FLASHBACK: The choices before the Emir of Kano

HRH Muhammadu Sanusi II

CC™ Introspective - By Eric Teniola

Alhaji Isa KAITA (1912-1994) was the Northern Region Minister for works between 1954-1957 and later Minister of Education between 1957-1966. He later became the Waziri of Katsina. Alhaji Kaita was one of the few closest advisers of the late northern region premier Sir Ahmadu Bello (1909-1966), the Sardauna of Sokoto. 

In August 1963, Alhaji Isa Kaita was dispatched to Lagos by his friend Sir Ahmadu Bello. The mission was to inform the then Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa(1912-1966) on the plan of the premier to depose the then Emir of Kano, Sir Muhammadu Sanusi from the throne. 

When he got to Lagos he met the then prime Minister in company of his five ministers, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu (1910-1965), Alhaji Shehu Shagari (90),Alhaji Zanna Bukar Suloma dipcharima(1917-1969), Alhaji Maitama Sule (90) and Alhaji Tudun Wada(94). The ministers advised against the premier's decision.

Upon delivering the message, the then prime minister told Alhaji Kaita that the Sardauna should not act that way. "Tell the Sardauna that he should not do it, for Kano will be on fire."

The emissary told the prime minister and the five ministers present that "I am not here for permission. I am here to inform you that the Sardauna had made up his mind, am afraid no going back". That was how the meeting ended. Selection and deposition of traditional rulers is the sole responsibility of state governments.

The son of the Emir, Alhaji Aminu Sanusi who was serving in the Nigerian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt at that time, intervened on behalf of his father on the question of exile. The prime minister discussed with the premier and the choice settled on Azare, headquarters of then Katagum Emirate in Northern Bauchi province. 

Two days later the Emir was dethroned and banished to Azare in the present Bauchi state. 

He later died in 1984. Some of the details of the deposition are contained on pages 603 to 605 of a book written by Mr. Trevor Clark titled" A RIGHT HONOURABLE GENTLEMAN" on the life and times of Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Mr. Clark, a Briton, served as the deputy secretary to the executive council, the governor's office in Kaduna. He was a personal friend of the Prime Minister.

Before the deposition, Mr Clark wrote that" the Kano native finances had largely broken down, and in September 1962 could not meet its monthly staff wages bill nor nor its other debts; the water supply undertaking and the purchase-of-corn local industry in particular were now audited because virtually unauditable".

In my interview as the National Assembly Editor of THE PUNCH newspaper, with Alhaji Isa Kaita in October 1983 while he was chairman of Code of Conduct bureau, he said Sir Ahmadu Bello did not take that decision without consultation. He described the deposition as "A RIGHTEOUS ONE". 

When I asked whether the late premier had any regret in deposing Alhaji Muhammed Sanusi as the Emir before he too was murdered by the military on January 15,1956, his reply was "why should the Sardauna regret his actions, Sanusi was not deposed on mere statement, go and find out. Have you read the report of David Muffet".

David Muffet, a Briton was appointed by Sir Ahmadu Bello to probe into Kano Native Financial affairs in 1963. Later Mr. Muffet wrote a book titled"LET THE TRUTH BE TOLD".

Unfortunately, Alhaji Isa Kaita, a former broadcaster could not write his autobiography to shed more light on the deposition of the Emir before he died in his house in Kaduna no November 26, 1994.

After the deposition of the Emir, the Turaki of Kano between (1927-1939) and district head of Dawakin Kudu, Alhaji Muhammad Inuwa Abbas born in 1901 became the Emir. His reign was less than 12 months before he died. He was succeeded by Alhaji Ado Bayero who died recently after reigning for 51 years.

The history of the deposed Emir was in sharp contrast with that of his father Alhaji Abdullahi Bayero who was Emir between 1926 and 1963.

Alhaji Abdullahi Bayero was the son of Emir Muhammadu Abbas. He was district head of Bichi before he was appointed the tenth Fulani Emir of Kano in 1926. He was officially installed in February 1927.

Under British supervision, he carried out some reforms of the Emirate government. The economic prosperity continued in his reigned despite the slump going on in the post-Second World War years and considerable development was financed from Native Authority funds; by the early 1950s the Kano NA was spending over £1 million annually for its programs.

Under the Emir, whose good relations with the British were shown by a procession in which he and the governor took part in 1936,Kano became important to the British a civil air route terminal (1936), air base in the Second World War, and a major groundnut center as it had been since 1912. He encouraged many factories to be established in Kano.

He virtually turned Kano into a major trading center across the whole of Africa. The Arabs turned Kano to their second home, hence the reason for many mulattoes in Kano today.

In 1934 Alhaji Abdullahi Bayero visited Britain and was received by King George V. He went to Mecca twice; the first time, in 1937, he traveled by car and became the first ever Emir of Kano to perform the Hajj; he performed it again in 1951, that time by air, and on his return opened a new mosque. He followed the Reformed Tijaniyya Moslem confraternity, and was much influence by Sheikh Ibrahim Niass of Kaolack (Senegal), who preached it in Kano.

This well-remembered Emir died on 25 December 1953. Bayero University was named after him.

The son of the now ailing Emir of Azare, who hosted the deposed Emir of Kano for 21 years, Baba Farouk, the Seriki shirra, is today the Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Water Resources. And the grandson of the deposed Emir is today the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Lamido Sanusi Lamido.

He is not the first son or grandson of a deposed traditional ruler to regain the throne of his father or that of his grandfather. The father of the present Alaafin of Oyo, Iku Baba Yeye, Oba Lamidi Layiwola Adeyemi III (76), that is Oba Adeniran Adeyemi II was once deposed in 1954 and died in exile. His son,the present Alaafin succeeded Oba Gbadegesin Ladigbolu on November 8, 1970. The whole world is awaiting when he will mark 50years on throne in 2020. 

The former Oba of Benin, Oba Uku Akpolokpolo, Omo n'Oba n'Edo, Akenzua II (1899-1978) was another one. His grandfather King Ovonramwen who died in 1914 was dethroned and deported to Calabar where he died seventeen years later. 

The present Olowo of Owo in Ondo state, Kabiyesi Victor Folagbade Olateru Olagbegi is another one. His famous father Sir James Titus Olateru Olagbegi II was dethroned in February 1968. He fought back and he claimed his throne on November 2, 1993.

As for the present Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in spite of his unfortunate detention in Jos prison during the General Sanni Abacha era and the personal effort which the late Emir, Alhaji Ado Bayero made in securing his release without facing charges, he could boast of having a grandfather and a great grandfather as Emirs of Kano. A truly unique pedigree upon which to build his own tenure.

He has two choices before him today. Either to follow the footsteps of his great grandfather Alhaji Abdullahi Bayero who transformed Kano or follow the footsteps of his grandfather Alhaji Muhammed Sanusi who was deposed after reigning for 10 years.

It is his choice to make.

Long Overdue: Nigeria issues travel ban on the US, UK and 11 other countries

Health Minister Dr. Osagie Enahire

CC™ Global Health News

In a move seen as long overdue, considering virtually all the recorded COVID-19 cases in Nigeria and much of the African continent have been transported to the latter by European, Asian and other non-African migrants, the Nigerian government finally decided to shut its doors to travel from the US, UK and 11 other countries.

The affected countries are the United State of America, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, Iran, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, France, South Korea, Germany, Italy and Spain. The Federal Government also had on Tuesday, placed a ban on travel by public servants to countries highly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Mr Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), announced this on Tuesday after a closed-door meeting with the Presidential Task Force Committee on COVID-19 in Abuja. 

Also, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Wednesday morning ordered that all orientation camps across Nigeria be shut as preventive and precautionary measures against coronavirus. President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday also approved postponement of the National Sports Festival as a precautionary move against COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has furthered strengthened the argument of most on the African continent (and Africans in the diaspora) on the need to push more aggressively for intra-African trade and commerce, while also dversifying the continent's economy away from the over-dependence on its vast oil resources. 

The world has become a much smaller place as well and most business and related transactions can be carried out without the need for parties to be physically present in either Europe, Africa or Asia.

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures and no stone should be left unturned to ensure the fragile healthcare system in Africa is not overwhelmed by this novel pandemic. 

We are still confused as to why Coronavirus is not killing Africans - European Scientist

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari

CC™ Global Health News 

European scientists remain baffled as to why the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has still not killed a single African and has not gone viral in Africa, with a few of the cases there being related to Europeans that actually brought the virus there as migrants.

In a post by the publication "New Scientist", European scientists say they are puzzled by the zero mortality rate and low infection rate from the COVID-19 virus among Africans, when compared to that of Europeans and the rest of the world, moreso in light of Africa's heavy trading with China, the purported origin of the COVID-19 virus.

The information is fully explained on their website as the writings and assertions are based on the opinions of experts in the field. To date, there have been only two reported deaths on the African continent from the virus, with one being a foreigner and the other being an elderly Moroccan woman that died due to comorbidity from the viral infection. She was 86 years old.

Also, while there have been far more cases of infection across Egypt in the North, far fewer cases with zero mortality have been reported across much of sub-Sahara Africa with 37 of the 50 countries on the continent now having testing capabilities, a hugely significant jump from just two at the end of January.

According to the publication, a WHO representative believes the running tally of COVID-19 cases across the continent to be accurate due to heightened awareness across the African continent unlike the laissez-faire approach the United States and much of Europe adopted at the onset of the pandemic.

According to data, most cases in Africa have been imported not from China but from Europe. Four African countries have imposed quarantines on visitors from coronavirus hotspots. Unlike virus cases, quarantine numbers aren’t being reported.

More broadly, on the monitoring efforts to detect the virus at airports and other entry routes, Whitworth says “a lot’s being done”, citing coordination by the WHO and both the African and US Centres for Disease Control. Rwanda, for example, has recruited final year medical students to undertake screening at airports.

African countries are both vulnerable and potentially more resilient to the coronavirus. On the one hand, the population is much younger than in Europe and China. The median population age in the UK is 40.2 and in China it is 37, but this figure is 17.9 in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. “If you look at the statistics from China, the people that have worse prognosis are the older people, not necessarily the young.

Source: newscientist.com

Dethronement of Emir Sanusi - A Reason for Nigeria to Make a Decision

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

CC™ Viewpoint - By Benjamin Aduba

Nigeria has three different and often confusing systems of government. One is Democracy brought into Nigeria by the British. The democratic form of government is anchored by the federal government, state governments, and local governments, i.e. president, governors’, and local government chairmen.

The second system of parallel government is the native laws which was in place before the British came in and messed everything up. This second parallel of government is anchored by Emirs, Igwes/Obis, Obas, etc., and town unions chairmen/women..

The third system of parallel government is theocracy. This system is operated by Iman’s, sheiks, pastors, bishops, etc. This system is mostly prevalent is Sharia states of Nigeria but the influence of bishops in SE Nigeria, for example is profound.

Many Nigeria politicians have had occasions to fight with some of the leaders of the parallel systems for example there is the case of Premier Awolowo with some Obas and the current fight between the governor of Kano State, Ganduje and Emir Sanusi. There are many local fights between Town Union presidents and the local government chairmen.

Some of the causes of the conflict are: inherent conflict between native tradition which has existed for centuries, and the British traditions; conflict between democratic principles dealing with elections and life tenure of emirs, igwe/obis, obas. Others include conflict between newly introduced Islam/Christian versus traditional religious beliefs of the millenniums of years in Africa.

To make matters worse the political leaders (the adherents of democracy) appoint the traditional leaders. And according to accepted phraseology: if you can hire; then you can fire comes to play. Governor Ganduje thinks that he can fire Emir Sanusi. The British allowed this parallel system to exist because they found that they could use the traditional rulers to quieten the natives while the traditional rulers were in no position to challenge their authority. But things have changed since the British left. 

Traditional rulers are now as educated, as urbane, as knowledgeable as the president, the governors, and the local government chairmen. Sanusi, a world renowned economist and former governor of the Central Bank, is as savvy (even more so) than Gaduje. The Igwe of Awka is a former Vice Chancellor of a university and is as knowledgeable as the governor of Anambra state.

If the native ruler has a strong character, is as popular as the governor, and has a following; political rivalry is bound to erupt. If there are differences of opinion on how the community should develop, the rivalry intensifies and is worsened when the territorial boundaries are equal as in Kano where the emir and governor share almost the same geographical authority.

The decision facing Nigeria is this: Which system to retain and which to abolish for the three systems should not be tolerated. Efforts to integrate the three has been made and it has not worked. The British idea was merely to use the traditional rulers as surrogates. They even created traditional rulers where there was none before as in parts of the republics in Igbo land. Only Onitsha and Midwest Igbo had strong traditional rulers in the early parts of the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

Left to me I will abolish the democratic practices of state governors and local government chairmen and theocracy and let the emirs, igwe/obis and Obas reign. These leaders are integrated with the communities and understand every day folks. Governors are far removed from the people and are exactly like the British governors owing allegiance to foreign entity like political parties. The traditional ruler’s allegiance is only to their community. Town Union leaders are elected by the town elders who know them intimately.

The Federal Government would be the amalgam of the emirs, igwe/obis and obas, something like Federal House of Chiefs who would elect one of themselves as Igwe of the federation with very limited powers.

Thousands arriving from China and Europe at U.S. airports have faced no coronavirus screening

CC™ Coronavirus Watch

In the weeks before President Donald Trump spoke from the Oval Office this week to announce restrictions on travelers from more than two dozen countries in Europe, thousands of people from the region already had stepped off planes at U.S. airports, and an untold number of them may have carried the coronavirus. 

The same can be said of flights from China in the weeks before the U.S. clamped down on those. Thousands who visited the country where the illness began had entered the United States without any kind of health review.

Such sobering realities highlight just one element of the federal government’s shortcomings in getting ahead of the virus and halting its spread from overseas travelers.

A day-by-day review of the spread of an unfamiliar virus from its earliest days shows U.S. officials have often been slow to respond or steps behind, with critical gaps in containment measures such as travel restrictions and airport screenings that allowed the crisis to grow to more than 2,100 infections and 51 deaths.

“There have been gaps in the way the U.S. has approached its response, which has not been comprehensive enough to contain the virus at the early stages of the epidemic,” said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy with the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington.

That was evident from the very beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. On Jan. 15, a 35-year-old man returned home to Washington state through the Seattle airport after traveling to Wuhan, China, where the virus was already spreading. He would become the nation’s first known case. Shortly before, on Jan. 13, a woman in her 60s arrived home through the Chicago airport after traveling to Wuhan. She would be Chicago’s first known case.

Both of those travelers came to U.S. days before the federal government began screenings for passengers who traveled through Wuhan at three U.S. international airports, New York’s Kennedy, San Francisco and Los Angeles. That list was expanded on Jan. 21 to include hubs in Chicago and Atlanta. Seattle-Tacoma wouldn’t be added to the list until Jan. 28.

Also, there’s no guarantee those screenings — which involved passengers filling out health forms and having their temperatures taken — would have caught those early patients, who didn’t report symptoms until later. U.S. researchers say screenings may miss half of COVID-19 infected people, since they may not develop symptoms for several days.

By Jan. 24, both the Chicago woman and Washington state man had sought medical care after feeling sick, and tests confirmed they had the virus. Learning of the two early cases, public health workers scrambled to reach hundreds of people who may have been exposed to them on flights and on the ground, knowing they wouldn’t be able to find them all with certainty.

With infections in Wuhan multiplying at an alarming rate, the White House announced on Jan. 31 that non-residents who had recently been to mainland China would no longer be allowed entry.

Americans returning from the Wuhan region would be subject to a mandatory two-week quarantine. In Boston, a man who would become the city’s first case had returned after traveling to Wuhan just days earlier.

By mid-February, cases in China had pushed past 44,000. But the threat still seemed low in the U.S. and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at its highest point ever amid investor optimism the trade wars initiated by Trump were being resolved.

Then on Feb. 24, a teenager at Jackson High School in Mill Creek, Washington, stayed home with fever, body aches and a headache. He was tested for flu at a clinic that week, but the test came back negative. Feeling better, he went to school on Feb. 28. Arriving on campus, he got a call to come home immediately. It was COVID-19.

The next day, Trevor Bedford, a Seattle scientist, tweeted about the “enormous implications” of finding genetic fingerprint similarities between the teenager’s virus and the Washington man who became the first known U.S. case. “This strongly suggests that there has been cryptic transmission in Washington State for the past 6 weeks,” he wrote on Twitter.

To some, containment still seemed like a possibility in the United States, which as recently as about two weeks ago had no deaths and just 60 known cases, mostly people who were under federal quarantine after being evacuated from China or a cruise ship in Japan.

“It may get a little bigger; it may not get bigger at all,” Trump said in a national TV address at the time.

With cases rising above 1,000 in Italy and 3,000 in South Korea, the White House announced on March 1 that U.S.-bound passengers would undergo screenings before leaving those countries. But travelers from Italy who would eventually test positive were already on their way.

On March 4, California health officials announced that three of its six new cases were people who had visited northern Italy. A day later, Illinois announced its fifth confirmed case — a man who had recently returned from Italy. A day after that, Oklahoma announced its first case — a man who had returned from Italy about two weeks earlier. And a few days later, the state announced its second case had also traveled to Italy.

By the time Trump announced the European travel ban Thursday, cases in the region including Italy, Spain and France had mushroomed to more than 17,000. When a similar ban was announced on people traveling from China, that country had around 11,000 cases. Iran had about 600 confirmed cases when the U.S. banned travelers who had recently been there.

“The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hotspots,” Trump said. “As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe.”

Saturday, Trump closed some glaring exceptions to his European travel ban, adding the United Kingdom and Ireland to the list and considering imposing travel restrictions within the U.S. as well. His decision came as deaths in Britain doubled from the day before to 21, and infections rose from 800 to over 1,100.

Some experts question the effectiveness of any kind of travel restrictions given the heavy volume of global travel. Last year, for example, 4.2 million passengers arrived in the U.S. on flights from China and 2.2 million from Italy.

Holes in the containment net may sound alarming to the general public, but experts in controlling outbreaks assume the net will let some slip through. The point is to slow down or “flatten” rates of infection to keep the number of severely sick patients from overwhelming hospitals, which aren’t big enough to accommodate a surge.

“We are essentially spreading this spread over a longer period of time to allow health systems time to adapt and respond,” said Dr. Sandro Galea, an epidemiologist at Boston University.

The benefit of stopping a portion of new infections from entering also depends on how aggressively officials are simultaneously controlling infections already within their borders, said Benjamin Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong.

But nearly two months after the first U.S. case was confirmed, the persisting lack of testing capacity has left experts uncertain about how many more infected people aren’t being identified. Some researchers say the true count of infections in the U.S. may be upwards of 14,000..

“It is a failing, let’s admit it,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health on Thursday of the testing limitations.

Most people who get infected with the virus experience moderate symptoms. and the vast majority of people recover. Others, including older adults and people with existing health issues, can become severely sick.

Patricia Herrick, the daughter of an 89-year-old woman who died last week in the Seattle-area nursing home that has become ground zero of the U.S. outbreak with at least 25 deaths linked to it, said testing should have started much earlier so the sick could be separated from the well.

“We let this thing advance so far. We didn’t take this seriously enough,” said Herrick, whose mother was never tested for COVID-19. “I don’t know that she would still be living. ... It’s tragic.”

Kaiser’s Michaud acknowledged government health officials may have been “flying blind at first” but the inability to test and identify cases has put them behind.

“We’re trying to catch up. But we can’t catch up at this point.”

Source: MarketWatch

FLASHBACK: Nigeria's former Central Bank Governor and globally respected banker emerges as new monarch of historic Kano Emirate.....

HRH Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

CC™ Focus - By Deji Komolafe

Despite reports of intimidation and threats from the Jonathan administration in Abuja, Nigeria's ousted central bank governor and prominent government critic, Lamido Sanusi, has been named the new emir of Kano in Nigeria. 

The new emir becomes one of the most influential spiritual and political leaders in the country's largely Muslim north. 

As bank governor, Mr Sanusi had leveled accusations of high-level fraud and was suspended in February by President Goodluck Jonathan. 

The previous emir, Alhaji Ado Bayero, died after a long illness at the age of 83 last Friday. 

In the aftermath of Sanusi's appointment as the new emir, Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, a known critic of Jonathan, had his plane impounded on the others of the Nigerian leader, who has increasingly become more desperate as his administration further unravels.

Sanusi has received his official letters of enthronement from the Kano State government and his formal coronation as the 14th Emir of ancient Kano took place Monday, June 9th, 2014.

About Lamido Sanusi

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was born July 31 1961 is the current emir of Kano. He was also governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, appointed on June 3 2009 and suspended from office by President Goodluck Jonathan on February 20 2014, after exposing a $20 billion fraud committed by the president’s associates in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC). He is a career banker and ranking Fulani nobleman and also serves as a respected Islamic scholar.

Global financial intelligence magazine The Banker, published by the Financial Times, conferred on Sanusi two awards – the Global award for Central Bank Governor of the Year, as well as for Central Bank Governor of the Year for Africa. The TIME magazine also listed Sanusi in its TIMES 100 list of most influential people of 2011. 

Sanusi is recognised in the banking industry for his contributions to the development of a risk management culture in Nigerian banking. First Bank is Nigeria’s oldest bank and one of the biggest financial institutions in Africa. Sanusi was the first northerner to be appointed CEO in First Bank’s history of more than a century.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times in December 2009, Sanusi defended the extensive reforms he had initiated since taking office, dubbed by some as the “Sanusi tsunami”. Some believe that he had a personal vendetta against some of the banks’ CEOs, while others pointed to proof of mismanagement of funds by some of the CEOs, most notably Cecelia Ibru, as justification for the steps he implemented. 

He noted that there was no choice but to attack the many powerful and interrelated vested interests who were exploiting the financial system and expressed his appreciation of support from the Presidency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the finance minister and others.

The Banker unanimously recognized him as the Central Bank Governor of the Year 2010, citing his radical anti-corruption campaign aimed at saving 24 banks on the brink of collapse and pressing for the managers involved in the most blatant cases of corruption to be charged and, in the case of two senior bankers, imprisoned.

Sanusi has spoken at many distinguished events including Warwick Economics Summit in February 2012, where he spoke about banking reforms in Nigeria and their impact on the economy.

CORONAVIRUS: How an Italian migrant imported the disease into Nigeria and the race to curtail its spread

CC™ Global Health News

In a near replay of the July 20, 2014 Ebola Virus Disease episode when Liberian Patrick Sawyer imported the Ebola virus into the country undetected through the Muritala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA, an Italian national has imported the COVID-19 virus into the country through the same airport on February 25th 2020.

The Federal Ministry of Health and the Lagos State Ministry of Health had, in early hours of Friday February 28th, confirmed the case in Lagos. It is the first case of COVID-19 to be reported in Nigeria and in sub-Sahara Africa and the third in Africa after Egypt and Algeria since the outbreak occurred in China in December 2019.

Lagos state Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, told reporters during an emergency press briefing in Lagos on Friday, that the index case – a consultant with Larfarge Cement Company, Ewekoro, Ogun State - came into Nigeria on the 25th of February from Milan, Italy for a brief business visit.

According to Abayomi, the patient, a traveller, initiated his journey from Milan, Italy, on Monday, 24th February, transited through Istanbul on-board a Turkish Airline aircraft and arrived Lagos on Tuesday night, spent the night in an hotel near the airport and on Tuesday morning, he moved on to his business in Ogun State, a corporate entity.

"He carried out his business within Ogun State within the confines of the company. And on Wednesday he spent the night in their accommodation, a guest house. By the afternoon, he started to develop symptoms of high fever and body pains. He presented through the company medical facility, where investigation began. He gave a history of his origin of Italy, where we know there is a young outbreak."

Abayomi said it was astute of the medical personnel to keep him over night in an isolated environment.

"They contacted us at the biosecurity unit in Lagos for assistance and we immediately asked them to transfer the case to Lagos. He was brought to our high containment facility in Yaba on Thursday morning. Immediately, he arrived, he was put in strict isolation and appropriate tests were ordered.

Lagos responds promptly, begins contact tracing - Prof Akin Abayomi

"Within hours we received signals that the test in the laboratory was showing signs of positivity. At that point, we informed the Federal Minister of Health, the incident commander in the state, Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the Minister informed higher authorities in Abuja.

Noting that it was self important at that time to put together information for the public, Abayomi stated that the patient remains in strict isolation at the containment facility in Yaba and was doing well with supportive therapy.

In response to the development, the Lagos state government immediately started tracing persons that might have had contact with the index case from the airport through Lagos to Ogun State. According to Abayomi, this is important in order to start the isolation and containment of exercise that will break the cycle of transmission of the disease. He said Lagos has set in motion efforts to expand its isolation capacity.

"The important thing to know is that the patient is confined and we have started to identify his contacts all the way to the airline. That process started about 3.00am this morning. We would like to assure everybody that we are on this case to ensure that we can identify everybody that he must have come into contact with.

"His symptoms are subsiding and he does not have signs of respiratory disease which is a good thing, but he does have fever and body pains. If he had respiratory illness it is probably like that he may be more contagious than he is at the moment.

"At our infectious disease facility, we have ramped up capacity to isolate suspected cases. We are now sitting on an about 80-bed isolation facility because of the emergency funds that have been released by the incident commander. We need more capacity in case we have an increased number of cases in Lagos."

Abayomi said Lagos has a very aggressive public awareness campaign going on and has engaged in extensive training across the hierarchy of health professionals in Lagos.

"In addition we are building capacity to diagnose in Lagos and right now we can run the test in two centres in Lagos, one is in the biosecurity facility and the other at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH. We are in constant contact with the Nigeria centre for Diseases Control, NCDC, and Minister of Health in Abuja."

Officials of the Port health services on ground at the airport were unable to detect that the Italian was carrying the virus because he manifested no symptoms. The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, explained that it was not a failure of screening. At an emergency press briefing in Abuja on Friday morning, he told journalists that most people who are infected with the coronavirus, may experience only mild illness and recover easily.

"It is not a failure of screening because coronavirus symptoms may not manifest within the first several days, so the person that is infected may not show any signs at all within the first few days or five days and then the symptoms begin. So if that person has traveled within that window, that person gets through anywhere and may not be noticed.

According to Ehanire: " The Italian went through the screening without symptoms and by the time he got to his house, I think a day or two after, he started to feel unwell and wisely enough he went to a hospital and there the doctors examined him and I believe they found that malaria was negative and they knew his travel history and they immediately referred him for a test in Lagos at LUTH testing centre and there it was discovered that he was positive for coronavirus and immediately put under isolation. In fact he has been put on isolation from the referral hospital in a special ambulance.

"As a matter of fact we need to commend the hospital for thinking ahead, not wasting time and taking necessary measures and commend Lagos state government for responding very appropriately. There was free thinking on the side of the hospital and on the side of the driver to transport him under those special conditions to the Federal infectious disease hospital in Lagos. He has immediately been put under very strict isolation, receiving treatment and the information I have this very morning is that he is stable.

"The symptoms for people will not be equally severe. And in fact there are speculations that up to 80 percent of people who get the coronavirus infection may show only mild symptoms or none and 20 percent will get very severe symptoms but all this is still under investigation. As we know this novel coronavirus even if it is new, it's behaviour is not very clear and there is a rapid flow of information coming up about it which is just beginning to enlighten the public. The scientists are working very hard to know more about it".

On tracing of the contacts, Ehanire said; "We are looking at all those people whom this man has been in touch with backwards from the day he was admitted. The first point of call whenever anybody enters the country is the Port Health services.

The Port Health services will be working with the airline to get the passengers manifest and find out where this gentleman was, and also where he sat and also those who sat around him and set up a monitoring system for all passengers and the crew members of that particular flight in order to get information to monitor their state of health within the next 14 days.

And further questioning of the gentleman will also reveal to us where he was and all the places he went. All we know now is that he came from Milan where he was before' it doesn't seem that he ever was in China. So he may have acquired it as a form of community infection from his own country."

Speaking on the issue of quarantining of travelers, Ehanire recalled that the World Health Organisation, WHO, has advised all countries that there is no need to put every single traveler into quarantine.

"There are some other countries who choose to do differently but we follow the guidelines of the WHO which say that screen all persons who are entering your country, check their travel history, if they are coming from a country that has a high rate of coronavirus, invite them for further questioning, give them a phone number to call and take their phone number and advise them in the interest of their own families and friends to stay in self isolation for 14 days and report any symptoms immediately.

"Not only that, if you do not call, we call you and find out how you are and if you have any suspicious symptoms we send an ambulance to get you. Our focus is on the multifunctional international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Kano. Enugu Airport has been closed and I understand it will be opened very soon but we are also preparing for that possibility.

According to the Minister, the level of preparedness continues to improve in Nigeria every day. "Training is going on, the people that we call the port health workers are receiving training, they are visited by the NCDC to continue to sharpen their skills, preparedness, and knowledge. We are constantly looking at where there are weaknesses. Even the forms the passengers fill when they arrive we continue upgrading, immediately we discover that there is a gap some where we upgrade it and repair the gaps that are in there. So everything is been done to improve preparedness and improve ability to respond rapidly.

VANGUARD

Amọtẹkun: Tinubu's atavistic balderdash and the suspension of good governance into the abyss of tyranny

Bola Ahmed Tinubu

CC™ Viewpoint - By Editor-in-Chief

It was not only inevitable, but also predictable that the purported heir to the legacy of the legendary Yoruba and African sage (Chief Obafemi Awolowo) would speak at some point on the establishment of Amọtẹkun, the Western Nigeria Security Network. 

Many in Western Nigeria had been clamouring for him to state his position on the establishment of the regional community security outfit, but this writer never held his breath as I knew it would be a waste of time.

Why? Some would ask and the answer is quite clear. Bola Ahmed Tinubu's agenda is and has always been his own; inordinate, self-centered, lacking in vision and essentially subject to myopic revision, including sacrificing the future of the Yoruba race on the altar of personal ambition and self aggrandizement.

When the response finally came, I and others with a more realistic outlook on things were not disappointed. Instead, we were vindicated in our expectation that it would be exactly the way it came out. Steeped in self absorption, flippantly disregarding arrogance, and light on veritable substance and decisive cogency.

For anyone to have expected anything less than the jaundiced chattercrawl offered by the self proclaimed Asiwaju, would amount to suspending the genetically predisposed spectre of muted expectations when dealing with the likes of Tinubu, into the abyss of great expectations.

For those who continue to hope above all hope and continue to be disappointed, please note this cautionary tale; Bola Tinubu is no Obafemi Awolowo and would never qualify for the singular honor of sagehood, even if satan himself was the arbiter of that designation.

The current APC regime under the rudderless stewardship of the Fulani irredentist, Muhammadu Buhari, is the most evil regime in the contentious history of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Amọtẹkun is the perfect checkmate to the clandestine designs of the three headed Fulani jihadist insurgency presided over by the Sultan of Sokoto, Nasir El Rufai and President Muhammadu Buhari.

That the so-called Asiwaju preferred to punt (in American football parlance) rather than affirm a commitment to the true ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) is emblematic of the leadership dearth that has not only befallen the Yoruba nation, but the national landscape as a whole.

For the avoidance of doubt, this current mal-administration is the most corrupt, blood-thirsty and inhumane in Nigeria's history and unless there is a formidable resistance against the draconian proclivities of Buhari's murderous marauders, the future of Nigeria's corporate existence as a nation hangs perilously in a balance.

That any Northern figure would even utter the sligtest semblance of opposition to the formation of Amọtẹkun should tell you that they have lost their collective minds and do not wish well for the Yoruba race and Nigeria as a whole. With the formation of the Hisbah Corps, among other supposed regional and state security outfits in Northern Nigeria, not to mention the adoption of full fledged Sharia law (against the letter of the Nigerian Constitution in response to a Christian President at the time), one wonders where these rabid dogs and ethno-religious bigots got the gall and untoward temerity to deprive others of the right to self defense!

One has never witnessed the level of insecurity we see in Nigeria today and the trurh remains that President Muhammadu Buhari has been unresponsive (by design) to the murderous activities of his kinsmen, the Fulani Herdsmen. Worse still, the continued release of Boko Haram fighters for supposed reabilitation constitutes a slap in the face to the families of soldiers and civilians who have lost their loved ones to the animals claiming religion as justification for their heinous crimes. 

Buhari has not only failed to address the growing insecurity in the nation, his administration has also championed the activities of corrupt politicians, provided they are members of the ruling APC.

The United States government recently kicked against the possible release of soon-to-be repatriated stolen Abacha loot to one of the most corrupt leaders in Northern Nigeria, Governor Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State. 

According to Bloomberg News, the U.S. Department of Justice says Bagudu was involved in corruption with Abacha. The DoJ also contends that the Nigerian government is hindering U.S. efforts to recover allegedly laundered money it says it’s traced to Bagudu. The DoJ said in a Feb. 3 statement that Bagudu, 58, was part of a network controlled by Abacha that “embezzled, misappropriated and extorted billions from the government of Nigeria.” Bagudu is the chairman of an influential body of governors representing the ruling All Progressives Congress.

So much then for the so-called anti-corruption crusade as Nigeria's case has become that of having the thieves watch themselves. 

The Southwest Governors must not back down in this fight to secure the future and prosperity of the Yoruba race against the clandestine plots of its enemies, including those from within. The Governors will be held accountable by the Yoruba masses and they will have no place under the sun to hide from, should they sell the Yoruba race to Tinubu and his co-horts. 

Buhari has always been a failure. He was redeployed during the Nigerian Civil War after the group he oversaw suffered serious casualties in the 4 Sector (Onitsha region) at the hands of Biafran forces. As a soldier and a person, he has always been a fraud and has masked his incompetence, bigotry and wickedness with polymeric platitudes that only the truly discerning can see. Even this writer was fooled but fool me twice, shame on me!

The die is cast and Nigeria is at a crossroads. Muhammadu Buhari may indeed be the last President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Enough is enough!

Former Nigerian Minister: Obama and Hillary have blood on their hands for 'helping Boko Haram'.....

CC™ Viewpoint - By Anthony Murdoch

A former Nigerian Minister has called out former U.S. President Barack Obama along with Hillary Clinton for their “sheer wickedness” in helping terrorist group Boko Haram by “funding and supporting” the 2015 election of the country’s current leader who, after being elected, canceled contracts to eradicate the terrorists.

Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Nigerian Minister of Culture and Tourism, and Aviation, said that Obama and Clinton, along with John Kerry have “blood...on their hands.” 

“What Obama, John Kerry and Hilary [sic] Clinton did to Nigeria by funding and supporting [Muhammadu] Buhari in the 2015 presidential election and helping Boko Haram in 2014/2015 was sheer wickedness and the blood of all those killed by the Buhari administration, his Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram over the last 5 years are on their hands,” Fani-Kayode stated in a Feb. 12 Facebook post. Fani-Kayode does not clarify what part Clinton, who was U.S. Secretary of State only until 2013, may have played in Buhari’s election. 

Local Catholic archbishop Augustine Obiora Akubeze recently sounded the alarm that much of the blood being spilled comes in the form of religious persecution against Christians. 

Fani-Kayode stated that had Donald Trump been president of America in 2015, matters “would have been very different.”

“Boko Haram would have been history and the Fulani herdsmen would never have seen the light of day,” he said.

Fani-Kayode backed up his claims by highlighting a recent interview from a former military contractor Eeben Barlow whose company was hired to eradicate Muslim terrorists from Nigeria. 

Barlow, chairman of a private army group called “Specialised Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection International,” said in a Jan. 5 interview with Aljazeera that he was subcontracted in 2014 with assisting the Nigerian government under then-president Goodluck Jonathan to help eradicate the Boko Haram threat. 

In the interview, Barlow says that one of the first acts of the then-new President Buhari in 2015 was to terminate his contract.  He also said that Buhari’s presidential campaign was funded by the US government under President Barack Obama.

“In one month, we took back terrain larger than Belgium from Boko Haram. We were not allowed to finish because it came at a time when governments were in the process of changing, said Barlow. 

“The incoming President, President Buhari was heavily supported by a foreign government, and one of the first missions was to terminate our contract.”

When asked by the interviewer to name who the foreign government was, Barlow responded: “Yes, we were told it was the United States, and they had actually funded President Buhari’s campaign. The campaign manager for President Buhari came from the US, and I am not saying the United States is bad, I understand foreign interests, but I would have thought that a threat such as Boko Haram on the integrity of the state of Nigeria ought to be actually a priority. It wasn't.”

Fani-Kayode interpreted Barlow’s comments as an affirmation that Obama and Clinton share responsibility for the terrorism and bloodshed taking place in Nigeria today. 

“This man (the military contractor) has spoken the bitter truth. I said it at the time and throughout the 2015 presidential campaign but Nigerians would not listen,” said Fani-Kayode. 

“Those of you that still love the evil called Barack Obama should listen to this and tell me if you still do,” added Fani-Kayode.

Fani-Kayode worked as the campaign chief for the former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, in his failed bid to get re-elected as President in 2015. Jonathan was President from 2010 to 2015. Muhammandu Buhari won the 2015 Nigerian election and was recently re-elected in 2019 to a second term. He also served as the head of the Supreme Military Council (military government) of Nigeria from 1983 to 1985, after grabbing power in a military coup d'état. 

Terrorism, which includes the persecution of Christians, has been on-going in Nigeria for years. The Muslim terrorist group Boko Haram has wreaked havoc in the country’s northern and middle belt region. Earlier in the month, about 5 million Christians across Nigeria protested the recent murder of well-known Pastor, Lawan Andimi. He was kidnapped and then murdered by Boko Haram on January 20.  

One of Boko Haram’s most well-known acts of terrorism in Nigeria was the 2014 kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls. Boko Haram kidnapped over 250 girls ranging in age from 16-18 from a Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok. The kidnappers forced the girls to convert to Islam and took them hostage as sex slaves. As of today, only 112 of the girls taken have been freed. 

The Muslim Fulani herders are also responsible for attacks against mostly Christians in other regions of the African nation. According to Open Doors USA’s 2019 World Watch List, Nigeria places as the 12th worst country in the world for the persecution of Christians. 

Recently, the president of the Nigerian Catholic bishops’ conference, Archbishop Augustine Obiora Akubeze, called on western nations to do more to make people aware of the persecution of Christians and others taking place in Nigeria. 

In his interview, Barlow notes that he finds it inexplicable that the United Nations, “has sat and watched people get slaughtered and not gone to their rescue.” 

He also added that he finds it hard to buy the argument that securing peace in an area the size of Africa is impossible, saying: “I cannot understand how people can claim that they want to secure peace and bring about peace when they watch people being slaughtered. People cannot tell me that the area is too big to control, that is absolute nonsense. And if people say that, they are really trying to cover their real inability to do their jobs.” 

Barlow later added the reason for the need for private armies is due to the United Nations not doing their job, saying: “Private Military companies would not be necessary if national armies and the United Nations were actually able to, actually fulfill their mandates. So, I don’t think the world should lay the blame before us. They should go and look why we exist.” 

In 2015, then former U.S. Congressman Steve Stockman said that Obama was deliberately holding back helping the Nigerian government from defeating Boko Haram, because of Nigeria’s opposition to same-sex “marriage.” 

When Goodluck Jonathan was President of Nigeria, he signed into law the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, in early 2014. It was met with an outcry from the Obama administration. Nigeria’s bishops gave their support for the law. 

The law enacts a 14-year prison term to anyone who joins a “same-sex marriage contract or civil union”, as well as those who aid or help such actions. It also bans gay clubs and organizations, as well as any public demonstrations of fondness between homosexuals. 

The Nigerian Bishops have also been critical of the Buhari government, saying they are not doing anything to aid the affected regions that are under attack from the terrorist groups. One Bishop, Matthew Hassan Kukah, recently said that the government of Nigeria is, “using the levers of power to secure the supremacy of Islam.” 

In April of 2019, Archbishop Matthew Man-oso Ndagoso from northwest Nigeria warned about the on-going persecution of Christians. He said that “Christians are being killed like chickens,” and that there was little time to act to help stop the atrocities. 

At the time, Archbishop Ndagoso appealed to the Trump administration, as well as to the world in general for help, saying: “Any person, any organization, any institution that has influence: let this influence be used for the common good. And right now, let that influence be used for the common good of so that peace may reign in our country. This is my call.” 

Buhari met with Trump in 2018, a meeting at which Trump promised his government would work to end the massacre of Christians in Nigeria. 

In a Feb. 15 open letter to Buhari, Fani-Kayode urged him to take the situation in Nigeria seriously, calling him out directly for what he says is inaction in fighting Boko Haram.  

“I have written it because our nation is entering into dangerous and precarious waters and I sense that something will give very soon,” said Fani-Kayode in the letter. 

“Over the last 5 years hundreds of thousands have died under your watch and virtually all have been killed by those from your core northern region. You turned a blind eye to it and even encouraged it. Today belongs to you but let me assure you that tomorrow belongs to those of us that you have killed, persecuted, oppressed and treated with disdain and contempt,” the letter states. 

Source - Lifesite News

Contact information:

The White House
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Pete Baklinski contributed to this report

The Gypsy King eviscerates the Bronze Bomber as the bully gets bullied by the crafty pugilist

Fury (L) dominated the fight and bullied the bully

CC™ Breaking Sportswire

It was bound to happen eventually. At some point, Deontay Wilder's lack of true boxing pedigree and his penchant for depending on his only potent arsenal, the 'big right hand', was bound to catch up with him. 

Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, it did, and in being exposed as raw, unpolished and seriously deficient in the rudimentary attributes of the sweet science, Wilder lost something even more critical than his WBC title belt; he lost the aura of invincibility that had aided him in his assault on the heavyweight division. 

That aura of invincibiity and intimidation, he may never get back and if he thinks I am full of hot air, he may want to ask someone who was better skilled than him by eons about that, yes, the legendary Mike Tyson. Tyson was never the same after the shock loss to Buster Douglas, also in February, 30 years ago in Tokyo.

Unlike the Tyson loss that was a shocker, this actually was not as any true student of the sweet science of boxing familiar with Fury's skill set, would have seen this coming, particularly after watching what Fury did to Wilder in the last fight, with little or no preparation. This time, not only did Fury have enough time to prepare, but he also changed trainers and came in with the right tactical approach and weight that ensured the total dominance he had on this night. 

In the end, Fury taught Wilder a lesson, one I hope Wilder learns from and ultimately motivates him to go back to the basics and become a true student of the sport. Boxing is not MMA. In the sweet science of boxing, the true artist eventually owns the canvas and ultimately decides what the finished piece looks like. The finished piece on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena was not pleasing to the eye for the fans of Deontay Wilder, but it was for the sport of boxing. 

Wilder may want to think twice about triggering that rematch clause as Fury is essentially a bad match-up for him.