generations.
"We welcome the rapprochement developing in the museum world, and appreciate the sense of justice displayed by The Metropolitan Museum of Art," said Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Nigeria's minister of Minister of Information and Culture as part of the Met's statement. "Nigeria enjoins other museums to take a cue from this. The art world can be a better place if every possessor of cultural artifacts considers the rights and feelings of the dispossessed."

Coronavirus vaccines may be available in the fall for 6-month-old children in the United States, according to pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer and Moderna test vaccines in children under 12 years of age By September, results will be available for children aged 5 to 11 years.
Compared to adults, children are much less likely to get a serious illness after being infected with the coronavirus. However, nearly 4 million children in the United States have tested positive for the virus since the outbreak of the paThe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved for use in children aged 12 to 15 last month.
Based on data from previous studies that evaluated safety, Pfizer gave children aged 5 to 11 two doses of 10 micrograms, one-third of the dose given to adolescents and adults. , Give each child 2 doses of 3 micrograms 6 months to 5 years.
Dr. Bill Gruber, Senior Vice President of Pfizer, said:
The study enrolls up to 4,500 children in more than 90 clinical facilities in the United States, Finland, Poland and Spain. Pfizer researchers will submit complete test data this summer for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
In March, Moderna began testing various doses of vaccines. Young childrenThe study aimed to enroll 6,750 healthy children in the United States and Canada. Results are not expected until late summer, and the FDA’s approval of the vaccine will take longer.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said on Monday, “I think it will be early fall just because we have to age very slowly and carefully.
The company announced at the end of last month that its vaccine had a strong effect between the ages of 12 and 17 and plans to apply to the FDA for approval in that age group. Last week, Moderna called on authorities to fully approve the vaccine, rather than the currently licensed emergency use.
The United States is not the first country in the world to license a coronavirus vaccine for infants.Approved by China Sinovac vaccine for children According to the company’s chairman, he is only three years old. Approval has not been officially announced.
In the United States, the youngest vaccine is planned for this fall.
Source link In the United States, the youngest vaccine is planned for this fall.
ndemic. American Academy of Pediatrics..
Doctors continue to see rare cases. Pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome in childrenA condition associated with Covid-19 that can affect multiple organs, including the heart. Vaccination of children should further contribute to the containment of the virus by reducing its spread in the community.
Pfizer announced on Tuesday that it will test the vaccine in children aged 5 to 12 years. In the coming weeks, we plan to begin testing vaccines in 6-month-old babies.
the company I would like to apply Pfizer spokeswoman Kit Longley said the results for children aged 2 to 5 could come soon afterwards.
Longley added that data from trials for children aged 6 months to 2 years could arrive in October or November and be submitted to the FDA shortly thereafter.

Femi Iromini has been active in the African tech ecosystem for the past 5 years. As a young student, he ran many businesses— at one point, he performed due diligence for foreign investors looking to invest in African startups. Now he’s focused on improving the Nigerian education system and the employability of Nigerian graduates.
To understand how he got here, let’s look at his life’s journey.
Reading Gifted Hands by Ben Carson at an early age sparked Iromini’s interest in medicine. This interest was also encouraged by his secondary school teachers. He was the best student in chemistry, physics and maths so naturally, they all thought he would do well to study medicine. 
He secured admission into the university and had begun studying medicine for some months before his father pulled him out of school. 
“He just told me that he didn’t think the school was meant for me,” Iromini told me.
Fortunately, Iromini got into university at a young age so taking an involuntary gap year wasn’t too big a deal. 
Switching to Geophysics 
Iromini’s switch to geophysics is a story that many may relate with. It involves a rich uncle and a desire to be as rich as the said uncle. 
One day, while he was at home, this uncle came around. As they played chess, Iromini asked him what he did for a living. He worked with the oil company ExxonMobil and he had studied geophysics.
Iromini recalled, “When my uncle mentioned geophysics, I thought to myself, ‘This must be God speaking to me.’”
With the career prospects of geophysics looking promising, he decided to study geophysics. 
A year into studying geophysics at Obafemi Awolowo University, he started questioning whether he had made the right choice.
The answer to that question came during a field trip to Ekiti. The students and lecturer had gone out to identify some rocks and minerals. 
“During this field trip, a professor leading the delegates carried a boulder. I could see he was passionate about it. He then said if you really want to succeed as a geologist you need to fall in love with rocks. You need to romance rocks.”
“I was at the back, watching and listening. I didn’t find that appealing. I told myself there are better things in life to romance than rocks.”
None of his lecturers back at school were passionate about rocks and they didn’t answer field questions with certainty. By the end of the trip, he knew he wasn’t going to end up in a career related to geophysics.
That trip became a turning point for him and pushed him to attend a variety of non-academic events. He got into a number of social impact and entrepreneurial programs like the One Young World, Goldman Sachs Program, World Business Dialogue and Global University Initiative. These programs expanded his mind and opened him up to a world of possibilities.

The seven world leaders gathering on Friday in Cornwall, England, for the G7 summit face some of the toughest problems in years: staving off climate disaster, figuring out how to vaccinate the world against COVID-19, halting Russian cyberattacks, instituting a minimum global corporate tax; resolving trade disputes—to name just a few items on the table.
That’s a daunting list, even for seven very rich countries—the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Italy. In the end, their talks could fall far short of what’s needed.
So says Ian Goldin, professor of globalization and development at Oxford University and the founding director of the Oxford Martin School, the university’s interdisciplinary research center. Goldin, an economist, was vice president of the World Bank until 2006, was once an economic adviser to Nelson Mandela, and has served as a consultant for dozens of Fortune 500 companies, the United Nations, and the International Monetary Fund.
groundbreaking change—and it had better come fast to stave off spiraling global crises. The book offers a blueprint for choices governments and businesses need to make. “This needs to be acted on before the impact of the pandemic fades and we are lulled into complacency,” he writes.
In an interview, shortened and edited for clarity, Goldin laid out for Fortune what he thinks needs doing:
Keeping on the current track, there will be more pandemics, more climate change, more geopolitical tensions, more inequality—and a massive reversal of globalization.
“Business as usual” brought us this pandemic. We’ve come close to a global pandemic several times in recent years: Ebola, SARS, H1N1, and others. Unless we make a big commitment to stop them there will be many more, possibly much worse than COVID-19. They come from more and more people globally, living more densely, close to domestic and wild animals, and with global connectivity through airports and other travel spreading any virus more quickly. They [pandemics] can be stopped if countries work together.

The country's authorities have intervened to say the championships cannot be hosted as planned between 23 and 27 June due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Just last week Nigeria's Minister of Youth and Sports Development Sunday Dare had agreed to step in to host the event in Lagos to replace Algeria, who had asked for a postponement also citing Covid-19.
This latest decision leaves the future of the athletics showpiece in doubt for this year despite Algeria insisting it is still willing to host the event later this year, coronavirus permitting.
The Confederation of African Athletics had hoped that with Nigeria hosting the championships it would give athletes the chance to achieve qualifying standards for the Tokyo Olympics ahead of the 29 June deadline.
It is yet another problem to hit the biennial event which should have taken place in 2020 before being postponed by a year due to Covid-19.
The plan was then to hold the championships in the Algerian city of Oran between the 1st and 5th June 2021 before it was then moved to Algiers and set to take place 22-26 June.

The Federal Government has approved a 600 per cent increment in hazard allowance for senior health workers and 350 per cent for their junior counterparts.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, made the disclosure in Abuja after a meeting between the Federal Government and representatives of professional bodies and unions in the health sector.
The meeting, which held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa Abuja, deliberated on hazard allowance and retirement age for health workers in government health establishments.
On resolutions of the gathering, Ngige said the Federal Government had reviewed upward the N5,000 monthly hazard allowance for health workers.
According to him, the government team, led by the Minister of State for Budget and Planning, Clem Agba, gave a counter-offer to the earlier submissions of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and affiliate associations, a well as the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU).
He said: “The government side gave them that offer based on the reality that we have on the ground, that the economy is not doing very well, but the capital component of the budget is being funded on borrowing. Earnings of government have also drastically gone down,” Agba added.
Ngige also hinted that the Federal Government had agreed, in principle, to increase the retirement age of doctors and other health workers from 60 to 65 years and 70 years for consultants.
Others, who attended the parley from the government side, include the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Enahire, Ministers of State, Dr. Olorunimbe Mamora (Health), Clems Agba (Budget and Planning) and Festus Keyamo (Labour and Employment).
The Permanent Secretary in the Health Ministry, Abdulaziz Abdulahi and his Labour and Employment counterpart, Peter Yerima Tarfa, were also at the gathering.

In 2006 or thereabout, entrepreneurship education was formally introduced in Nigerian tertiary institutions. The introduction was greeted with a lot of hopes and high expectations. The reaction was not misplaced as Nigerians believed exposing students to entrepreneurship education may stem the challenge of unemployment in the country. Over a decade after the introduction of entrepreneurship education in the nation’s higher citadels of learning it seems the problem of unemployment is still being scratched on the surface. In fact, the conundrum of unemployment appears to have worsened!
The recent statistics on unemployment released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveals that the number of persons in the economically active or working age population (15 – 64 years of age) during the fourth quarter of 2020 was 122,049,400. This is 4.3% higher than the figure recorded in the second quarter of 2020, which was 116,871,186. In fact, the unemployment rate during the period was 33.3%, an increase from the 27.1% recorded in the second quarter of 2020. This is a confirmation of the fact that the challenge is not abating. One then wonders how impactful entrepreneurship education in our tertiary institutions has been? Do the handlers of such education have what it takes to impart the needed knowledge? How industry-compliant or 21st Century compliant is the curriculum of our nation’s entrepreneurship education?
While the questions raised above need to be answered, it is imperative to beam our searchlight on the motive (s) or the objective (s) of the introduction of entrepreneurship education in the nation’s tertiary institutions. Available literature has shown the following, inter alia, as the objectives of entrepreneurship education:
1. Provide graduates with necessary skills that will make them to be creative.
2. Provide small and medium size companies with the opportunity to recruit graduates who possess relevant skills to manage business enterprises.
3. Provide the graduates with enough training skills that will enable them meet manpower needs of the society.
4. Provide graduates with enough training in risk management due to uncertain business environment.
5. Stimulate industrial and economic growth of rural and less developed areas.
6. Offer functional education for youths that will enable them to be self-employed and self-reliant.
7. Provide the graduate youths with adequate training that will enable them to be creative and innovative in identifying novel business opportunities.
8. Serve as a catalyst for economic growth and development.
9. Reduce high rate of unemployment, underemployment and poverty among graduate youths.
10. Reduce the rural-urban migration of graduate youths.
11. Provide the graduate youths with enough training and support that will enable them to establish a career in small and medium scale businesses.
From the objectives, it is crystal clear that parts of the reasons for entrepreneurship education are to reduce high rate of unemployment, underemployment and poverty among graduate youths as well as to serve as a catalyst for economic growth and development! It is however ironic that instead of achieving the lofty objectives, unemployment appears to have reached an-all time high in the country! In fact, many who claim to be employed are actually underemployed. This challenge has thus birthed attendant vices such as banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, among others. What then could be wrong with this laudable idea? Could it be that we got it wrong abinitio? I will want to believe that the foundation must have been shaky as my findings reveal that lecturers were actually drafted from various departments in the beginning to teach entrepreneurship. While this may not be wrong entirely, such lecturers should have been exposed to the global best practices in entrepreneurship. After all, no one can give what he or she does not have. It’s a case of ‘if the foundation be destroyed what can the righteous do?’ The seriousness the education required at the beginning was not accorded to it.
Although along the line, Institutes of Entrepreneurship Studies started springing up with formal structures being put in place, much has not been accomplished as undergraduates are still being exposed to vocational trainings rather than scalable skills. What we see in most of the entrepreneurship laboratories in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions are trainings on ‘soap making’, ‘sewing’, ‘fish farming’, among others. No doubt, this is an improvement on the initial theory-based entrepreneurship education, but a lot need to be done if the education will come in handy for graduates/youths in Nigeria. Soft skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, should be embedded into entrepreneurship education. This is important as entrepreneurs are not necessarily to own business, but to creatively innovate with a view to solving problems wherever they find themselves – paid employment or own business. Unfortunately, entrepreneurship education is really not doing this the way it is supposed to.
The approach(es) to entrepreneurship education must change. The starting point is to align the curriculum to the myriads of problems plaguing our society. The curriculum must be customized towards solving such problems. Those that will teach the contents of the curriculum must be trained and retrained. In fact, we need more of Professors of Practice as it is obtainable in some advanced countries. A lecturer whose research outcomes cannot solve any problem in the society may actually not be able to teach anyone how to solve societal problems. We need to change the way we do things at the moment if we must achieve different results.
It needs to be added that entrepreneurship requires collaborative efforts so also is entrepreneurship education. Institutes of Entrepreneurship Studies in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions must, as a matter of necessity, begin to collaborate with industry players as well as other key stakeholders if the education being given to undergraduates will be 21st Century compliant and useful in the society. Internship should not just be for the purpose of getting high grades, but to acquire functional training that can readily be put to use while the students are still in school. In fact, internship should be modelled after apprenticeship that will lead to ability to solve practical problems.
As good as vocational trainings such as ‘sewing’, ‘tie and dye’, ‘soap making’, etc. are, such skills may not really bring about the desired economic growth and development if not powered by technology. There are institutions of government in Nigeria which research into and teach technological entrepreneurship. Institutions such as the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), an Agency of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, have worked extensively with development partners such as the World Bank in this area. Our tertiary institutions should work hand in hand with such institutions. In 21st Century, the currency is knowledge. Knowledge becomes cutting-edge when institutions collaborate and cross-fertilize ideas. To take entrepreneurship education to the level that it will be a problem-solving tool, technology must be deployed and so institutes of entrepreneurship must interact and interface with possessors of technology education.
Besides the highlighted ways out of the unemployment conundrum using entrepreneurship education, it is considered expedient that tracers’ studies must be conducted by Institutes of Entrepreneurship Studies in our tertiary institutions. This is crucial for two reasons: to measure the impact of entrepreneurship education on the recipients of such education and to use the recipients as a source of inspiration for those coming behind. If those coming behind know that those who have gone ahead of them are doing well with the knowledge acquired, it will serve as morale booster for them.
Unemployment or underemployment is a menace. It is an enabler of vices and it affects man socio-economically and psychologically. The attendant problems of unemployment could not have been better depicted than with the words of AsmundAamass et al. that “since employment is a key source of identity and an organizational frame for daily life in our cultures, unemployed individuals suffer psychological and social distress. It is well researched that unemployment is connected with negative health consequences. Unemployment leads to stress-related illnesses and a lowered self-esteem as a result of unmet psychological and social needs in such contexts as: time structure, social interaction, common goals, status, identity, recognition and also uncertainty about the future, financial instability, and loss of vocational identity…. That is why questions of coping become key issues”. The best way to cope is to have scalable skills. The scalable skills are imbued in entrepreneurship education tailored towards solving societal problems. It is time to rethink, re-package and re-jig entrepreneurship education in our tertiary institutions!
Oluyi is a personal development advocate and head of public relations unit of the National Centre for Technology Management, an agency of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

California is entering the COVID-19 vaccination lottery trend with the biggest contest yet.
Ten vaccinated residents will have the chance to win $1.5 million each, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday. The winners of the $15 million worth of cash prizes will be selected on June 15 -- the same day when the state plans to fully reopen its economy.
The grand prize is part of a $116.5 million vaccine incentive program for vaccinated Californians.
A $50,000 cash prize will also be awarded to 30 residents. The announcement of those winners will be evenly split across June 4 and June 11.
Both contests are open to residents ages 12 and up with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. For minors who win, the cash will be put in a savings account for them until they turn 18. All Californians who have had at least one COVID-19 dose will automatically be entered to win both contests, the state said. The prize will be awarded once the winner has completed their vaccination series.
The state is also offering incentives to newly vaccinated residents. As of Thursday, the next 2 million people who begin and then complete their COVID-19 vaccination will automatically be eligible to receive a $50 virtual prepaid card or a $50 grocery gift card for select locations, while supplies last. Newsom said he hopes for the state to fully distribute those winnings by June 15.

"These are real incentives," Newsom said during a press briefing Thursday announcing the program. "These are an opportunity to say thank you to those not only seeking to get vaccinated as we move forward, but also those that have been vaccinated since we first availed those opportunities a number of months ago."
Newsom planned to make the vaccine incentive announcement Wednesday, but delayed it following a mass shooting in San Jose that morning.
In an interview with "Good Morning America's" Zohreen Shah earlier this week, Newsom teased the contest.
"A lot of local governments are doing things, but we have prepared for this moment when we start to see a first dose drop-off. And what we're seeing in the last week is a first dose drop-off, still steady on the second dose," he said. "We were waiting for that first dose drop-off to then pull the trigger."
As of Thursday, more than 21 million people -- 63% of the state -- have received at least one vaccine dose in California, according to state data. Half of the state's population is fully vaccinated.
With those ages 12 to 15 newly able to receive the Pfizer vaccine, California officials estimate there are now 12 million people who are eligible and have not taken the shot yet.
Newsom said he hopes to get over 70% of adults vaccinated by June 15, and "significantly increase" the number of younger residents. The state has other ideas for beyond that date, "but we want to see how far this takes us before June 15," he said.
When asked by The Associated Press about how he would respond to criticism that this is "bad spending of public dollars," Newsom said, "I think the worst spending is burying your head in the sand and continuing to do what you've done and not achieve the goals of getting all of us back on our feet, keeping people healthy and safe."
"We can't afford to run the 90-yard dash," he said. "We got to finish the job."


These are real incentives that bring more attention and are the trigger for the next dose.

The new ginger-processing facility by a Lagos-based agro-service firm, Truvis Agro-services, is delivering export-ready solutions with capacity to strengthen Nigeria’s economic value chain.
For stakeholders in the Nigerian agro-product sector, the rejection of the nation’s exported food items by EU -and other countries across the globe- has been a major setback to making the agricultural sector a major revenue earner. According to industry experts, a lack of warehouses, processing and storage facilities had been major contributing factors to the decline of agro-based exports.
Despite all these challenges, ginger export accounts for 23 per cent of the country’s GDP according to Nigeria Export Statistics. This is largely connected to its domestic and industrial use. In 2016, Nigeria was the third-highest exporter of ginger, preceded by China and India. In 2017, Nigeria had a world production share of 11.5 per cent, representing 349.9k tons of ginger. Over the years, the production of ginger in Nigeria has been on the increase.

Fully vaccinated US inbound travelers to Puerto Rico no longer have to present a negative COVID-19 PCR test, effective today.

In addition, those who are unvaccinated and international arrivals may present a negative antigen test result to enter.
Curfew lifted
As well, the local curfew established in March has been lifted.
Additional reduced restrictions include increased capacities for businesses, raised from 30% to 50%; the removal of a mask requirement for fully vaccinated individuals at parks and beaches; and permission to consume alcoholic beverages at pools and beaches. The reopening of Puerto Rico's coliseums, popular for entertainment experiences, will also be permitted at 30% capacity, with all attendees required to present either a vaccination card or negative antigen test to gain admission.

The Federal Government has promised to reduce irregular migration, to provide jobs for teeming unemployed Nigerians and tackle insecurity.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Dr. Yerima P. Tarfa, disclosed this in Lagos, during the Steering Committee meeting of GIZ Nigeria’s Programme Migration for Development.
The event was also used to officially open the Nigerian-German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Re-integration building, which would provide vocational and entrepreneurship training to returnees and the local populace.
Tarfa said the occasion was important because it afforded stakeholders an opportunity to reflect and refresh minds on where “we are and where we want to be in the battle against irregular migration.”
He said Federal Government alone couldn’t provide all jobs needed by Nigerian youths, especially against the backdrop of unemployment statistics released recently by Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The Consul General of the German Consulate in Nigeria, Dr. Stefan Traumann, congratulated the PME Team Lead on the Centre’s launch, as many Nigerians have already benefitted from its services by gaining meaningful employment and skill acquisition.
He attributed the Centre’s success to collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and commended its hardworking and unwavering commitment to tackling unemployment in Nigeria despite the restrictions and challenges caused by COVID-19.
Although we are faced with such a bad situation as COVID-19, many people have lost their jobs. With such cooperation, I believe it will get better and better.

Since the global target of Health for All was declared in 1978, Primary Health Care (PHC) is universally recognized as the approach to achieving this goal. A primary health centre should be the first place where people seek healthcare. A functional PHC ensures people receive comprehensive care which begins from promotion and prevention to treatment, curative, rehabilitation, and palliative care that is accessible to everyone in the community.
The centrality of the PHC to health and wellbeing of communities is aptly described by the World Health Organization -- It is estimated that throughout the course of a person's life, primary care can meet 80-90% of his/her health needs. Research has shown that health-seeking behaviour is influenced by various factors including quality of service delivery, proximity of health facility, affordability of services, and availability of drugs amongst others. Unsurprisingly, most Nigerians now resort to patent medicine stores as the preferred place to seek healthcare when they are sick. The associated dangers of this can be overwhelming -- people could lose their lives due to poor quality of care and other mishaps.
To improve utilisation of Nigeria's primary health centres, which are at the heart of the primary health care system, the following needs to be done:
Improving the standards of Nigeria's primary health centres
PHC revitalization is key in achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The World Health Assembly in 2005, adopted a resolution in which countries were encouraged to develop strategies that will ensure all people have access to needed healthcare services without the risk of facing any financial hardship at the point of care or after accessing care. Nigeria is signatory to the post-2015 SDGs and UHC agenda.
Despite being a signatory to these resolutions, the government of Nigeria and other healthcare stakeholders are still faced with the huge task of providing standardized care for its citizens at the grassroots.
According to the World Health Organisation, scaling-up PHC interventions across low and middle-income countries could save 60 million lives and increase average life expectancy by 3.7 years by 2030. To enable PHCs meet the required standard care, a functional primary health centre should have skilled human resources, medicines, infrastructure, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities, should be easily accessible to the community, as well as deliver patient centered healthcare services. A report by Nigeria Health Watch, which assessed the WASH services in PHCs in the Federal Capital Territory and Niger State, revealed that 70% of the hospitals assessed do not have running water in the toilets. This shows clearly that there should be an increased sense of urgency for strengthening WASH services as well as improving infrastructure to increase quality of care in PHCs.
Using communication to drive change
To increase community utilisation of primary health centre services, community education is key. Community members need to understand what healthcare means and how it affects them, as well as opportunities to access healthcare in their respective communities.
In 2019, EpiAFRIC supported Niger State Contributory Health Insurance Scheme to develop its communications strategy, to educate Niger State residents on the benefits of health insurance and solicit their enrolment into the scheme. The communication strategy document detailed targeted key messaging to different segments of community groups including farmers, market women, and road transport workers, among others.
The introduction of community health insurance is important and has the potential to solving a wide range of problems with regards to access to healthcare. Some of these problems include high cost of healthcare services and poor quality of healthcare delivery. The benefit of a community health insurance program will be unknown if the concept is not communicated to communities in a manner that they understand. Therefore, a communications strategy for health insurance could help convey clear and easy to understand messaging to community members about benefits of health insurance, package of health services, premiums to pay and ways top demand better health services.
Traditional and religious leaders as advocates
Traditional and religious leaders are considered highly influential people in their communities and are usually revered. Their roles and responsibilities in their communities should transcend beyond traditional and religious affairs. They can act as change agents in communicating key messaging about the health of their community members. The "Why are women are dying while giving birth in Nigeria?" report produced by a consortium of Nigeria Health Watch, EpiAFRIC and Africare showed that 25% of women go to faith institutions to give birth in some communities visited in Lagos State. The report documented 133 maternal deaths between May 2019 to May 2020, out of which 18 deaths occurred in faith-based institutions.
Faith-based institutions are not healthcare centres and therefore, do not have the capacity to manage healthcare situations. Traditional and religious leaders can help to discourage such practices in their communities by educating and redirecting sick people to healthcare facilities.
Leveraging community health workers
The impact of community health workers in supporting effective primary healthcare at the community level cannot be underestimated. The Community Health Influencers Promoters and Services (CHIPS) Programme introduced by the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) was instituted to deploy community-based health workers across political wards in Nigeria, with an emphasis on hard-to-reach areas. These health workers move from house-to-house to provide first aid care and health education to community members. Both state and local governments must ensure that there is budgetary allocation to pay these community health workers. The CHIPS programme is a laudable initiative that will strengthen the Nigerian health system. It bears similarities to the community health worker program driving the Rwandan health system.
For PHC and UHC to genuinely work for Nigerians, governments at all levels must make an urgent shift from health systems designed around diseases and institutions towards prevention designed with people at the centre of care. It begins with a strong focus on everyone everywhere getting the right health information, so they can make informed health decisions.

Health education is very important. We need to deepen our understanding of health knowledge so that we will not panic when we get sick.

Two of Nigeria's 36 states signed an agreement with Zipline International to use drones to distribute Covid-19 vaccines to hard-to-reach and conflict-ridden rural areas in Africa's most populous country.
Zipline, which is based in San Francisco, is completing the construction of hubs and distribution centres, as well as obtaining the approval of regulators to operate in the states of Cross River and Kaduna with a target to make the first deliveries within three months.
Along with a decrepit road network across Nigeria's countryside, "rising insecurity also means that traveling or moving medical products can be very challenging," Daniel Marfo, a senior vice president at Zipline Africa, said in an interview.
Nigeria, home to about 200 million people, has administered just under half of the four million AstraZeneca doses that it received in March, lagging behind a target to vaccinate 70% of its citizens above the age of 18 by next year.

An advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted Wednesday to recommend Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine for use in kids ages 12 to 15. The vote was 14-0, with one abstention.
The vote comes two days after the Food and Drug Administration amended its emergency use authorization for Pfizer's vaccine to include this age group and is considered one of the final steps needed before shots start going into arms.
CDC Dr. Rochelle Walensky accepted the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, recommendation shortly after the meeting ended on Wednesday afternoon, clearing the way for the shots' use in the 17 million young people in this age group.
"CDC now recommends that this vaccine be used among this population, and providers may begin vaccinating them right away," Walensky said in a statement.
During remarks Wednesday, President Joe Biden said his administration is working to get the vaccines to pediatricians and family doctors, as well as school-based clinics and community health centers.
What's more, he said, "more than 15,000 pharmacies across this country will be ready to vaccinate this age group" by Thursday morning.
Some states, such as Delaware and Georgia, began administering the shots immediately after the FDA's action. But most major pharmacies and clinics said they would wait for the CDC's input before vaccinating kids ages 12 to 15.
Vaccinating this age group is seen as a key way for middle and high schools to reopen fully by this fall.
The shots will be given in the exact same way they're given to adults — three weeks apart — with the same dosage. This is not unusual; doses of flu shots, for example, are also given at the same dosage levels for kids and adults.
Covid-19 has not sickened adolescents as significantly as older adults, though as of Thursday, more than 3.8 million cases had been reported in children, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. That represents 14 percent of total cases in the U.S.
But there has been a gradual increase in the Covid-19 hospitalization rate among 12- to 17-year-olds over the past two months, Dr. Sara Oliver, a medical epidemiologist with CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during the Wednesday ACIP meeting. Sixty-one percent of those teens had at least one underlying condition, most commonly obesity and asthma.
Covid-19 is also linked to a condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C.
As of May 3, Oliver said that more than 3,700 MIS-C cases had been reported, and they tended to be more serious in teenagers than in younger children — adding evidence for the potential benefits of vaccination.
More than 2,200 participants ages 12 to 15 were included in Pfizer's Phase 3 clinical trial in the U.S. About half got the real vaccine, while the others received placebos.
The shot was found to be 100 percent effective. Eighteen people in the placebo group developed symptomatic Covid-19, compared to zero cases among those who got the real shots.

fizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine was authorized for use in children as young as 12 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week - but do not expect schools to require shots for students anytime soon given public hesitation and political hurdles.
State governments for the most part can order a vaccine be required for a child to attend a K-12 public school, said Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, a University of California-Hastings law professor who researches school mandates and the legal issues around vaccines.
In all but a handful of states, a measure must pass the full legislature to be added to the mandatory vaccine list, Reiss said. No state government has mandated COVID-19 immunizations for schools, she added.
There is increased hesitancy over the shots because some of them rely on the newer mRNA technology and have been authorized on an emergency-use basis. Early studies also indicate children are far less susceptible to grave health complications from COVID-19, though they are not without risk and can transmit the disease.
Reiss said it is highly unlikely state legislatures will push through mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for children this year.
“It takes political capital, and my bet is that legislators will not even try until they can do it for children aged 5 and up,” she said. “They will not want to go through the process twice.”
It is clear proponents of mandates could face opposition. Even before vaccinations were approved for younger adolescents, Republican lawmakers in dozens of statehouses filed bills seeking to block COVID-19 vaccination mandates, mostly arguing the vaccines are too new to force people to take against their will.
In Kansas, Republican state Senator Mark Steffen, an anesthesiologist, crafted a bill that would strip the state’s department of health of its power to add a new shot to the existing list of required vaccines. The bill remains in committee.
“It’s a vaccine that is experimental, a vaccine that is gene-manipulative,” Steffen said during a March hearing on the bill. “Its long-term dangers won’t be fully known for decades.”
Researchers from Harvard, Northeastern, Northwestern and Rutgers universities, who are part of the COVID States Project, surveyed nearly 22,000 people nationwide in April and found that over a quarter of mothers were “extremely unlikely” to vaccinate their children.
Because of such reluctance, education leaders should not focus on mandating shots, said Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers (AFT)union.
“Right now it’s about convincing people of their efficacy,” she said of vaccines. “We have to build trust and confidence, particularly amongst our Black and brown parents who have borne the brunt of COVID.”
Weingarten and others representing school leaders and staff noted wide agreement that vaccines are key to a more normal school experience.
In a sweeping policy speech given on Thursday in Washington, Weingarten said in-person learning, five days a week across the country must take place in the fall.

Despite an ambitious policy launched in 2012 through the National Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) to encourage investment in sugar, increase local production and eventually reduce imports, the second largest sugar market in sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa is still a long way off. Achieving sugar self-sufficiency in the country.
Sugar production is expected to reach only 70,000 tons in 2021/22, about 7 percent lower than in 2020/21 (75,000 tons), according to the USDA's Lagos office. Sugarcane is mainly grown in northern Nigeria, where insecurity is particularly pronounced, especially in the sugarcane production belt of Kwara, Adamawa, Niger, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto, Oyo and Taraba states.
If there is little or no increase in sugarcane production, or even a decrease, sugar mill capacity will increase from 2.75 Mt/ton in 2019 to 3.4 Mt/ton in 2020, but these capacities are less than 70% utilized.
In Africa's most populous country, annual consumption is estimated at 1.6 t/y in 2021/22 and raw sugar imports are expected to be 1.8 t/y in 2021/22, compared to 1.75 t/y in 2020/21, with Brazil as the main supplier (over 85%) market share). According to the Foreign Trade Report, Brazil's raw sugar imports will total 263.8 billion N2 by 2020. as for refined sugar imports, they will remain stable at 130,000 tons.
Finally, Nigeria's refined sugar exports are expected to grow by 17% to 350,000 tons in 2021/22. " The BUA sugar plant, located in the Bondu Free Trade Zone in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, is primarily dedicated to refining imported raw sugar for export. On paper, the export of refined sugar appears to be beneficial due to the opportunity to earn foreign exchange. However, in the face of arbitrary price increases in the local market, the EPZ law gives the company the power to intervene in the local market. This is currently fueling a "sugar war" between the two major sugar companies (read: Nigeria bans refined sugar imports from free zones) observing that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) added: "For decades, with declining production and increasing imports, the established interest in the Nigerian sugar market has grown." Sales of Nigerian refined sugar flow from the major trading centers in northern Nigeria to the neighboring inland Sahel region, including West and Central African markets. This practice has increased with the successive depreciation of the naira exchange rate, which has translated into attractive prices for Nigerian sugar."

Two months into the ongoing vaccination against COVID-19 in Abuja, some medical experts have decried what they observed as growing apathy amongst FCT residents in the exercise.
They say the development portends danger to the well-being of residents of the nation’s capital.
Available statistics, as of May 6, 2021, revealed that a total of 96,559 persons had successfully been vaccinated during the first round of the exercise that is expected to end on May 14.
Programme Officer, FCT Immunization Services, Mrs. Salome Tor, described the residents’ apathy in the vaccination as unfortunate.
Tor made the revelation at the weekend while presenting the FCT COVID-19 vaccine accountability profile to a one-day media orientation workshop in Abuja. The event was organised by the FCT Primary Healthcare Development Board.
She said that as of May 5, 2021, over 104,700 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were still at the FCT cold store. According to her, no death has been recorded from the disease in the last two months, but there were 47 mild and two severe cases of reaction to the vaccination in form of rashes.
The programme officer said persons from 18 years and above are eligible to take the vaccine.
“Teams of health workers have been deployed to the six area councils. All government hospitals in the FCT have selected location for this vaccination. We also have special teams who visit various organisations or special locations. We urge people to go and vaccinate before the exercise closes,” Tor said.
The Executive Secretary, FCT Primary Healthcare, Dr. Iwot Ndaeyo, cautioned that avoiding vaccination by residents poses danger to everyone in the territory.
Ndaeyo, however, noted that FCT administration is working towards ensuring that 80 per cent of people in all communities are vaccinated to enable them to have immunity over the virus.
“We need at least seven out of 10 people to be vaccinated to be able to withstand the SARS 2 virus of COVID-19. Avoidance of vaccination will become dangerous to FCT communities. We advise that people should get themselves vaccinated against COVID-19. We started this in FCT on March 15, we have not seen anybody with serious complaints about the vaccine in FCT. People should take this vaccine in the health facilities in the 62 wards of the FCT. The vaccines are safe,” Ndaeyo said.
World Health Organization (WHO) Consultant to FCT healthcare board, Abdulrasheed Jimoh, urged the media to help change the mind of the public about COVID-19 and the vaccine.

Abuja — The federal government has initiated a raft of measures to cut the cost of governance in the face of dwindling revenue occasioned by the headwinds of the COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant global economic tailspin.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said yesterday in Abuja that the measures were targeted at reducing recurrent expenditure, which is projected to gulp about 41.5 per cent of the total provisions of N13.588 trillion in the 2021 budget, amounting to N5.64 trillion.
She stated that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed the salaries and wages committee to review the payroll of public servants as well as consider the merger of some agencies.
Besides, the government will also remove some unnecessary items from the budget as a move to cut the cost of governance.
Ahmed spoke at a policy dialogue on 'corruption and cost of governance in Nigeria,' organised by the Independent Corrupt Practice and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Also at the occasion, the Director-General, Budget Office, Mr. Ben Akabueze, proposed a constitutional amendment to pave the way for the restructuring of the country into six regions instead of the present 36 states structure. This, he said, would help to reduce the rising cost of governance.
Ahmed stated that the proposed cost-saving measures was aimed at streamlining government expenditure with revenue.
She said: "We still see government expenditure increase to a terrain twice higher than our revenue."
She urged all government agencies to come together to trim the cost amid the country's dwindling revenue.
According to her, the nation's budgets are filled every year with projects that are recycled and that are also not necessary.
"Mr. President has directed that the salaries committee that I chair, work together with the head of service and other members of the committee to review the government pay rolls in terms of stepping down on cost," she added.
The minister said the federal government would also review the number of government agencies in terms of their mandates, adding that the government will consider merging two agencies with the same mandate.
She said: "We need to work together; all agencies of the government to cut down our cost. We need to cut down unnecessary expenditures-expenditures that we can do without.
"Our budgets are filled year-in-year out with projects that we see over and over again and also projects that are not necessary."
Akabueze, in a paper titled: 'Reducing the Cost of Governance in Nigeria,' described the country's current system of democratic governance as very expansive and expensive.
He said the constitutional provision that mandated the president to appoint a minister from at least each of the 36 states, should be amended to reduce the number of federal cabinet members.
He cited the large federal structure to be one of the drivers of the high cost of governance and engendering public outcry that government spending is largely on recurrent activities at the expense of capital projects.
While describing the subsisting fiscal policy as unsustainable, Akabueze said the persistent call for the reduction of governance cost had continued to gain momentum in view of its impact on government fiscal situation.
He stated that the cost of governance is considerably cheaper in the United States from where Nigeria copied the presidential system of government.
According to him, the general cost of administration in the United States is less than 10 per cent of the total annual budgets while the United States, with a higher population than Nigeria, has only 15 secretaries and executive departments as against Nigeria, which has 27 ministers, 16 ministers of state and 27 ministries.
He lamented that the federal government is maintaining 943 Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with many of them having duplicated functions.
"There are 541 federal government-owned public corporations and enterprises. We need to cut these in order to install efficiency in governance. Also, we have a bloated civil service. The current civil service structure and size is clearly unsustainable for Nigeria's economy," he said.
He warned against the tendency where the civil service is accorded political, ethnic and religious patronage.
"A comprehensive staff auditing and job available is imperative to determine the right size of the federal civil service without having any adverse effect on the service. And to avoid duplication in the civil service, the staff rationalisation programme should be gradual," he added.
Akabueze said the federal government's recurrent spending accounted for more than 75 per cent of the actual MDAs expenditure between 2011 and 2020, in addition to personnel cost which accounted for government significant spending.
He accused the MDAs of incurring excessive personnel costs and wilfully indulging in wide range of underhand practices that are driving governance cost out of the ordinary.
According to him, in 2016, personnel cost was N1.87 trillion while at the moment the same cost has spiralled to over N3 trillion.
The effect of the rising cost of running government, Akabueze added, is the reason why only 30 per cent of the budget is available for capital project and the cause behind many abandoned capital projects nationwide.
He said: "Personnel cost accounted for 31 per cent and 63 per cent of the total spending and retained revenue in 2020. In the USA, the general administration cost is less than 10 per cent of total budget."
He challenged Nigerians to task themselves on governance, saying that the success story of the Asian Tiger was a product of sound leadership and determination.
ICPC Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, described the cost of governance as the driver of corruption in Nigeria.
He said the government was committed to improving the country's revenue by focusing on new and existing sources and by streamlining payroll.
He added that the federal government would also ensure removal of subsidies and reduction in the cost of contracts and procurement are for the benefits of the vulnerable.
He listed critical area of concern to include payroll padding and the phenomenon of ghost workers.
The federal government's intended cost-cutting approach is coming amid a report by a public finance transparency advocacy firm, BudgIT that the 2021 federal budget contains over 316 duplicated capital projects worth N39.5 billion.
BudgIT, a public finance transparency advocacy firm, said in a report that the duplication of projects was just one among other loopholes for corruption in the budget.
It added that there were no audit records of N10.02 trillion received by the security sector between 2015 and 2021.
It said: "Our investigations into the 2021 budget revealed at least 316 duplicated capital projects worth N39.5 billion, with 115 of those duplicate projects occurring in the Ministry of Health. This is very disturbing, especially considering the health infrastructure deficit and the raging COVID-19 pandemic affecting Nigeria.
"BudgIT also found zero audit records of the N10.02 trillion received by the security sector between 2015 and 2021."
It also alleged that budgetary provisions were made for agencies for projects that are beyond their execution. It added: "Even worse, agencies now receive allocations for capital projects they cannot execute. For example, the National Agriculture Seed Council has an allocation for N400m to construct solar street lights across all six geopolitical zones, while the Federal College of Forestry in Ibadan in Oyo State got N50m for the construction of street lights in Edo State.
"These are aberrations that need to be corrected."

New Delhi: With registration having opened for all adults for COVID-19 vaccination on Wednesday, National Health Authority CEO RS Sharma has said the CoWin app and designated platforms will display the prices given by different entities and which hospital is offering which vaccine and at what price.

In an interview with ANI, he said all information will be made available to people and NHA will continue to announce as and when states come on board.

Noting that the registration started at 4 pm today, he said "people must know, making registration is one part and getting an appointment is the other".

"The appointment will be based on the facilities available. The programme is to start on May 1. There may be situations where some states will come on May 1 whereas some will be able to come later. The visibility in bookings or vacancies will be available as and when facilities come on board. So people should have patience. We are creating a separate search facility to see the vacancies available," he said.


Appointments at state government centers and private centers will depend on how many vaccination centers are ready on May 1 for vaccination of those above 18 years of age. The government had liberalized its vaccination policy after an unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases in the country.

Sharma said they were ready and geared up for large number of registrations.

"We had a test registration of about 5 million people in a day on the registration platform. Maybe the number will be double that after registrations are open. We are ready for it," Sharma said.

"We will continue to announce as and when states come on board. We will provide information in public. The advice to people is that you log in and get an appointment only when you see vacancies available," he said.

Sharma said some states and hospitals may come on board on May 1 or later, therefore, the visibility into the bookings/vacancy available for vaccination will be available when states, hospitals come on board.

Asked if there was a hurry in launching the programme as there is a perceived gap in the supply of vaccines, Sharma said states will continue to come on board.

"There will be no situation where everybody is ready at the same moment. We started the programme and they will continue to come on board. Some may come early and some may come onboard later. The system must go on," he said.

He said people of over 45 years will continue to be vaccinated free of cost by the central government.

"So people should not think that the vaccination programme has been halted and restarted after May 1. We just changed few policies and liberalised the programme. We will announce as the states will come on board," he said.

"We will provide information in public so people do not have to log in every time to look out for available vacancies. We are creating a separate facility on our portal. Also, third parties will also be able to develop the facility as we have an open API policy. Once you can see a vacancy then you may log in to the system," he added.

He said availability of facilities be it in the government or in the private sector will be displayed on the portal.

"The platform will display the prices of vaccines available in different hospitals. People can also know the type of vaccine being administered at different facilities. The app will display the prices given by different entities. The platform will display which hospital is offering which vaccine and at what price. For private facilities, the type and price of the vaccines will be visible," he said.

Nigeria is planning to spend tens of billions of dollars on its rail network in coming years; with $5bn worth of projects flagged off this year alone. The aim is to cut the spiralling cost of transporting goods around the country, boost property values outside of Lagos, and make travelling around the country safer.
When Lagos-based Miftah Adediran broke ground on his cashew and other cash-crop businesses in Ibadan about five years ago, he banked on the government’s promise of a railway that would help haul his crops to Lagos, whence they could make their way in trucks to the congested Apapa port for export. Next year, Adediran might finally get to export his crops from Ibadan, via a railway that goes all the way to the port.

ABUJA (Reuters) – The United States should consider moving its military headquarters overseeing Africa to the continent, from Germany, to better tackle growing armed violence in the region, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday.
Nigerian security forces face multiple security challenges including school kidnappings by armed gangs in its northwest and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea as well as the decade-long insurgency by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which also carries out attacks in neighbouring Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
West Africa’s Sahel region is in the grip of a security crisis as groups with ties to al Qaeda and Islamic State attack military forces and civilians, despite help from French and United Nations forces.
Buhari, in a virtual meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, said U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), should be relocated to Africa itself.
“Considering the growing security challenges in West and Central Africa, Gulf of Guinea, Lake Chad region and the Sahel, weighing heavily on Africa, it underscores the need for the United States to consider re-locating AFRICOM headquarters… near the theatre of operation,” said Buhari, according a statement issued by the presidency.
He spoke a week after the death of the longtime president of Chad, Idriss Deby, in a battle against rebels.
Deby was an important Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants and under him Chadian soldiers formed a key component of a multinational force fighting Boko Haram and its offshoot, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
“The security challenges in Nigeria remain of great concern to us and impacted more negatively by existing complex negative pressures in the Sahel, Central and West Africa, as well as the Lake Chad Region,” said Buhari, a retired major general.
AFRICOM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Nigerian government, on Monday, said it will not accept vaccines from private and unverified sources.
Health minister Osagie Ehanire while speaking during a briefing of the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 said this is due to the high rate of fake COVID-19 vaccines in circulation.
“Due to warnings by international police organizations of the high rate of fake covid19 vaccines said to be in circulation, and reports of risks of adverse events reported after vaccination, Nigeria will not accept vaccines from private and unverified sources,” Mr Ehanire said.
He, however, said the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is pursuing initiatives to test and authorise more vaccines for use in Nigeria.
Nigeria has received approximately 4.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, which is quite insufficient considering the target of its population eligible for vaccination in the first phase.
The Nigerian government had said it plans to vaccinate 109 million people against the COVID-19 virus over a period of two years.Health authorities said only eligible population from 18 years and above will be vaccinated in four phases.
Due to the low availability of vaccines, states across the country were recently directed to halt vaccination once they use half of the doses allocated to them to ensure those who have taken the first dose receive the second dose.
“We believe that in a situation where, we still cannot specifically determine when the next batch of AstraZeneca vaccines will arrive, then I think wisdom only dictates that it is better for us to vaccinate people fully,” Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora had said.
The head of Nigeria’s immunisation agency, Faisal Shuaib, on Monday admitted the global scarcity of COVID-19 vaccines due to high demands. This, he said, will further affect the remaining phases of the vaccination campaign in the country.
The safety of vaccines from private sources is really impossible to judge. There are many fake COVID-19 vaccines that have not undergone formal testing. If they are vaccinated, it is not known what adverse symptoms will occur. Therefore, we must wait until a regular vaccine appears before vaccination can be carried out.

Despite the curbs enforced and the reduced staff capacity due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the United States Embassy and Consulate General in India has strived to issue visas to students planning to study in the United States of America (USA) on priority. Students who are planning to pursue various study programmes at different levels in the country for the academic year 2021-22 are encouraged to apply for their visas.Robert Batchelder, consular section chief, US Consulate General Mumbai, told the Free Press Journal, “Prior to COVID-19, Indian students comprised the second largest population amongst foreign students studying in US universities after China at the top. They contribute around 8 billion dollars annually to the US economy through academic tuition fees, accommodation and other expenses.”
Batchelder said, “Though the pandemic has had a significant effect and we are working with reduced staff members, our priority is to extend our consular services and process student visas. We are also catering to the emergency requests sent by students in exceptional cases.”
As per the data reports of the US Department of State-Bureau of Consular Affairs, 15,323 F-1 (which is the visa required for a student academic or language training programme in the USA) or student visas were issued to Indian students for the fiscal year (FY) 2020 calculated from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020 by the United States Embassy and Consulate General in India. While in FY 2019, 43,714 F-1 or student visas were issued to Indian students.
Batchelder said, “We are maintaining all the COVID-19 safety protocols. Currently, there might be some delay in scheduling visa interview appointments due to the limited staff for offline visa interviews on account of the curbs. But, we are fully committed to every possible effort needed to process visas for students.”

With the country now well on its way towards vaccinating adults, experts say vaccinating children is critical to building herd immunity.

The vaccination of children must be promoted under the premise of ensuring safety, because children belong to a special population and must be absolutely safe.

Mrs Uko Itohowo, the Director, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme, says COVID-19 has worsened Tuberculosis (TB) cases in Nigeria as about 60 per cent of patients go unnoticed and untreated.
Itohowo said this on Monday in a virtual media seminar with newsmen in Ilorin.
She said that according to the 2020 World Health Organisation (WHO) report, Nigeria is ranked first in leading cases of TB in Africa and sixth in the world.
She said currently, TB kills 18 Nigerians every hour, with a record number of 47 Nigerians developing active TB every hour, seven of which are children.
Itohowo observed that all attention were being placed on COVID-19 to the detriment of TB, which is equally a deadly disease.
She said that although TB is a deadly disease yet with proper treatment it could be cured.
"The inability of tuberculosis patients to access medication during the COVID-19 lockdown worsened the spread of tuberculosis in Nigeria.
"Thus, about 150,000 persons died of tuberculosis in Nigeria in 2019 alone according to a World Health Organisation report," she said.
Itohowo listed symptoms of tuberculosis to include fever, loss of weight and protracted cough.
She said, however, that contrary to misinformation, tuberculosis is curable, and urged people with persistent cough that has lasted for two weeks to go for a test.
She said that with early diagnosis, TB could be cured within six months, adding that treatment of tuberculosis is free at designated hospitals in the country.
"TB is not spread through shaking someone's hand, sharing food, touching bed linens or toilet seats, or sharing toothbrushes.
"TB is also not contracted through witchcraft, but airborne," she explained.
Itohowo therefore appealed to media practitioners to assist in sensitising the public about the causes, prevention and treatment of the disease. (NAN)

The U.S. State Department said on Monday it will boost its "Do Not Travel" guidance to about 80% of countries worldwide, citing "unprecedented risk to travelers" from the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This update will result in a significant increase in the number of countries at Level 4: Do Not Travel, to approximately 80% of countries worldwide," the department said in a statement.
The State Department already listed 34 out of about 200 countries as "Level 4: Do Not Travel," including places like Chad, Kosovo, Kenya, Brazil, Argentina, Haiti, Mozambique, Russia and Tanzania. Getting to 80% would imply adding nearly 130 countries.
Most Americans were already prevented from traveling to much of Europe because of COVID-19 restrictions. Washington has barred nearly all non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in most of Europe, China, Brazil, Iran and South Africa.
The State Department said the move does not imply a reassessment of current health situations in some countries, but rather "reflects an adjustment in the State Department's Travel Advisory system to rely more on (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's) existing epidemiological assessments."
CDC did not immediately comment.
Earlier this month, the CDC said people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can safely travel within the United States at "low risk" but CDC Director Rochelle Walensky discouraged Americans from doing so because of high coronavirus cases nationwide.
"We know that right now we have a surging number of cases. I would advocate against general travel overall," Walensky said. "We are not recommending travel at this time, especially for unvaccinated individuals."
During the pandemic, imposing travel restrictions can effectively block the spread of the virus. Many countries are implementing this measure. If the United States had realized this problem long ago, it would not have caused so many people to be infected.

He also said there are ongoing therapeutics efforts of various kinds. The development of vaccines, tests and therapeutics these days, he said, are aided by “automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, so this is a strong point of synergy between science and engineering.
The president, similarly, recalled some of the opportunities for collaboration witnessed during the COVID-19 lockdown period, citing as an example the “huge potential for the creation of effective technologies for tele-work activities, including Telemedicine and Fintech.”
However, other than what the president pointed out and, in fact, recent breakthroughs in superconducting materials reveal the interdisciplinary thrust of modern science and technology.
The past fragmentation and specialisation of scientific and technical fields is countered by the need for joint research, occurring in several institutional contexts-university, governmental and industrial-and on an international scale, all affecting the nature of science, engineering and technology communication.
In fact, recognising the fact that our country’s security and economy depend upon its scientific and technological base means that government is increasingly becoming aware of the crucial roles being played by science and engineering and or technology.
Yet, at the same time, the internal dynamism of science and technology requires complex and costly endeavours, making them increasingly dependent upon governmental support and, hence, public approval.
Informing the general public and policymakers adds external dimensions to communication needs.
Furthermore, the complex nature of innovation requires greater and speedier communication within the science-technology community, met by more publications and advances in electronic communications, but not to the exclusion of the human element.
In the material sense, scientific and technological activities refer to the elucidation of unknown phenomena and to the creation of new knowledge, through the discovery of new natural laws and principles, and the new knowledge obtained is then utilised in the real society.
The essence of how science and technology contribute to society is the creation of new knowledge and then utilisation of that knowledge to boost the prosperity of human lives and to solve the various issues facing society.
With the shift to a knowledge-based society in the 21st century, the creation of new knowledge is an increasingly important aspect of scientific and technological activities and the role of science in this knowledge creation is important for the realisation of science and technology for society.
However, in addition to the utilisation of science and technology for the development of pharmaceuticals through the creation of new industries as highlighted by Buhari, it is important in regards to the development of local policies for science and technology for government to focus its attention on Nigerians and to utilise science and technology for them.
On their part, the research institutions and corporations, which are the main actors in scientific and technological activities, should consider the needs of Nigerians and make their outcomes of science, engineering and technological research useful and helpful to Nigerians.
Still on Chibok girls’ rescue…
President Muhammadu Buhari spoke, clearly and loudly, when he took over Nigeria’s presidency from Goodluck Jonathan in May 2015, saying that “we cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents.”
At the time the president spoke, one year had already passed since the 276 Chibok schoolgirls were kidnapped by the insurgent Islamist group of Boko Haram.
The ill-fated girls were seized from their dormitory at the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state, in a midnight raid on 14 April 2014.
Their ordeal, since then, underscores the toll the Boko Haram insurgency has taken on over one million children, especially girls, in North-east Nigeria and – to a lesser degree – in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
The fate of the Chibok girls has come to symbolise the horror of the insurgency, because the victims have been publicly identified by name and face. But there have been countless other incidents where unnamed thousands have been abducted, brutalised and sexually violated by insurgents. Scores have been sent to their death in suicide bombing missions.
Now it is seven years after that ugly, sad incident of the girls’ abduction and Nigerians are still waiting to see their government do everything it can to find the girls and Boko Haram’s many other victims.
Therefore, it is gladdening that the Presidency, this week, for the umpteenth time, reassured parents of, and all concerned citizens that, the missing students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state, are not forgotten.
A statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, said that the government is working to secure the release of the remaining Chibok girls.
“Efforts to secure their release through various channels and activities of the security and intelligence agencies remain on course,” the statement said, adding: “The recent decisive push by the military against the terrorists gives hope that a breakthrough is possible and could happen anytime soon.”
Thus, rightly, the statement called on the people to support, understand and pray for the security personnel as they discharge their mandate to quickly finish off the insurgency and free all citizens held hostage.
Of course, it is baffling, but understandable, why the government has yet failed to get the girls released. The previous government’s response to the kidnapping and, indeed, insurgency, highlighted the problem with security and governance in Nigeria.
The reaction of the previous administration ranged from initial indifference and denial to later incompetence and deception. Crippled by corruption and mismanagement, the government failed or was unable to respond promptly or effectively to the incident.
The then military authorities falsely reported that the girls had been rescued, then later claimed they knew where they were being held but lacked the capacity to carry out a rescue operation without endangering their lives.
Thankfully, now with the renewed determination on the part of the the present administration to free the girls and the recent appointment of equally apparently determined service chiefs, it is the hope of parents of the abducted girls and entire Nigerians that the girls will be back home safely.