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Saturday, 25 January 2020 06:04

Coronavirus: Death toll rises as disease spreads

Health officials in China 15 more people have died from a coronavirus in the province of Hubei, where the outbreak first started. There are currently 1,287 confirmed cases in China, 41 of whom have died. It comes as China is begins celebrations of the Lunar New Year, one of the most important dates in its calendar. Many events have been cancelled and a new hospital is being built in the city of Wuhan. The virus has now spread to Europe, with three cases confirmed in France. The first case was in Bordeaux, while the other two were in the Paris…

Friday, 24 January 2020 05:48

Transparency International says corruption worse under Buhari. Here are 7 reasons underpinning TI’s report

Nigeria has dropped on Transparency International‘s yearly corruption perception ranking, moving two places down to rank the world’s 34th most corrupt nation. In the 2019 Transparency International’s corruption perception index released on Thursday, Nigeria scored 26 out of 100 points, falling by one point compared to 2018. In the country comparison, Nigeria ranks this year 146 out of 180 countries – two places down compared to 2018 results. According to Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Transparency International Chapter in Nigeria, the index aggregates data from different sources that provide perceptions by business community and country experts of the level…

Friday, 24 January 2020 05:47

Buhari has spent N1.7trn on power, GenCos claim N1.2trn loss; yet darkness pervades

Nigeria’s power generation companies (GenCos) in the past five years say it has lost a whopping N1.2 trillion to poor capacity utilisation and the country’s inability to transport over 21,184.62 megawatts of electricity to end users. With a peak suppressed load of 25,790MW on the grid, while peak generation hovers around 5,375MW (indicating that about 21 per cent of the suppressed grid load is met), Nigeria’s power generation capacity might substantially remain stranded in the face of load rejection by electricity distribution companies (DisCos) due to infrastructure and collection problems. Statistics exclusively obtained from the GenCos showed that since the…

Friday, 24 January 2020 05:46

FG, Southwest govs reach accord on Amotekun

Federal government and governors from South-west yesterday found a political solution to the growing rift over the regional security outfit, Amotekun. They both agreed to develop a legal framework for the outfit, whose launch has pitted the people of the region against the federal government, especially in the wake of the declaration by Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, that it is illegal. They also agreed that the regional security network would have to be aligned with the federal government’s community policing policy. Malami had insisted earlier yesterday that any security arrangement not supported by…

Friday, 24 January 2020 05:44

Health experts calculate that coronavirus could kill 65m people within 18 months

A coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, has killed 17 people and infected more than 630. The virus has spread to at least seven other countries, including the US, were a 30-year-old man in Washington was confirmed to have the illness. A scientist at Johns Hopkins modeled what would happen if a deadly coronavirus reached a pandemic scale. In a simulated scenario, his organization predicted that 65 million people could die within 18 months. Eric Toner, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, wasn't shocked when news of a mysterious coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, surfaced in…

Friday, 24 January 2020 05:41

US to bar foreign pregnant women from entering country to give birth

President Donald Trump’s administration rolled out a new rule on Thursday that aims to limit “birth tourism” by women who enter the United States on tourist visas with the intention of obtaining citizenship for their babies born on American soil. Under the State Department regulation, which will take effect on Friday, pregnant women applying for visitor visas could be required to prove they have a specific reason for travel beyond giving birth, such as a medical necessity. Trump faces re-election in November and has made restricting legal and illegal immigration a focus of his 2020 campaign. During his presidency, he…

Thursday, 23 January 2020 05:34

Amotekun no threat to Nigeria’s unity – Tinubu

Former Lagos governor and National Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Bola Tinubu, has called for dialogue as a way out of the acrimony and controversy that have trailed Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN), otherwise called Amotekun, established by South West. According to him, rather than pose a threat to the cohesion of the nation, Amotekun would complement efforts of the police and fill in existing performance gap. Amotekun, launched with glee in Ibadan, Oyo State, became mired in controversy when Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, declared it illegal, saying matters of…

Thursday, 23 January 2020 05:32

No crisis between Muslims, Christians – Sultan

Sultan of Sokoto and head of Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), Mr Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III on Wednesday in Abuja said there is no crisis between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, adding that ignorance has always been the cause of religious tension in the country. This is as President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Mr Samson Ayokunle, who refused to make a speech during the programme, said he was not in a good mood to speak because of the killing of a CAN chairman in Adamawa state, Mr Lawan Andimi. “From December till now, we have continued to lose church…

Thursday, 23 January 2020 05:31

What we know about the new coronavirus spreading in China and beyond

An outbreak of a new coronavirus that began in the central Chinese city of Wuhan has killed 17 and infected nearly 600 people globally. Global health authorities fear the transmission rate will accelerate as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel at home and abroad during the week-long Lunar New Year holiday. KNOWN CASES China’s National Health Commission confirmed 571 cases and 17 deaths at the end of Jan 22. Thailand reported four cases, and South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the United States one each. Patients in these cases were either residents of Wuhan or recent visitors to the city. AUTHORITIES…

Wednesday, 22 January 2020 06:25

Trump plans to add Nigeria, six other nations to travel ban list - Reports

The Trump administration is planning to add seven countries - Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania - to its travel ban list, U.S. media reports said on Tuesday. Some countries will face bans only on some visa categories, the Wall Street Journal reported. The list of countries was not final and could yet change, website Politico said. U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview with the Journal that he was considering adding countries to the travel ban, but declined to state which ones. Politico said an announcement was expected as early as Monday. The move is likely…

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Wednesday, 22 January 2020 06:19

Amotekun: Presidency, govs’ meeting called off as southwest holds rallies

A scheduled meeting between the Presidency and South-West governors on Western Nigeria Security Network, Operation Amotekun, was called off on Tuesday. It is now rescheduled for Thursday (tomorrow). While South-West governors could not meet the Presidency on Tuesday, various groups in the zone held rallies in state capitals in support of Amotekun. In Lagos, police barricaded the venue of a pro-Amotekun rally. South-West had launched the operation on January 9 in Ibadan to help address rising security challenges, particularly kidnapping and banditry, in Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Lagos, Ekiti and Ondo states. South-West governors, who made 120 patrol vehicles available to…

Wednesday, 22 January 2020 06:17

NiMet predicts early, ‘above normal’ rainfall in Nigeria

Nigerian Meteorological Agency on Tuesday released 2020 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) report to guide various sectors of the country. The agency predicted in the SRP Report in Abuja that the onset of the growing season expected to be near-normal to earlier than normal in most parts of the country. It forecast earliest onset date likely to occur on February 24 around coastal zone of South-South states while Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe and Borno, are likely to have their onset from June 2. “On cessation, a ‘normal to later than normal’ cessation is expected across the country. “The earliest…

Tuesday, 21 January 2020 06:26

Buhari meets UK PM, seeks extradition of fugitives

President Muhammadu Buhari has sought the cooperation of National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom in the investigation of fugitives from Nigeria finding accommodation in that country. In a statement yesterday, presidential spokesman, Mr Femi Adesina, said Mr Buhari made the call during a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London. The two leaders met on the sidelines of the UK-Africa Investment Summit 2020. Buhari said the ongoing anti-graft war needed the cooperation of the Agency. Former minister of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, and other Nigerian fugitives in the UK had fled into exile since 2015 when the…

Tuesday, 21 January 2020 06:12

Over 60m Nigerians can’t read, write - FG

National Commission for Mass literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education says over 60 million Nigerians are unable to read and write in any language. The executive secretary of the commission, Mr Abba Haladu, said this in Abuja weekend at the literacy roundtable discussion tagged “Literacy and Multilingualism: A Bedrock for Sustainable National Development.” Haladu said in addition to the challenge of out-of-school children, Nigeria was also faced with high illiteracy rate amongst its adults and youth population. He said this had remained a major impediment to the country’s developmental aspirations, given the millions of adults and youths affected. He said for…

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