Boss Mustapha, chairman of the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19, says within one week since Nigeria entered the second wave of infections in December, 16 out of every 100 tests returned positive.
Within the past two weeks that the daily count of COVID-19 cases recorded a significant rise — increasing to more than 1,000 cases within a 24-hour period — the country has recorded over 10,000 new infections.
Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, the PTF chairman emphasised the need for Nigerians to take personal responsibility to prevent the spread of the virus.
He noted that the health sector is facing challenges, considering the spike in infections especially among younger people, and called for strict adherence to the guidelines for limiting spread.
“The New Year (2021) is just three days ahead of us and we wish to remind you that in addition to the non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and the hope given by the arrival of vaccines, commitment to personal survival and compliance with protocols will remain critical. We urge Nigerians to make this part of their New Year resolutions,” Mustapha said.
“Our national response is passing through a challenging phase due to the seriousness of the second wave of infections in Nigeria. Week 52 has so far given us the highest number of infections, in a single week, to date. Our TPR analysis shows that 16 out of every 100 tests carried out are positive.
“We are also seeing increasing transmission among younger people and this is not considered good and safe. We must, therefore, exercise utmost restraint by taking responsibility.”
The National Identity Management Commission has issued fresh guidelines for applicants to obtain their National Identification Number (NIN).
Kayode Adegoke, the spokesman for the commission, in a statement on Tuesday titled, ‘NIMC Adopts Booking System For NIN Enrolment,’ urged all applicants to use face masks, maintain social distancing and wash their hands while at its centres across the country.
The statement further reads, “Mindful of the second wave of the COVID-19 which continues to severely affect public health and cause unprecedented disruptions, the Commission wishes to announce that it has adopted a couple of measures to contain the spread of the virus whilst ensuring its services to Nigerians are not entirely interrupted.
“Effective December 30, 2020, attending to applicants would be based on Booking System. For Bookings, applicants are to visit any of the NIMC Offices closest to them during stipulated business hours (9am – 1pm).
“Once admitted into the office, a Number-Issuing queue management system will be in place to ensure orderliness and strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols.”
Several Nigerians had on Tuesday gathered at the offices of the commission in Lagos and Abuja, to register for their National Identification Number (NIN).
Several people who gathered at the offices flouted COVID-19 protocols put in place to check the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
It was observed that the majority of them did not use their face masks and physical distancing was not observed.
The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, had initially issued a two-week ultimatum to all telecommunications operators in the country to block all Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) without National Identification Number.
It later extended registration for NIN by up to six weeks, from December 30, 2020 to February 9, 2021
A statement jointly signed by the Executive Vice-Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Umar Danbatta; and Director-General, National Identity Management Commission, Aliyu Aziz, said, “Based on the endorsement of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the following resolutions were made: Three (3) weeks extension for subscribers with NIN from 30th December 2020 to 19th January 2021; and six (6) weeks extension for subscribers without NIN from 30th December 2020 to 9th February 2021.”
Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State on Tuesday donated a storey building to the Zone 17 of the Nigeria Police Force.
The building is to serve as the zone’s operational office and headquarters.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Zone 17 was created on May 27, 2020 to serve Ondo and Ekiti States.
While handing over the building to the newly promoted Deputy Inspector of General of Police (DIG), Mr David Folawiyo, the governor thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the creation of the zone.
He said the recent EndSARS protests had negatively impacted on the psyche of the police and urged them to come out and continue to enforce law and order in Ondo State.
“We owe it a duty to apologise to the police and encourage them so that they can come out to carry out their responsibilities,” he said.
The governor assured the DIG that his government would continue to give all the necessarily support to the police to enable them to protect the people of the two states.
In his address, Folawiyo, who was the pioneer Assistant Inspector General of the zone, thanked the governor for donating the building.
Folawiyo disclosed that Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti has promised to equip the headquarters with computer sets and other necessary gadgets.
He said that community policing would be rigorously pursued, adding that the zone would serve the people better by collaborating with other sister agencies.
The National Chairman of the Labour Party, Alhaji Abdulkadir Abdulsalam, is dead.
He died in Abuja after early morning prayers, on Tuesday.
His closest friend and political associate, the former National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, Peter Ameh, confirmed the death to our correspondent on the telephone.
He said, “I’ve lost a friend of several decades. He was not sick, he even joined the early morning prayers this morning. This is a great loss not only to opposition political parties but to Nigerian democracy as a whole. His progressive ideas will be surely missed.”
A coalition of Nigerian Muslim professionals has condemned attacks trailing Bishop Matthew Kukah following his Christmas Day Message, where he allegedly berated the state of the nation, warning that unless leaders sit up, Nigeria was heading towards a failed state.
The revered Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Archdiocese was also quoted as accusing President Muhammadu Buhari of piloting Nigeria into darkness in the message titled: “A Nation in Search of Vindication.”
He took swipe at the worsening state of insecurity in the country just as he berated the current federal administration of glaringly abandoning the nation’s extant federal character principles and rather promoting nepotism with impunity.
The development has been drawing criticisms from the president’s friends, political associates, and party, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
But reacting to the attacks on the Bishop, the coalition of Nigerian Muslim Professionals while commending Kukah for what they described as “his boldness to speak truth to power”, faulted those vilifying him.
In the statement signed on Tuesday by the group’s National Coordinator, Prof. Mohammed Inuwa, the group while noting that President Buhari means well for the country, faulted him in some actions taken by his administration which it said, was not promoting unity.
The coalition said the country would be a great place to live if there were up to three persons like the Catholic bishop, saying those who were hiding from the truth were doing so for their personal interests.
It tasked the president to see the Bishop’s message as a wake-up call with a view to adjusting his policies and programmes for the betterment of Nigeria and Nigerians.
The Nigerian Muslim Professionals took a swipe at those trolling the Bishop, saying they were doing it for their pecuniary gains and not the interest of the country.
It warned against twisting the message to mean the Bishop endorses coup, saying contrary to those promoting that insinuation, the revered Bishop was too learned to support such ignoble path to installing leadership, saying Nigerians with a conscience would not fall to the antics of those twisting the Bishop’s message for selfish reasons.
The group said having followed Bishop Kukah’s activities and preachings since the days of the military, it was convinced that not too many Nigerians took the interest of the country at heart like Kukah”.
“Even during the military era where people dreaded the powers that be at the time, Bishop Kukah, who was then a Catholic priest spoke truth to those at the helm of affairs without fear or favour. He has shown through his actions all the years that he is a true son of Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. We should support him for being bold enough to come out to speak what many Nigerians know is the truth but afraid to speak out for fear of the leadership”, the statement read.
“While we must admit that President Muhammad Buhari means well for the nation, we must say that most people in his government are grossly incompetent and don’t deserve to stay around power even in an uncivilized space,” the group stated.
The group said it would not shy away from the truth even though most of the president’s actions drawing criticisms were in favour of its region.
It flayed the glaring marginalisation of the Igbo in every facet of national life, saying the development was not promoting national cohesion which nationalists that laid down their lives for the country’s independence wanted.
“There’s nothing wrong with Bishop Kukah’s statement in the actual sense. Some regions particularly the South East have been marginalized in successive governments, and the administration of President Muhammad Buhari came and amplified it with the worst,” it added.
It described those attacking Kukah as faceless individuals who were being promoted by selfish people in leadership to silence the truth.
” We strongly condemn the wrong approach taken to respond to a message by a patriotic Nigerian by these incompetent people working to derail the president’s agenda.
“It is completely wrong to be attacking Bishop Kukah by some faceless sponsored groups. Bishop kukah did not in any way call for a coup, he is too learned to do that.
“We stand completely with Bishop Kukah, this government must be fair to all Nigerians irrespective of tribe and religion,” it said.
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has said that terrorists from other countries such as Mali are entering the South-West region of the country through the Oke Ogun area.
Makinde said the terrorists and bandits from other countries in the West African sub-region were entering through a border area in Saki, one of the towns in the state.
The governor, who spoke when he visited Saki, noted that the issue of banditry was one of the challenges his government was battling with.
He added that the inauguration of the Amotekun Corps was yielding positive results.
Makinde noted that the Amotekun Corps had successfully flushed out some bandits terrorising residents of the state.
He said, “So, it was really taxing. Of course, in our locality here, the issue of banditry is also another issue.
“For instance, Saki has an international border and it is more of an international issue because we have bandits all the way from Mali that are trying to cross (the border).
“Once they gain entrance into anywhere they can operate, they will stay there.
“When we inaugurated Amotekun, you gave us your support. When some bandits went to the bush at Kishi, we were able to flush them out with all the efforts of all of us here. So, we want to use this opportunity to say thank you to you all.”
The Lagos State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria has directed all churches in the state to close their cross-over services by 11 pm on December 31, 2020.
The directive is contained in a statement signed by the Lagos State CAN chairman, Bishop Steven Adegbite.
It would be recalled that the Lagos State Government had ordered all worship centres in the state to suspend night services, vigils and cross-over events.
The state also announced a 12am to 4am curfew as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the state.
Reacting to the order, CAN in its statement said, “As part of our responsibility as a law-abiding organisation and in response to the appeal made to us by the State Government, we hereby direct that all churches should ensure their services on 31st of December, 2020 end at 11:00 pm so as to allow attendees get to their respective homes and places of rest on or before 12:00 midnight when the curfew will start.”
CAN assured the government that “Christians will continue to be a strong partner in the quest to see that the spread of COVID-19 does not happen and that it becomes a thing of the past within the shortest time possible.”
My favourite end-of-the-year quote, which I have shared with many others, is the following passage from Chapter 3 of the inimitable Chinua Achebe’s Things Falls Apart, a novel of monumental, evergreen relevance, translated into over 50 languages, a product of pure genius, a milestone in world literature. Achebe wrote:
“…The year that Okonkwo took eight hundred seed yams from Nwakibie was the worst year in living memory. Nothing happened at its proper time; it was either too early or too late. It seemed as if the world had gone mad. The first rains were late and when they came, lasted only a brief moment … The drought continued for eight market weeks and the yams were killed. The year had gone mad. When the rains finally returned, they fell as it had never fallen before. Trees were uprooted and deep gorges appeared everywhere.
That year, the harvest was sad, like a funeral and many farmers wept as they dug up the miserable and rotting yams. One man tied his cloth to a tree branch and hanged himself. Okonkwo remembered that tragic year with a cold shiver throughout the rest of his life. It always surprised him when he thought about it later that he did not sink under the load of despair. He knew he was a fierce fighter, but that year had been enough to break the heart of a lion. Since I survived that year,” he always said, “I shall survive anything.”
Chinua Acbebe, the master story-teller wrote Things Fall Apart in 1957. He was just 27. Today, his words ring true. His narrative summarizes what we have been through in the year 2020. Writers are prophets. They see ahead. They map the trajectory of human experience even before it happens. The year 2020, better known as the year that was, indeed went mad. In terms of harvest, there was very little to talk about. Not yams sprouting from farmlands, but the negation of everything by a pathogen known as COVID-19 which left our world in dire straits.
The last time the world witnessed a similar tragedy was in 1918-1920. That was the Spanish Flu. It lasted for two years and left a devastating imprint. We are sadly back to that past 100 years later. Across the world, from Europe to Antarctica, over one million people have died. Over 81 million persons have been infected. Many more will die, as the virus mutates and demonstrates a capacity equivalent to evil in extreme proportions. Indeed as the sage wrote, If we survive this, “we shall survive anything”. The year 2020 is the perfect “annus horribilis.” It is not a year “on which we shall look back with undiluted pleasure”.
It was the year that everything failed. Marriages collapsed. Businesses failed. The world’s demand and supply chain was disrupted. Man was humbled and humanity tried to catch up with an existential accident. The limits of science was tested. The idea of community was redefined, as human beings were forced to stay in their own natural enclaves, and avoid each other. This was the spectacular year when even grandparents were advised to stay away from their own children. Hospitals were overstretched. The entire world became an isolation centre. The words: physical distancing, social distancing, masks, hygiene, guidelines, protocols, task force, leadership, yes, leadership, and responsibility became the most famous words of the year.
The cemetery is a public place. It became even more popular in the year 2020. It was indeed an unusual year of paradoxes. Hi-Tech owners and investors made big money, so did Big-Pharmaceutical companies and so did the undertakers and funeral homes who made a fortune from the harvest of deaths. In our country, Nigeria, there was another kind of harvest, which added to the people’s misery and pain. Kidnappings. Banditry. The failure of the Naira. The collapse of the oil and gas sector. The madness of the people who in the face of COVID-19 chose to be skeptical, saved ironically by the fact that the disease was not as terrible as it was in other continents. The economy of course failed also. Nigeria slipped into a second recession in five years. Many lost their jobs. It was a sad year in all sectors, more or less. And it was the year when Nigerian youths rebelled against police brutality and bad governance.
We lament but we must also look at the other side of the picture: What lessons have we learnt and how can those lessons help us in the years to come? As the year 2020 ends, we are looking forward to a New Year. And somehow, everyone thinks that in 2021 COVID-19 will disappear. But not quite. The year 2021 looks very much like the year of the Vaccine and the politics of vaccination. Getting the people to take the vaccine is likely to be a big challenge. Going forward, I recall a few lessons that we may have learnt.
Number One: Could anyone have ever imagined that we would give up some of our usual habits as human beings? All of a sudden the year 2020, showed us that if we do not shake hands, hug each other, exchange intimate social affections, we would not die. I do not, as the year ends, remember the last time I hugged anyone or shook hands with a friend. A handshake was once a symbol and expression of brotherhood. The year of the virus made that impossible as we all had to mask up, and observe physical and social distancing. Here we are at the end of the year and so much has changed in terms of how we relate to other people. Someone was telling me the other day that we are now in the Harmattan season, or put more correctly, the flu season. But you try and sneeze at this time. Or cough. Every sneeze or cough is considered a sign of Corona Virus. I know persons who go about with a can of aerosol spray in their bags. You sneeze. You get sprayed for constituting yourself into a threat to public health. A lady that I know, will spray Aerosol on you from head to toe and tell you: “ma ko bami jare!” Before the year 2020, it was normal to sneeze and cough. People will tell you: “God bless you.” Now, that has become a crime. Nobody asks God to bless you. They look at you with what Nigerians call “corner-eye”.
Number Two: Nigerians love parties. But in the year 2020, it became a crime also to attend parties, wear aso ebi, and party all day long. I have bags of traditional party attires, agbada and all sorts, but this year, I have not opened any of those bags. There was no need going everywhere. We were told to keep safe and stay at home. Can anyone ever imagine that a year would pass like that without all the communal parties? Some people defied the protocols, year 2020 was not like any other year. But some of us obeyed the government. It was quite clear at some point that even persons who followed the directive that everyone should #take-responsibility were not spared by the virus. The high and mighty died. The most talented in our community died. COVID-19 was so egalitarian, it did not respect anybody or national boundaries.
Number Three: One of my teachers, many years ago, in a 400 level course titled “Theatre and Mankind” told us that man considers himself the most wondrous being on earth and regards himself as Master of the Universe, but repeatedly, man realizes that he is really not as important as he projects himself to be. Again and again, nature humbles him. The environment reminds him that he is not a Master but a gnat. The more this happens, the more man struggles to master the Cosmos and it is in that eternal struggle that we find the substance of epistemology and wisdom, and human drama. This is the story of our lives, and it was played out, poignantly, in the year 2020. In that year, that now ends, we were confronted with the uncertainty and the vulnerability of our lives. We are now at a point where scientists are saying they have found a vaccine. The drama of 2020 was that of man’s conflict with a pathogen, and as we were taught, this is just the beginning of another end. Man’s place in creation is that of Sisyphus and Atlas. If anyone believes that our struggle is over, he or she misses the point.
Number Four: It was a year we were told to stay away from one another and that taught us a lesson about how interconnected and interdependent we all are in a real sense. And of course the freedoms that we often take for granted became more precious than we ever considered. We were asked to stay at home, lock down, and avoid others. Even students could not go to school. We were required to bear responsibility for the health and well-being of others. It was a big issue that we all needed each other to survive, and if you were infected, you were told not to risk the possibility of infecting the other person. That was a big lesson in human solidarity. But it was tough. In times of pain and despair, the natural instinct is for people to reach out to each other, stick together as family, and seek help. In the year 2020, we were told to change the way we have always lived so we could remain alive. In Africa and Nigeria, the people took that for granted, but now that there is a second wave, we can only hope that the people will learn and not submit to conspiracy theories or the thinking that Corona virus is a big man’s disease which it is not.
Number Five: And still on how connected we are as human beings and how Corona Virus advances the struggle for equality, it became clear in the year 2020, that health is wealth, and that a failed healthcare system such as exists in many African countries would affect everyone. The African rich class had this habit of running abroad each time they fell ill; headache, ear-ache, indigestion, diarrhoea, even malaria. But in 2020, that became a suicidal option. Our leaders were taught the lesson that they have a responsibility to develop and strengthen the health systems in their own countries. For reasons not yet fully analysed, the African continent did not experience a corona virus blow out. This was the surprising miracle of the year considering the behaviour of the people, the misconduct of African governments and the reign of superstition from Tanzania to Burundi, Ghana and Nigeria.
Number Six: The free market system flourished ironically and China, where the virus sprouted from became the biggest economic beneficiary. Vaccine nationalism flourished counterpoised by vaccine hesitancy, two instructive phrases of the moment. We are confronted, in the face of the Virus, with the urgent need for new global narratives.
Number Seven: Leadership. The year 2020 showed that leadership matters. We saw through the year, good and bad leaders in terms of how they managed the COVID-19 challenge. Good leaders help society. Bad leaders punish and frustrate the people.
Number Eight: Our world of work has changed forever. Before the disaster that was 2020 happened, we all enjoyed the thrill of the daily commute to and from our work places. Even when we spent hours on traffic-congested roads, we loved it. In 2020, we were told to stay at home and work from home. And just like that: the world of work changed forever, with analysts telling us that human beings tend to be more productive when they work in isolation, from home. Tech companies have gained a lot. Stock markets have appreciated. Corona Virus may have robbed us of aspects of our lives, but it has also shown us new possibilities. What does tomorrow hold, then?
I have no idea. I am not too sure anyone can answer that question. What we know is that human beings are capable of new discoveries in the face of pain, suffering and tragedy. And so it has been with the year 2020. So, what do we hold on to? Hope, I guess, the oxygen of human existence.
Lionel Messi has not broken Pele’s goalscoring record for a single club and will have to score 448 more Barcelona goals to do so, according to a Santos club statement.
Messi scored his 644th goal for Barcelona against Real Valladolid on Tuesday last week, seemingly eclipsing the Brazilian great’s long-standing record of 643 official goals for Santos.
However, the South American club released a statement on Sunday claiming the official tally stands at 1,091 goals, as the 448 scored in friendly matches should be counted.
Santos claim that “a goal against Transvaal (from Suriname) has the same value as a goal scored at Real Madrid, in the middle of the Santiago Bernabéu”.
“In the accounts of the specialized press, the King of Football scored 643 in competitions and the 448 goals scored in matches and friendly competitions were ostracized, as if they had less value than the others,” the statement read.
“The argument of some analysts is that so many of these 448 goals scored in friendly matches were faced with weak opponents, such as small or regional teams. Even so, the matches were played in official uniforms, with the official rules of the game and with a score sheet.
“We have to remember that clubs could only play friendly matches with the endorsement of regional and national federations, one of the rules imposed by FIFA, the organizer of world football.
“Taking subjective attributes into account, such as the weakness of opponents, is not ideal for compiling statistical data. The numbers are absolute.”
Despite the debate over who holds the current record, Pele posted on social media to congratulate the Argentine when he matched his tally with a goal against Valencia earlier this month.
The Northern Elders Forum, NEF, has described Nigeria’s presidential system of government as “totally useless,” and expressed its readiness to engage other parts of the country in a debate on Nigeria’s future, saying it was ready for the restructuring of the country.
Convener of the Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, stated this in a telephone interview with Vanguard, weekend.
Abdullahi, who expressed the preference of the North for a return to the parliamentary system of government, said the current presidential system had caused more division than uniting the country.
Abdullahi said: “Today, we may appear to have a federal system of government but we are truly not because these federating units are not viable, they are not functional, they are only functional from one point.
“Maybe we talk about the even more complicating factor that moved us from parliamentary that was quite democratic to the current so-called presidential system of government.
“If today I am involved in discussions in terms of how to restructure Nigeria, bring back democracy under a federal system that would allow federating units take decisions that are largely their own initiatives, then we have to move away from this presidential system and go back to parliamentary because the parliamentary system was working.
“You would not be a minister or a commissioner if you are talking about regions, until you were elected from your village. What is happening here now is totally useless.
“I can assure you that the North, at least from my own perspective and the perspectives of many groups in the North, is ready to engage in serious discussions as to how to reshape the Nigerian state to something that is better for not only now but also for the future generations that will be coming behind us,” he stated.
