Clay Richie

According to preliminary test trial reports, of 350 patients administered with a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin medication in the state of New York , within 3-4 hours, breathing was restored, zero intubation, zero hospitalisation and zero death.

Nigeria announced its first COVID-19 case on February 27 – an Italian who came into the country on February 24 and displayed symptoms of the disease while visiting Lafarge Cement Company in Ewekoro, Ogun State. He has been treated and discharged. Since then Nigeria has recorded a total of 111 cases, as at the time of this writing, with two reported deaths. The Nigerian government has introduced a number of measures: monetary measures by the Central Bank of Nigeria, and fiscal measures by the Federal Ministry of Finance. State governments and the private sector are also taking steps to contain the virus, treat the affected and prevent an escalation of the disease.

 The pain of the COVID-19 pandemic, a defining event of our times, will continue long after the virus subsides. When the immediate crisis is over many will have experienced unimaginable loss. Many will have lost loved ones, huge numbers will have lost jobs and perhaps homes, and hundreds of millions will have experienced the anxiety and loneliness of social isolation.

President Muhammadu Buhari was presidential in his address to the nation on coronavirus (COVID-19) on Sunday. He got off his accustomed armchair; stood up and spoke to Nigerians like an unfeigned commander-in-chief. I could see the sense of urgency in his cadence and grimace. Really, the president’s first COVID-19 ‘’outing’’ is a far cry from the previous televised embarrassments. Though it was a pre-recorded broadcast, the previous ones were recorded as well yet dismal. So, there is some improvement in the president’s public address.

Once upon a sociopolitical space, there was an unknown ‘Edo Boy’, who came into limelight through the Textiles Industry, where he was a paid secretary of its Union. (Conventionally, paid secretaries are never made political heads. But Adams Oshiomhole became the political head of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, which, in itself, was an anomaly). The emergence of the Iyamho, Edo State-born politician as a leader in Nigeria was aided by the society’s sociopolitical milieu. Why? A quick look should suffice.

Downpressor man Where you gonna run to You gonna run to the sea But the sea will be boiling You gonna run to the rocks

At a time when many Lagosians were already getting really anxious with some taking a dig at Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos State, over expectations that the governor should have turned Lagos to the proverbial Utopia came the novel deadly Coronavirus, otherwise known as Covid-19.

Section 17 (3) (d) of the Constitution has imposed a duty of the State to ensure that “there are adequate medical and health facilities for all persons”. But the section is not justiciable like other provisions of the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles State Policy enshrined in Chapter II thereof. Hence, successive governments have failed to provide medical care for the Nigerian people.

Some recent events in Nigeria have gladdened and saddened me in equal measure. I was glad when prominent Nigerians who were diagnosed with the coronavirus publicly declared their status. I rejoiced, thinking this would finally take the lid off the disease. To start with, some cynics, particularly of the Jubril Al-Sudani movement, had said the Italian index case was a hoax and a ploy to steal money. They demanded to see the photo, the phone number and the birth certificate of the Italian before they would believe. I agree that we like petty politics in Nigeria but I felt this was a dangerous territory that could easily expose ignorant and gullible Nigerians to infection.

Does Nigeria possess the relevant forensic expertise to deduce the size of the explosive that devastated Abule Ado? I am referring here not to the trigger which could jolly well be a match stick, box of matches, a cigarette, a 12.5 or even a 50kg cylinder of LPG. If could also be a 2-ton industrial LPG storage.

We have always talked about economic diversification. To no avail. And now that an unprecedented economic shock has hit, like magic in just a couple of weeks, we are ruing our fate and speaking still about economic diversification. Many seminars have been had on the subject, and it is a popular refrain among talking heads everywhere, that all Nigeria needs to do is diversify her economy so that her citizens could live happily ever after. It is apparent that in spite of the energy we have spent on this issue, few workable solutions have emerged. It is therefore apt to reassess our diversification strategy in the face of the oncoming global economic depression.

Fellow Nigerians, what a dramatic week in our Federal Capital, Abuja! We suddenly woke up to the most unusual headline: BUHARI TESTS NEGATIVE, ABBA KYARI TESTS POSITIVE. Whaaat, I screamed. My initial reaction was that of incredulity. I did not think of the possibility of these two gentlemen being exposed to the corona virus, but then I had put to the back of my mind and subconscious that Abba Kyari had embarked on that inauspicious, ill-fated trip to Germany which is one of the major European countries in which COVID-19 is festering. At the time of the trip, I had wondered what his business was to be going to represent the country in respect of a major power transaction as he has no executive role in Government. My mind shut itself up as it reflected that this is the de facto Number 1A citizen.

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.

The uncouth behaviour of Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, during the commissioning of the NCC complex in Mbora, in the presence of the President is unfortunate to say the least. This could only happen in Nigeria where Muhammadu Buhari is the President. In saner climes, the minister could have resigned for disrespecting the office of the President or fired.   

Watching Minister of State for Health, Dr Olorunimbe Mamora on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics early this week amply told of why many Nigerians have resorted to God over this ravaging Coronavirus. Mr Mamora struggled to convince his interviewer, Seun Okinbaloye and I imagine, millions of Nigerians watching the programme as to the preparedness of the federal government to deal with the pandemic. One can quote so many instances where the Minister sounded tentative, even unsure but a particular response stuck out like a sore thumb in my estimation.

Let me begin by saying that the views expressed in this article are not solely targeted at governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State. It extends to the federal government and all governors in Nigeria that have taken restrictive actions similar to the fiat issued by Wike banning entry into and exit from Rivers State by air, land or sea. I am using Rivers State as a case study given the far reaching dimension of Wike’s statement.

Northern politicians had just concluded their meeting in Lagos with the Chief Minister of pre-independent Nigeria, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. A few were now gathered in the office of the Federal Minister of Land, Mines and Power, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu, with a number of northern bureaucrats, also part of the colonial administration. When it was pointed out by the Federal Minister for Social Services, Sir Shettima Kashim Ibrahim, that a decision had not been reached on a particular issue at their meeting, someone suggested that they “reach out to Kaduna” for clearance—an obvious reference to the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Region, who was president of the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC). Surveying his audience, Ribadu, (regarded as the defacto number three man in NPC) chuckled and said: “Ahmadu Rabah (putting emphasis on a name only he and perhaps a few others dared to address Sir Ahmadu Bello), “If some of us were not alive, he would probably claim to be a go...

The spread of the infectious Coronavirus now referred to as COVID-19, with its attendant and towering impact on global economy has clearly become an existential threat to humanity. The pandemic is reshaping the world in ways that has exposed humanity to the proclivities of a possible lockdown of the human race.

Following the collapse of crude oil prices from 2014 to date , which triggered unpleasant memories to Nigerian government which found itself in unchartered waters. Since than It continues to struggle to revive the economy amidst dwindling oil revenues compounded by unemployment, poverty and insecurity and due to over defendants on one major government revenue the country remains weak and fragile -being outstripped by population growth.

Nigeria is a highly populated country of over 200 million people and currently the largest economy in Africa with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $446.543 billion (2019); the population is quite diverse which gives room for potential growth of the economy. The 1973 oil boom pushed the transportation sector to a point where both infrastructural and transportation improvements became high in demand thereby necessitating the quest for knowledgeable business partners and investors that are ready to explore and tap into the abundant opportunities available within the sector.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), which has compelled people to stay within their localities, illuminates the genius of the ageless adage: charity begins at home. It has exposed the malignant ignorance within Nigerian leaders who prefer foreign medical treatment while neglecting the amenities at home. The COVID-19 has profoundly exposed the nature and scope of the Nigerian healthcare crisis. Yet, every cloud has a silver lining!

COVID-19 and how to stop its ongoing war on mankind is what’s keeping everyone awake day and night, even my four-year old daughter has somehow caught wind of how to pronounce the word "coronavirus." Nations are probably unwillingly forced to fight this fight on their own as everyone is scrambling to protect its citizenry with limited personnel and resources.

This is my third commentary on the Coronavirus pestilence (see “E ku Corona o” – ThisDay, March 3, and “Amala and the Coronavirus patient” – ThisDay, March 10), and now, three weeks later, the most important subject still remains this mysterious plague that has changed the way we live, the way we think, the nature and character of markets, physical and futures, the face of globalization, relationships, and the world as we know it. This is not the first time a pestilence will afflict the world: commentators have traced the genealogy all the way to pre-historic times, with the most often quoted being the Biblical times, at the time of the 10 Egyptian plagues and  the travails of Jews in Egyptian captivity, 5th C, BCE, as narrated in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the Plague of Athens (430 BC), the Black Death (1346 -1353), the American Plagues (1519),  the Great Plague of London (1665 -1666), the scourge of cholera (1817), the Spanish flu which in...

The recent outbreak of disease in the world called corona virus also known as Covid-19 attracted attention from all corners of the world. In fact, there is currently no any topic of discussion globally apart from this pandemic disease.

As most Nigerians would have noticed, the petroleum downstream sector recorded a major milestone last week. It started at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. As is the norm, the ministers filed out to brief the press on the outcome of the cabinet meeting. One of the headline-grabbing announcements from that meeting was the one made by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva. He informed the expectant State House press corps that in reaction to lower crude oil prices, President Muhammadu Buhari had approved a reduction in the price of petrol. Devolving from that approval, the minister said petrol would sell at N125/litre at fuel stations. He further clarified that the federal government was “introducing a price modulation mechanism that will allow the price (of petrol) to drop or rise with the drop or rise in crude oil prices”.

Since the return of the country to full democracy in 1999 and the coming together of Nigerians in the Diaspora through various organisations notably, Nigerians in Diaspora Organisations (NIDO), agitation has been on the increase for Nigerians living abroad to participate in the electoral process in the country.

It ought not to be a hard sale to convince anyone, that try as we may and have, Nigeria is well behind the emergency response curve required for tackling the Covid-19 pandemic. Hence, now is the time to escalate the national resiliency level holistically, and in an unfettered manner. Luckily, we have global response examples, best practices and lessons learned to borrow from, as well as mistakes that should be avoided entirely.

If citizens of the world didn’t know that they lived in a global village, the COVID-19, otherwise known as the Corona Virus, has demonstrated this starkly. Virtually all parts of the world have paused on account of the ravaging pestilence, with very earth-shaking implications for the global economy. Even world leaders with war-like inclinations have come to realize, to their shame, that the virus is killing more people than bullets and armoury can at the war front. In this global shutdown, Nigeria has also wriggled herself into its consequences.

Have you heard the news? If you chew heaps of garlic, gulp litres of chloroquine, drink water every 15 minutes, stay in saunas for one hour, take hot bath every two hours, stop eating ice creams, swallow vitamin C tablets every minute, slurp bowls of lemon water at every opportunity, and smoke marijuana more than Fela, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh combined, do you know you can still be infected with Covid-19? If you don’t know this fact, you must have been believing everything you have been reading on social media, particularly WhatsApp, since the coronavirus entered Nigeria. Not only do you believe the myths, you probably share and re-share them.

Perhaps one of the unintended consequences of the dethronement of Mohammed Sanusi II as Emir of Kano by the Abdullahi Ganduje administration in Kano state is to create the conditions for a potential game changing political alliance of the deposed Emir Sanusi, Governor Nasiru El Rufai of Kaduna state and Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. As the north is gearing up for a distinct possibility of political uncertainty with the inevitable exit of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023, and as the ramparts of the current political order in the country are gradually coming asunder under the weight of irreconcilable contradictions, a probable Sanusi-El Rufai-Kwankwaso political combination is guaranteed to make heavy political waves in the country.

Fellow Nigerians, as much as I tried to resist the temptation of offering any advice whatsoever to President Muhammadu Buhari, let me apologise, that because of the recent global crisis that the world faces I will have to do a volte face. It is therefore with a heavy heart that I confess that I’m unable to keep the promise I made recently that I won’t bother about our dear President again.

Has the world as we know it changed inexorably because of a virus that was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019? This is the big question many people are grappling with as the Coronavirus epidemic sweeps through the world, with more than 181,000 people testing positive for the virus around the world, and a global death toll of over 7,100 as of this week. There are several ways the virus has impacted the world so far, and may, depending on how long it takes to tame or eliminate it, possibly change the world as we know it:

At the risk of sounding like a broken record and no matter what some persons might think or say, I will continue to say that there is total lack of leadership in all aspects of our national life. The current leadership of our serially forsaken and immeasurably betrayed country is more interested in its own welfare and self-preservation. The security of lives and properties is low on its list of priorities. It is for this reason that our country is at the bottom of the ladder of human development. Things are going wrong in Nigeria; problems seem to be coming from a bottomless pit.

If anything kills over ten (10) million people in the next few decades, it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus, rather than a war. Not missiles, but microbes. Now part of the reason for this is that we’ve invested a huge amount into nuclear deterrence, we’ve actually invested little in a system to stop epidemics…In fact, if there is one positive thing that can come out of the Ebola epidemic it is what some will call early warnings. Get called to get ready. If we start right now, we can be ready for the next epidemic.” – Bill Gates in the video of a 2015 Ted talk.

In a world where laughter is already in short supply, the outbreak and rapid spread of Coronavirus has only left us all the more depleted. The world, as we know it, has been turned on its head. Yet, in this once-in-a-lifetime experience we have examples of fate using tragedy to write the book of humour.

I have had several reasons to interrogate the reflexive presumption of sanity to anyone that has willingly exercised the option of living in Nigeria when they could have lived legitimately in any other part of the world. Please note, I did not say civilised world.

Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole burst into national consciousness in 1999 when he was elected the numero uno Nigerian Labour Leader as the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress. He had held several positions within the labour hierarchy previously including as the General Secretary of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria in 1982 which was a preparatory ground for his eventual ascension in 1999 at the return to democratic rule after a sixteen year military hiatus.

Coronavirus (COVID-19), an exorable doom, threatens life on the planet. It is exorable because it is conquerable. This explains why world leaders are taking the charge to combat this ominous apocalypse. It is a time for leadership from the fore-end; a time when citizens must hear their leaders speak to them; see them take action, making assurances and fulfilling those promises. The counsel, consolation and firm statement of a leader is imperative at this moment.

Despite the fact that Nigeria recorded its first index case of COVID-19 on 27th February and five new cases yesterday, (eight in all), President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to personally take ownership of a crisis that has already sent the 2020 budget spinning like a yoyo. A barrel of crude is now selling at $29 against the budget benchmark of $57 at a period when there is no buffer (the Excess Crude Account has been depleted to $71 million) and the exchange rate of Naira is on another free fall. But the president continues to act as if our country is insulated from a pandemic that has practically turned our world upside down. Meanwhile, on the continent, the Presidents of South Africa, Ghana, Rwanda and several others are rallying their people and placing their authority behind measures to deal with the global emergency in their respective countries.

It did not come as a surprise that Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole would survive the latest move to sack him as National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress. His opponents have been hitting the tail instead of the head. The gist is that Oshiomhole’s tenure of crisis cannot be divorced from the overbearing ambition of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to rule Nigeria at all costs. Therefore, instead of chasing shadows, it has become imperative to muster the courage and go all out to tame the former Lagos State governor.

Two days ago, Cuba gave permission to a British cruise ship with Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) patients on board to dock within its territorial waters. By this exceptional act, the struggling Caribbean Island is teaching the rest of the world some lessons about our common humanity. These are profound lessons that cannot be explained by narrow political and economic calculus. In fact, the nation of Cuba is rewriting the diplomatic rules in its own humane way.

The map that is emerging of the global situation of coronavirus disease, better named as COVID-19, is strange and surprising. Take a map of the world with all-white background, and put black spots to mark the places where COVID-19 cases are high or significant, Africa stands out as the only continent that remains mostly white. The other continents have large number of people who have COVID-19. Many of the countries with high number of cases also have correspondingly substantial number of deaths from the disease whilst African countries have recorded very few deaths.

What does it take to spend several years as a shop steward, then emerge as the boss; spend several years as trade union regional leader, then emerge as national leader; spend several years on the fringe of formal education, then acquire training from the crown jewel of all universities; spend several years stomping the ground, fighting for workers’ rights, then emerge as governor of a state?

The serial violations discovered from the 2017 Auditor General’s report leaves much to worry about the state of our nation.  As concerned Nigerians continue to reflect on the reasons for the country’s slow progress, one could easily pin this to the poor audit process that goes on in most government institutions.  The lack of probity, accountability and transparency in the generation and utilisation of public funds amongst government agencies is a breach of the trust reposed in them by the average citizen.

Mr. Enyinnaya Abaribe is not your typical run-of-the-mill career politician who is in it for what he can grab. Most modern day’s politicians in Nigeria are opportunistic, unprincipled and ideologically aloof.

Nigeria is at the crossroad once again. The price of crude oil which is the mainstay of our economy has plummeted. Oil provides over 60 per cent of our revenues as well as over 85 per cent of the foreign exchange receipts. While the 2020 federal budget was based on the benchmark price of $57 per barrel of crude oil, the commodity now sells for about $33. This scenario applies to state and local government budgets because the benchmark price was used in the preparation of the medium-term expenditure framework which defined the revenues accruable to the federation account to be shared by the three tiers of government. Many states and local governments depend on federation account allocations for their economic survival.

Of all the critical stakeholders responsible for the management of the Nigerian economy that met last Wednesday in Abuja at the open plenary of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s second consultative roundtable, it was probably only the remarks made by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Mele Kyari that struck a chord. Unlike his colleagues at that event, he did not bother to toy around with platitudes about the dire economic situation in which Nigeria finds itself.

It is interesting to see Olusegun Obasanjo who in 2017 said the only thing that needs restructuring is the “Nigerian mind” now join those calling for Nigeria to be restructured. “We should not allow restructuring agitation degenerate to self-determination. There is still a window of opportunity for us to nip in the bud a possible and indeed likely agitation for self-determination that will be violent, destructive and all-empowering,” said Obasanjo last weekend. As a soldier who played a prominent role in the civil war, Obasanjo has long been a champion of the “Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable” mantra that seeks to shut down debate over whether Nigeria makes sense as is. It is worth noting he too now sees the writing on the wall.

Just over a week ago I was heading back to Abuja from Jos. Just after Mararaba we hit a bit of traffic. After waiting for nearly twenty minutes, a huge inconvenience by Abuja standards especially on a Sunday, we finally got to see the main cause of the traffic. A bus had broken down while trying to make a U-turn and there were a couple of hefty looking men trying to push it out of the way. They were pushing it slowly and were making progress but, as evidenced by the traffic build up, were not pushing it fast enough. In this instance the problem was not the amount of effort they were putting in. The problem was that the bus had broken down. The engine was not working.

The dethronement of His Highness Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II as the emir of Kano did not catch some of us by surprise: it was long in the making. All you need to do is google his public statements in the last four years, either when he was commenting on President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic policies or Dr Abdullahi Ganduje’s performance as governor — or the tailor-made problems obstructing the progress of northern Nigeria. It did not help that Sanusi was made emir by Ganduje’s predecessor, Alhaji Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, who tried to help unseat the governor in 2019. It was just a matter of time for the turban to be yanked off Sanusi’s head. We saw it coming.