As the number of new cases of Covid-19 — and deaths continue to increase in Nigeria, and elsewhere in the world, it’s time to review how this disease is transmitted. Even among those that seem to observe the safety protocols, there have been infections.
Initially, the consensus was that the disease is spread by droplets that don’t go beyond six feet.
But as scientists began to beam more light on the virus, they found compelling evidence that the spread of the virus cannot be explained by droplets infection alone.
But transmission of this virus could be occurring by aerosol more than we are aware and more than the health organisations are willing to accept.
When we cough, sneeze, talk, breathe or sing, we normally release droplets, which are tiny particles of fluid, as well as aerosols, which are tinnier particles of fluid in the air.
A peer-reviewed paper published in Scientific Reports, by researchers working at the University of Nebraska discovered the new coronavirus in aerosol samples collected in the hospital room of Covid-19 patients.
One other study published in Sustainable Cities and Society was of a patient who had recovered from Covid-19 in an ICU, and had tested negative. Surface and air samples were collected in the ICU. The results from all surface samples tested negative, while that for air samples tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
Ponder the case of a restaurant in Guangzhou, in southern China, early in 2020 where one person who had Covid-19 infected nine other people who sat at his table and two other tables further from him.
Yuguo Li, a professor of engineering at the University of Hong Kong, and his colleagues studied a video from the restaurant, and in an article published last April, did not find any evidence to show close contact between those at those tables.
Droplets could not have explained the transmission based on the distance they could travel, at least not for those at the other tables, because it’s expected that droplets would have reached the ground.
Those other tables were at a corner that had poor ventilation and the air-conditioner drove air towards them. Interestingly, no staff member, or those beyond the air-conditioner got infected.
There was another incident where one person was believed to have infected 52 of 60 people at a choir practice in Washington, US.
Dr Linsey C. Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, one of the 239 scientists who wrote an open letter to the WHO to take the airborne transmission of the virus seriously and his colleagues looked at what happened in that choir gathering and published a preprint then, and settled that the transmission was largely due to aerosols.
Those who attended the choir event observed the safety protocols, including avoiding handshakes, avoiding hugs and used hand sanitizers which reduced the risk of transmission through direct contact. It was noted that the room had poor ventilation and the rehearsal lasted up to 2.5 hours which is considered long for a pandemic period.
Some researchers argue that because the virus is found in aerosols it does not mean there is long-range transmission.
While we wait for the health agencies to get their acts together, the key to being safe remains keeping a safe distance. One metre may not be enough. Two is just fine, but staying further is safer.
Mask wearing remains a game changer, if only everyone will agree to wear it. For healthcare workers it might mean the minimum type of mask to be worn should be an N-95. Where that is not available double-masking with the surgical mask might help.
While lockdown remains the most effective way of stopping the virus in its track, its effect on the economy is heavy. But if people can avoid any form of gathering or clustering, it will go a long way towards stemming the tide. Gatherings, especially in an enclosed place have a higher risk of generating aerosol transmission.
For the avoidance of doubt, gatherings include parties, night clubbing, weddings, naming ceremony, chieftaincy title ceremony, protests, political events, NIN registration, church and mosque worship and so on.
Doors and windows should be open as much as possible. The dampers in air-conditioning units should be adjusted. If possible the filters should be upgraded. Portable air cleaners can be used, germicidal ultraviolet technologies installed to kill or remove virus particles found in the air.
Following the seven-day ultimatum issued by Yoruba cultural activist, Sunday Igboho, asking Fulanis to leave Yoruba land, the Seriki Fulani, Oyo State, Saliu Abdul-Kadri, has sent a Save our Soul (SOS) message to the Oyo State government.
Abdul-Kadri rendered this SOS when a delegation of the state government led by Executive Assistant to Governor Seyi Makinde on Security, Mr Sunday Odukoya, visited Igangan for an assessment visit.
Igboho had last week stormed the Igangan residence of the Seriki Fulani noting that the Yorubas could no more bear being killed in their land by Fulanis.
Violence had trailed the visit with no fewer than three persons injured, one person declared missing while about nine huts were razed.
Addressing the state government’s delegation which visited, the Seriki Fulani said they were taken aback at the threat and invasion of their residence by the Igboho men.
Abdul-Kadri fingered foreign entrants into Ibarapa from Zamfara, Kebbi and other nationalities as being behind the kidnappings, killings, criminalities and not those Fulanis resident in Yoruba land.
He said that it was inconceivable that those of them who were born, grew up, married, built houses, set up businesses in Yoruba land will be the ones attacking and killing Yorubas.
Abdul-Kadri said that the Fulanis abhorred criminality, such that he had personally arrested criminals, both Yoruba and Fulani, and handed them over to the police.
Recounting what transpired when Igboho visited, he said, “On Friday evening, I suddenly saw several Hilux vans and other vehicles. As they alighted, they were asking where the Seriki is. Then one of them said he’s Igboho, that he believes I must have been hearing about him. He then said he’s here to give us seven days ultimatum to leave Ibarapa and entire Yoruba land. He asked if I’m aware how Fulani was killing and kidnapping people.
“I was about to tell him that we arrested some Yorubas who were kidnappers, in Igangan and Tapa and they have been handed over to the police. Suddenly they began shooting sporadically and hit four of us followed by setting up our huts in flames.
“He then brought out a gun, put it in his mouth swearing by Ogun’s name that he must not meet us here at the expiration of the ultimatum. Then they left.
We want the government to save us. “We may be regarded as visitors regardless of the number of years spent here but I grew up here, I married here; I have children over 45 years old. I have built houses here in Igangan.
“This place is our source of livelihood; we want the government to save us. We have supported governments over the years. The government should help put our mind at rest.
“A lot is happening to Fulani in Ibarapa, Oke-Ogun, Ogbomoso. We arrest people suspected to be killers, kidnappers and hand them over to the police. Many of those we arrest are from Zamfara, Kebbi. What attracts those foreigners is a mining spot in Igangan. They steal our cows too.”
Responding to the plea of the Seriki Fulani, Executive Assistant to Governor Seyi Makinde, on Security Sunday Odukoya said the government has commenced an investigation into the matter, assuring that those found culpable would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
He said the government is not asking the law-abiding residents irrespective of their tribe or creed to leave any part of the state but only criminal elements.
He allayed the fear of the Fulanis on the ultimatum for them to leave the state, urging them to remain law-abiding, peaceful and shun any reprisal attack.
Odukoya assured of government’s commitment to the security of residents across the state urging them to support the government by exposing criminal elements in their midst.
He advocated for peaceful co-existence between the Yorubas and the Fulanis in the state.
Bandits have reportedly kidnapped 17 persons in three communities in Shiroro Local Government Area in Niger State.
The victims according to TheNation were kidnapped on Saturday night in Madagwa, Wongo and Marenje communities.
It was gathered that five people each were abducted from Wongo and Marenje communities while about seven were kidnaped from Madagwa.
While the whereabouts of the victims are not yet known, Alhaji Suleiman Akinbami, a petroleum product dealer that was recently kidnapped in Ekiti has regained freedom.
He was released after spending eight days in the custody of his abductors.
Akinbami was abducted on Sunday, January 10, 2021, at one of his filling stations along Ado-Ijan road around 9 pm and whisked away to an unknown destination.
Three days after he abducted, his captors contacted his family and demanded N60 million ransom to release him.
While confirming his release, Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, ASP Sunday Abutu said Akinbami was released on Sunday, January 17, 2021, around 3 pm.
Abutu said the businessman was released as a result of the concerted effort of the police and Amotekun Corps, adding that no ransom was paid to secure his release.
He said, “The man had reunited with his family. We assure the general public that we will get him out unhurt the very day he was kidnapped and that was exactly what we did”.
But a source close to Akinbami’s family disclosed to TheNation that ransom running into millions of naira was paid.
GENEVA (Kyodo) — The World Health Organization said Friday its panel has concluded that vaccinations against the novel coronavirus should not be mandatory for international travelers, citing uncertainty over effectiveness and supply.
“Given that the impact of vaccines in reducing transmission is yet unknown, and the current availability of vaccines is too limited, the committee recommended that countries do not require proof of vaccination from incoming travelers,” the WHO Emergency Committee said in a press release.
The committee called on countries to “implement coordinated, time-limited, risk-based, and evidence-based approaches for health measures in relation to international traffic in line with WHO guidance,” it said.
The announcement comes as many countries scramble to strengthen border controls and require incoming travelers to submit proof of having tested negative for the coronavirus before departing from their countries.
Earlier this week, the U.S. government said it will require from Jan. 26 all overseas travelers to provide proof of a negative coronavirus test result before they are permitted to board inbound flights.
The committee “strongly encouraged vaccine manufacturers to rapidly provide safety and efficacy data” to the WHO, the release said, noting that the lack of such data may become a barrier to ensuring a timely and equitable supply of vaccines around the world.
While vaccination against the coronavirus is under way in some countries, access has mainly been limited to the elderly and workers in selected occupations such as medical personnel, police officers and nursing care facility staff members.
It is expected to take some time before the general public will receive the vaccinations on a wide scale.
Japan’s government on Sunday dismissed suggestions that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics scheduled for this summer could be cancelled owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have decided the venues and schedule, and the people involved are working on preparations, including infection control,” the Kyodo news agency quoted government spokesman Katsunobu Kato as saying.
The statement came after reports quoted Taro Kono, the minister for administrative and regulatory reform, as saying that “anything can happen” and “it could go either way” with the Games postponed from last year.
The government, local organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have said the Games are to go ahead amid a strict hygiene and safety concept. But doubts remain as a state of emergency has been declared for the Tokyo region amid rising numbers of coronavirus infections. A recent survey has also said 80 per cent of Japanese believed the Games would be postponed or cancelled again.
With the January 13, history-making, second impeachment of President Donald Trump within a four-year, single term in the White House, the Democrat –led U.S. House of Representatives seems determined to write the name of Donald Trump in the book of infamy. The impeachment saga was a fallout of the January 6, storming of the U.S. Capitol, allegedly on incitement by President Trump. That 10 Republicans joined the Democrats in the hurried 232-197 vote to impeach the president just seven days to the end of his tenure manifests what some of the pro-Trump Republican Congressmen described as the vindictive, vengeful nature of politics of hate.
Finally, The Establishment got President Trump. By The Establishment, I refer to America’s political-industrial-military-media elite whose pre-eminence in determining the course of governance candidate Trump repudiated when, against all predictions, he defeated Hillary Clinton, a Democrat and an establishment icon, in the 2016 U.S presidential election. He had fought a running battle against the establishment, particularly the media, for all of his four-year presidency, a fact highlighted by pro-Trump Republican Congressmen at the impeachment session with the disclosure that The Washington Post had even called for Trump’s impeachment within days of his being sworn in.
A combative Trump had alleged gross irregularities in the presidential election, vehemently disputed candidate Joe Biden’s victory, describing it as a ‘’stolen’’ mandate. Opponents hold that his call for a Last Stand in an address to faithfuls who had gathered in Washington D.C. on the January 6 date for Congressional session to certify the electoral college votes, after which the Trumpists stormed the U.S. Capitol, was a call to insurrection.
Trump supporters defended his exhortation of the crowd as an exercise in free speech which is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The impeachment vote short-circuited the process : no formal investigation of charges, no hearings – straight to a vote in Congress. We now have a somewhat cliff-hanger situation, an eerie cloud over America: you have an impeached outgoing president with a senate trial hanging on his neck at a time a president-elect will be sworn in!!
Only in America, the Land of Exceptionalism. And what an exception this scenario!!
These, therefore, are not the best of times for the United States and American democracy. Wednesday, January 6, when hundreds of predominantly ‘white’ Americans stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. was the nadir of a political warfare, resulting from disputed election results. What an irony, that the country whose government and NGOs act as policemen of elections worldwide, arrogantly imposing sanctions on persons and governments considered not following due process during elections, is today engulfed in a grave crisis of disputed election results! January 6, showed the world America’s ugly underbelly as the Evangelist of Democracy.
America that has destroyed many countries in its determination to force-feed them with democracy is today literally lying prostrate in crisis of democracy of tsunami gravity, threatening to tear the country apart. Words like election rigging, coup, fraud and all the electoral shenanigans often associated, in denigration, with elections in developing countries, are now being freely used to describe fallouts from the 2020 American presidential election. Welcome to America, the newest electoral banana republic!! What is more, we are now told that those who launched the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol, predominantly white, are terrorists, a MOB, yes, American mobsters . American democracy has taken a near fatal blow. We can imagine the laughs of communists in Moscow, Russia, the giggle of dictators in Beijing, China and even the chuckle of sixth term President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala, Uganda.
With few days to the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamara Harris as president and vice-president of the U.S. respectively, America is gripped with fear of violence , not celebration, that usually accompany such democracy’s appropriation of the coronation of a king. Nobody is talking of the Inaugural Ball. For America, it does not rain, it pours – reeling from having the highest number horrendous deaths from Coronavirus worldwide, and still counting, and now being stalked with fear as heavily armed militia groups stalk state capitols across the country.
How did America, the self-proclaimed beacon of democracy, come to these electoral dire straits?
President of the United States, Donald Trump
President Trump is a major factor in America’s current election debacle, not so much as precipitating it per se, but for his anti-orthodoxy, anti- establishment, and for rupturing America’s political oligarchy. American democracy sells the myth of a popular, majority people’s government, but in reality it is a government of minority, by a minority – the oligarchy – for the benefit of a minority – the special interest groups. The political oligarchy, in bed with military-industrial –media power bases constitute the establishment, whose members have America in a vice grip. They call the shots. They are the owners of America. Candidate Trump joined the Republican Party primaries in 2015 as a political outsider and was dismissed as a joke.
In a crowded field of 17 contestants, with 16 of them governors, former governors, senators and senior professional politicians, Trump, the outsider, routed them all, including former governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, younger brother of President G. W. Bush and son of President G.H.W. Bush, thus putting a break to the run of the Bush dynasty.
In the presidential election of 2016, , he faced Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party, wife of President Bill Clinton and a former Secretary of State for whom all the polls predicted a landslide victory. It was not to be. Against all predictions, Trump trounced Hillary, delivering a shock to the establishment which never forgave him and with which he had had a running battle, culminating in a denouement with the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Trump’s rejection of the election result is his final showdown with the establishment, the endgame in a four-year titanic political battle. That House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, Democrat, could call President Trump a “deranged” person shows the depth of animosity between the forces ranged.
The American mainstream media, including the self-proclaimed media icons –the CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post – have been complicit in the unfolding drama that has demystified America as the Democracy of Example by their rabid anti Trump content and his demonization. This has been interpreted as a Trump pull-down strategy for humiliating the media in their predictions of a Hillary victory . Events are threatening to spin out of control and the media rather than promoting reconciliation seem bent on fuelling the vicious divisions which have emerged in the American society.
In their strident anti Trump reports, American mainstream media abandoned the Doctrine of Fairness and Accuracy in media content. As to mobs, America has a history of mob action – symbolized in mob lynching, mob take-over of landed property as well as resolving disputes through gun-fights in the days of the Wild, Wild West. So, what is happening now is tantamount to history repeating itself, a resurgence of mob action and looming gun fights as militia groups prime for action.
There is also history of election rigging which had been muted before now because of the oligarchy consensus not to rock the democratic boat. In 1960, the election that brought John F. Kennedy was disputed by many Republicans but for Republican candidate Richard Nixon who refused to be drafted into open challenge of the election because he would not want to diminish the prestige and authority of the President of the United States.
In 2000, the world witnessed a public challenge of the presidential election where many believed that the last state election result released from Florida State, where Jeb Bush was governor, that gave victory to George W. Bush, his elder brother was manipulated. With millions of votes cast and after recounts, only 527 votes was the victory margin for George W. Bush !!! The dispute then did not erupt into open political warfare because of the self-preservative interest of the two contenders as members of the oligarchy – Bush, a former governor of Texas and son of a former president while Senator Al Gore, is a former vice-president and son of a senator.
With opponents of impeached President Trump baying for blood and gloatingly dangling jail term for him, post-White House residency, but with Trump and his die-hard supporters digging in and bracing for a showdown, America faces the prospects of a political meltdown, if these dicey political times are not proactively and strategically managed. A spark is only what is needed to ignite a political incendiary that could burn America.
Unless we shake out of widespread living in denial of the new and deadly wave of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), we are in danger of a looming blowout of the pandemic and its devastating consequences in Nigeria. Worse, the possible dimensions of such blowout is beyond our national capacity to tackle down.
For two weeks straight, the country has recorded a case count of some 1,500 new infections per day, and an average of about five deaths daily from Covid-19 related complications. That, of course, is far below the records in developed nations where daily infections are in tens of thousands and related deaths in units of thousands; but we daren’t assay that path in this country because we have neither the facilities nor resources to manage such degeneration. Even the vaccines that other countries have already acquired and begun to administer on their nationals are yet in the realm of wishful projections in our case. That isn’t a scenario in which to risk possible worsening of the pandemic.
But there are indications in nearly every facet of the Nigerian society that many citizens live in denial of the pandemic. Lately, the police in Lagos secured the conviction of almost 300 persons who were apprehended for violating safety protocols prescribed by government. Against the backdrop of a 12 midnight to 4 a.m. curfew ordered by the Federal Government and enforced by the state, the police command said many of those convicts were night clubbers arrested at entertainment centres where they showed no regard for safety protocols prescribed to deter the spread of Covid-19 among the populace. Also in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Covid-19 taskforce last week unleashed bulldozers on some fun spots that were alleged to be operating illegally and where patrons had carried on in disregard of precautions necessitated by the pandemic.
It wasn’t just fun-seekers who have been spurning safety protocols regarding the pandemic, so also have more sober members of society including adherents of the different faiths. At the dawn of 2021 some three weeks ago, many worshippers ignored the 12 midnight to 4 a.m. curfew to hold the customary crossover services heralding the new year.
Commendably, notable religious leaders and their followers complied with government rule and adjusted their services to align with prescribed safety regime; but there were many others who stayed in defiance – not only in violation of the curfew, but also with the services tightly congested and held in violation of the safety protocols of physical distancing and use of facemasks by attendees.
In recent times, the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the Novel Coronavirus Control headed by Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha had cause to warn that crammed events were potential super spreaders of Covid-19, and to decry perceived reluctance on the part of religious organisations and other event organisers to keep crowd sizes within recommended limits at their events.
Interestingly, the reluctance about crowd control and compliance with other safety protocols seem more characteristic of this present wave of the pandemic than the previous one, which was mild by comparison. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) noted last week that while Nigerians seem tired of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact, the virus is taking advantage of the fatigue and complacency to escalate momentum and seizing the opportunity created by lapses in adherence to recommended safety protocols.
The agency and other officials of government have also stridently warned that hospitals were being overwhelmed by the spiraling number of infections. ”Covid-19 exists; anybody who says Covid-19 does not exist is probably living in a completely different world…I’m sure most of those who have been following the numbers will realise that what we have now far exceeded what we had in June/July, last year…Our hospitals are already starting to get overloaded and we are already starting to feel the pressure within the healthcare system,” National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr. Sani Aliyu, recently said.
Not that government itself has helped matters. Even with the escalating trend of the pandemic, it imposed tight timelines for telecoms subscribers to link their National Identity Number (NIN) with their phone lines, thereby prompting huge turnouts of intending NIN registrants at National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) centres nationwide. On 15th December, last year, the government had through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy directed all telecoms operators to block phone lines registered on their networks that were not linked to respective subscriber’s NIN by 30th December.
Following public outcry against the short deadline, it granted a three-week extension for subscribers already having their NIN till 19th January, 2021, and six-week extension for subscribers yet to obtain the NIN till 9th February. Still, the threat of imminent disconnection from telco networks forced mammoth crowds of subscribers to NIMC centres. The pressure on those centres was compounded by a strike called by the agency’s workers penultimate week, which was suspended after 48 hours though the workers were not back at their duty posts until Monday.
Government has allayed the fear of massive disconnection from telco networks, though it is yet to expressly relax the deadlines for NIN-phone number linkage. But Minister of State for Health Olorunnimbe Mamora, who is a member of the PTF, hinted last week that it was considering suspending the registration. Acknowledging that the exercise was becoming a super spreader, he said: “My understanding is that the whole process may be suspended so as to reorder (it) in terms of management of the crowd, because it was never intended that it would become a rowdy process like that.
So, people may have to wait and be called at intervals to go through the process.” Many, however, view such step by government as too little too late, being contemplated weeks after exposing citizens to the danger of contracting Covid-19 under a project that was obviously poorly conceived.
The recent track of Covid-19 in Nigeria is marked with fatalities such as the Ndubuisi Kanus, the Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obes, the Femi Odekunles, the Habu Galadimas and Olu of Warri Ogiame Ikenwolis of our society. But cynics don’t seem persuaded – one of them Christ Embassy Church pastor, Biodun Lawal, who recently said heaven was ashamed of Christians and pastors who wear a facemasks to church. “If you still want to wear a mask, wear it, but do not call yourself a man of God. (You are) a baby of God. We can’t even call you son…Son is too high,” he said in a video clip that went viral. Respected General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, was suspected to be rebutting this last week when he tweeted that believers should wear facemask and stay safe.
Lawal should ask the likes of Senior Pastor Paul Adefarasin of the House on the Rock church that lost one of its pastors, Yinka Akinbami, to Covid-19 complications recently. “It is important to remind (everyone) about the deadly nature of Covid-19 and its mutant strains. Please do your part by following all recommended precautions,” Adefarasin said in a recent tweet post by which he announced the painful death of Akinbami. Another weighty counsel along that line recently was by the General Overseer of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, Dr. Daniel Olukoya, who urged Nigerians to take Covid-19 seriously and obey safety protocols prescribed by government.
Speaking at the inauguration of remodelled foyer of the University of Lagos (Unilag) Senate Building that he sponsored, Olukoya, who has a first-class degree in Microbiology from Unilag and a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, said: “The first thing is to convince the populace that it is real, because some people don’t believe it exists. But I am a man of God and I have prayed for so many people with the same infirmity, and I know that it exists. So, we should not joke with it. People should obey all the rules. And most importantly, we should pray that this pandemic will go away.”
Cynicism about Covid-19 is a deadly pastime that bodes no good – neither for the cynic nor the society.
There have been controversies in regards to the rate at which vehicles stopping at the arrival lounge of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MM1), also known as the General Aviation Terminal, are impounded by Turas Towing Services, the towing company responsible for enforcing sanctions to violators of airport traffic rules.
Turas Services have been accused by many airport users of being high handed and indiscriminately impounding vehicles without following due process. Newsmen witnessed how the vehicle of an Uber driver, who gave his name as Muniru, was impounded as soon as he dropped off a female passenger at the departure lounge of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport. His vehicle was immediately impounded but was later released after he paid an undisclosed sum to the towing company that operates at the international airport. The supervising officer of Turas Services, Olawale Abdulazeez, however, told newsmen that his company only operates at the local terminal.
When newsmen visited the GAT at the weekend, an airport user who preferred anonymity told the paper that the original objective of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) hiring the towing company was to ensure non-obstruction of traffic, but that the activities of the concessionaire have made the airport environment hostile to airport users.
‘The officials of the towing company have become a law unto themselves,’ the source said.
‘When they see someone park at the arrival for a few seconds, instead of politely warning the person to park properly, they immediately pounce on the vehicle and clamp the tires and that most often, such confrontation results into chaos and violence. Their mode of operation is not refined at all. What people expect of them is that if someone parks indiscriminately, they should walk up to the person and politely tell the person to move away but they don’t do that.
What they do is that the moment someone comes, they just come immediately and clamp the tire and the person will be shocked and sometimes it results in a violent confrontation. But if you warn the offender to move away and the second time, the person does it, then if you are doing anything afterwards, it would be justified. But sometimes, you see someone park for a few seconds and maybe the person is making a call before the person even picks up the phone, they have clamped the person’s tire.
‘You know Nigerians generally don’t always adhere to road signs especially when such signs are not very conspicuous. Sometimes, you see these Taxify and Uber drivers loitering around the airport, waiting to pick passengers even when they do not have the right to do so. The best thing to solve the problem is for more very visible signposts to be set up around the arrival lounge of the airport. Yes, there are some posts there, but some are not very visible, so most often, people can’t easily see them. More signs should be placed all over the airport, especially the arrival lounge so that no one would have any excuse not to see them,’ the source said.
Newsmen spoke to GAT terminal manager Adekunle Aderibigbe, who confirmed that FAAN has received complaints about the activities of the towing company and that a monitoring team has been set up to monitor their activities and any errant official would be sanctioned.
‘The managing director of FAAN has directed that the towing companies should be given training and it started last week and they will be trained and re-trained. They have been told to change their rickety vehicles because some of the vehicles end up causing more damage to the cars that they impound. These are the issues that our MD observed and we are working on it and I’m very sure that they will improve.
‘We have told them that anytime they see any vehicle parked indiscriminately, they should speak calmly to the driver because it may just be that the driver parked briefly to receive a call or there is an urgent reason for the person to park. If they don’t want a person to park there, you tell the person to move and show the person where he is supposed to park.
‘If it is to drop and pick passengers, there is a sign that shows that to pick passengers should be done at the car park. That is where we have the physical distancing marking for each vehicle to park, so no vehicle should be picking passengers in front of the arrival hall and we have drop-off for the departure. We also have signs there that say you should drop off and not wait. We have set up a monitoring team to monitor the activities of the towing company from GAT down to MMIA and they are already working. If anyone of them flouts any rules, the towing company will be sanctioned because that is one of the agreements of the concession,’ Aderibigbe said.
But Abdulazeez, who is the supervisor for GAT disputed Aderibigbe’s statement, told newsmen that no official of Turas would impound any vehicle without valid reasons. He said that many drivers park illegally because they are trying to avoid paying the parking fee of N400.
‘Look at the sign at the entrance of the arrival; it says ‘No waiting, No stopping, No parking’, yet people keep stopping right in front of the signpost to pick passengers. If we stop you, it is your approach to us that will determine how we would handle the issue. I’m in charge of the GAT and its environs up to the Air Force base. At the international airport, there are two towing companies that work there and I can’t say much about their job. No one is required to stop in front of the arrival lounge to pick passengers because it obstructs vehicular movement.
There is a car park that has been provided where passengers who come from the arrival lounge are meant to wait for the vehicles that would pick them up. When such vehicles come, they are to drive straight to the car park and wait for the passengers they are meant to keep and the fee for the car park is just N400. It is because many of them don’t want to pay that N400, that is why they always resort to parking in front of the arrival lounge to pick up passengers.
‘You can drop off people at departure but we don’t allow them to loiter there. When we see some taxi drivers waiting there for long, that is when we would impound the vehicles. When we meet them with the passenger, we don’t tow their vehicles, it is when they keep waiting there for long even after the first warning, that we now tow their vehicles. Even at the arrival lounge, we don’t tow immediately; we usually give warnings first and tell them to go to the car park but most of them usually refuse to park there because they don’t want to pay the parking fees. What they do is to go and turn and still come back to the front of the arrival to wait for their passengers. When we see such defaulters, it is then that we impound their vehicles.
‘None of our officials have ever impounded the vehicle of anyone who doesn’t commit an offence. Just look at this man that has just parked in from of the sign that says ‘No parking’. He is now calling the person he wants to pick and someone has gone to warn him. If we arrest him now, he won’t tell the truth about why he was arrested. FAAN instructed us to fine defaulters N15, 000 even though what is written on the signpost is N50, 000 but sometimes, defaulters can plead for the amount to be reduced and we would do it depending on the approach and how valid his reasons are,’ Abdulazeez said.
President Muhammadu Buhari must be stopped from selling public properties to fund the 2021 budget.
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) made the call Sunday urging the Senate President Dr Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker of House of Representatives Mr Femi Gbajabiamila to restrain Buhari from what will become an assets sales binge.
SERAP called on the two leaders to review the 2021 appropriation law and identify areas in the budget to cut such as salaries and allowances for members and the Presidency to make savings to address the growing level of deficit and borrowing.”
The Minister of Finance Mrs Zainab Ahmed had last week reportedly confirmed that the Federal Government would sell some-government-owned properties to fund the 2021 budget. This is in addition to the government’s growing borrowing also to fund the budget.
In a letter dated 16 January 2021, and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “The National Assembly has a constitutional and oversight responsibility to protect valuable public properties and to ensure a responsible budget spending. Allowing the government to sell public properties, and to enjoy almost absolute discretion to borrow to fund the 2021 budget would amount to a fundamental breach of constitutional and fiduciary duties.”
“Selling valuable public properties to fund the 2021 budget would be counter-productive, as this would be vulnerable to corruption and mismanagement. It would undermine the social contract with Nigerians, leave the government worse off, and hurt the country in the long run. It is neither necessary nor in the public interest.”
“The country’s fiscal situation must be changed – and changed quickly – through some combination of cuts in spending on salaries and allowances, and a freeze on spending in certain areas of the budget such as hardship and furniture allowances, entertainment allowances, international travels, and buying of motor vehicles and utilities for members and the Presidency.”
The letter, read in part: “The time is now for the leadership of the National Assembly to stand up for the Nigerian people, stop the rush to sell public properties, push for a responsible budget, and support efforts to have the government spend responsibly.”
“Other areas to propose cutting include: constituency allowance, wardrobe allowance, recess allowance, and entertainment allowance.”
“SERAP urges the National Assembly to promptly work with the Presidency to fix the current damaging budgeting process and address systemic corruption in ministries, departments and agencies [MDAs]. Tackling corruption in MDAs, and cutting waste and salaries and allowances of high-ranking public officials would go a long in addressing the budget deficit and debt problems.”
“SERAP also urges the National Assembly to stop approving loan requests by the Federal Government if it continues to fail to demonstrate transparency and accountability in the spending of the loans so far obtained.”
“The current level of borrowing is unsustainable, which means that the National Assembly under your leadership can play an important role to limit how much the government can borrow in the aggregate. The National Assembly should urgently seek assurances and written commitment from President Buhari about his government’s plan to bring the country’s debt problem under control.”
“We would consider the option of pursuing legal action to stop the Federal Government from selling public properties, and we may join the National Assembly in any such suit.”
“The budget deficit and debt problems threaten Nigerians’ access to essential public goods and services, and will hurt future generations. If not urgently addressed, the deficit and debt problems would seriously undermine access to public goods and services for the country’s poorest and most vulnerable people who continue to endure the grimmest of conditions.”
“Our requests are brought in the public interest, and in keeping with the requirements of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], the country’s international human rights obligations including under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Nigeria has ratified both human rights treaties.”
“SERAP notes that the N13.58 trillion budget for the 2021 fiscal year signed by President Buhari on December 31, 2020 is about N505 billion higher than the budget proposed in October, 2020. The government is reportedly planning to borrow N5.6 trillion from domestic and foreign resources to fund the 2021 budget.”
“The deficit and debt problems can be fixed immediately if the National Assembly can exercise its constitutional and fiduciary duties to push for cutting salaries and allowances of members and the president and vice-president, and for transparency and accountability in the spending of the loans so far obtained by the government.”
“We hope that the above would help guide your actions to stop the government from selling public properties to fund the 2021 budget, propose cuts in salaries and allowances of high-ranking government officials, propose cuts in waste and corruption in MDAs, as well as ensure transparency and accountability in the spending of loans by the government. We would be happy to discuss any of these recommendations in more detail with you.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of former Military Administrator of Lagos State, Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa Rtd as Director-General, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Gen. Marwa is a retired Nigerian army officer who served as governor of Borno State, and then Lagos State during the military administrations of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha.
Born on September 9, 1953, in Kaduna State, Nigeria, Marwa hails from Michika L.G.A of Adamawa State.
He attended the Nigerian Military School, Zaria and the Nigerian Defense Academy, Kaduna. He later studied at Pittsburgh University, where he obtained a master’s degree in International Relations and another in Public Administration from Harvard University.
Marwa has held various posts in the army, including Brigadier Major (23 Armoured Brigade), Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Theophilus Danjuma, academic registrar of the Nigerian Defense Academy and deputy defence adviser in the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC.
He was the Military Governor of Lagos State from 1996-1999 and during his administration, he implemented programs such as “Operation 250 Roads” which greatly improved motoring conditions.
Marwa revamped public health institutions and ensured that free malaria treatment was available to all Lagos residents.
Until his appointment as the New DG of NDLEA, he was the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Drug Abuse.
