Coronavirus is biting nations hard. Across the globe, the number of infections rises daily; lives and nations are being torn apart. Global cases exceed one million mark with over 50,000 deaths. In Nigeria, COVID-19 cases had risen close to 200. The daily increase is worrisome. If we do not quickly arrest the rate of increase, we might soon face what [...]
One would ordinarily have dismissed the “controversy” around 5G technology and the strange connection with COVID-19 being stridently pursued by some people as ignorant rants occasioned by the morbid fear of the rampaging Coronavirus, but with the prevailing circumstances of fear and tension, I have elected, as one familiar with the workings of the telecommunications industry, to say something. Several years [...]
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is here to teach us a lesson; I hope we learn. Nigeria’s healthcare is unhealthy. But instead of fixing it our rulers have been busy flying up and down to benefit from other country's productive health system. With Coronavirus, reality is upon us. No more running overseas for medical vacation. Our rulers cannot travel to the United Kingdom, [...]
The fear of the unknown is looming large all over the world because coronavirus is trending as front page news for the wrong reasons. People are dying every day due to infections from COVID19 but we are hopeful that scientists who are working round the clock would soon develop a vaccine to tackle corona, the ultimate virus that has caused [...]
It is no longer news that COVID-19 has brought untold disruption to classroom education in almost every part of the world. Going by statistics from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), as of March 28, 2020, over 1.7 billion students in 120 countries and 60.2 million teachers were out of school due to closure of educational institutions [...]
Hard as it is, the lockdown order on Lagos State, Ogun State and the Federal Capital Territory is government’s most proactive step towards curtailing the COVID-19 disease so far. Arguments that government should have ordered the closure of Nigeria’s border as soon as the Italian index case presented do not sit well with those whose consideration is mainly economic. Their [...]
When I left Abuja at short notice nine days ago, the city was already emptying out. The single biggest factory and business centre there - the National Assembly - was on the verge of closure. Before the closure was announced, though, things were already slowing down but there was still just enough time left for the lawmakers to take delivery of [...]
Subterfuge. Propaganda. Lies. All have a date with truth. The truth is inexorable; it will always extinguish lies and propaganda. Nigeria’s ‘’successes’’ in the war against Boko Haram have been largely propaganda. Since 2015, when the Buhari administration declared the insurgents a conquered group, the combat campaign has been oxygenated by lies and half-truths. In March, 2020, about 70 soldiers, including [...]
Troubling videos showing policemen, military officers and other agents of the state torturing, flogging, harassing and humiliating citizens for straying outside despite the current lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja and general movement restrictions across the country have surfaced online. Section 34 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) guarantees the fundamental right to dignity of [...]
Twin evils in the telecommunications industry are regulatory capture and multiple taxation. Even in developed economies they constitute a major bogey and operators are frenetic when the phrases are thrown about. This explains why organisers of global telecommunications events like the ITU World and the Mobile World Congress, among others, would usually allocate generous time to address these issues. And [...]
