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  • COVID-19 And Nigeria’s Pathetic Leadership Deficit By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

    COVID-19 And Nigeria’s Pathetic Leadership Deficit By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

    COVID-19 And Nigeria’s Pathetic Leadership Deficit By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye 1

    COVID-19 And Nigeria’s Pathetic Leadership Deficit By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye 2


    There is no better warning about the growing confusion that seems to be gradually beclouding the federal government’s response to the coronavirus challenge than the belief it betrayed last week that, perhaps, all it needs to calm the fears and apprehensions of Nigerians about its ability to halt the spread of the virus is to reel out a catalogue of activities President Buhari was said to have undertaken so far concerning the pestilence, whether the people felt their impact or not. 

    Now, if your family is starving badly, do you solve the rumbling signs of biting hunger in their stomach with some wild tales of the efforts deployed by you so far to feed them, or just keep quiet, give them food, and they will see and feel for themselves that you have played your role responsively and effectively?  Or if you must talk, tell them something you have done whose benefits they can readily verify and identify with. 

    Indeed, some Nigerians are beginning to achieve the conviction that there must be something about being in government in this country that seems to diminish the reasoning ability of people once they get in there and deprives them of the capacity to realize when they have stopped making sense or even become downright annoying. This is very pathetic. 

    And so, last week, presidential spokesperson, Mr. Femi Adesina, issued a document entitled: “COVID-19: What President Buhari Has Done And Is Doing.” And, I suppose that with the release of that handout, the virus immediately received a deadly blow and vanished from the country! Aren’t we so blessed? Why then are Nigerians not on the streets celebrating the unprecedented feat? 

    A prominent item on Mr. Adesina’s list is the president’s March 29 broadcast. And what exactly did the broadcast achieve? The two things I can readily remember now is that Gen Buhari had announced the continuation of the school feeding programme for pupils who are all at home now due to the closure of schools as part of the efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Probably, nobody remembered to inform him and his speech writers that school children were on compulsory holidays, or are they going to send the food to them in their homes? Or, perhaps, somebody is trying to find a justification for the billions of naira we will be informed later was spent on the exercise?  

    Also, the president proclaimed the lockdown of Lagos and Ogun states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).  And when he was through, he returned to his hideout – where only a few privileged eyes and ears see and hear from him, and then come out to tell us what they think he has said or done.

    Now, what exactly was the lockdown meant to achieve?  Okay, as social interactions are reduced, the chances of spreading the virus decrease.  Yes, but what else?  Has anyone seen any evidence that there were any plans to use the stay-at-home period to access the people and step up medical tests to determine how many people have become infected with the virus and how they could be attended to? 

    The government that was boasting that it was “adequately prepared” to tackle the virus was later to prove when the virus eventually arrived that it was only making empty claims as usual.  A country of 200 million people has yet to demonstrate any capacity to test even a reasonable fraction of one percent of her population. And somebody is publishing a document to tell us what the president was supposed to have done or is doing. As if such boring tales will remove the cloud of gloom hovering over Nigeria? 

    Again, in a country where electric power is just an unaffordable luxury for many, how can a leader just lock down some states and return to his hideout to continue his “vacation” that was rudely interrupted by the loud, persistent and widespread demands that he should address his country even though some other presidents were doing daily briefings and leading the war against the virus from the front?  As the markets closed and movements became restricted, how are those who could afford to buy and stock food items at home preserve them without electric power?  

    What of the greater population which depend on daily earnings for their survival?  What is the government’s plan for them? Okay, we are hearing of palliatives that have been extended to this category of people and the billions of naira that have already been transferred to their accounts?  Now, who has encountered the happy recipients of the twenty thousand naira (N20, 000) said to have been given to each of them?  Are there really existing data showing the social and economic status of every Nigerian which is in the possession of the authorities?  So, all the “poor and vulnerable” Nigerians now have bank accounts whose details are known to the government?  So, why then are too many Nigerians very suspicious of these claims as shown in their social media comments? And why is such a rare display of kindness by this government not being celebrated? Or have the funds (if indeed any were shared) ended up in the hands of the same people who have more than enough to need them while those who are genuinely deprived remain terribly famished? 

    Already, the biting hunger out there is forcing a growing number of people to defy the no-movement decree and soon, the whole effort might be defeated, and the country will return to square one.  Information Minister, Mr. Lai Mohammed, is threatening that the lockdown may be extended if Nigerians fail to behave themselves. But what he should rather have done is to hasten to school himself to realize that there is always a price to pay when leaders leave the country they claim to be governing in great disarray only to suddenly wake up when there is an emergency to grope for fix-quick solutions. 

    A few days after the president’s broadcast (that is, Tuesday, March 31), Daily Independent carried a front page lead story about 26 Americans who came into the country through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport and headed to Calabar without being screened.  Now, who cleared their trip to the country and why were there no health officials available to screen them and ensure they were quarantined for 14 days before being allowed to fly to Calabar?  Is it because they are Americans or clients of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) or both?  Does that automatically exempt any of them from being a carrier of the virus which is presently ravaging their own country?  What kind of government claims to be fighting a virus with one hand and using the other hand to be undermining the efforts being deployed to contain it? 

    Okay, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has just announced that an 18-man Chinese team of medical “experts” will soon arrive the country to “assist” Nigeria in the fight against the coronavirus.  Now, is it the federal government that asked China for help or was it China that volunteered their assistance?  Indeed many Nigerians are vehemently opposed to this gesture at this time.  Our own local medical experts have not shown any signs of being overburdened by the work, so what difference are these 18 Chinese doctors and nurses going to make?  Will they, like the 26 privileged Americans, also be given express entry into the country or will they be isolated for 14 days as should be the case, before they would be allowed to start rendering their “assistance”?  

    Do we really need this Chinese gift now or is it that the government lacks the liver to politely decline their offer of help, despite the widespread apprehension among the citizenry about their involvement (since many Nigerians, habour strong fears that the gesture might turn out a Greek gift)? Even the umbrella body of Nigerian doctors, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), has come out to strongly oppose the coming of the Chinese medical team.  Is it that our government is too intimidated to say NO to China’s offer probably because it has yoked itself so much with crushing debts due to its excessive borrowings from them – debts, whose positive effects on Nigerian lives many are yet to see? 

    I raise these points because, although, Nigeria has recorded one of the lowest deaths from coronavirus, it was the stubborn refusal of the government to close our borders when it became very necessary and urgent (and despite calls from well-meaning Nigerians) that led to the explosion in the number of confirmed cases that the country has recorded today.  In saner climes, the government should have profusely apologized for that terrible miscalculation that is costing the nation so much now. 

    But it now has another opportunity now to gratify the yearning of Nigerians and reject the Chinese offer even if it is well-meaning and the fears about it are misplaced. 

    Now, what lessons is the government taking away from the scourge of coronavirus? Will they see the need to equip our hospitals this time and upgrade at least few of them to world standard now that they have realized the folly of always waiting to use public funds to send themselves and their families abroad to treat even minor ailments?  For the first time in Nigeria, the naïve and largely misguided Nigerian leaders have found out that it is not always safe to seek solutions for health challenges outside the country and that there is afterall no place like home. This is hoping that the lesson will endure and be redemptive. 

    *Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye, is a Nigerian journalist and writer. (scruples2006@yahoo.com) 

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  • Why African Americans are dying at higher rates from Covid-19

    Why African Americans are dying at higher rates from Covid-19

    Why African Americans are dying at higher rates from Covid-19 3

    WASHINGTON: The new coronavirus isn’t biased about who it infects – so why does data emerging from some states suggest that African Americans are bearing the brunt of the pandemic in the US?

    Experts say blacks are disproportionately impacted by underlying health conditions linked to poverty, face discrimination in medical care, and are more likely to work jobs that require them to leave their home.

    “We know that blacks are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, lung disease,“ the nation’s top doctor, Surgeon General Jerome Adams told CBS News on Tuesday.

    These chronic illnesses, which are in turn linked to poverty and structural racism, can lead to more serious forms of the COVID-19 disease.

    Adams, who is himself black and has high blood pressure and asthma, added: “I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black in America.

    “And I, and many black Americans, are at higher risk for COVID.”

    – Emerging trend –

    There is no nationwide data available on COVID-19 cases by race, but a pattern of over-representation by black Americans has emerged in states or jurisdictions that are sharing the numbers.

    Sixty-eight percent of coronavirus deaths in Chicago have been among African Americans, who make up just 30 percent of the city’s population.

    “Those numbers take your breath away,“ the city’s mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday at a coronavirus briefing. “This is a call to action for all of us.”

    The trend is repeated in North Carolina, Louisiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and the capital Washington.

    Doctor Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told AFP the issue was also linked to social class, with black people more likely to work jobs deemed essential that expose them to potential infection.

    “That population is more public facing,“ he said. “More bus drivers, more people taking public transportation to work, more people providing services in nursing homes, more folks working in grocery stores.”

    – Structural bias –

    The problem is compounded by implicit and explicit bias that African Americans face in the medical system.

    Doctor James Hildreth, president of the historically black Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee told AFP that in his city, most of the initial testing took place at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

    Most of the patients who go to hospital systems like these have insurance, and it was only recently that three assessment centers run by the city of Nashville were built for the underprivileged and minority communities — one of them located at Meharry’s campus and run by its staff.

    “My point is, depending on which community you live in, and whether or not you have insurance… the chances for getting assessed are much less,“ he said.

    What’s more, it’s well documented that when black people seek care, they are less likely to have their symptoms believed or get adequately treated, Doctor Ebony Hilton, an anesthesiologist at the University of Virginia Medical Center told AFP.

    For example, black women are less likely to have their breast cancer mammograms seen by a specialist as opposed to a general radiologist, according to a 2015 Duke University study.

    Black heart patients who present with elevated levels of a group of proteins indicating cardiac injury are also less likely to be seen by specialists, per a 2018 study.

    A civil rights group wrote this week to the US health secretary, Alex Azar, calling on him to “release daily racial and ethnic demographic data related to COVID-19 testing, disease burden and patient outcomes.”

    This, said the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, was necessary to ensure a robust public health response, and to make certain care and testing aren’t being administered in a discriminatory manner.

    The group said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was already collecting the information but deliberately withholding it.

    Hilton stressed that it was in the interests of Americans as a whole to address the problem, because — unlike high rates of heart disease or cancer — a wave of coronavirus spreading through the black and Hispanic population will ultimately impact everyone else.

    “When you have a system that’s not treating these people of lower social economic status and these minority groups, they are then not being tested, they’re sent back home to infect their community,“ she said.

    “Those workers who are now infected are going to the grocery store, and when the upper echelon of America are going to get their food, they will get infected too.” – AFP

    Why African Americans are dying at higher rates from Covid-19
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  • Spain overtakes China virus toll with 3,434 deaths: Govt

    Spain overtakes China virus toll with 3,434 deaths: Govt

    Spain overtakes China virus toll with 3,434 deaths: Govt 4

    MADRID: Spain’s coronavirus death toll overtook that of China on Wednesday, rising to 3,434 after 738 people died over the past 24 hours, the government said.

    Across the world, only Italy now has a higher death toll than that of Spain. In China, where the virus emerged late last year, 3,281 people have died.

    The spiralling number of deaths came as Spain entered the 11th day of an unprecedented lockdown to try and rein in the Covid-19 epidemic that has now infected 47,610 people, the health ministry said.

    As the authorities stepped up testing, the number of cases showed a 20 percent increase on the figures for Tuesday, while the death toll showed a 27 percent rise over the same period.

    Despite the national lockdown imposed on March 14, which is to be extended until April 11, both deaths and infections have continued to mount, with officials warning this week would be particularly bad.

    “We are approaching the peak,“ the ministry’s emergencies coordinator Fernando Simon said in announcing the figures.

    Health authorities are hoping it will soon become clear whether the lockdown is having the desired effect.

    The Madrid region has suffered the brunt of the epidemic with 14,597 infections – just under a third of the total – and 1,825 deaths, or 53 percent of the national figure.

    With hospitals on the brink of collapse from the surge in patients, troops have set up a massive field hospital in Madrid’s vast IFEMA exhibition centre which currently has 1,500 beds but which could be expanded to take in up to 5,500 people – making it the largest hospital in Spain.

    And with the city’s funeral services overwhelmed, officials have commandeered the Palacio de Hielo ice skating rink to serve as a temporary morgue. – AFP

    Spain overtakes China virus toll with 3,434 deaths: Govt
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  • Tokyo Games delayed to 2021

    Tokyo Games delayed to 2021

    Tokyo Games delayed to 2021 5

    TOKYO: The Tokyo Olympics were postponed today into 2021, the first such delay in the Games’ 124-year modern history, as the coronavirus crisis wrecked the last international sporting showpiece still standing this year.

    Though a huge blow to Japan, the decision was a relief to thousands of athletes fretting over how to train as the world headed into lockdown over the disease that has claimed more than 16,500 lives.

    Pressure had been building on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its powerful president Thomas Bach, with some athletes and sporting bodies critical of the time taken to make an inevitable decision.

    After a call with Bach, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the July 24 – Aug 9 competition would be rescheduled for the summer of 2021 at the latest as proof of victory over the virus.

    “We asked President Bach to consider postponement of about one year to make it possible for athletes to play in the best condition,“ Abe said.

    “President Bach said he is in agreement 100%.”

    The IOC confirmed that.

    Athletes were disappointed but broadly endorsed the delay, given health risks and disruption to their training as gyms, stadia and swimming pools shut down around the world.

    US skateboarder and gold medal hopeful Nyjah Huston was frustrated, though, especially given his sport was scheduled to make its debut at the Tokyo.

    “When skating finally makes it in the Olympics then it gets postponed,“ the 25-year-old wrote on Instagram, after a delay had begun to look inevitable. “I was feelin (sic) ready too … now I’m going to have to be a year older for this!”

    Despite their disappointment, not to mention the logistical headaches and financial losses coming, a poll showed about 70% of Japanese agreed with a delay.

    Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike told reporters the delayed Games would still be branded “Tokyo 2020”.

    It was not yet clear whether the 57 percent of athletes who had already secured spots in Tokyo would need to qualify again for the re-arranged Olympics.

    The torch relay was being cancelled. – Reuters

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  • How Mobile is Transforming the Way Emails Are Viewed

    Though smartphone usage was gradually increasing prior to the launch of Apple’s iPhone in 2007, the adoption rate of these devices has accelerated in exponential ways during the past half-decade. Whereas the device was once reserved for a small subset of the population, generally limited to serious business owners and other professionals who needed on-the-go email services, today the smartphone is used by people in virtually all professions, at all experience levels, for any number of diverse reasons. Proliferation of these devices has become the thing of headlines: As of 2013, 40 percent of all people under the age of 55 own a smartphone. That number jumps to a staggering 75 percent of the population when the age group is limited to those under 35 years of age. Even older individuals, those over 55, stand a one in four chance of owning a smartphone device of some sort.

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  • Nigerian Youth Have Gone To Sleep? By Tao Bakare

    Nigerian Youth Have Gone To Sleep? By Tao Bakare

    Nigerian Youth Have Gone To Sleep? By Tao Bakare 6

    Nigerian Youth Have Gone To Sleep? By Tao Bakare 7


    Woke up this morning to the unfortunate reality of the Nigerian state, the failure of her youth to take up responsibilities as the thread and wool that holds her fabric together.
      
    Flashback to the time when our past heroes, who were at the time youths, took up giant strides and went through the battles, upheavals, fights that ensured the liberation of the Nigerian state.
     
    In the nineties, Nigeria was lucky to have the likes of Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Gani Fawehinmi, Femi Falana amongst others responsible for the many historical and  ground-breaking achievement through measures of journalism, arts, literature and activism amongst others.
      
    Unfortunately, today, the reverse is the case, as we now have illiterates, educated hypocrites and mediocres that make up over sixty five percent of the Nigerian population.
      
    However, the blame cannot solely lie on the youths themselves, as it is loud enough that our leaders whom we entrusted our future unto have failed woefully to deliver in this respect. But also, it is noteworthy that the youths themselves have not helped to correct the anomalies, but have glaringly resolved to fold arms and watch their own future rubbed in the mud.
     
     In the Nigeria of today, youths have been relegated to the position of back benchers, applauding mammoth and mere on Lookers in the running of state affairs, which they ought to be at the fore front, as in the times of the West African Students Union, when students, youths, led liberation movements across Africa, and also saw to the independence of West African states.
     
    Obviously, it is crystal clear that youths, who occupy the largest percentage of Nigeria’s population now see themselves and thus submit to our doomed leaders, as election thugs, political hallelujah boys, political assassins and trash can. Instead of them to look ahead, beyond ethic bigotry and difference, it is unfortunate they now lead ethnic hate discussions and debates both online and offline, in turn, parading themselves as useless ‘ leaders of tomorrow’. I wonder how this country will pay it’s debts in the next twenty years, with this kind of bad debtors in town, the so called youths.
     
    In a sane society, the youths should be the ultimate institution of political accountability and policy partner to the government, thereby, holding erring leaders accountable. Also, youths should serve as the rebranding tool for a collapsing or collapsed entity, like ours.
      
    Recently, the chief of police, ordered for the disbandment of zonal SARS in Ogun State following the death of a  promising young man, Tiamiyu Kazeem popularly known as Kaka, who until his death was the Vice Captain of Remo Stars Football Club.
       
    The order of the IGP, came, not only regarding the fact that the young man who was the victim of yet another SARS menace, was a known football star, but also because the youths in Sagamu community flaunted their power as youths!
      
    Moral of this recent case and it’s achievement, is that, so much can be achieved if youths wake up from their long mouth drooling slumber and take full responsibility for their own future.
      
    Nevertheless, if they fall to do this, I fear they may sleep and never wake up.

    The time To Take It Back is now!
     

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  • Brands Await Facebookâe(TM)s Auto-play

    Brands Await Facebookâe(TM)s Auto-play

    About a fifth of the world?s population uses Facebook. The social networking site is one of the biggest enterprises in the world today. Now, sources say that a major change in the interface is evident. It is rumored that the company has been testing auto-play video through the network?s news feed. Even if the test group is just one percent of the population that uses Facebook, the company has a trial group of a whopping 12 million…
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  • You Will Flip Over This Idea: Wall Calendars as Marketing Tools

    You Will Flip Over This Idea: Wall Calendars as Marketing Tools

    98 percent of people look at a calendar each day, and even with the switch to online calendars, most people still hang a hard copy on the wall. From a marketing standpoint, that?s an opportunity to remind a past or potential customer about your business 365 days a year, at a relatively minimal cost. In this post, Allison will make the case for wall calendars as an affordable and effective marketing tool that shouldn?t be overlooked by any small business owner…
    You Will Flip Over This Idea: Wall Calendars as Marketing Tools
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  • Delta warns of 80% revenue drop as US carriers fear doom

    Delta warns of 80% revenue drop as US carriers fear doom

    Delta Air Lines on Friday warned the coronavirus pandemic will cut its second quarter earnings by 80 percent compared to 2019, and ratings agency S&P said other US carriers faced similar fates.

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  • Virus endangers ‘future of aviation’ without state aid: Lufthansa

    Virus endangers ‘future of aviation’ without state aid: Lufthansa

    The chief executive of German airline giant Lufthansa warned Thursday that governments might need to save the industry from the coronavirus crisis, as “drastic cutbacks in flight operations” have grounded over 90 percent of its planes.

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