Trump, Johnson, Abe, Trudeau, Macron et al, holding press conferences daily, STANDING at the dias, answering questions, allowing experts to speak, reassuring as best as possible their peoples.
APC/PMB version ? Two pictures of doubtful contemporaneity of an aged man posed at his desk as if studying for JAMB.
"You cannot give what you don't have" (In Wike voice)

No water in parts of Abuja also. Very unusual disruption esp during this critical time. Knowing this govt they either don't know or don't care and if called out, will blame heavy snow in Mongolia.

He isolates for 1 day and others are doing 14 to 21 days since symptoms can manifest in that time frame.
Certificate level thinking.
That picture proves nothing. He's lived in a bubble since May 2015.
And those calling on God to save Buhari but not their fellow citizens goes to show that supporting this Buhari is more like an article of faith. See what I did there
Don't @ me, ALL of Nigeria's politicians have nothing to offer once in power. A few make sense when not in office. They're all in it for themselves. And they will use this pandemic to stage a massive transfer of wealth to themselves in the name of "emergency management".
Ideally COVID-19 should wipe out an entire strata of Nigerian politicians so we can start over.

Talk about misplaced priorities. I'd say, if you cannot delay your wedding for 6 months out of an abundance of caution, perhaps you shouldn't be getting married at all.

The UK started requesting ppl practice social distancing on the 14th March. As someone else noted , Germany was already warning of the possibility of widespread infections from COVID-19. Kyari arrogantly believed he wouldn't be infected and probably became a super spreader here in Nigeria.
The lack of federal guidance or coordination with states on the possibility of widespread and persistent disruption ; the typically slow approach of this admin to even addressing the public ; the lack of clarity on whatever financial measures the govt will resort to to alleviate the economic effects of a lockdown ; the lack of urgency in contingency planning of our security agencies ; the patent idiocy of allowing states to craft their own responses instead of coordinating reactions to the pandemic.
Kyari is a poster boy of how ineffectual this admin handles any pressing matter. It's always someone else's fault in summary. Kyari has worked for no one but himself ever since they entered Aso Rock. Between herdermen menace, economic collapse and COVID-19 spreading we have direct metrics of how much Kyari helps Nigeria.

Too late.
Lagos by now has thousands of COVID-19 cases, multiplying daily if we look at the disease progression patterns from China, Italy, Spain and the UK.
Not to talk of the asymptomatic cases that have been travelling by road and air prior to the travel ban.
I predict that there will be a national curfew initiated for a few weeks with only security and essential personnel able to move in urban areas and no transport between towns and cities.
Not only will the virus have a devastating impact but the economic aftermath will be massive.
Hang on for a wild ride.

They should not treat them. Hospitals need to be focussed on preparing for worse to come. If.you self medicate, you pay the consequences.

AMVCA attempting to outdo the madness of the Met Gala sartorial stakes. Just because Lil' Nas X does it doesn't mean to say it's cool. Vulgarity everywhere.
Can we return to understated elegance ? After all, it is an award show.

"Sports leagues that have suspended/delayed their seasons or canceled events include the NBA, NHL, MLB, NCAA, MLS, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A and France’s Ligue 1. The English Premier League, in the same country that White plans to hold an event as scheduled, seems on the verge of joining that group after a player and coach on separate teams tested positive for the virus."
" The UFC] always go overboard with health and safety, and that’s what we’re going to do here,” White said. “I talked to the president and the vice president of the United States today about this. They’re taking this very serious. They’re saying ‘Be cautious, be careful, but live your life and stop panicking.’”

“Everybody is panicking, and instead of panicking, we’re actually getting out there and working with doctors and health officials...."

https://us.yahoo.com/sports/dana-white-ufc-coronavirus-president-donald-trump-022940222.html

So all major sporting events GLOBALLY are being curtailed and UFC and Dana White, after consultation with the President, are going ahead, even in a country (UK) that has suspended mass sporting events. Because, "panic".
The real reason Trump wants to keep UFC on the air is ? The UFC's parent company is William Morris Endeavor ( now Endeavor Group Holdings) the same group that handled Trump's reality show Apprentice and the Miss World franchise. Ari Emanuel is one of the two principals of WME. And, in 2016 Emanuel formed a PAC for Trump.
"Only the best"

RaptorX:
How come it is now he remembers the importance of prayer, why not before the crisis.

Does he even act or sound like someone who prays or contemplates prayer ? Now it's all "Hope's and prayers".

So I guess CoVID-19 is a bit worse than the flu after all.
Trump gives you the impression that, as Captain of a sinking ship, he'd be the first one on the lifeboat.
The world used to look to American leadership. Not any more.

New York judge imposed 20 years for a first-degree criminal sex act and three years for third-degree rape, to run consecutively

Just creates another chain of corruption in the minister of power's waiting room. Should the bill pass, the minister will be inundated with requests for exemption from all and sundry. How does the Senator proposing think the person will have time to do policy ?
Besides, this is attacking the patient instead of the disease. Does the bill propose compensating all those businesses in Lagos alone that run on generator ?
Raise your hands up in the back, those that "voted" for this man ?

They won't want to hear this
Those who doubt the schools exist should ask Sen. Aliero and the Senate President why they are wasting legislators time discussing schools that don't exist ; According to some GMB dead-enders.

The "change" they voted for.
Everything is tied up in "technicalities" whether legal or otherwise. Highway brigand Malami has never heard of probity because he's in it for himself. Simple as that. As most suspect, this chicanery is merely to organise how to reloot the monies under the guise of "infrastructure" development. Even the US can't stop that.

And whilst all this upheaval is happening Barkindo as OPEC Sec. Gen is bypassed and ignored by the world's global oil and gas players. He is not respected and his negotiation skills are ineffectual because they are non-existent. Of all the bright and able ppl in the O&G industry, GMB's admin chose to support a man whom Rilwan Lukman had jettisoned because he was notoriously corrupt. The Wikileaks cables below give an insight into how the industry views him.

https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09LAGOS33_a.html

Nigeria's seat at the table of OPEC has long been relegated to invited bystander status. Diezani and her "Marie Antoinette" sensibilities towards our oil finally convinced the world that Nigeria had no strategic value beyond propping up American hegemony. Barkindo's reappointment to OPEC was merely confirmation of our unimportance. We are victims of global power play as much as countries who don't even have oil.

Highly probable NoKo already dealing with CoVid19 at near pandemic levels nationally. They asked WHO for isolation equipment and medical clothing last month iirc. They have a long and porous land border with China, their biggest trading partner.
Firing off missiles is the follow up to their aid request. If the world is too consumed aiding themselves, expect NoKo to release CoVid19 V3.0, via "refugees" into SoKo. You can bet your bottom kobo they're bio experimenting with different strains on inmates in their massive gulags.
Possibly the most inhumane family run regime the world has ever seen.

A US that lied to the world about Iraq having WMDs and invading a country resulting in hundreds of thousands, possibly millions killed and global terror being unleashed is now moralizing about what WE, a sovereign nation, does with OUR money ?
Trump or his admin is the world's moral authority? On financial matters ? All the while saying Iraq should "repay" America in oil for the Americans invading, unprovoked ?
Using Trump's vernacular, bullshite, Nyet, non, bollocks, nein. Pick any.
America should return our money, no strings attached. How we use it is our concern. All politics is local, at least that's how the populists want us to see the new normal. Dueterte told the US to get lost with their military cooperation agreement and Trump praised him. Buhari should call the US out.
As for corruption, the US leads the world by many orders of magnitude. The private military contracts the Pentagon alone doles out with ZERO auditing and accountability is the size of Nigeria's annual budget.

Never understood why GEJ did not do this to empower the SE-SS alliance. No brainer. Employs thousands, diverts revenue from Lagos for Eastern production capacity etc etc.
The idea has been proposed before during Akpabio's admin. If Udom starts it, praise belongs to him.

Who are you gonna believe ? Mbaka or the French ambassador to Nigeria or even our own NSA ?

tsephanyah:
We suspect that the French are sponsoring Boko Haram

No, that would be Turkey, your Islamist fellow travellers, who sell arms to terrorists and hope that the same arms don't kill muslims because, you know, it's "haram". Go listen to the recording again.

The French are trying to stop the insecurity spreading from Mali to Niger to Burkina Faso with a tiny contingent of SF and EUROFOR SF troops. But they are losing the battle against bad governance, religious extremism, criminal syndicates and tribalism. Add Libyan instability and it's outflows to it and we have a large footprint regional crisis.

Lies,
There is a clip of an amateur loss he had (To Evgeny Romanov). Same exact shot on the eardrum had him wobbling and staggering.
He learnt nothing about keeping his front guard up and switching stances.
If he comes out next time with just a cut towel like Tyson used to, then perhaps, he has a chance.

Tbf, Sen. Bagudu got his amnesty under OBJ. It was agreed to in a UK court. Seems FG is bound to the agreement whether they like it or not.
What is disturbing is the fact that the "Distinguished Excellency" will be allowed to keep close to €100M (~N40B)! For doing what exactly ?
If you want to know the source of our modern democratic crises across board, look no further than OBJ's administration. All kinds of egregious precedents were set during that time, the negative effects of which continue to haunt us.

Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is opposing plans by Nigeria’s government to hand about $100 million the American authorities say was stolen by deceased former dictator Sani Abacha to a top ruling party official.

The disagreement may hamper future cooperation between the two nations to recover state money moved offshore by Abacha, who Transparency International estimates may have looted as much as $5 billion during his 1993-98 rule. A commitment by Nigeria to transfer the funds to Kebbi state Governor Abubakar Bagudu appears to undermine Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s pledge to quell rampant graft in Africa’s top oil producer.

The U.S. Department of Justice says Bagudu was involved in corruption with Abacha. The DoJ also contends that the Nigerian government is hindering U.S. efforts to recover allegedly laundered money it says it’s traced to Bagudu. Buhari’s administration says a 17-year-old agreement entitles Bagudu to the funds and prevents Nigeria from assisting the U.S., according to recent filings from the District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington.

“This case illustrates how complex and contentious repatriating stolen assets to Nigeria can be,” said Matthew Page, an associate fellow at London-based Chatham House and former Nigeria expert for U.S. intelligence agencies. “Instead of welcoming U.S. efforts, Nigeria’s lawyers appear to be supporting the interests of one of the country’s most powerful families.”

Neither Bagudu nor a spokesman for Attorney General Abubakar Malami responded to requests for comment. A spokesman for Buhari said the settlement and the litigation were matters for Malami. A spokesman for the DoJ declined to comment.

Successive Nigerian governments have sought to recoup the money looted by Abacha, who died in office, and have so far repatriated more than $2 billion with the cooperation of other countries, according to U.S. court filings.

In the case involving Bagudu, the U.S. in 2013 initiated a forfeiture action against a host of assets, including four investment portfolios held in London in trust for him and his family, according to the district court filings.

Laundered Money

The DoJ said in a Feb. 3 statement that Bagudu, 58, was part of a network controlled by Abacha that “embezzled, misappropriated and extorted billions from the government of Nigeria.” Bagudu is the chairman of an influential body of governors representing the ruling All Progressives Congress.

Despite the forfeiture action being initiated following a Nigerian state request in 2012, Buhari’s government now says it can’t assist the U.S. because it’s bound by a settlement Bagudu reached with the administration of then-President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003, according to the court filings.

Under the terms of that accord, which was approved by a U.K. court, Bagudu returned $163 million of allegedly laundered money to the Nigerian authorities, which in exchange dropped all outstanding civil and criminal claims against him “stemming from his involvement in government corruption,” according to a Dec. 23 memorandum opinion by District Judge John D. Bates in Washington D.C.

That meant “Nigeria renounced any interest whatsoever” in Bagudu’s trust assets, including those the U.S. is attempting to recover for the West African nation, the opinion stated.

Bagudu was able to return to Nigeria after concluding the settlement and was elected as a senator in 2009. Six years later, he was voted in as Kebbi’s governor in elections that brought Buhari and his party to power.

Investment Portfolios

After Bagudu successfully sued Nigeria for violating the 2003 settlement, Buhari’s administration reached a new agreement with him in October 2018, according to the court filings. That would result in the transfer of ownership of the investment portfolios, worth 141 million euros ($155 million) to the Nigerian state, which would then pay 98.5 million euros to Bagudu and his affiliates, according to Bates’ Dec. 23 opinion. The funds are currently restrained by the U.K. at the request of the U.S.

Nigeria’s government claims the updated 2018 agreement with the Kebbi governor, which requires court approval in the U.K., will “curtail and mitigate its looming exposure” from the judgment in Bagudu’s favor.

The full texts of neither settlement was published in the court filings.

Buhari’s administration submitted the 2018 deal to the U.K. court in September to support its application to unfreeze the assets so they can be sent to Nigeria, according to the opinion. The court has yet to make a decision.

(Updates with Bagudu’s election as governor in fifth paragraph after ‘Laundered Money’ subhead)

To contact the reporter on this story: William Clowes in Kinshasa at wclowes@bloomberg.net

Abba dis Abba dat. Daura come Daura go.
200M ppl waiting on two sick Octogenarians to determine their futures whilst we kill each other in poverty.
Next level things I guess....

Every aspect of security is imploding. Monguno cannot escape responsibility in this mess.
His antecedents did not fill one with optimism prior to him getting the job and he's met every expectation of not being fit for purpose.
Monguno himself has been under investigation for some time. Maybe this is his way of lashing out knowing the buck passes right through the boss's desk, just ringing around the cabinet.
What metric does GMB use to assess the performance of the security chiefs considering they have lost the public's confidence entirely ? Is it BH captives freed ? Terrorists killed ? Roads opened ?

83 certificates and none of them in political diplomacy, tact or honesty.
He's giving Harvard a bad name.

Dickson has proven to be politically inept from day 1. He is an extension of Jonathan's failed tenure. GEJ, out of all aspirants, picked a non-entity, equally clueless like him, to run his state.
Which Dickson did.
Right Into the hands of the opposition.
Which GEJ ended up supporting anyway in order to thwart Dickson.
To show you how daft and lacking in foresight Dickson has been, look at his antecedents. He persisted with the Sheriff faction till it was bundled out of power, despite it being clear to everyone (but Dickson) that Sheriff had ulterior motives. He then compounded his misgovernance at home by engaging his benefactor in a blame game, thereby splitting their vote to the opposition. He even tried to garner tribal sympathies by bringing "Ijaw nations" into his political travails. As in other things, he failed with this gambit.
Now at the sunset of his political career, he is opening Hotel. Let us hope for the sake of Bayelsans the hotel itself doesn't turn out to be a failure.
Dickson, in his shambolic exit from power is PDP in microcosm. Fumbling everywhere, lacking leadership and accountability, visionless. It can't even oppose without looking hypocritical.
He will be lucky to bot be prosecuted.

The "rubber-stamp" NASS leadership met GMB to discuss "insecurity ".
Meanwhile, Buratai is busy. Reassigning officers from the NSA's office because he is dragging with their boss. Over what, only God knows.
The only credential GMB has over his predecessor, being a former military junta leader, and logically better prepared on understanding the issues relating to security, has been proven to be a sham.
Economy-wack !
Foreign policy-wack !
Security-wack !
Anti-corruption-wack !
How did he "win" again ?

So these removals form a part of which strategy? Or is the strategy to combat insecurity and coordinate a national security plan part of the 38 Laws of Power book ?
Joke govt with joke ppl.
For exhibit A of Burutai's competence see his interview on BBC's Hardtalk with Sakur. Inarticulate, caught wholly unprepared, uncouth and lacking any insight.
I paraphrase but, "Tell me your cabinet and I'll tell you your competence as an administration". Well, Burutai has been retained above and beyond his incompetence. Moguno ? Well, that's another story.

I applaud Buhari's audacity in proclaiming this. He has all the facts. The rest is fake news.
I've read that a peace deal in imminent. Along with a comprehensive DDR program underpinned by the Abacha loot proceeds. I know of people looking to set up dental practices and free trade zones in Bama, such is the enthusiasm about the next 6 months.
Wailers should hug a transformer they can find that works. In Sambisa.
Also, the US visa ban will only apply to certain communities in the East (specifically Anambra), Southern Kaduna, Plateau and Oniru, Lagos. Others will be given a more lenient appeal process. Lauretta has it on her tweet.