African
Wilfred Ndidi: Why Leicester City move was very scary for me
Wilfred Ndidi claimed he saw his move to Premier League side Leicester City as an opportunity rather than getting carried away with pressure. After three seasons at Belgian top-flight side Genk, the Nigeria international joined the Foxes in a transfer deal worth £17 million. At that time, the King Power Stadium giants were reigning English champions, plus they needed a replacement for N’Golo Kante who had joined Chelsea on a five-year deal. The Frenchman played a starring role in Leicester’s English top-flight-winning campaign where he made 40 appearances while helping France reach the final of Euro 2016. Despite adapting to life quickly at the Luminus Arena after his move from Nigeria’s Nath Boys Academy, Ndidi said he saw an opportunity to ‘develop’, thus, embraced the burden of expectat...
UN encourages Africa to invest on digital transformation
The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has encouraged African countries to make right investments toward developing a digitally transformed economy. Mr Jean-Paul Adam, Director, Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resources at UNECA, made the call on Tuesday during a webinar monitored in Abuja. The webinar was organised by Africa Information and Communication Technology Alliance (AfICTA) in collaboration with UNECA with the theme “Unlocking Africa’s Digital Potential Amid COVID-19”. Adam said that the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic had caused a disruption in activities, hence the need for a paradigm shift. “Africa needs to address issues that have limited their digital growth. There are issues of gender imbalance, speed of bandwidth, poor internet access. “When we get some of the...
Goodluck Jonathan: Coronavirus could give rise to dictators
YouTube Former President Goodluck Jonathan, Friday advised Africans to be careful the way they handle coronavirus pandemic, noting that the virus could give rise to dictators. Disclosing this while speaking during a webinar organised by the Kofi Annan Foundation, Jonathan said: “This is the time that many continental bodies must come up with their own minimum standards for any country going into election to operate. “Otherwise people who ordinarily would have loved to be dictators will now exploit the problem of the COVID-19 pandemic and do what is not in line with the laws of the land.” Speaking further, Jonathan mentioned one positive thing’ in Nigeria’s COVID-19 response. According to him, “In Nigeria, I have seen one thing about the management of the COVID-19 which is also positive,” h...
PTF: Nigeria unaware of €170,000 cost for Madagascar herbal mixture
Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 pandemic, Boss Mustapha, has said he was not aware of any cost paid for the Madagascar herbal mixture. Mustapha was responding to a question on reports that Nigeria had been asked to pay €170,000 for the Madagascar herbal mixture delivered to President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday by the visiting President of Guinea Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embalo. He said he had taken delivery of the solution sent to Nigeria as well as other African countries by Madagascar without request without any invoice. “In terms of the question of whether it comes with a cost. It was handed to me without an invoice so I assume it doesn’t come with a cost. “That’s my assumption. For that, I think the Madagasc...
House of Reps urges speedy production of local coronavirus vaccines in Nigeria
The House of Representatives has stressed the need for speedy production of local vaccines for the treatment of COVID-19 in Nigeria. The House also mandated its standing Committees on Healthcare Services, Health Institutions and Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria to invite the Hon. Minister, Federal Ministry of Health, the Executive Director/CEO, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, the Director General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Executive Director, May and Baker Nigeria PLC to brief the Committees and deliberate on possible ways of getting the needed legislative support to fast track the production of vaccines in Nigeria and report back within four (4) weeks for further legislative action The resolutioms followed the adoption of a motion on notice, moved by Rep. J...
US coronavirus death toll exceeds 90,000 as Donald Trump urges reopening
The coronavirus death toll in the United States surpassed 90,000 on Monday as the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeded 1.5 million across the country, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. The grim milestones came as President Donald Trump tweeted to “REOPEN OUR COUNTRY!” and the White House attempted to shift blame, including onto its own scientists, for the high number of deaths. On Sunday, members of Trump administration disagreed on whether the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) let the country down with testing efforts. “Early on in this crisis, the CDC, which really had the most trusted brand around the world in this space, really let the country down with the testing,” Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade adviser, told NBC’s Meet the Press programme....
Nigeria overtakes Ghana as confirmed coronavirus cases hit 84,000 in Africa
The World Health Organization, WHO, regional office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, says the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Africa has risen to over 84,000 in the past 24 hours. The UN health agency gave the update on its official Twitter account on Monday morning. According to the tweet, COVID-19 has killed 2,700 people on the continent, while 32,000 people have recovered from the virus. “Over 84,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent – with more than 32,000 recoveries & 2,700 deaths,” it said. Nigeria is now the highest country in West Africa, with 5,959 cases and 182 deaths, followed by Ghana with 5,735 cases and 29 deaths. The Africa CDC COVID-19 dashboard showed that South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco have continued to top the list of countries w...
Osaze Odemwingie regrets missing out on 2013 AFCON winning team
Former Super Eagles forward Osaze Odemwingie says he regretted missing out on the team that won the 2013 African cup of Nations in South Africa. Odemwingie was reportedly omitted from the squad late Stephen Keshi after fallen out with officials of the team. Nigeria went on to lift the tournament for the third time in South Africa without Odemwingie who was one of the most important players in the squad at the time. While speaking with Super Eagles media team in a live Instagram interview, the former Stoke City striker said he regretted missing the opportunity to win a major title with his country. “I dreamt of the team winning the trophy before it kicked off the tournament. But you know when you’re young and believe your decision is true, you just want to stick to it. Okay, now it’s past b...
Coronavirus: African football must wait – CAF chief
CAF president, Ahmad Ahmad, has stated that African football must wait till the coronavirus pandemic is over. He said health comes first before football and as such, it is better that the pandemic is managed and curtailed before football resumes in the continent. He said: “As we see the ratio of tests that have been carried out in these countries, it is always alarming because we lack visibility in the management of this pandemic. “There is a lack of visibility. We must wait. As president, I invite everyone to be very careful and wait for the situation to normalize. But beyond that, I do not want football to be a source of destabilization for the precautionary measures taken by the various governments to deal with the pandemic. “The whole world is facing a very important health crisis, and...
President Buhari gets Madagascar herbal formula
President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday at the State House, Abuja, received Covid Organic, the Madagascan native formulation against the COVID-19 pandemic. Samples of the solution were delivered to him by President Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea Bissau who brought them along as part of the traditional medicine shared to African nations by the government of Madagascar. According to a statement issued by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity) in Abuja, President Buhari however reiterated that he will listen to science before allowing traditional or any new medicines to be administered on Nigerians. He said his position on all such herbal or traditional medicinal postulates had remained the same. “We have our institutions, systems and processes in the co...
Donald Trump threatens to cut China ties over coronavirus spread
US President Donald Trump threatened to cut ties with China over its role in the spread of the coronavirus, as the global death toll from the disease topped 300,000. Despite fears of a second wave of infections, national and local governments around the world are easing lockdown orders as they try to get stalled economies moving again. But there were warnings Friday that some of the world’s poorest people remain the most vulnerable, with predictions that a quarter of a billion Africans could be infected without urgent action. The nexus of poverty and risk was highlighted by the discovery of cases in the world’s biggest refugee camp, where upwards of a million Rohingya live in squalor. “We are looking at the very real prospect that thousands of people may die from COVID-19” in these camps, ...
WHO warns virus may be here to stay as toll nears 300,000
The coronavirus may never go away and populations will have to learn to live with it just as they have HIV, the World Health Organization has warned, as the global death toll from the disease nears 300,000. There were also gloomy forecasts from the US Federal Reserve, which said prolonged shutdowns to stem the spread of the virus could cause lasting economic damage in America. Washington ratcheted up tensions over the pandemic by accusing China of trying to steal research into a vaccine, while US President Donald Trump upped the rhetoric with a colourful phrase that could anger Beijing. “We just made a great Trade Deal, the ink was barely dry, and the World was hit by the Plague from China. 100 Trade Deals wouldn’t make up the difference — and all those innocent lives lost!” Trump tweeted....
