Nigeria has recorded 248 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed infections in the country to 4,399.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control made this known via its Twitter handle.
It also said that no fewer than 143 patients have died from coronavirus-related complications in the country.
NCDC said, “On the 10th of May 2020, 248 new confirmed cases and 17 deaths were recorded in Nigeria.
“No new state has reported a case in the last 24 hours.
“Till date, 4399 cases have been confirmed, 778 cases have been discharged and 143 deaths have been recorded in 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“The 248 new cases are reported from 17 states- Lagos(81), Jigawa(35), Borno(26), Kano(26), Bauchi(20),FCT(13), Edo(12), Sokoto(10), Zamfara(7), Kwara(4), Kebbi(4), Gombe(2), Taraba(2), Ogun(2), Ekiti (2), Osun(1), Bayelsa(1).”
More than a respiratory infection, Covid-19 wreaks havoc on many organs; inflammation and abnormal blood clotting are
Garvon Russell was having trouble breathing when he arrived sick with Covid-19 at a New York City emergency room. By the time he left the hospital two weeks later, he had battled the new coronavirus all over his body.
His lungs were inflamed, their tiny air sacs filled with fluid that made it hard for oxygen to get into his bloodstream. His kidneys failed with Mr. Russell in septic shock from his infection.
Then, when it looked like he had turned the corner, his bedside nurse noticed his left leg was swollen. Doctors found a blood clot in a deep vein.
Mr. Russell, a 67-year-old retiree, said he feels lucky to have survived: “It’s nothing to play with.”
As the number of Covid-19 grows, doctors are learning its damage can extend well beyond the lungs, where infection can lead to pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, the sometimes fatal condition Mr. Russell had. The disease can also affect the brain, kidneys, heart, vascular and digestive system. Some patients have sudden strokes, pulmonary embolisms or heart-attack symptoms. Others have kidney failure or inflammation of the gut.
Infection can affect the nervous system, causing seizures, hallucinations or a loss of smell and taste. It may affect pregnancies, though the science is nascent: The placenta of a patient who miscarried during her second trimester tested positive for the virus and showed signs of inflammation, according to a paper published April 30 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The virus’s strange effects go beyond anything doctors say they usually see with other viral infections. “It seems to strike so many systems,” said Maya Rao, a nephrologist at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York who is treating Covid-19 patients with acute kidney failure. “We don’t understand who gets it.”
Doctors are trying to understand what about the infection predisposes patients to so many complications. The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases world-wide topped 3.7 million as of Thursday morning with roughly 260,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. accounted for more than 1.2 million cases and over 73,000 deaths.
“Sometimes with very severe infections you can see things similar to this,” said Magdy Selim, a neurologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who is treating Covid-19 patients who have had strokes. “But not all this combination of things in one patient. These are really sick patients.”
Some patients are young and otherwise healthy. Some children, who generally don’t get very sick with Covid-19, have been hospitalized with symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease—an inflammatory condition typically affecting young children—with acute inflammation in their hearts and intestines.
The extreme inflammation that is a hallmark of the most severe Covid-19 cases is likely at play, doctors said. Inflammation can also cause blood clots, which doctors believe may be a common denominator spanning several complications. Physicians describe stunningly extensive and swift clotting leading to the strokes and pulmonary embolisms seen in even otherwise young, healthy patients.
The complications add to the mysteries of a virus that makes an estimated 10% to 20% of those who are infected severely ill, though more population-wide testing and studies are needed to know the true percentage. Most people who develop Covid-19 experience relatively mild symptoms—fevers, coughs, chills, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, pinkeye—but for a minority, ailments can quickly escalate to a more serious stage.
Figuring out how to treat patients with Covid-19 is difficult because the virus is new, identified just at the beginning of this year, and its effects differ from those of other coronaviruses that infect humans. Patients are often admitted to the hospital when already very sick, significantly narrowing the window to save them, and there aren’t any medications approved to specifically treat infection with the new coronavirus. Some of these complications ultimately will be considered rare but appear more common now because so many people have gotten sick at once, doctors say.
Scientists are combing through piles of studies, and doctors are sharing experiences in real-time on Facebook and WhatsApp groups.
The inflammation at play in many complications is starting to come into focus. Immune-system cells rush in to kill infected cells. They also release molecules known as cytokines and chemokines that promote inflammation. The inflammation’s goal is to cordon off infected tissue, but too much can promote extra damage and create a “cytokine storm.”
Inflammation in the lungs can starve the blood of oxygen, depriving other organs, as it did with Mr. Russell, who spent eight days on a ventilator. Inflammation of the heart muscle, called myocarditis, can cause chest pain, shortness of breath and heart-rhythm disorders and scar the heart tissue.
Mark Gorelik, a pediatric rheumatologist and immunologist at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, has treated children and young adults with a condition resembling Kawasaki disease. While that condition involves artery inflammation, Dr. Gorelik said, these young patients have fevers, “a lot of cardiac inflammation” and sometimes a condition in their guts resembling colitis.
Genetic sequencing showed some patients have gene variants associated with a hyperactive immune response to viral infections, he said, yielding one possible clue into why some people develop serious complications, though such evidence is preliminary.
Doctors Tally Up the Ways Coronavirus Attacks the Body
Researchers are also studying complications possibly caused by a direct attack by the virus. A recent study in the journal The Lancet found evidence the virus attacks endothelial cells, which form a layer lining blood vessels and the heart. That makes Covid-19 a vascular disease as well as a lung disease, said Mandeep Mehra, executive director of the Center for Advanced Heart Disease at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, an author of the study.
“It might be that this is a disease that requires a combination of therapy that attacks the virus and that also stabilizes the vasculature,” he said.
STRANGE COMPLICATION
Among the strangest and most worrisome complications is how prone to clotting the blood of some Covid-19 patients seems to be. “Every time you have hyper-inflammation, you’re more prone to clotting,” said Andre Goy, a hematology oncologist and chair of the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center. “This is not new…but what’s amazing is the extent of it.”
A study in the Netherlands found 49% of patients in intensive-care units developed clotting complications, mostly pulmonary embolisms but also some strokes. The risk of death for these patients with these complications was 5.4 times the risk for those without those complications, according to the study, published in the journal Thrombosis Research. “We were very much surprised by what we saw,” said Erik Klok, an internist and vascular-medicine specialist at Leiden University Medical Center, and lead author of the study. “We’re not used to this in patients with the normal flu.”
Doctors have seen some patients’ blood clot during dialysis, or while circulating in life-support machines, clogging the circuits. “They’re clotting off things that don’t usually clot,” said Lee Schwamm, executive vice chairman of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “It’s as if you had sludge in your garden hose.”
At Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, a 44-year-old stroke patient’s blood started visibly clotting while surgeons were trying to remove a clot from his brain despite infusion with clot-busting drugs, according to Thomas Oxley, the interventional neurologist who treated the patient. The patient can’t speak or move his right side, he said.
Strokes happen when large clots in large blood vessels make their way to the brain, cutting off vital oxygen. About 5% of Covid-19 patients develop them, according to a study of 221 patients in China.
Patients are presenting not just with the more-common large clots that can lead to strokes and pulmonary embolisms, but also a constellation of small clots that block blood flow through the tiny blood vessels, known as capillaries, that deliver blood to all organs throughout the body. Some suffer from “Covid toe,” a painful, purplish swelling caused by clots in small blood vessels.
The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis now recommends that any patient admitted to the hospital be evaluated for the risk of clotting and be given anticoagulants like heparin, according to Jeffrey Weitz, the organization’s president-elect. Thrombosis is the medical term for blood clots that form in blood vessels.
How Covid-19 infection makes blood more clot-prone isn’t entirely understood. But a growing body of studies suggests some patients have elevated levels of d-dimer, a protein produced when the body breaks down clots. D-dimer levels are a reliable indicator of Covid-19 severity, several doctors said. A study published by Chinese researchers in March in The Lancet found patients who died had higher d-dimer levels than survivors.
Clinicians think clots may be forming along walls of tiny and major blood vessels due to damage caused by inflammation or the virus itself. When the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as the new coronavirus is officially called, reaches the lung, it replicates rapidly, damaging cells of tiny air sacs called alveoli. That damage triggers inflammation, which leads the blood to coagulate, clinicians say. The damaged cells also release substances that activate coagulation.
A study of three patients who died from Covid-19 published in The Lancet showed evidence the virus can infect walls of capillaries that feed several organs, including the kidneys and small intestine. Pro-clotting proteins flood in to patch up the damage in a process similar to what happens when a scab forms—except the wounding persists internally, promoting more clotting.
“The high levels of d-dimer indicate the body is trying its darndest to break down the clot,” said Dr. Weitz. But “the forces to generate clots are overwhelming the capacity of the body to get rid of them.”
This runaway process wreaks havoc on the entire body. When micro-clots form in tiny blood vessels, they create a traffic jam. Blood can’t flow through the lungs’ alveoli, where blood picks up oxygen.
Clots can lead to heart problems, including reduced blood flow in coronary arteries. Some patients show signs of heart problems a week or so after developing blood clots that start in the lung, said Gian Paolo Rossi, chair of internal medicine at the University of Padua in Italy. The heart damage develops slowly, he said. “They do very badly.”
Clots are also one suspect in acute kidney failure, which is caused by inadequate blood flow and oxygen. Blood clots in capillaries may prevent blood from getting to the kidneys, said Dr. Rao, of Columbia. Other possible causes of acute kidney injury are shock or a direct attack by the virus, because the kidneys have the ACE2 receptor to which the SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to enter cells, she said. Patients include people who had healthy kidneys, she said.
As many as 30% of Covid-19 patients in the intensive-care unit at her hospital have required dialysis or consultation from a nephrologist, Dr. Rao said. That doesn’t include patients with kidney injuries that aren’t severe, she said. “We have seen an enormous amount of this in patients who are in the ICU with Covid-19,” she said.
Some people will fully recover. Others will need dialysis the rest of their lives, she said. “We’re not seeing a lot of recovery in the kidneys,” she said, “but we hope in the longer term people will get better.”
MR. RUSSELL’S CLOT
Other patients develop deep vein thrombosis, a life-threatening condition usually occurring deep in a leg vein. Mr. Russell, who has diabetes and high blood pressure, was improving in late March when doctors found the blood clot in his left leg. He had been on a prophylactic dose of a blood thinner, but it wasn’t enough, said Neha Dangayach, a neurocritical care specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital, where Mr. Russell was cared for.
He was put on a stronger dose of anticoagulants, Dr. Dangayach said. Given Mr. Russell’s health and the number of complications he suffered, she said, “he could have died.”
He is now at home in the Bronx. His kidneys recovered, but he is on blood thinners to prevent more clots.
A study published Wednesday by Mount Sinai researchers in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that treating hospitalized patients with blood-thinning drugs improved their chances of survival.
In a span of two weeks, Mount Sinai treated five Covid-19 patients under age 50 who had experienced a major stroke. None had clotting disorders, though one had a previous history of stroke. Normally, the hospital sees less than one such patient on average during that same period, according to a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April.
Patients are often unsure when to call for help when they start experiencing symptoms such as numbness on one side of the body and trouble speaking, neurologists said. Some are waiting more than a day to call. The reason: Patients are being advised to call for help only if fevers or shortness of breath worsen.
Sagine Alexandre, 33, one of the patients described in the paper, had no history of stroke. She said she is slowly regaining movement in her left arm and learning how to walk again. She hasn’t seen her family in person since she went into the hospital on April 1.
“It’s hard to be going through something like this and not have any family or friends around,” she said. “I thank God for FaceTime. That’s all I have.”
Getting a girl to pay attention and like you can be hard enough — becoming her obsession is even trickier. To make a girl become obsessed with you, get into her brain and her heart by being her hero, minding your looks, making her laugh, and making her feel special. You’ll need to tailor your efforts to the girl in question, but keeping these basic principles in mind should give you an idea of where to start.
Steps
1
Be her hero. Whenever she is in trouble or worried about something, don’t just sit there with her. Acknowledge that you don’t have all the answers, and that you may not know exactly what she’s going through, but try to help make the situation better for her.
Ask her how you can help, but don’t insist that she let you. Be patient with anything she goes through and be supportive. When you can make a difference, do so without hesitation, but also cautiously, as you don’t want to hurt her in any way.
If she likes you already, go above and beyond the call of duty. Do something that she’d never expect you to do, like cooking her breakfast and then doing the dishes, and she’ll fall even harder for you. You’re showing her what you’re made of.
If she doesn’t like you yet, or you don’t know how she feels about it, play it cool. Be calm. If you’re the kind of guy who gets sweaty and stutters his words when he’s around a girl, then just calm down. Think of her as just your friend who happens to look different. If you can’t calm down, no sweat! Girls think it is adorable when guys trip over themselves. You’ll make her laugh in a good way!
2
Don’t fly too deep into the friend zone. Be friendly with her without always being available. Girls love guys who are a bit mysterious, so try to cultivate a bit of mystery — don’t always pick up the phone, let on where you’re going, etc. Be honest, but not always totally up front.
3
Pay attention to how you look. Your guy-friends probably didn’t care that you walked around in the same clothes you mowed the lawn in, but the girl of your dreams probably won’t be very impressed. Here are three simple things you can start doing right away that will help:
Shower and shave every day. If you’re not yet old enough to shave, don’t sweat it. You should be soon. Smell nice and look clean by showering or bathing regularly.
Wear clothes that actually fit. Not your older brother’s clothes; not your dad’s clothes. Wear your own clothes, and ones that flatter your figure. It doesn’t matter how much money you have — every guy needs a good pair of jeans, a fitting t-shirt, a simple but elegant collared shirt, and shoes to fit the occasion.
Get in shape. Lose that excess flab if you can and turn it into muscle. Most girls like guys who have developed muscles that aren’t so chiseled they’re intimidating. Find an intramural sports league that you’re interested in and go for it. You might even be able to impress your lady with your skills.
4
Be charming. You must at least have some kind of charm to appeal to a woman. Most men are charming in a couple different ways, but here are some charming ideas to think about:
Be a gentleman. This means opening doors, paying for a date, keeping your word, etc. Girls love to feel like a gentleman cares about them.
Be witty. Girls love guys who are great conversationalists, who can turn anything into a joke. Learn how to elegantly make fun of yourself.
Be intelligent. You should do your best to be well-read, informed about current-affairs, and curious. Women like men who are smart but still relatable.
5
Be reliable. Every girl wants a guy who, at the end of the day, is reliable — dependable not because he has to be, but because he wants to be. Being reliable is all about telling a girl that she has security with you. Try to be the most reliable guy you know.
Do what you say you’re going to do. If you talk the talk, walk the walk. Girls don’t like guys who say they’re going to do something and never follow through with it.
Be punctual. Even though some girls are late to dates, a girl hates it when she has to wait on a guy. To her, it says: “I don’t care enough about you to be on-time.” If you’re going to be late, let her know.
Have a good reputation. Be the guy that other guys want to vouch for. You never know whether she, or one of her friends, could ask around about you. And if she hears how you cheated on your ex-girlfriend, your reputation is shot and you’ll have to rebuild it.
6
Try to be funny: This gives the girl a reason to relax. A person is more responsive and receptive when relaxed. This is similar to being witty, but with higher importance. It helps you connect with her emotionally/intellectually. She should enjoy your company and not be bored.
7
Don’t be too pushy. It’s a turnoff when you’re always around her and touching her and flirting obnoxiously with her when she is not interested and has never shown any interest at all. Learn to give her the control, even if it’s only the illusion of control.
If a girl doesn’t want to make out, for example, or have sex, don’t try to force it out of her. That’s not the way to get her obsessed with you. Instead, listen to her wishes, understand why she has them, and respect them. You’ll get more bees with honey than you will with vinegar.
8
Have financial independence. Most women don’t care how much you make, or who your parents are, so long as you can provide for them. That’s nice, because most men aren’t blessed with wealth. Remember these things about money around women:
Women, like men, want to be spoiled some of the time. It doesn’t have to be extravagant, but they like to be spoiled. Save enough money so that you can spoil her every once in a while.
Most women don’t like men who flaunt their money. If you have money, don’t flaunt it, because you just might scare her away.
9
Don’t flirt with other girls too much. A girl might really like you but if she sees you dancing or talking with another girl, that could be a deal breaker. Make sure she knows you’re interested in only her.
At the same time, have friends who are also girls. If you hang around friends who are also girls, she’ll feel safer around you because other women are comfortable hanging out with you. If you never hang around any women, it could be a sign to her that you’re illiterate when it comes to them.
Sometimes, women engage in a little competition — just like men! Therefore, it’s helpful to have other women around, provided you don’t get involved or flirt with them.
10
Compliment her. Give her some good old-fashioned compliments. Don’t compliment her ability to do every little thing perfectly, or you’ll seem too needy or obsessive yourself. But a well-placed compliment can make a girl remember you for days on end!
Be sincere when you compliment. Figure out what you like about her best — what you think makes her most unique — and tell her. If it’s the truth, it will automatically come out as sincere.
Reinforce how she views herself. If she thinks of herself as an athlete, reinforce her competitive spirit or athletic skills. If she thinks of herself as a thinker, praise her smarts. Whatever she thinks of herself as, compliment that aspect of her the most.
Focus more on her personality than her appearance. If you have to get in a compliment about her appearance, stay away from the more feminine areas and stick to complimenting these:
Smile
Hair
Eyes
Lips
Clothes (style, appearance, etc.)
11
Give her reasons to be reminded of you. Sing or hum songs, talk about movies, share favorite places. Anything that, when she hears/sees it again, will make her think of you.
12
Balance your sensitive side with your masculine side. Girls like guys who are in touch with their feminine side without being girly at all. That means you have to understand where she’s coming from but still be thoroughly manly if you can. Learn a lesson from the following cues:
It’s OK to cry at a movie and to be vulnerable around her. Girls see this as you being comfortable enough around them to open up, and this will bring you two closer. Don’t listen to people who tell you girls only want masculine men.
It’s OK to dress well…but not too well. As discussed earlier, girls love a guy who can dress nicely. But as soon as the guy dresses nicer than her, that can be a big turnoff.
13
Most of all, do not use guides such as this one literally. You should not make building a relationship with her a script. The most important thing to do when looking for a meaningful relationship is to relax around her, and let your true personality shine through. Do not force yourself to fit a stereotype. You’re better off waiting until you can find a girl who likes you, not a stereotypical “cool” guy. A relationship in which you can be yourself is much, much more meaningful than one in which you have to pretend to be someone else.
14
Girls don’t always have the best idea about what they want. Be yourself and be a gentlemen. Let her do what she wants and act like you care about her.
Tips
Don’t keep talking for hours; give her a chance to talk.
Never insult her, especially if she is shy, and even if it is a joke, unless you know she will know it is a joke.
If she wants you to kiss her, and you know it, kiss her when the time is right, or she might get bored or think you’re not interested in being more than friends and move on to someone that will.
After you’re really good friends it’s a good thing on Valentine’s day to bring her flowers or something to tell her that you like her that way.
Don’t take your relationship too fast, take it slowly, let the girl realize that she is the one for you and take your relationship seriously meaning’s taking your relationship slowly and by telling her that she is the one and only for you.
Remember that the “friend zone” is just a concept created by society to punish women for denying a man.
Girls shouldn’t actually be ‘obsessed’ with you, you should just have mutual respect and love for her. Don’t just use her as an object of entertainment, treat her with respect and never ending kindness, because that’s the problem with some boys in this world: they don’t know how treat a woman like an actual human being, and not a playtoy.
If she doesn’t fall for you straight away it’s alright. People need time to filter their emotions. Give her time and don’t seem too clingy.
Spend quality time with her and get to know her. Be sweet, kind, smart and don’t flirt with other girls as this will make her mad.
Hang out with her and get to know her before you kiss.
Warnings
Never go too far when teasing a woman. Calling her fat or insulting her looks is rude and a turn-off.
Try not to talk to her all the time everyday. She will like the odd two days of talking, but if you constantly talk to her and try to force conversation, you will just annoy her. Ease off every now and then to show you’re not too clingy which in most cases is a turnoff, let her come to you.
Don’t talk to girls about other girls. Try not to gossip.
Some girls do get offended by “the chivalry stuff.” Make sure you know the type of girl you are dealing with. Some may see it as sexist, annoyingly nice, or it may seem like you are trying to assert superiority.
If a woman says she isn’t interested, back off. No means no.
While we can all agree that nobody is perfect, there are actually a few things that would adversely affect a relationship if a man chooses to partner with a woman with some not-so-great attributes.
The 10 kinds of woman a man should think twice about making a wife.
1. The Bitter Woman: You know that woman that always seems to be angry at the menfolk all the time? Perhaps she has had her heart broken one too many times, but this woman is always bashing on men and talking about how they are no-good or useless. A man might not want to settle down with someone so bitter as it is guaranteed that when the opportunity arises, she would hurl hurtful insults and intense, hateful words his way due to all her unresolved anger.
2. The Selfish Woman: If you want a happy home and a partner that wants your happiness as well as hers, then you should steer clear of the selfish woman. A woman who is determined to make sure she always comes first would not be able to build a cheerful and loving home with you.
3. The Materialistic Woman: A woman obsessed with material things would certainly not make the best wife. If all she cares about are material possession over family, faith and spiritual fulfillment, then she will not make the best partner.
4. The Flirty Woman: Are you attracted to that woman that always seems to flirt with one person or another? She flirts like a butterfly from one man to another and makes all men feel like she is interested in them. Well, beware, because a habit like that might be hard to break after marriage and you would not want to start hearing that your wife has had flirty conversations with all the men in the neighbourhood.
5. The Party Freak: She is invited to every party and attends them all. She is always dressed in the most flashy clothes and is the ultimate party girl. She lives for the next big gathering and cannot say no to an invitation. Such woman might not be the type to settle down in a marriage.
6. The Spoilt-Brat: A woman who grew up having everything handed to her and has never had the experience of actually working for something is unlikely to make the best wife. No matter how much you might be willing to provide her with the kind of lifestyle she grew up with, remember, marriage comes with kids and kids require sacrifice. If she has never had to work or make sacrifices for anything in her life, it is unlikely that she would start now.
7. The Attention Seeker: While some women naturally like attention, when it becomes an obsession, then it is not a good idea. A good husband makes sure he has time for his wife, but this cannot happen 100 percent of the time so a good wife should understand that.
8. The Gossip: Does she always seem to never mind her own business? Is she always focused on what someone else is doing or how someone else is living their life? Then you do not need this kind of woman as a wife. A man needs someone that would build a home with him and this requires some focus on her own plans and her own life. If she is too busy minding someone else’s business, then you are fighting a losing battle.
9. The Commitment-Phobe: A woman who finds it difficult to commit to anything (school, jobs, family, friendship, etc) would also not be able to commit to a marriage. If she seems to lose interest in everything quickly and is always looking for the next thing to jump into, then you would have a hard time keeping her focused in her marriage.
10. The Disrespectful Woman: If she seems to always be disrespectful and rude (even if it is to people she considers beneath her standards) then you need to think twice about marrying her. Respect for a fellow human being is a very important attribute in who we choose to spend the rest of our lives with so it is definitely not something that should be taken lightly.
The Edo State Police Command has paraded one Patrick Ayesan, 38, for having carnal knowledge and impregnating his 18 years old daughter.
The suspect made a confessional statement, charged to court, and was consequently sentenced to 10 years imprisonment while his daughter is currently with the state Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.
He confessed that he had been sleeping with his daughter since January 2020, adding that he slept with her whenever the urge for sex came. .
He disclosed that the mother of the girl is no more with him, hence his decision to turn to his daughter for sexual satisfaction. He said he and his daughter stayed together at Okosa community.
“I only sleep with her when my body moves and only started sleeping with her January this year. My wife is no more with me, so I and my daughter stay together, and I sleep with her whenever the urge comes,” he said.
On the 22nd of April this year I received two Whatsapp messages from a classmate who is in politics. The first is a press release by one Abdullahi Yaradua who identified himself as the Director of press to the secretary to Katsina state Government. It said the SSG Alhaji Mustapha Inuwa had reiterated the readiness of Katsina State Government to work closely with her neighbours to fight covid-19. The release further said the SSG made this remarks while receiving 419 almajerai who are indigenes of Katsina state ‘returned home’ from Kano.
The statement went further to say, “Katsina State Government had already closed down both Islamiyya and Local Quranic Schools and returned all Almajiris to their parents including those from Niger republic”.
The aspect of the press statement that finally put me off is when the SSG “admonished for continuous synergy between the Government of the States with which, he said all issues hindering the progress of the Zone are surmountable”. I noted that there is nothing hindering the progress of the Northwest zone and indeed Katsina state more than insecurity which the SSG has been put in charge for the past five years and the situation has only deteriorated from where he met it. In a saner clime he will resign.
As events unfolded in the coming days, I realized that there was a decision of Northern Governors to stop what they called almajiri in their states and they are using the Covid-19 pandemic to do it. But come, where are the Islamic scholars? It is based on their fatwa that Friday prayers were banned by politicians. They derived their reasons from authentic sayings and traditions of The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) who asked believers not to go to an area where there is an epidemic or leave it after an epidemic started. This is to prevent the spread of contagious diseases. But is movement of almajirai from one state to another not against the teaching of this Hadith? Why are the scholars silent? Where is the NSCIA which quoted 1001 reasons from Quran and Sunnah to convince us to comply with social distancing and lockdown? Have we been compromised or are we afraid of some failed politicians?
Again, I watched the way these almajerai are being moved. There is no social distancing. In some cases they are packed together in one vehicle and transported like goats. In others like the case of those moved from Nasarawa state to Taraba they were rejected by Taraba state government because, according to them, “they were not accompanied by Health officials as agreed by Northern Governors” and that “Taraba state is not a dumping ground for almajiris” as if the children are not indigenes of Taraba state. What did the Northern Governors agree? Is it backed by law? These people are taking us for granted.
Now look at this. Even before Covid-19 there has been other more deadly communicable diseases like the HIV/AIDS. Prostitutes are known to be the worst agents of transmitting HIV/AIDS for which no cure is known yet. If the Governors were truly serious about protecting their people from contacting deadly diseases, they would have banned prostitution and moved prostitutes to their home states.
Of all the Northern Governors, the one who seems to take this fight to the extreme is my brother, Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai. It was his idea to ban ‘almajerei’, at least according to his Commissioner for Human Services and Social Development who disclosed much earlier that he was to present a memo to Northern Governors on how to ban the “time bomb”.
As far as Mallam is concerned the only definition of a school is the western education type which he said it is better for a child to attend even if there will be 200 of them in a class than to go to the traditional Qur’anic school. I don’t blame him because he is not a teacher and none of his children has attended a school where there are 200 children in a classroom. The other time he told gullible Nigerians that he was taking his child to a public school but he took him to Capital School instead of LEA primary school Badiko which is the nearest to Government house.
Mallam Nasiru was even saying that they are ready to “confront anybody”. And I say, you will face your maker. Power is transient. In three years time you will join the list of former Governors of Kaduna state. Sooner or later, just like any of us, you will be in some grave beneath the mother earth. So take it easy.
Now, the second message from my politician friend. He advised me to, if I intend to make any comment on this to fear Allah and tell the truth so that I will not regret in future. I was encouraged by this. But perhaps what he considers the truth is what he wants to hear. I know I wrote several times in the past on almajerei and I have never lied. My position on almajerei has always been very clear. Almajerei is Qur’anic. Without almajerei there will be no knowledge. Most of those who think a person can be an Islamic scholar by remaining in their village have at one point or another left their localities in search of western education and have never argued that there should be a university in every street so that students should not leave their parents to become Engineers and doctors or even sociologists or political scientists.
Begging, whether done by adults or children is unIslamic except in exceptional circumstances. Prohibition of begging in Islam is fundamental. What Nigerian Muslim leaders have failed to do is developing a model that will work in our time. At it is, the Nigerian Muslim Ummah with all her Emirs and Islamic scholars have no plan of producing and certifying Islamic scholars. The best I know is when a person is to be recruited to teach in some Islamiyya school they are interviewed mainly to know if their views are in consonance with those of the owners of the school.
It is high time our Islamic organizations woke up and faced the challenges. Waiting for “shariah” politicians to solve problems bedeviling Muslim Ummah has been our bane. Political office holders in the Muslim North are not elected based on their knowledge of Islam or even the love for it. The prevailing method of leadership recruitment in the North does not allow for devout Muslims to be at the helm of affairs. Unfortunately some of our Islamic scholars are too naïve to understand this and are often carried away by deceptive Islamic postures of political office holders. When these postures are accompanied by occasional gifts, the non-enterprising Islamic scholar is often lost in the struggle to maintain the patronage of the politician.
But it is not over. The decision of the Governors is irreversible only to the extent that Islamic scholars insist on child begging and/or fail to provide an alternative practical model of Qur’anic Education.
By Abdussamad Umar Jibia
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s they do not reflect the views of Concourse News. Please report any fake news or defamatory statements to feedback.
Junaid Muhammad calls for arrest of security operatives at border posts over Almajerai
The elder statesman said his views for the past 60 years on Almajerai has not changed. “I don’t believe the almajiri is necessary, I don’t believe it is politics or religion, I don’t believe it is in the interest of our country to allow this unhealthy phenomenon.
“It is economically counterproductive, it does not help in developing the country or developing the young men who are the Almajerai. “If they are brought up to be almajerai most of them does not know the Koran, they don’t know modern education, they have no trade, no job, they have no training, so as far as I am concerned it is, in fact, an abuse of these children who are brought up to be almajerai.”
He said on top of that, it is important to realize that if the almajerias decide to get married, there is a responsibility attached to that marriage, if they decide to have a child there is a responsibility attached to then as far as that child is concerned.
“The idea that you can decide to get married and start producing children like rats is simply uncalled for and in the long run a criminal offence as far as I am concerned.
” Bringing up a child in this modern age of the 21st century who is not educated, who knows nothing about religion, who knows nothing about any profession is also a crime against humanity.”
“So as far as I am concerned, whatever the inconveniences these almajerai are subjected to, I am all for it, because I want it discouraged, and at some point in the near future, I want it completely to be stopped because we have the people who have refuse to really stamp their feet on the ground to put a stop to it simply because they don’t have the political will. ”
He explained further that the people who are supposed to say no, don’t do so.
“Secondly there is also the idea that because of our liberal nature you can travel all the way from Lagos to Maiduguri to Sokoto to Calabar, without being harassed because they take advantage of that to go and now have so many colonies of almajerai in so many places where the culture is not there.”
He said as far as he is concerned he has no problem with them being treated in a shabby manner adding that if they are caught they should be apprehended.
“The almajerai may be innocent but those who facilitate their journeys should be arrested and jailed. Unless we put our foot down we are not going to have an end to this criminal phenomenon.”
The Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, AYCF, on Friday advised President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina to resign from his position.
AYCF President-General, Yerima Shettima explained that Adesina was not doing well as a presidential spokesman, hence the need for him to resign.
Shettima spoke while reacting to calls for Adesina’s resignation over the whereabouts of Buhari and his Vice, Yemi Osinbajo.
Speaking with DAILY POST, the AYCF President-General said Adesina has found himself in a situation where he continues to ” turn black to white.”
According to Shettima: “On the issue of Buhari and Osinbajo’s whereabouts, it is sad that a country such as Nigeria with a population of over 200 million does not have leaders in place.
“It is sad that leaders of this country do not see themselves making sacrifices in the interest of the entire country. They have all become so large and this is unfortunate.
“However, it is sad that Femi is not doing well at all as a presidential spokesman. This is a man I have so much respect for and knew him to be a very good and intelligent journalist, but all of a sudden, he started messing up and I think that was when he joined APC.
“If I were him, I would have resigned long before now because there are certain things that are not real around him, and he has found himself in a situation where he has to make black to become white, so he has a lot of challenges.
“I have always respected him because he’s a gentle man. I know him personally, but it’s unfortunate that he has turned out to be something else.
“The beauty it is that no matter how he goes about it, he should have asked of the whereabouts of people like Reuben Abati, and Adeniyi. His own case is even worse.
“As gentle as he is and I know, Adesina should have resigned because he has found himself in an unfortunate situation.”
The Kogi State Commissioner for Health, Dr Saka Haruna, has said the state is under pressure to declare that it has COVID-19 cases where there is none.
The commissioner made the claims in a statement on Thursday.
He, however, said the state would not succumb to the pressure.
The statement followed a report, which claimed that four persons suspected to be COVID-19 patients had died at the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja in the last one week.
He said that as the state commissioner for health, a member of the Governing Board of the FMC Lokoja, and also the incident manager for COVID-19 in the state, he had yet to be informed of any claimed cases.
“There is also a representative of the FMC Lokoja in the state’s squadron against COVID-19 /Lassa fever and never for once was any such case raised in our meetings.
The commissioner alleged that the aim of those putting pressure on the state was to politicise the situation as they are not happy that the current administration has been scored high by local and international observers on health care.
He added, “First and foremost, it is imperative that the public realise that there is no state government that can deliberately put her people in harm’s way for whatever political reason and the current administration has been scored high by local and international observers on health. We have and will continue to put the health of our people as first priority.
“We have been in an annual fight against Lassa fever as the state is located in the Lassa fever belt, recording several cases with regrettable losses. We were first to establish a Biosafety Laboratory for Lassa fever in Nigeria and this year alone we have confirmed 30 cases of Lassa fever that was duly announced. To accuse the state of a cover-up of COVID-19 cases is mischievous and at best politically inclined.”
