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The Sokoto State Government on Friday announced the closure of entry points into the ancient city in order to curtail the spread of Coronavirus in the country.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal in a broadcast said that only the movement of medical supplies and essential food items will be allowed into Sokoto from other parts of the country.
He said the closure will stay in place for an initial two weeks pending observations on the pattern of the disease in the state and country.
Also, all civil servants on grade level 12 and below have been directed by the state government to work from home for two weeks from Friday, March 27 to Friday, April 10, 2020.
The governor said all further measures to be taken by the state will be based on expert advice from the state’s Ministry of Health, Nigerian Center for Disease Control and Federal Ministry of Health as and when the need arises.
He admonished citizens to cooperate with relevant authorities and adhere to measures in the interest of the general well-being and survival of the human race.
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The United States Government has urged nurses and doctors around the world interested in working in America to put in for its work visas at the nearest US Embassy to them.
The move is part of strategies the United States was adopting to increase the number of health workers combating the Coronavirus pandemic in the country.
In a statement on Friday, the US authorities called on foreign medical professionals already in America to be in touch with their sponsors to extend their programmes.
The statement read, “We encourage medical professionals seeking to work in the United States on a work or exchange visitor particularly those working to treat or mitigate the effects of COVID-19, to reach out to the nearest embassy or consulate to request a visa appointment.
“For those foreign medical professionals already in the United States: J-1 Alien Physicians (medical residents) may consult with their programme sponsor, ECFMG, to extend their programmes in the United States.
“Generally, a J-1 program for a foreign medical resident can be extended one year at a time for up to seven years.”
At least 63,570 people have been infected with the virus and nearly 884 have died in the United States.
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Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, addressed Heads of State at today’s extraordinary G20 Leaders’ Summit focused on COVID-19.
He told them, “You have come together to confront the defining health crisis of our time: We are at war with a virus that threatens to tear us apart – if we let it.“
He welcomed the G20‘s initiative to find joint solutions and work together: “This is a global crisis that requires a global response.”
“Fight, unite, ignite“
Dr Tedros’ call was clear. First, he urged leaders to fight without excuses, without regrets – thanking countries who have already taken steps and urgently asking that they do more.
Second, he encouraged them to unite, stressing that no country can fight this alone, and calling on all countries to build on the solidarity already sparked by the crisis.
Third, he exhorted them to ignite a global movement to ensure this never happens again.
He welcomed G20 leaders‘ commitment “to do whatever it takes to overcome the pandemic” to protect lives and livelihoods, as well as restore confidence and shore up stability currently threatened in trade and other sectors, and to commit to take all necessary health measures and seek to ensure adequate financing to contain the pandemic and protect people, especially the most vulnerable.“
The G20 committed to support and further strengthen WHO’s mandate in coordinating the response, and called for full funding of WHO‘s Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan.
G20 members pledged to work together to increase research and development funding for vaccines and medicines, strengthen international scientific cooperation, and leverage digital technologies.
In turn, they tasked WHO and other relevant organizations with assessing gaps in pandemic preparedness and report the findings of this assessment to the G20 Finance and Health Ministers, in order to establish a global initiative on pandemic preparedness and response together.
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Olabisi Deji-Folutile
Olabisi Deji-Folutile
The world is facing its most trying and unprecedented times as the last few weeks have been most challenging for almost everybody. What started in Wuhan, China, as an epidemic, has put the entire world in disarray. Major streets across the globes have become empty. Both the rich and the poor are being ravaged by the plague of COVID-19, which the World Health Organisation has rightly described as a pandemic. Work places have been shut; religious and social gatherings banned and many countries are on total lockdown, in a bid to curb the spread of this viral disease. Expectedly, schools are also affected across board. Every day people are being told to embrace social distancing and suddenly things like human contacts, hitherto considered as free gifts of life, are becoming very expensive.
No one knows when this whole chaos will end, so people are making different kinds of adjustments to cope with the situation while it lasts. Many companies have shifted their operations online. Likewise, many schools have opted for e-learning, making use of available technology for teaching and learning.
Universities around the world are making use of communication technology to ease the effects of the global pandemic on their academic calendars. In China, universities are going for online teaching instead of in-class teaching; the ones in Australia have moved their classes online just as UK universities have suspended face-to-face teaching. Turkey started its remote university classes on March 23. In Kenya, universities have activated communication between lecturers and students via social media platforms and emails while classes have gone totally online in the Philippines and Kyrgyzstan. Teachers in France have been working with their students on Zoom.
Just a few days ago, Ghana’s President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, directed the ministry of education to collaborate with the ministry of communications in rolling out open learning programmes in response to the closure of all educational institutions in the country. In the same vein, Mount Kenya University’s Vice-Chancellor Peter Wanderi, has announced the extension of online teaching platforms for regular students to facilitate the learning process. And to take care of the over six million students that have experienced disruption to their studies, ten North African and 12 Arab countries have begun work on an e-learning initiative to facilitate open and online education.
These are some of the steps being taken across the globe to bridge the gap created by school closure in the wake of COVID-19. Unfortunately, while all these activities are going on in other parts of the world, Nigerian government has not said anything about steps being taken to take care of its students’ community. Rather, the only message from the Federal Government was a total closure of all tertiary institutions and FG-owned unity schools till further notice. A statement issued by the National Universities Commission simply said universities would remain shut for one month while the Education Minister, Adamu Adamu, said tertiary institutions would remain shut indefinitely.
Assuming government has been overwhelmed by the burden of controlling the spread of COVID- 19, hence its silence on options for learning for its teeming student population, one would have expected the higher institutions themselves to at least say something, but as it is, they too are not helping matters. The silence in our universities has been deafening. To worsen the situation, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, decided to choose this time, of all times, to embark on an indefinite strike. One wonders how the academic body manages to feel comfortable being on a strike at a time when researchers across the globe are busy looking for solution to a pandemic that is ravaging the entire world. This kind of action makes one query the essence of having Research and Development as a core component of tertiary education in Nigeria when researchers can be nowhere to be found at a critical time of societal needs.
By now, our researchers should be adding their voices to the various efforts being made towards developing a vaccine or cure for COVID-19. After all, universities are expected to proffer solutions to societal problems. This is a wrong time for ASUU to embark on an indefinite strike. This should be a time of strategising and proffering solutions. This is really the time for everyone to get involved. Besides, I think Nigerian universities should also be more forthcoming on their responses to the challenges posed to their students by COVID-19.
As it is, religious organisations are doing far better in terms of their responses to the effects of this pandemic on their primary constituencies. Many of them have devised other means of getting the attention of their members following several government directives prohibiting either gatherings or limiting the number of people allowed to congregate at a time. Almost all the churches have switched to online platforms for their services. How come religious organisations are working hard to keep their flocks and both government and higher institutions in Nigeria are just moving on as if all is well? No word on how to keep the students busy or keep them engaged using available online technology! Should teaching and learning be restricted to the classrooms alone in this 21st century?
Nigeria has always been described as a religious society. Corona Virus has further exposed the smartness of our religious bodies and the dullness of those in charge of our public educational institutions. This is not an attempt to blame any religious organisation for having the foresight to deploy technology in reaching their audiences. Instead, it is a wakeup call to managers of our educational institutions to adopt and use available technology to help their students at a time like this.
Apart from the National Open University of Nigeria, which basically runs online, I doubt if there is any other public university in the country that has capacity for online teaching. This is in spite of the launch of the Nigerian Communication Satellite known as NIGCOMSAT by the Nigerian Government first in 2007 and then NIGCOMSAT-IR in December 2011, to provide critical ICT backbone infrastructure to support e-learning, among others in the country.
What is the essence of investing so much money in a communication satellite if it cannot be deployed at a time of need? Those in charge of NIGCOMSAT, the commercial arm of Nigeria’s space centre, have consistently claimed that the technology has the capacity to cover the entire Africa. If that is the case, why is the country still struggling to deploy internet connectivity facilities to its schools to aide e-learning? If we are truly a serious country, by now, all the schools in urban and rural areas should have been connected to the e-learning services.
No doubt, COVID-19 has exposed Nigeria’s unpreparedness for e-learning. But, we can’t afford to remain where we are. That is why it is important for every institution to start thinking of how to deploy available technology in the world for the good of their students at this critical period. Universities should as a matter of urgency migrate online. This shouldn’t be another season of waiting and probably wasting for the Nigerian student. There is no reason why any higher institution worth its name should suspend all academic activities until the end of Corona Virus with all the available resources and technology in the world today. The minimum expected of them is to upload teaching resources online for students to have access to them. At least this will give the students the opportunity to learn on their own.
This is also an opportunity for telecommunications companies like Glo, MTN and the rest of them to make a difference in Nigeria’s educational institutions. They can as part of their corporate social responsibility decide to boost internet facilities in universities and other educational institutions; or provide data at cheaper rates to help poor students have access to the internet for online learning.
I know there are obvious stumbling blocks to digital learning in Nigeria. Many students don’t even have access to devices while the cost of buying data is still high. These challenges and others have provided telecommunications companies a huge opportunity of making a difference in Nigerian higher institutions by providing e-learning solutions and broadband connectivity to universities and other higher institutions.
They can as part of their corporate social responsibility decide to boost internet facilities in universities and other higher institutions; or help poor students who have limited or poor internet access to enhance online learning.
Olabisi Deji-Folutile is the Editor-in-Chief of Franktalknow.com and member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors. Email: bisideji@yahoo.co.uk
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Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Abuja
Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Abuja
The Embassy of Indonesia in Abuja, Nigeria, has refused to allow staff work from home or observe social distancing despite the outbreak and continued spread of Coronavirus in the country, SaharaReporters can confirm.
Despite pleas to the leadership of the high commission, staff especially Nigerian employees of the embassy have been asked to continue working without recourse to their health.
“The High Commissioner even threatened some staff that if they refused to come to work, they will be fired.
“This is despite the announcement by the FCT authorities that everyone should stay at home to help stop the spread of the Coronavirus,” one troubled staff said on Thursday.
SaharaReporters gathered that the embassy authorities insisted that it cannot regard the verbal directive from the Nigerian Government for residents to work from home.
It was also gathered that despite the matter being brought to their notice, Nigerian Government officials were yet to intervene.
The Indonesian Embassy and in fact several other high commissions in the country employ only contract staff with no health insurance, pension, benefits or allowances.
Nigerian authorities are aware of this gross labour law violation but have failed to act to protect citizens employed in such places.
“They all treat Nigerians the same. Most of them reduce salaries without prior notification and they pay poorly.
“For example, administrative staff earn between N90,000 to N120,000 while drivers, domestic help and cooks earn between N25,000 to N60,000 with no overtime and they also deny women maternity leave,” a top diplomatic source told SaharaReporters.
At the Indonesian Embassy in Abuja, only four Nigerian staff are employed and they mostly serve in domestic capacity.
“We are suffering in our own country. We need government to intervene and ensure that they abide by the laid down rules of their host community, Nigeria,” another staff at the Indonesian Embassy said.
As at the time of this report, an enquiry sent to the Indonesian Embassy via email by SaharaReporters was yet to be responded to while phone numbers listed on the website of the high commission failed to connect when dialed by one of our correspondents on Thursday.
As a way of curtailing the spread of Coronavirus in Nigeria, the federal and various state governments had adopted various measures including restricting public gatherings and advising workers to operate from their houses.
Nigeria has 51 confirmed cases of Coronavirus and one recorded death at the moment with fears growing of a further spread if the stay-at-home order is not complied with by citizens.
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The United Bank for Africa Plc on Thursday announced a donation of N5bn ($14m) through the UBA Foundation to support the fight against Coronavirus.
The donation will provide significant and much needed support to Nigeria and 19 other African countries by supplying relief materials, critical care facilities, and financial support to governments, according to the bank.
The donation will be allocated as follows: N1bn to Lagos State Government, N500m to Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, N1bn to the remaining 35 states in Nigeria, N1.5bn to UBA’s presence countries in Africa, N1bn for medical centres with equipment and supplies free telemedicine call centre facility.
The bank revealed that it will fund a medical centre immediately in Lagos with beds for isolation and ICU facilities, managed and operated in partnership with Heirs Holdings’ healthcare subsidiary, Avon Medical Hospital.
UBA Group Chairman, Tony Elumelu, said, “This is a time when we must all play our part. This global pandemic must bring citizens, governments and business leaders together – and quickly.
“As we see a rapidly increasing number of cases of the Coronavirus in Nigeria and Africa, the private sector has to work hand in hand with various governments in stemming the spread of the global pandemic.
“We commend the efforts of governments and we are keen to partner and contribute our resources to the collective effort that will ensure the response to the pandemic is swift and effective.”
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With 2013 half over, it’s time to pause, take a breath, and see if you’re on track with your goals. This is an essential part of running a successful business — taking structured time throughout the year to work ON your biz and make sure the path you’re on is, in fact, the path you want to be on. Read on for 5 Steps to completing your mid-year check-in…
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Visual content marketing is motivating marketers to rethink their overall marketing strategy. Previously, written content was enough to make the marketing strategy of many business work effectively. However, it isn?t enough anymore. Now, it takes more than that to get the message to existing and prospective clients…
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