₦airaland Forum

In life, mistakes seem to be the necessity of man. This defines our existence as a human, even those who claim to be perfectionist can never be utterly infallible. Hence, the accidental purchase of Tesla Vehicles.

We have all made mistakes in life, some of them costly. However, the richer you are there are correspondingly more chances of your mistakes being costlier. This is exactly what a gentleman in Germany realised recently when he “accidentally” ordered 28 Tesla Vehicles worth a total of Dh5.8 million (1.4 million euros).

In the words of a Reddit user with the username ‘Ballon-Man’, his dad wanted to replace their old family car with a brand new Tesla Model 3, encouraged by the cashback incentive to buy an electric car in Germany being doubled during the coronavirus pandemic. However, due to some technical glitch, the purchase order wouldn’t go through and the old gentleman kept trying to get the transaction confirmed several times. After a couple of hours of trying, the purchase was finally confirmed, not once, but for all the 28 attempts he made in that period!

This meant the overall Tesla Vehicles purchase amounted to a whopping Dh5.8 million (1,404,000 euros) along with 2,800 euros in non-refundable deposits.

In what appears to be an unprecedented manner and thankfully for him though, once Tesla was convinced it was a genuine mistake, the company helped him cancel all the orders. They even refunded the 2,800 euros in deposits.

While this is a lesson for all of us to be more careful when making online transactions especially during this “new normal” brought by coronavirus pandemic.
Source: https://theupdates.net/man-makes-accidental-purchase-of-28-tesla-vehicles/

The First Open States Data Portal Launched

The BudgIT has announced the launching of the first Open States Data Portal where States’ financial documents will be published and accessible by citizens.

The BudgIT made this known through its official Twitter handle, @BudgITng.

This is a call most Nigerians have been making overtime, the first Open States Data Portal would go a long way in ensuring transparency and accountability.

The agency said, “sub-national transparency is a must! We’re ready to support States to achieve that through http://openstates.ng.”

“Citizens can now make inquiries, request for data on states’ budgets and get feedback from their various governments through this portal.”

Source: https://theupdates.net/breaking-sub-national-transparency-budgit-launches-first-open-states-data-portal/

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa and his wife have tested positive for COVID-19.

The governor made this known on Wednesday on his verified Twitter handle.

He wrote, “My wife and I have tested positive for COVID-19. We are well and continuing with our isolation/medication. We thank you all for your continued prayers for us and our daughter.”

See tweet : https://theupdates.net/breaking-governor-okowa-wife-test-positive-to-coronavirus/

Over the weekend and through today, the novel coronavirus pandemic continued to surge through many states, including Florida, Texas, and Arizona.

In total the United States has 2,564,163 coronavirus cases and 125,928 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker. And the New York Times reports that US cases are up 76% over the past 2 weeks.

In states like California—which has been battling the pandemic since March—increasing case counts led to the closing of bars in select cities. Elsewhere, cities such as Nashville are making masks mandatory. And in at least 12 states, including Washington, Arizona, and Texas, governors have “paused” reopening local economies any further.

On Sunday news shows, health officials and policy experts offered stern warnings on the spread. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Director Alex Azar said yesterday on CNN that the US’s window for controlling the virus is closing.

“Things are very different from two months ago… So it is a very different situation, but this is a very, very serious situation and the window is closing for us to take action and get this under control,” Azar said.

While case counts and hospitalizations have risen across much of the country, mortality rates have not. Scott Gottlieb, MD, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said on CNBC he expects death rates to rise in the next 3 to 4 weeks as fatalities occur after a significant lag in case identification.

Gottlieb also said he expected up to half of the US population could be infected by the end of 2020.

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis said Floridians aged 18-44 are responsible for the state’s recent spike in cases, and cases in young adults make him worry less about an increased fatality rate. Yesterday Florida tracked more than 8,500 new cases of the virus and is currently averaging 38 deaths per day, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The state has a total of 141,075 cases.

Though DeSantis said statewide mask requirements are not necessary, some cities, including Tampa and St. Petersburg, have required facial coverings. And several popular beaches in Miami-Dade and Broward counties are closing in anticipation of the Fourth of July weekend.

Today Jacksonville, Florida’s largest city and the presumed site of the Republican National Convention in August, said masks will be mandatory in public and indoor locations.

At a visit yesterday to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Vice President Mike Pence wore a mask and implored others to do so as well in an effort to curb rising cases of the virus. But earlier in the day Pence appeared at First Baptist Church in Dallas, where a 100-person choir of unmasked singers performed.

Today Texas reported its 6th consecutive day of more than 5,000 new COVID-19 cases, according to the Texas Tribune.

Also today, HHS announced an agreement to secure the antiviral drug remdesivir for the United States from Gilead Sciences through September.

According to a press release, HHS has secured more than 500,000 treatment courses of the drug for American hospitals through September. This represents 100% of Gilead’s projected production for July and 90% of the company’s production in August. On average, a treatment course for the drug is 6.25 vials.

The announcement comes with the final allocation of Gilead’s approximately 120,000 donated treatment courses being shipped to US hospitals.

A study based in a Louisiana correctional and detention facility shows that serial testing of all those exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, revealed more cases than testing of symptomatic case contacts. The study was published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

After a prison employee and some inmates tested positive for COVID-19, inmates were quarantined and tested for the virus. Among 98 incarcerated and detained persons who were quarantined because of exposure to the virus, 71 (72%) had laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection identified through serial testing, the authors said. Of those, 45% had no symptoms at the time of testing.

“The high attack rate within these five dormitories and the large proportion of asymptomatic persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection suggest that serial testing of close contacts, including those in congregate settings, should begin immediately after identification of a case to limit further transmission,” the authors concluded.

Source: https://theupdates.net/covid-19-virus-surges-as-united-states-hits-2-5-million/

A US-based medical Doctor, Dr. Samson Arigbamu has invented a stethoscope equipped with components capable of immediately detecting adventitious lung such as coronavirus infected lungs that would immediately announce its findings.

Arigbamu said that the stethoscope invention is in production at prototype and optimisation stage, which the final product would commence by December.

He noted that the process could be sped up with resources from individuals, organisations, even the Nigerian government.

Dr. Arigbamu has been living in the USA for about 22 years and currently the Director of Nursing at Future Care Lochearn, a 200-bed capacity health rehabilitation centre in Baltimore Maryland.

He has been on the employment of the company for 10 years, prior to that, he was a director of nursing at Manor Care Woodbridge in Baltimore Maryland for over 3 years. He currently owns and operates a private clinic called Upsurge Health Associate in Freeland, Maryland.

Dr Arigbamu maintained that the eventual production of the stethoscope would be a great achievement of pride to the Nigeria government for a simple fact that a citizen of the country invented such critical medical equipment worthy of a USA patent, hence, soliciting support from Nigeria government.

Arigbamu further expatiated that having worked in the healthcare field for over 20 years, he had seen healthcare providers including nurses, mid-level providers and physicians find it hard with identifying lung and heart sounds.

As a result, chest x-rays, EKGs and other cardiac interrogative tests are often ordered to identify adventitious lung and heart conditions.

He also noted that clinical issues with these expensive tests and devices is that, they are incapable of identify adventitious sounds and providing immediate and accurate feedback, consequently, utilization of such devices often results in significant clinical and health issues for the patients as well as a waste of valuable resource.

According to him: “As a result of these challenges, in 2018 I started working on inventing a digital stethoscope that could identify lung and heart sounds, interpret the sounds and immediately announce its findings to the users. The stethoscope is also capable of integrating its data into the electronic medical record.”

“With such capabilities, it will enhance physical assessment vital to health care providers and novice users. It will also ensure opportunities for timely intervention and prevention of further health decline in patients.”

“The stethoscope is also equipped with an electronic medical record (EMR) integration capabilities (essential to telemedicine) in order to improve care coordination and patient information portability.”

“The project received a USA patent on June 2nd 2020 and is currently in the prototype phase of production in the USA and Ukraine.”

“The eventual production of the stethoscope would be a great achievement of pride to Nigeria for a simple fact that a citizen of the country invented such critical medical equipment worthy of a USA patent,” he said.

Source: https://theupdates.net/us-based-nigerian-doctor-arigbamu-invents-infected-lungs-detector/

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Monday, kicked against the reopening of schools by the Federal Government amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

ASUU argued that the government must make resources available in order for schools to meet proposed conditions by the Federal Ministry of Education.

ASUU National President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, made this submission known on Monday while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN in Ota, Ogun State.

He urged the federal government to provide the ideal environment and meet the conditions spelt out by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC before reopening schools across the country.

Ogunyemi said, “The Federal Government must lead and show the ways by meeting the conditions for reopening of schools before any school can be allowed to open because coronavirus pandemic is a health challenge.

“When it comes to public health, it is something that should not be left in the hands of individuals but the Federal Government must take the lead.”

The ASUU president listed the conditions spelt out by NCDC to include the provision of materials for regular handwashing, provision of face masks, isolations spaces, hands sanitisers, amongst others.

He said many government-owned schools don’t have financial capacities to meet the outlined conditions.

He said, “It is suicidal to reopen schools now if the Federal Government itself could not meet the conditions spelt out by the NCDC and the World Health Organisation. The nation will expose innocent children to avoidable risks.”

Schools across the country were shut in March to curb the spread of the pandemic.

Source: https://theupdates.net/its-unsafe-and-suicidal-to-re-open-schools-now-ASUU/

Following insinuations that the recent developments in the All Progressives Congress, APC were indications of a rancour between President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has said he knew the President Buhari was allegedly deceiving Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Adebanjo, in a recent interview with reporter, said the APC national leader, Tinubu was also deceiving the President as he described the All Progressive Congress, APC as a gathering of incompatible entities. He argued that there was no ideology binding the party members together and that it was all about sharing offices and power.

However, even though one could argue against his submission about ideology, it must be noted that the forces that come together to form the party indeed are full of various people with vested interest.

Even though the Presidency said there was no rift between Buhari and Tinubu, many commentators described Thursday’s decision of the National Executive Committee, NEC of the All Progressive Congress, APC to dissolve its National Working Committee as a blow to Tinubu, who is believed to be pro-Adams Oshiomhole, the sacked former chairman.

There have been widespread claims that Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, was eyeing the presidency in 2023, and that the recent development in the party was a way of truncating his ambition.

In his words, Adebanjo said, “I have worries for him (Tinubu). He knew all these things but he relied on Buhari and worked to make him the President. I said it before publicly that Buhari is deceiving Asiwaju and Asiwaju is deceiving Buhari. Everybody is trying to use the other. Why can’t Tinubu hammer on restructuring knowing that this was what brought Buhari to the office?

“I have been in this game for 70 years. So, many of those who are talking now were not born then. That is the truth – even Buhari was a toddler. He is now 74. Each time I tell you, why should Tinubu, the Vice-President (Yemi Osinbajo) and all those who were in Alliance for Democracy run to the APC? Why are they hesitating now to stand for restructuring? They can’t talk.

“All the things I am telling you now – it is not the first time. I said both Jagaban (Tinubu) and Osinbajo should get out of the APC. I said it openly. It is a disgrace and disservice to Yorubaland. So, what is happening now shows there is nothing to bind them together.”

Source: https://theupdates.net/2023-i-knew-buhari-was-deceiving-tinubu-adebanjo/

Correct...

Just a few out of many.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, Friday, described the demise of former governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi as a big blow to Nigeria, describing him as a progressive that knew how to quell political tensions.

Senator Ajimobi died on Thursday in Lagos from coronavirus complications, aged 70.

Ngige, a close ally and associate of the late Ajimobi, in a statement by his media aide, Emmanuel Nzomiwu, recalled that in very tense occasions in political meetings, Ajimobi’s jokes and humour came handy, noticing that he exhibited so much wittiness in his interaction with people.

According to Chris Nigige, a former Anambra State governor, such politician who spiced up politics with humour were rare and uncommon to find in Nigeria.

Ngige said: “Ajimobi was a bundle of jokes and humour. In very tense occasions in political meetings, his jokes and humour came handy. He jokes were embedded in humour.

“It is rare to find such politicians who spice up politics with humour in Nigeria. His jokes and humour will be missed in the entire political landscape of Nigeria. The politics of South-West, especially Ibadan, the hotbed of the region’s political manoeuvrings, will definitely take a new colour.

“He was a thoroughbred progressive politician. The progressives in Nigerian politics will miss him dearly.

“The last time we met, we agreed that he would host his birthday in Abuja because I did not attend his birthday in Ibadan. I am pained and saddened by his death.

“I commiserate with all those he left behind, particularly his wife, children, the entire members of Ajimobi family and the people of Oyo State. I pray to God to give all of them the fortitude to bear this great loss of a cherished and loved one.”

https://theupdates.net/ajimobi-knew-how-to-quell-political-tensions-chris-ngige/

The Presidency has said that Nana Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana, had spoken with President Muhammadu Buhari to apologise for the demolition of a building in the Nigerian High Commission in Accra.

On Monday Geoffrey Onyeama, Foreign Affairs Minister, had summoned Iva Denoo, the Ghanian Chargé d’ Affaires in Nigeria to expatiate how yet to be identified person demolished a Nigerian diplomatic building in Ghana last Friday.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Garba Shehu, spokesperson for President Buhari, said Ghana’s President had apologised for the incident and ordered an investigation into the incident.

https://twitter.com/GarShehu/status/1275514578739302405?s=20

It reads, “President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana Tuesday spoke with President Muhammadu Buhari, expressing his sincere apology for the demolition of a building on the premises of Nigerian High Commission in Accra, Ghana.

“In a telephone call, the Ghanaian leader told President Buhari that he has directed a full investigation into the incident.

“Earlier in the day, it further emerged that some suspects had been arrested and will be arraigned in court.”

Source: https://theupdates.net/embassy-demolition-nana-akufo-addo-phones-president-buhari-apologises-presidency/

A southeastern Michigan man, again!

Weird! Strange! Bizzare! and so on… Are the adjectival words that feel the mouth of some for this feat.

How does he do it? is one of the questions asked…

Officials, Monday, said for the second time, a southeastern Michigan man has won a $4 million lottery game.

Mark Clark of South Rockwood scratched a ticket with a coin that was given to him by his late father about 10 years ago. They often fished together after Clark won a different $4 million instant game in 2017.

“You don’t think you’ll win millions once, and you definitely never think it would happen twice,” Clark, 50, said in a statement released by the Michigan Lottery. “It’s hard to put into words exactly what I am feeling. … I can’t help but think maybe that lucky coin helped me win this.”

Clark chose a lump sum of about $2.5 million instead of taking $4 million in payments over time.

“I’ve had a lot of ups and a lot of downs in my life, but everything is pretty amazing right now,” Clark said.

Source: https://theupdates.net/again-southeastern-michigan-man-wins-4m-lottery-game/

North Korea said, Wednesday, leader Kim Jong Un has suspended planned military retaliation against South Korea, possibly slowing the pressure campaign it has waged against its rival amid stalled nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration.

Last week, North Korea had declared relations with South Korea as fully ruptured, destroyed an inter-Korean liaison office in its territory and threatened unspecified military action to censure Seoul for a lack of progress in bilateral cooperation and for activists floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.

Analysts say North Korea, after weeks deliberately raising tensions, may be pulling away just enough to make room for South Korean concessions.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim presided by video conference over a meeting Tuesday of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission, which decided to postpone plans for military action against the South brought up by the North’s military leaders.

KCNA didn’t specify why the decision was made. It said other discussions included bolstering the country’s “war deterrent.”

Yoh Sang-key, spokesman of South Korea’s Unification Ministry, said Seoul was “closely reviewing” the North’s report but didn’t further elaborate.

Yoh also said it was the first report in state media of Kim holding a video conferencing meeting, but he didn’t provide a specific answer when asked whether that would have something to do with the Covid-19.

North Korea says there hasn’t been a single coronavirus case on its territory, but the claim is questioned by outside experts.

Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said it’s likely that the North is waiting for further action from the South to salvage ties from what it sees as a position of strength, rather than softening its stance on its rival.

“What’s clear is that the North said (the military action) was postponed, not canceled,” said Kim, a former South Korean military official who participated in inter-Korean military negotiations.

Other experts say the North would be seeking something major from the South, possibly a commitment to resume operations at a shuttered joint factory park in Kaesong, which was where the liaison office was located or restart South Korean tours to the North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort. Those steps are prohibited by the international sanctions against the North over its nuclear weapons program.

The public face of the North’s recent bashing of the South has been Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, who has been confirmed as his top official on inter-Korean affairs. Issuing harsh statements through state media, she had said the North’s demolishing of the liaison office would be just the first in a series of retaliatory actions against the “enemy” South and that she would leave it to the North’s military to come up with the next steps.

The General Staff of the North’s military has said it would send troops to the mothballed inter-Korean cooperation sites in Kaesong and Diamond Mountain and restart military drills in frontline areas. Such steps would nullify a set of deals the Koreas reached during a flurry of diplomacy in 2018 that prohibited them from taking hostile action against each other.

Also condemning the South over North Korean refugees floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, the North said Monday it printed 12 million of its own propaganda leaflets to be dropped over the South in what would be its largest-ever anti-Seoul leafleting campaign.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Kim’s decision to hold back military action would affect the country’s plans for leafleting. The North’s military had said it would open border areas on land and sea and provide protection for civilians involved in the leafleting campaigns.

The North has a history of dialing up pressure against the South when it fails to get what it wants from the United States. The North’s recent steps came after months of frustration over Seoul’s unwillingness to defy U.S.-led sanctions and restart the inter-Korean economic projects that would breathe life into its broken economy.

Nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington largely stalled after Kim’s second summit with President Donald Trump last year in Vietnam, where the Americans rejected North Korea’s demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.

Source: https://theupdates.net/north-korea-vs-south-korea-feud-kim-suspends-military-retaliation/

The voters in Malawi have trooped out in their numbers to line up today to vote for the country’s president in a rerun of the 2019 election that was nullified by the courts.

Hundreds of voters patriotically ignored the cold weather of the southern hemisphere’s winter to vote as soon as the polls opened at 6 a.m.

Incumbent President Peter Mutharika, 79, is running against Lazarus Chakwera, 65, leader of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party.

The Constitutional Court on Feb. 3 struck down Mutharika’s victory in the May 2019 election, citing evidence of voting fraud, including thousands of ballots that appeared to have been altered using typing correction fluid. The ruling was upheld by the Malawi Supreme Court.

Some 6.8 million Malawians are eligible to cast ballots at more than 5,000 polling stations across the country.

Many voters interviewed Tuesday morning said they are relieved the elections are taking place.

The Human Rights Defenders Coalition, a local organization, led demonstrations across the country to call for fairness in the electoral process. The group’s national coordinator Luke Tembo told AP that the voting Tuesday is what the group had been campaigning for.

“This has now given people a second chance to exercise their rights. Now we have been calling on people to come out in their large numbers to vote to determine the future of this country,” said Tembo. “We believe this time around we are going to get things right and get a free, fair and credible election.”

The day before the vote there was a spate of clashes in the capital, Lilongwe, and the lakeshore town of Nkhotakota sparked by rumors of vote-rigging. The order was restored by soldiers of the Malawi Defence Force who have been deployed across the country.

The Electoral Commission Chairperson Chifundo Kachale assured all voters that the polling process would be fair.

Before the voting started the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on “all political actors and stakeholders to renew their commitment to credible and peaceful elections while observing all preventive measures against the spread of COVID-19,” according to a statement issued by spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

A number of local and international organizations will observe the new elections, in an effort to confirm that they are free and fair. The European Union, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community, several diplomatic missions and the Commonwealth will be observing the elections, the Malawi Electoral Commission’s spokesman Sangwani Mwafulirwa said.

The U.S. and British embassies announced that they sent out small observer missions as a supplement to thousands of domestic election observers and political party monitors.

Source: https://theupdates.net/election-rerun-malawi-presidential-poll-begins-today/

A transgender man Kayden Coleman, whose gender transitioning began from around 2009, said he found out in January he was seven weeks pregnant with current boyfriend, Dominique, 29.

He announced his pregnancy with his second child six years after he’s branded a ‘monster’ when he had his first baby.

The 33-year-old from New York, US, first hit the headlines after he fell pregnant with his first child Azaelia when he was forced to stop taking testosterone for his top surgery in March 2013.

The dad-of-one was shocked to discover he was five months pregnant with his daughter who is now six.

The expecting parents say they can’t wait to meet baby number two, despite previously facing backlash online from trolls who described Kayden as a ‘monster’ and called for his child to be taken into care.

The LGBT care worker said: “When Azaelia was born there were a lot of people who said they felt sorry for her and that she would grow up and be confused. “They said that she should be taken away and called me a monster.

“But it’s important for people to understand that we have full autonomy over our bodies and we should do with it as we please.

“I can’t wait to meet my second baby and Azaelia is so excited about having a little brother or sister.”

Gushing about his second pregnancy, Kayden said: “I do enjoy parts of being pregnant like the fact it makes my beard thicker.

Source: https://theupdates.net/transgender-man-kayden-coleman-pregnant-with-second-child/

Lol

kcute:
If this one get sense e go chill for Obaseki so that pdp go gain more grounds when Obaseki win. so e own election after Obaseki for easy. Common sense.

TRUE
I wonder too... If you're conversant with this platform, you would agree that some of the admins are so biased.

Calabar1stSon:
I'm flabbergasted that this is just hitting the FP now. This PC has been around for more than a year. All these belated news sef
[img]http:///media/12-24-2016/E1c7QP.gif[/img]

Osinbajo Says Nigeria Operates Expensive Govt, Calls For National Debate

Source : https://theupdates.net/osinbajo-says-nigeria-operates-expensive-govt-calls-for-national-debate/

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has said Nigeria needs a national debate to examine the issues around the size and cost of governance, which has always been described as highly expensive and unsustainable.

Osinbajo stressed that it could be hard and herculean for the government to do something about its cost by itself but that it is something that must be done.

The vice president made this statement while fielding questions by a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and immediate past Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi, during a webinar organised by the Emmanuel Chapel, themed, ‘Economic stability beyond COVID-19’, on Friday.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who had on Friday last week pointed out that the governance structure in the country had set it up for bankruptcy, asked the vice-president what the current regime would do differently to address the perennial problem.

The former CBN governor said, “The greater Atlanta (in the United States) has a Gross Domestic Product that is higher than that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and Atlanta is not the richest city in the United States.

“I don’t want to be disrespectful, but the annual sales of Tesla exceed the budget size of our country, so should we not begin to cut our coat according to our cloth; should we not begin to look at all these costs and the constitution itself; maybe turn the legislators to part-time lawmakers, have a unicameral legislature instead of bicameral, have the local governments run by employees of the Ministry of Local Government Affairs? We just need to think out of the box to reduce structural cost and make government sustainable over the long term.”

In his response, Osinbajo said, “There is no question that we are dealing with the large and expensive government, but as you know, given the current constitutional structure, those who would have to vote to reduce (the size of) government, especially to become part-time legislators, are the very legislators themselves. So, you can imagine that we may not get very much traction if they are asked to vote themselves, as it were, out of their current relatively decent circumstances.

“So, I think there is a need for a national debate on this question and there is a need for us to ensure that we are not wasting the kind of resources that we ought to use for development on overheads. At the moment, our overheads are almost 70 percent of revenues, so there is no question at all that we must reduce the size of government

“Part of what you would see in the Economic Sustainability Plan also and several of the other initiatives is trying to go, to some extent, to what was recommended in the (Steve) Oransaye Report, to collapse a few of the agencies to become a bit more efficient and make government much more efficient with whatever it has.”

He explained that the government had been able to cut waste when it detected some ghost workers.

The event, which was attended by other panelists, was moderated by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof Konyinsola Ajayi, and Dr. Chinny Ogunro.

Source: https://theupdates.net/osinbajo-says-nigeria-operates-expensive-govt-calls-for-national-debate/

The Lagos State Government has cautioned residents to brace up and prepare for heavy rainfalls in July and September, even as its sympathized with victims of devastating rainfalls of the last two days in the state.

Recall that about four persons including two teenagers, a 4-year-old child and a woman lost their lives and several properties damaged in the wake of torrential rainfalls which lasted for two days in the state.

Rainfall: Lagos Govt Cautions Residents to Brace Up for More
In a statement made available on Friday, the Lagos state Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr.Tunji Bello expressed his sympathy to those whose properties were damaged and those who were displaced by the flash flood of Wednesday and Thursday in the state.

According to the commissioner, “More of such heavy rains will come in July as well as September. There is the need for all residents to be adequately prepared for it.”

According to the commissioner, “More of such heavy rains will come in July as well as September. There is the need for all residents to be adequately prepared for it.”

He explained that because Lagos is a coastal city, the Thursday, heavy rainfall brought about a backflow from the Lagoon which caused the flash flood experienced all over.

Bello added that some four hours after the cessation of the downpour, the water level of the lagoon that was very high causing a backflow receded in several areas and allowed discharge from the various collectors.

He reiterated that residents should be conscious that whenever it rains and the high water level in the lagoon locks up the collectors thus preventing easy discharge into the lagoon, it ultimately leads to the backflow of water into the streets.

According to him, ”Anytime it rains for hours, and the lagoon water rises, this often prevents our channels from discharging effectively’’, he reiterated.

Source: https://theupdates.net/rainfalls-lagos-govt-cautions-residents-to-brace-up-for-more/

But the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has been warning Americans about the risk of further spread of the virus. On Wednesday, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, joined the US Department of Health and Human Services’ podcast “Learning Curve” and gave his expertise on the pandemic and the vaccine development process.

He also defended the stay-at-home orders as having saved “millions of lives,” and drew attention to anti-science bias and the disproportionate impact the virus is having on the black community.

Fauci said “anti-science bias” in the country can be problematic.

“One of the problems we face in the United States is that unfortunately, there is a combination of an anti-science bias that people are — for reasons that sometimes are, you know, inconceivable and not understandable — they just don’t believe science and they don’t believe authority,” Fauci said.

“So when they see someone up in the White House, which has an air of authority to it, who’s talking about science, that there are some people who just don’t believe that — and that’s unfortunate because, you know, science is truth,” Fauci said.

“It’s amazing sometimes the denial there is. It’s the same thing that gets people who are anti-vaxxers, who don’t want people to get vaccinated, even though the data clearly indicate the safety of vaccines,” Fauci added. “That’s really a problem.” Trump has frequently disregarded expert advice — and often the guidance of his own administration – during the pandemic. He long touted the use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19 despite a lack of medical evidence, and the Food and Drug Administration revoked its emergency use authorization for the drug earlier this week. His suggestion that ingesting disinfectant in April was a potential treatment — he later said he was joking — was quickly denounced by medical experts. And he has refused to wear face masks in public despite widespread beliefs that doing so slows the spread of the virus.

The process of getting a United States coronavirus vaccine candidate into a Phase 1 trial happened at record speed, according to Anthony Fauci.

Fauci credited the Chinese for publishing the sequence on the open database on January 10, and the next day, the US said, “We got to jump on this.” On January 15, the US began the development of a vaccine candidate, Fauci said.

“Sixty-two days later, we had a product that we put into clinical trial, in a Phase I to see if it’s safe and does it induce an immune response. That is overwhelmingly the quickest that has ever been done,” Fauci said.

Fauci said there are a number of steps to develop a vaccine, but the reason they were able to do it so quickly is “that we proceeded what’s called ‘at-risk'” for finances.

“What happens is that in the standard way of developing a vaccine, you don’t jump to invest in the next step until you’re pretty sure that the step you’re in is working,” Anthony Fauci said. “Given the fact that we needed to do this as quickly as possible without sacrificing safety or scientific integrity, the federal government partnered with multiple of these companies and said, ‘Guess what, we’re going to move fast and we’re going to assume we’re going to be successful. And if we are, we’ve saved several months. And if we’re not, the only thing we’ve lost is money. But better lose money than lose lives by delaying the vaccine.’ So, right now, the initial data from the study showed that. It makes me cautiously optimistic that we can induce a response that would be protective.”

Social inequalities are among the factors behind why the black community in the United States has “suffered disproportionately” from Covid-19, Fauci said.

“African-Americans have suffered disproportionately from coronavirus disease. They’ve suffered in that their rate of infection is higher because of the nature of the economic status that many of them find themselves in where they’re outside working, being unable to physically separate,” he said.

“And then when they do get infected, given the social determinants of health which make it for them, have a higher incidence of diseases like hypertension, obesity, diabetes,” Anthony Fauci said. “They are at much greater risk of suffering the deleterious consequences including death.” Social determinants of health include the conditions in which people are born in and live in that can impact their health and the complex social structures and economic systems that shape these conditions, including discrimination in access to and quality of health care, among other factors.

Fauci defended the shutdown policies in the United States and around the world during the pandemic as having saved “millions of lives.”

“When you give advice about what should you be doing – should you be out there, should you be shutting down earlier versus later? I mean, people get confused. And they say, ‘Wow, you know, we shut down and we caused a great disruption in society. We caused great economic pain, loss of jobs,'” Fauci said. Source: https://theupdates.net/anti-science-bias-being-problem-in-us-anthony-fauci-cautions/

Hushpuppi: All Nigerians Are Not Fraudsters - NIDCOM Boss

Source: https://theupdates.net/hushpuppi-all-nigerians-are-not-fraudsters-nidcom-boss/

The explanations echo the Trump administration’s current positioning on the state of Covid-19 in America: denial and excuses. At a time when Floridians continue to pack bars and restaurants, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis brushed away questions about his culpability in aggressively reopening his state during a press conference this week. In remarks layered with racial overtones, he blamed the surge in cases, in part, on crowded living conditions in migrant families. He said the state would also take a closer look at the spread of the virus among construction workers and day laborers, who he said are “overwhelmingly Hispanic.”

Pointing to one outbreak at a watermelon farm in Alachua County and another in a migrant community known as Indiantown in Martin County, DeSantis argued that “the close contact” in those households as well as the work environments of farm laborers are “really providing areas for the virus to thrive.”

“Some of these guys – they go to work in a school bus, and they are all just like packed there like sardines, going across like Palm Beach County or some of these other places, and (there’s) all these opportunities to have transmission,” DeSantis said Tuesday, adding that some of the workers are “migratory” and that the state’s health department is alerting Georgia and Alabama about “what may be coming down the pike.” In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott continues to insist there is no reason for alarm because the state’s hospital bed capacity is dramatically better than it was earlier this year when the pandemic first hit.

Abbott, who wore a mask to his press conference and took it off while speaking, has rebuffed a request from nine city mayors that would allow them to require masks in their cities. He says local officials should be using other tools at their disposal – like fining rule-breakers for big gatherings. The Texas governor also said the rise in cases this week was due to a batch of positive tests that all came in on June 10 from Texas prisons and a data error in rural Pecos County.

“As we continue the process of opening up Texas — as we continue to have Texans return to their jobs, so that they are able to earn a paycheck that will help them pay their bills and put food on their tables,” Abbott said, “…we remain laser focused on maintaining abundant hospital capacity.”

Both DeSantis and Abbott have argued they always expected case numbers to rise when testing increased, statements that directly contradict the assertions by epidemiologists that case numbers should go down with greater testing, because theoretically health officials should be able to trace the cases and slow the spread of the virus.

President Donald Trump has set the tone for these Republican governors from the top, intently focusing on ensuring that the economy recovers as the November election looms.

Trump described the virus as “fading away” during an interview this week as he prepares to host a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday that could pack thousands of people into arena with no requirement for participants to wear masks.

Vice President Mike Pence urged governors during a call this week to highlight ramped up testing in their states as a reason coronavirus cases are rising. Pence, who heads the administration’s coronavirus task force, declared on Thursday in Michigan that the nation has proven “that we can safely reopen America.”

“Every single day we are one day closer to putting the COVID-19 in the past,” Pence said during remarks at a Michigan steel plant Thursday. “We slowed the spread. We flattened the curve. We cared for the most vulnerable, and we saved lives.” Those claims by Trump and Pence, however, are not supported by the facts. Twenty-three states saw an increase in new cases between June 10 and 17, according to a data from John Hopkins University. Florida and Texas are two of the 10 states experiencing record-high seven-day averages of new coronavirus cases, according to the analysis.

Florida officials are pointing to an “aggressive testing” strategy in their state, where DeSantis noted that health officials have made testing available to every resident of a long-term care facility as well as to the employees who work there. Florida, which allowed certain businesses to reopen on May 4, announced its highest single-day count Thursday since the pandemic began, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health. The percentage of people testing positive hit a new peak of 10.18% on Tuesday, before falling to 9% on Wednesday, according to the new data from the state health department. “Certainly as we reopened, we did expect to see an increase – but not like this,” St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman said, (The number of cases reported each day in Pinellas County, where St. Petersburg is located, has risen dramatically since early June).

“There are all kinds of alarm bells that are going off for me,” said Kriseman, a Democrat. “I’m not comfortable with what I see happening in my community,” he said, explaining his decision to require business employees to wear masks if they come face-to-face with customers beginning on Friday. “I think you’re going to see mayors across the state of Florida that are going to take actions in response to these numbers because we’re just not seeing that from our leadership in Tallahassee.”

But DeSantis this week rejected the notion that reopening Florida businesses led to the record numbers of cases, and said he did not think a requirement to wear masks is necessary. Restaurants, he noted, have been open for close to six weeks in some areas: “The idea that that all of a sudden is the reason (for the increase), I’m not sure that’s the case.”

“So no, we’re not shutting down, we’re going to go forward,” DeSantis said. “We’re going to continue to protect the most vulnerable. We’re going to urge, continue to advise, particularly our elderly population to maintain social distancing, avoid crowds.”

The Florida governor noted that from the beginning of the outbreak, he has recommended people wear masks if they are face-to-face with another person, or can’t socially distance. But, he said: “You don’t need to be wearing it if you are going for a jog or you’re on the beach. And so, some of this stuff can get out of hand. I want to be reasonable about it.”

DeSantis noted that the state has “6,400 ventilators that are just sitting idle.”
Source: https://theupdates.net/testing-responsible-for-spike-in-covid-19-cases-in-florida-and-texas-governors/