₦airaland Forum

stroller9795:
Is this all you've got?

stroller9795:
I swear!

FIGARO00:
Forget it, anybody that's in Maria's group for any task should just accept failure.

The girl is bad luck, pure bad luck.


What is she ever good at?

The World Health Organisation announced on Wednesday that it would soon begin a worldwide clinical trial of three new candidate drugs for the treatment of COVID-19.

The global public health agency said the scheme is being undertaken in the latest phase of global solidarity clinical trials to find effective treatments against COVID-19.

Under the Solidarity PLUS programme, the therapies – artesunate, imatinib and infliximab – will be tested on hospitalised COVID-19 patients in 52 countries.

There have been more than 203 million cases of the disease recorded globally as of Wednesday, according to WHO.

The world hit the 200 million mark last week, just six months after cases passed 100 million.

Speaking during a press conference in Geneva, WHO’s Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, underscored the critical need to find more effective and accessible COVID-19 therapeutics.

“We already have many tools to prevent, test for and treat COVID-19, including oxygen, dexamethasone and IL-6 blockers.

“But we need more, for patients at all ends of the clinical spectrum, from mild to severe disease.

And we need health workers that are trained to use them in a safe environment,” he said.

The three drugs were selected by an independent panel for their potential in reducing the risk of death in people hospitalised for COVID-19.

They are already being used to treat other conditions.

Artesunate is a medicine for severe malaria, imatinib is used for certain cancers, including leukemia, while infliximab is used to treat Crohn’s Disease, rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases of the immune system.

Manufacturers Ipca, Novartis and Johnson & Johnson, donated the drugs for the trial.

Solidarity PLUS is the largest global collaboration among WHO’s 194 Member States, with thousands of researchers in over 600 hospitals participating.

Finland is among the 52 countries taking part, 16 more than the initial Solidarity Trial, and contributes to the COVAX vaccine solidarity initiative.

Two university hospitals in Finland have been the first worldwide to begin the second phase.

Hanna Sarkkinen, the country’s Minister of Social Affairs and Health, said clinical trials had a great potential to save lives.

“Even though there are approximately 3,000 clinical studies on COVID-19, most of them are too small to yield significant information. We need clinical trials that are large enough to bring better treatments for COVID-19 patients,” she said.

Four drugs were evaluated under the initial Solidarity Trial in 2020, which showed that remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir and interferon had little or no effect on hospitalised patients with COVID-19.

lebete3000:
Kevee picks Maria for touch your toes...

CSTRR:
The quality of Nigerian Women has degraded seriously.

You are chatting with a working class lady for the first time trying to toast her, and the next thing is that she is asking for recharge card.

Haba.
This is Someone that earns her own money.

And the problem is not even the card.

The problem is that I have mentally downgraded her now from "serious relationship" to "fucckk and run" level.

Too bad.

Ayo2004:
Chai..... I am imagining doggy with that queen I go too feel like a king ehnn
Our sugar daddies dey enjoy sha

Bianda24:
JMK backside is bad. I just dey pour sperm out ni

Idamond:
Queen the new house mate says She do philanthropist for a living..

in other words she be advance olosho, see her 26yrs old nyash wey done collect series of huge dickolona..

this my fellow akwa ibomite dey fall my hands

The Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IkejaElectric) says it is not currently metering customers due to the exhaustion of prepaid meters assigned to the company by the Nigerian government under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP).

Felix Ofulue, the spokesperson of the DisCo, said this on Friday while addressing the press in Lagos.

Mr Ofulue said the company received about 106,000 meters in the NMMP and has since distributed it to customers.

“We have practically done 99.9% of the meters, we have exhausted the meters completely. People are not getting meter now because we don’t have any on ground,” he said.

The Nigerian government in 2020 approved the NMMP to cater for the shortfall in the metering of electricity consumers in Nigeria.

The objective of the programme is to end estimated billing by the DisCos and attract private investment in the provision of metering services.

The government sought to roll out six million meters in two years. It, however, rolled out one million meters in phase zero of the programme.


Ikeja Electric
Speaking on the metering of customers, Mr Ofulue said the one million metres were shared among the 10 discos and Ikeja Electric allocated over 106,000 meters.

Explaining the criteria for distribution, he said the company focused on customers who were impacted by the recent increase in electricity tariff, the Bands A, B, and C.

“Bands D and E are not affected by the new tarrif and have no extra payment. But Bands A, B, and C were metered so that they manage what they use,” he said.

With the exhaustion of the allocated meters, Mr Ofulue said the DisCo is waiting for the next phase of metering to distribute meters to more customers.

“About 50 percent of customers in the network have been metered. Over 400,000 households have been metered,” he said.

This figure is out of over one million households captured in the database of the DisCo.

Electricity Infrastructure
On who bears the responsibility for stolen or damaged electricity infrastructure, Mr Ofulue said the company takes care of it but that many customers are impatient and end up replacing the equipment themselves.

“The provision of electrical infrastructure is the responsibility of the discos; transformers, lines, cables, and co,” he said.

“Whenever you see otherwise happening, it means the community is tired of waiting maybe because the disco is not active and they want to engage in self-help.”

The official, however, clarified that communities in which thefts of electrical infrastructure happen often would not receive frequent attention from the disco because “it makes no business sense.”

“If we keep spending money on an area and things keep getting stolen, it means there is a sabotage happening. It is simple business logic and it is a critical topic we have with community leaders for them to secure electricity infrastructure in their areas.

“We are trying to beautify and make our transformers look decent. It is when it is dark, dingy and messed up and people will go there to vandalise,” he said.

Also speaking on outstanding debt owed to the company by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Mr Ofulue said it was a perennial issue and not the federal government that is directly owing the company.

“Federal Government is the bulk majority shareholder of all the discos, they own 40 percent of all the discos, so how can you say your owner is owing you?

“The issue of debt is perennial and for certain reasons, the company was appealing to the Senate because they are on the level where they lobby the government,” Mr Ofulue said.

He added that deliberations and meetings are ongoing to ensure the recovery of the debt owed to the company.

Kano State Government has made National Identification Number, NIN mandatory for students of government secondary schools in the state.

The state Commissioner for Education, Muhammad Sanusi
Sa’id Kiru who announced the new directive in a statement signed by his Public Relations Officer, Aliyu Yusuf said the students (JSS 1 to SS 2) must register and obtain the number.

Kiru said the directive becomes imperative to enable the ministry to establish an updated data base for all students in the state for the purposes of budgetary planning, keeping
optimum records to eradicate manipulations of students record
during examinations and, chances for malpractices.

He said it is also to ensure prudent and judicious application of government funds in the provision of qualitative education in the state.

The statement reads, “The Kano State Ministry of Education has revealed that all students in Public Secondary Schools Must register and obtain National Identification Number (NIN)
ftom JSS 1 to SS 2.

“That enrolling the student will enable the Ministry record demographic data, capture the 10 fingerprints, head to
shoulder facial picture and digital signature of each student.

“The Hon. Commissioner therefore called on the management of KSSSMB, Zonal Directors, Principals and Principal Directors to ensure strict adherence to the new directive as new biodata form has been designed to capture all the information needed.

“Consequently, the ministry has concluded arrangements in
conjunction with the state office of the National Identity Card Management to facilitate the issuance of the NIN number on Zonal basis.

“Hon. Muhammad Sanusi Kiru also warned that no student will be registered for Bece, Placement, qualifying or any other transitional examinations without the NIN number including also sponsorship of any external examinations by the state
government.

“To this effect, forms are to be distributed to all secondary schools to ensure that their students are properly captured and
documented. The staff of the NIMC will soon commence the NIN registration across the schools,” the statement concluded.

The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, John Tsoho, has explained why judges cannot waive their annual court vacation.

Mr Tsoho spoke in an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES.

Judges of many courts across the country have started their 2021 annual vacation with only a handful of them designated to hear urgent cases such as fundamental rights enforcement suits bordering personal liberty.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported that despite losing two months to an industrial action that paralysed the Nigerian judiciary earlier in the year and taking some rest during the period, many judges would be going on vacation for another two months in July.

The vacation, which usually lasts two months, is expected to begin this July and usher in the new 2021/2022 legal year in September.

With the judiciary perennially grappling with a huge backlog of cases which slows down the justice administration system in the country, many had expected that judges would cancel this year’s vacation having only recently resumed work after two months lost to the strike embarked upon by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) in April.

A civil society group, Access to Justice (A2J), had urged the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad, to let judges sacrifice this year’s vacation in view of the disruptions that were
occasioned by the JUSUN strike and last year’s #EndSARS protests.

Judges’ vacation statutory
However, Mr Tsoho in an exclusive interview with our correspondent, said the annual vacation was a statutory issue, noting that that those advocating its cancellation were calling for a breach of the law.

According to him, “Order 46, Rule 4 (d) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019,” guarantees the observation of the vacation which, for the Federal High Court, commences on Monday, July 26, and ends September 17, 2021.

“The issue of vacation is statutory because each court has a provision in its rules as to vacation. And that is why it’s even improper for people to have advocated that the CJN should ask judges to forgo the vacation,” he said.

“So, what they (lawyers) don’t seem to appreciate is that by saying judges should not go on vacation, are urging that the law (rules of court) should be breached. How fair is that for the advocates of cancellation vacation?”

Mr Tsoho added that judges were not idling away during the JUSUN strike that paralysed court proceedings.

“Throughout that period of the (JUSUN) strike, I was doing my administrative work, and other judges actually delivered judgements by virtual means. So, it was not as if during the strike judges were sleeping or idling away.”

Background
JUSUN members had on April 6 shut down courts across the country for at least 64 days to press for the financial independence of the judiciary.

Earlier in 2020, despite losing months to COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Nigerian judges still took their two months’ vacation for the year.

While initially opposing JUSUN’s decision to embark on strike in April, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olumide Akpata, noted that Nigerian courts “are trying to play catch-up for lost time” as a result of the “prolonged lull in judicial activities owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and the enforced lockdowns”.

But despite this, many Nigerian judges are going to take another two months break from July to September. In the end, they will be taking four months off work for 2021.

Amoto94:
Chelsea are ‘leaving no stone unturned’ in their pursuit of Erling Haaland.

Everything is being ‘sounded out’ through intermediaries with Chelsea working every angle possible to see if they can get it done.

- Sky Germany via @Sport_Witness

VerifiedStalin:
James Gunn salivating over that pussy_ but will never get it. What a nerd.

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has said it was the height of deceit and hypocrisy for the Federal Government to approve N6.25 billion for ranching in Katsina State and released N5 billion, while same government is creating cattle routes and encouraging open grazing in other states of the federation.

Governor Ortom, who spoke at Makurdi airport, was reacting to the revelation by Governor Bello Masari, at the commissioning of the Zobe Water Project in Dutsima, Katsina State.

Masari had said: “Mr. President has graciously approved N6.25 billion for ranch development purposes in Katsina State, out of which N5 billion is in the account of the state government.”

Governor Ortom insisted that the Federal Government should apologise to him and extend the same gesture to Benue State by releasing N100 billion to Benue State for the establishment of ranches in the state.

Hear him: “So Mr. President approved N6.5 billion for ranching in Katsina State. What kind of hypocrisy is this? Are we a serious country at all?

“If the President would say that the Attorney-General of the Federation should ensure the relocation of those who have encroached on cattle routes and grazing areas to do open grazing despite the surge in the population from less than 40 million in 1950 to the over 200 million people today;

“And the same President is encouraging ranching in Katsina State where he comes from, that is certainly laughable and very hypocritical and deceitful.

“We need an explanation because it is a shame. Since 2017 we have been for ranching and of course you recall that the Governor of Katsina State did say that it is unIslamic for anybody to talk about open grazing.

“The prohibition of open grazing is the only thing that will help this country, including the provision for ranching.

“So if the President has approved N6.5 billion for Katsina State, they should also approve N100 billion for Benue State with an apology to me.

“It is not right for the Federal Government to approve money for ranching in a state and leave others out.

“And in fact the governor of the state, in his remark, said N5 billion had already been remitted to their coffers. So I begin to wonder, where are we headed?”

Governor Ortom, who lamented “the level of unbearable poverty and hunger the APC-led Federal Government has unleashed on Nigerians,” said the prophesy of late Fela Anikulakpo-Kuti of Nigerians suffering and smiling was currently playing out in the country.

ValCon888:
She'll be younger this year than she was last year.
These actresses always age in reverse.

VerifiedStalin:
Nope, the Avengers will feature in Phase 5 & 6. Kevin Feige has confirmed 'Avengers 5' will happen, but hasn't set a date yet. The X-Men could be integrated into the universe in Phase 5 and 6 or beyond. The future is bright.