₦airaland Forum

OP, the thing taya me sef. There is no longer credible wailers on this forum.

Where is Diezanni?

Kudos to you OP. Many Nigerians definitely prefer this new government to the last one. Jonathan and his thieving fellows are better consigned to the sorry past of our dear nation.

I really wish to see the breakdown analysis of why our senators and representative need these much salaries to survive. Isn't this outrageous?

Highly commendable...wish all of us could have giving-back heart!

OP, this post by Passing shot was enough for me. I wish I could like it hundred times.

PassingShot:
Stop crying Chief Wailer!

No one stopped GEJ from probing his predecessor/s. He had a choice and chose what he wanted. It's PMB's time and he will decide who and who to probe. Wailing from now till 2019 will not change that.

The fact is that for any nation to move in the right direction and progress toward real development, each and every government must be held accountable for her actions and inactions. Only when people realize that they will be called to answer for their deeds and misdeeds would they behave reasonably.

President Buhari cannot probe all past govts for lack of time and enormity of the tasks at hand but he is morally obliged to look into actions of his immediate predecessors and not all before him.

If he probes Jona, Nigeria will have taken a very giant step in moving towards accountability. When PMB is done too, let his successor probe his tenure. Before we know it, our elected officials will be guided in their deeds knowing full well that there are consequences for their actions while in office.

dearpreye:
Is this supposed to be news? He's supposed to have moved in there since May 29th!

Well, at last we can rest.

Hater spotted!

Equalizer:
Wonderful analysis but you forgot to calculated the total number of SE voters that where disfranchised cos the relocated from North to South for sake of uncertainty and were unable to vote...

Different reasons can be adduced by many disenfranchised voters. Insurgency in the NE for example. In Ogun State, PVC collection rate was about 65% for some reason. So, we can only talk about the figures we saw and not what the figures could have been.

onatisi:
look at the result of sw and u will see that apc only won by a very slim margin.

Equalizer:
SW and NC wasn't a total lost for PDP cos if you study the results closely, you will discover it was kind of head to head fight.. The election has come and gone and we have learnt our lessons too.. let's see how 2019 will be..

That slim margin must be up to half a million votes. Add about a million votes margin from NC and you have 1.5 million votes. Take 1.5 million votes from GMB's total and add to GEJ's and you will understand that the election was decided by SW and NC.

Equalizer:
Politically its possible dear.. The players over there didn't do their homework well...

Nothing they could have done in 2015. Bauchi and some other NW states have always gone to GMB even when he had no solid structures there. PDP should realize they lost the election in SW and NC.

Equalizer:
I said it before now that Adamu Mua'zu must go cos he's a betrayal... How can a former governor of Bauchi state not deliver PDP in his state... I never trusted that man from the onset... Fayose our able role model please expose him...

How could any sane person expect PDP to defeat GMB in BauchI? Something they couldn't achieve in 2011.

From the look of things, I can confidently say Nigeria will regain its lost glory. I believe GMB would keep his promise of keeping greedy and self-centred politicians at arm's length given all these info emanating from the rumour mills.

10. Buhari Knows that Failure is Not an option.
Buhari is aware of the expectations of Nigerians and as such knows that he has to act differently. In a recent news report on how he intends to tackle Boko Haram, our amiable president-elect said:

[b]"My administration, which will take office on May 29, will act differently – indeed it is the very reason we have been elected. This must begin with honesty as to whether the Chibok girls can be rescued. Currently their whereabouts remain unknown. We do not know the state of their health or welfare, or whether they are even still together or alive. As much as I wish to, I cannot promise that we can find them: to do so would be to offer unfounded hope, only to compound the grief if, later, we find we cannot match such expectation. But I say to every parent, family member and friend of the children that my government will do everything in its power to bring them home".

Buhari has the political will to take decisive actions which are what is required in tackling many Nigeria’s problems. It is the lack of political will that made his predecessors to fail and it is my hope, as many others’ that GMB will succeed where they failed.

Long Live President-Elect Buhari
Long Live APC
Long Live FRN[/color]

Great post! Surely, Buhari will succeed and all opposing spirits would be put to shame.

It is quite shameful and embarrassing that even at 54, Nigeria has not matured beyond this stage. I truly hope to see my dear country purged of all these thugs and imbeciles like Orubebe that have infiltrated the ruling elites in Nigeria.

GEJ is drunk. He has nothing tangible to campaign on and shamelessly campaigning on promises. Perhaps it needs to be drummed into his coconut head that Buhari is the only one who has the privilege to promise what he intends to do when he becomes our next president and not him who has FAILED WOEFULLY after almost six years at the top.

Otuoke awaits The Clueless One after May 29th, 2015.

GEJ till 2019.

The speech is presidential and delivers the core values that Nigeria requires to rise up again. I pray that we get it right this time by voting thus man as our next president.

Boring and lacking in substance.

The below article is really long but I feel it worth reading. We might find one or two important lessons.

One 58-year-old woman from Indiana still struggles daily from memories of her father forcing her, her mother and siblings at gunpoint against a wall while he shot a ring of bullets around them.
Robin, 43, still lives with her mother, who she says has verbally abused her since childhood. Robin said she has repeatedly been told she’s worthless and a big disappointment. Now she’s undergoing weekly therapy, while seeing an abuse counsellor, and taking medications to help her function.
Still another 28-year-old woman of Washington, who asked that her name not be published, says she’s so emotionally terrorised by her mother that she’s adopted a survival strategy: “They say that time heals all wounds, but I’ve found distance to be more helpful.”
It has long been clear: Childhood abuse of any kind — physical, sexual or psychological — has profound impacts on children, adversely affecting mental and physical health throughout life. The chronic levels of stress hormones kill off brain cells and shrink the hippocampus, the brain’s emotional centre.
Now a growing arm of research is pointing at the impacts of psychological and emotional abuse — the constant pronouncements that the child is worthless, stupid or doomed to failure, with chronic neglect causing its own dire impacts.
A study published last month in the American Psychological Association journal, Psychological Trauma, Theory, Research, Practice and Policy, analysed 5,616 youths in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Core Data Set with lifetime histories of one or more of the three types of abuse — psychological maltreatment (emotional abuse or emotional neglect), physical abuse and sexual abuse.
Most (62%) had a history of psychological maltreatment and 24% of all cases were exclusively that type of abuse, which included “inflicted bullying, terrorising, coercive control, severe insults, debasement, threats or overwhelming demands” from a caregiver. Neglect includes a child being shunned or isolated.
Psychological abuse during childhood becomes encoded in the brain.
The memories become tyrannical, heightening the risk of high rates of depression, anxiety disorders, low self-esteem or post-traumatic stress. Suicides among these victims occur at the same rate, and sometimes at a higher rate, than among children who were physically or sexually abused, the study says.
The psychological effects also can lead to chronic health problems including heart disease and diabetes. Impacts also can include problems dealing with others, isolation or desensitization or difficulty in dealing with authority. Some resort to self-injury.
Tamika, 35, stepped forward to tell her story about persistent childhood abuse she experienced that has forged a difficult adulthood.
She said her mother, who now lives in California, called her ugly and worthless, once impulsively cutting off her bun of hair to give her an uneven chop, only to deride her for being bald. She also would cut off her ponytails for no reason. The African-American child was verbally abused on a daily basis, with her mother chiding her dark complexion, she said.
There was also some physical abuse, she said. Based on lifelong self-analysis, Tamika says she believes she was mistreated because she resembled her father, who disappeared from the family in Mississippi when she was a young child.
“The problem with my mother is that she had such evil intent toward my father, and I looked like him. So she tortured me because she wanted to torture him,” said Tamika, who spent years in foster homes and now is a single mother of two. “There were negative comments — that I would amount to nothing, that I would always be on the street, that no one wanted me.
“To this day you still feel that no one will ever want you,” she said.
Robin of the North Hills said her mother was controlling and never once said, “I love you.” “She would speak for me and to me, and I wasn’t allowed to speak,” she said. “She put me in the closet for hours for bad grades. She was badgering, calling me stupid, dummy and that I would never amount to nothing. I was always nervous around her and never wanted to tell her anything. If I brought home a friend, she would make the friend go home. She tried to be the centre of attention. I will never hear something nice from her.”
In time, she retreated into her own mind. She got involved with the wrong friends, which persists to this day. She married and has a young daughter, who is her sole source of joy, she said. But her husband committed suicide after she announced she was gay. She moved from job to job, quick to quit whenever reprimanded. “I didn’t give notice. I just say, bye-bye.”
In time, Robin would be diagnosed with bipolar disorder and found herself taking 10 prescribed medications, including antidepressants and mood stabilisers. She had electric shock treatment. “I could write a horror book,” she said.
In recent years, she began dealing with the issue. She found a doctor who replaced the medications with one that stabilises her mood and emotions, along with help from her therapist and abuse counsellor.
“I’ve only started dealing with it recently,” Robin said of her mother’s behaviour. And yet she can’t forgive, let alone forget. “Your mother is supposed to be your best friend. Not me.”
Among the three types of abuse, psychological maltreatment was most strongly associated with depression, general anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, attachment problems and substance abuse, the study states. Psychological abuse that occurs along with other types of abuse caused significantly more severe and far-ranging negative outcomes than when a child was involved in physical or sexual abuse.
Maltreatment can be so impactful that the study equates it with the impacts on children who simultaneously had been sexually and physically abused. It leads to behavioural issues at school, with attachment problems and self-injurious behaviour.
Substantiating psychological abuse is difficult for caseworkers because there are no physical wounds, said study leader Joseph Spinazzola, vice president of the Justice Resource Institute and executive director of its trauma centre in Brookline.
“We were surprised at how frequently psychological abuse was associated with the worst impacts of any maltreatment types,” he said. “Psychological abuse is like a hidden stain, and these people are stained with the sense of who they are.”
They don’t like themselves, he said. They expect to fail. They have problems finding healthy relationships. They internalise messages that they are inferior and unworthy of love and success. “It leads people to hate themselves,” Dr Spinazzola said.
And, yet, the person often ends up spending a lifetime trying to establish a connection with the abusive mother or caregiver, even if they can’t make it happen. People innately seek to connect with their parent, with studies showing young monkeys preferring to stay with their mothers and starve rather than be separated with access to food.
“Those who never had security as children never let that go,” Dr Spinazzola said. “And when people chronically are stuck there, the yearning for a connection doesn’t go away. Their target is the perpetrator (of abuse). The person is longing for love and care. It’s ironic and sad.”
Those abused in childhood struggle to come to terms with their past while fighting urges to blame themselves. — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Ibnsultan:
If Jonathan has the fear of God in him..... He won't even vote for himself on Feb 14, 2015....... He is a comprehensive failure."

O boy, you wicked o. Na GEJ you finish like this so. Da ris God oooo.

This is quite interesting...thanks for the share. Will definitely try a whole lot!

Qatar has stopped issuing entry visas to travelers coming from countries affected by the deadly virus Ebola, an official from the Supreme Council of Health (SCH) confirmed.

The ban will remain in place until the health situation improves as part of a “protective strategy” employed by the SCH and the Ministry of Interior (MOI) to prevent the spread of Ebola to Qatar, the Gulf Times reports.

The director of the SCH’s public health department, Sheikh Dr Mohamed bin Hamad al-Thani, is reported to have made the statement during a workshop on “preparations for epidemics and and health conditions for Hajj.”

The ban will affect visitors to Qatar from countries including Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, which have all had confirmed cases of Ebola.

According to the most recent update from the World Health Organization (WHO), as of Aug. 26, a total of 3,069 cases of Ebola have been officially recorded. There have been 1,552 deaths as a result of the virus.

While the virus has primarily struck Guinea, Liberia and Sierre Leone, Nigeria has had 17 associated cases, including 13 confirmed, of Ebola and a total of six deaths related to the virus.

Meanwhile, WHO officials say the first case of Ebola in Senegal has been confirmed.


The Ebola virus has non-specific symptoms and an incubation period of between two and 21 days.

As such, WHO recommends against imposing travel restrictions or screening arriving passengers with thermal imaging scanners to detect those who might have a fever, saying such measures are costly and ineffective.

However, passengers arriving recently into Hamad International Airport (HIA) have reported seeing cameras set up, just before passport control.

Dr. Mohamed al-Hajri, director of health protection and communicable diseases control in the SCH’s public health department, confirmed that thermal cameras were being used at HIA to detect and control the spread of viruses such as Ebola, the Gulf Times reports.

Al-Thani added that to date, no cases of Ebola had been detected at HIA.


Nigerian visitors

It appears that the new visa ban is particularly affecting first-time visitors to Qatar arriving on tourist visas.

Several Nigerians who hold Qatar residency permits told Doha News they had recently re-entered the country, following a summer break, without problems.
However, Doha News has learned of at least one case in which a Nigerian woman and her two young children were denied entry to Qatar on Friday morning.

While no official reason was given for her refused entry, her family suspects it was due to fears over Ebola. Doha News was unable to verify the suspicions.

The woman was travelling to Qatar for the first time on a visit visa to meet her husband, who has been working here for a year.

On arrival in Qatar, the women and children were told by an immigration official they could not enter the country, and were taken by a security officer to departures.

They boarded a flight back to Nigeria later that night.

Speaking to Doha News, the family member – who asked not to be named – said:

“She feels really bad about what has happened. She is very disappointed and so is her husband.

“Everyone in Nigeria is very surprised about what happened. It’s the first time we have heard about someone being sent back.”

The Nigerian Ambassador to Qatar, Shuaibu Adamu Ahmed, told Doha News that the embassy was aware of the reported case and it was investigating the issue.

He said that Nigerians had been allowed into Qatar last week. However, he added that the embassy would be monitoring future flights from Nigeria to assess the situation.

A Qatar Airways flight from Lagos is due to land at HIA at 11:45pm tonight.

In a statement published on its website, Qatar Airways says it is “monitoring the situation (regarding Ebola) very closely.”

It adds: “(We) are in contact with both local and international health and aviation organisations to ensure that all necessary and appropriate measures are in place to protect our passengers, our staff and the general public.”

It advises passengers to avoid non-essential travel to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Qatar’s tightening of restrictions follows the death earlier this month of a Nigerian woman, suspected to have had Ebola, who flew to Abu Dhabi on an Etihad flight.

May those of us hoping to travel to Qatar can learn one or two lessons from this article.


The trading of illegal workers’ visas in Qatar is at the heart of the country’s problem with human trafficking, a senior Ministry of Interior (MOI) official has said.

Brig. Nasser Mohammed Al Sayed, Director of the MOI’s Search and Follow Up Department, was speaking at a tw0-day consultative meeting in Doha this week about ways to combat human rights violations at home.

The meet was organized by the Qatar Foundation for Social Protection and Rehabilitation (QFSPR) and the United Nations Human Rights Training and Documentation Center for South West Asia and the Arab region.

It aimed to raise awareness of trafficking issues, encourage greater collaboration between authorities in Qatar and regionally and to set out guidelines for reform.

Definition

Foreigners in Qatar are required to hold visas to work in the country. Each year, hundreds, if not thousands, of expats get caught in a grey system, where they essentially purchase permission to work in the country, but find out only upon reaching Doha that the visa they bought had no real job attached to it.

They then become trapped in the country because they cannot afford to return home, or because a recruitment agency is holding on to their passport.

Others may have signed on to do a particular job, but their visa is classified under a totally different occupation, a practice that is against Qatar law.

Though human rights groups have documented dozens of such cases in Qatar, an official at the Public Prosecution’s office said that the country did not see any human trafficking cases in 2013.

Gulf Times reports Ibrahim Abdulla al-Qubaisi, Prime Solicitor-General, as saying:

“Based on the legal definition of human trafficking crimes, no such offences were recorded in Qatar in 2013.

Crimes such as visa trade could be considered as fraud, deception and greed rather than human trafficking. The crime usually happens outside the borders of Qatar, where the victim pays money for people to get them into the country. Our local legislations apply only to the country.”

The SFD’s Al Sayed added that no Qataris have been convicted of illegal visa trading, saying the blame usually lies with a company’s expat partner.

GCC database

According to the Gulf Times, Al Sayed also called for a region-wide integrated database to be established. This would help authorities share information and ensure that those convicted of illegal visa trading in one Gulf country are banned from entering all other GCC states.

Last year, a total of 51 firms were prosecuted for trading in illegal visas, while 43 jail sentences were handed down in fines – adding up to millions of riyals in payments for companies involved in the practice, local media reports quote Al Sayed as saying at the event.

Meanwhile, the problem of human trafficking in Qatar appears to be growing.

Throughout 2013, the MOI’s Search and Follow-Up department handled 1,046 complaints of human rights abuses by sponsors against their workers.

However, in just the first four months of this year (Jan. 1 to April 29), it dealt with 877 such complaints.

‘Corrupt’ recruitment agencies

Semi- and unskilled worker are often lured to Qatar and other Gulf countries under false visas, for which many have put themselves in enormous debt in order to pay recruitment fees of up to $5,000 a time.

A Qatar Foundation report published last month highlighted fundamental problems facing the worker recruitment process.

The Migrant Labor Recruitment to Qatar study called for an overhaul of the system of recruitment of blue-collar workers to Qatar, which it said was riddled with corruption, and marred by bribery and deceit.

While not denying that problems exist inside Qatar, the report focused on recruitment agencies based in the five main labor sending countries of Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

The broken recruitment system rife in many agencies gives rise to human rights violations and exploits vulnerable workers.

Anti-trafficking law

Qatar’s Law No. 15 of 2011 outlaws human trafficking. If convicted, perpetrators can face up to 15 years in jail and fines of up to QR300,000 for the trafficking of women and children.

However, international human rights organizations and the media have roundly criticized Qatar for not doing enough to protect the rights of its majority immigrant population, particularly low-income workers.

The consultative meeting, which was attended by MOI officials, experts from the Public Prosecution and social workers from QFSPR, highlighted 11 recommendations for reform of the system in Qatar to tackle the problems.

Proposals included:
Encouraging more integrated partnerships between the MOI’s Search and Follow Up Department, the QFSPR, the Public Prosecution and the Supreme Judicial Council;
Developing regional and international alliances with relevant organizations; and
Creating a national strategy for Qatar, in line with existing Arab and global strategies for combating human trafficking.

http://dohanews.co/moi-official-illegal-visa-trade-facilitates-human-trafficking/

jpphilips: The only sane thing to do was not allowing Sawyer to bring that virus here just like Ghana, Ivory coast and Senegal have done, anything short of that is a reverberation of the failure of Govt and the laxity of the Mofo who parades himself as the Health Minister.
About washing hands, Nigerians will appreciate it better if the Govt stick to its usual propaganda mechanism, same way they exchange words with APC, or the same way they told us that no Nigerian has the Virus at the demise of Sawyer, i believe Nigerians will learn better that way.

If Nigerians like this OP can get inebriated by the fact that her govt is teaching her to "wash hands" by inviting a lethal virus, then sane minds like me should be asking if Nigerians are cursed or we are the cause?

My dear brother, part of the duties and responsibilities of any sensible government should be ensuring good hygiene among the populace and that should be by 'teaching' them or canvassing proper sanitation or good personal hygiene such as simple act like hand washing. Doing so will not only safe the government from the needs to regularly deal with pandemics such as Ebola but also the entire community would be healthy as many infectious diseases are known to transmit mostly through the hands. I think the issues of poor hygiene and improper sanitation in Nigeria, which is allowing infectious diseases and others like malaria to thrive should be of concern to us more than saying someone is getting 'inebriated' that government is teaching us hand washing by inviting lethal virus.

More people are joining in too!

Qatar residents urged to take up ALS ice bucket charity challenge

Joining the ranks of media moguls, tech giants, musicians, actors and politicians, several Qatar residents have been taking up the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

The fundraising effort requires participants to be doused with a bucket of ice water while being filmed. They then nominate three or four other people to do the same thing within 24 hours.

The videos are uploaded to Youtube or Facebook, usually with the hashtag #ALSicebucketchallenge, #icebucketchallenge, or #strikeoutALS.


Alvaro Herrera/Flickr
In one version of the challenge, those who participate are required to donate $10, while those who are challenged but opt out are supposed to donate $100 to help fund research on Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”

There is currently no cure for this fatal illness, which affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.

However, in most cases, the challenge is carried out in lieu of a monetary donation, with nominees carrying it out in the name of raising awareness of the condition.

The challenge is not without critics. Many people have for example said it encourages the wastage of clean water, and there are also safety concerns from doing the challenge wrong.

Still, the attention has paid off – the American ALS Association said it has raised some $31.5 million in the past month, compared to $1.9 million raised during the same period a year ago.

Qatar trend

It’s not clear who carried out the first Ice Bucket Challenge in Qatar, but many local residents have recently posted videos of themselves participating in the effort. They have also been nominating friends, both in Qatar and abroad, to continue the challenge.

For example, Khalifa Saleh Al Haroon, co-founder of ILoveQatar.net, recently posted a Youtube video of his take on the ALS fundraiser. He in turn challenged several others, including Qatari comedian Hamad Al-Amari:


ILQ is also holding a mass challenge tomorrow (Aug. 22) at 8am at the St. Regis Doha. Participants are asked to bring their own buckets and towels, and to dress modestly. The hotel will provide water and ice.

Another resident who took the challenge a few days ago is Tejas Kumar.

The 21-year-old Indian expat, who this week posted his video on Facebook, said he enjoyed the communal aspect of the challenge – which has been taken up by noted personalities like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, George W. Bush, Steven Spielberg, Lady Gaga and David Beckham.

Speaking to Doha News, Kumar added:

“It’s a pretty great way to get people talking – and that’s what matters. Sure, money to fund research is great, but what gets you money is people, and what gets you people is awareness. Creating a website with a payment gateway and putting the link everywhere doesn’t nearly work as effectively as a viral, people-fueled movement.

That’s exactly what the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is. Moreover, some people simply don’t have money…because they’re genuinely strapped for cash. For such people who are willing but unable, this is a great way to further this noble cause.”

Tiffany Ho, a 28-year-old American expat who was nominated by a friend in Doha, said the challenge motivated her to learn more about ALS:

“I (had) heard (about) the name of the disease before but didn’t really know how it affected patients with (it), even after I started seeing the campaign. It wasn’t until I was challenged myself that I read about it,” she said.

http://dohanews.co/qatar-residents-urged-take-ice-bucket-als-charity-challenge/

Yes, that's Nwosu's family preparing for Xmas. Does anyone also remember reading about 'Mr. Giwa is a trader'?

Hi guys, below is my thought on lessons that we must take away from the Ebola virus reaching Nigeria. Let's all hope and work together to prevent its spread. I hope you'll enjoy reading.

If the Ebola virus disease (EVD) has come to Nigeria for any reasons, it must have been to teach Nigerians two important lessons. One is to always observe orderliness and the other is to ensure good personal hygiene and cleanliness, which they say is next to ‘Godliness’. I want to believe that Ebola has borrowed Patrick Sawyer as its carrier to teach Nigerians, in one of the hardest ways, how to keep good hygiene and be more organized in all of their affairs.

Since the news of the first EVD infection broke in Nigeria and until now, we have seen drama in the manner people behave when it comes to safeguarding themselves against the killer virus while they go about their daily businesses. In a bid to combat the virus, some have attempted bathing and drinking salty water while some were reported to have consumed bitter kola as if they were sure it cures EVD.

Ebola is very deadly and fierce, especially due to its mode of transmission, which can be through contact with victims’ blood, sweat, saliva, mucus, urine, faeces and other bodily fluids. With this mode of transmission, if any community should be at high risk for Ebola pandemic, it is such that exists in Nigeria where majority of the population cohabit in jam-packed apartments with communal toilets and bathrooms and even kitchens. Many don’t have access to toilets not to talk of keeping proper sanitation whereby urinating or defecating at every available space in nearby bushes of shrubs. In such instances, how can you distinguish between an ‘Ebola patient’s urine or faeces?

Bush meat – another probable way that Ebola is being transmitted, is a special delicacy for some people in Nigeria. But with the popularity of EVD, many have shunned eating bush meat. Those who love to eat ‘Suya’ (barbecue beef), a popular snack in Nigeria, are also being teased that they might contract the virus thus avoiding it. Many Nigerians also depend on ‘Buka’ (roadside food vendors) for daily supply of their meals. No one really inspect these vendors to ensure food is prepared to acceptable standard. Without batting an eye, Nigerians buy and drink home-made beverages such as tea, cocoa drinks, ‘sobo’ or ‘pito’ (hibiscus/rosette flower drink), ‘kunu’, ‘wara’ ‘fura de nunu’ (all cow milk products). Now tell me, if Ebola should be endemic in Nigeria, why do we think people won’t contract the virus in large number if they don’t take extra precautions?

But one thing to note is the news filtering out that a good number of people now appreciate cleaning and grooming themselves on a daily basis while they also avoid shoving and pushing that we regularly witness at bus parks and market places, especially in Lagos and other big cities. There have also been news of how Lagosians now queue up and file up in an orderly manner when boarding commercial vehicles just to avoid contact with the next person and how people avoid shaking hands but chose to salute each other instead in the manner our brothers from the North will usually great their chieftains saying ‘rankadede Alhaji’ while holding up one arm, with raised fist, in the other. Even most of our leaders now prefer that way of greeting too.

It is a good thing that the virus is still not anywhere near being an epidemic in Nigeria as cases were only confirmed in Lagos State and one blood sample from Kaduna tested positive. However, the proactive reaction of citizens (both comical and seriously) and how contacts and victims are being identified, except for the few non-conformists like the nurse who escaped to Enugu from Lagos quarantine centre, is also reassuring and encouraging that the virus has not come home to roost in my beloved country.

Meanwhile, we can only hope that those at the helm of the affairs will continue with the momentum of salvage people's lives and ensure that the virus does not spread further as I believe this is what should be paramount in the mind of any sensible government, realising the susceptibility of its people. Let's pray the government and the health personnel will continue to rise to the occasion and ensure the virus does not have a foothold in our backyards.

As the world follow Ebola updates with bated breath and openly wish for it to be contained soon and for a cure or vaccine protecting against EVD become a reality, I will implore Nigerians to seriously consider keeping good hygiene and cleanliness; as well as ensuring proper sanitary health aside avoiding contact with any person sick with those symptoms similar to EVD. They should also ensure to carry on with proper hygiene education beyond Ebola and ensure this is passed down to generations yet unborn as I believe that there is a great lesson in Ebola’s spread to Nigeria.

You can also read more stuff by me at https://rovingscribe./

Official daily updates about EVD and more about its symptoms and mode of spreading can be viewed at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/en/