Person
Why coronavirus will not be last pandemic – UN report
United Nations The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the latest crisis facing the world, will not be the last until humans release their grip on nature, says a new UN report published on Tuesday. According to the report titled “The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene,” world leaders need to take bold steps to reduce the immense pressure that is being exerted on the environment and the natural world, or humanity’s progress will stall. “Humans wield more power over the planet than ever before. Redefining issues of our time “In the wake of COVID-19, record-breaking temperatures and spiraling inequality, it is time to use that power to redefine what we mean by progress, where our carbon and consumption footprints are no longer hidden,” said Achim Steiner, the Administrator of ...
First Americans vaccinated as U.S. death toll passes 300,000
An intensive care unit nurse became the first person in the United States to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, calling it a sign that “healing is coming,” as the U.S. coronavirus death toll crossed a staggering 300,000 lives lost. Sandra Lindsay, who has treated some of the sickest COVID-19 patients for months, was given the vaccine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in the New York City borough of Queens, an early epicenter of the country’s COVID-19 outbreak, receiving applause on a livestream with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. “It didn’t feel any different from taking any other vaccine,” Lindsay said. “I feel hopeful today, relieved. I feel like healing is coming. I hope this marks the beginning of the end of a very painful time in our history. “I want to instil...
Police arrest kidnapper of ex-Ekiti commissioner
Ekiti Police Command said it has arrested one person in connection with the kidnap of a former Commissioner for Agriculture in the state, Mr Folorunsho Olabode. The suspect was among those paraded by Mr Sunday Abutu, the command’s Public Relations Officer, in Ado-Ekiti for their alleged involvement in various criminal activities. Abutu said that the suspect was arrested inside a forest at Ilemeso-Ekiti in Oye Local Government area of the state. “During interrogation, the suspect confessed to being a member of the syndicate that kidnapped Mr Folorunso Olabode, a former Commissioner for Agriculture in the state,” he said. The police spokesman said that the suspect also mentioned other members of his gang, including the two who had earlier been arrested, prosecuted and were now being remanded...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris jointly named TIME’s ‘Person of the Year’
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were jointly named Time magazine’s 2020 “Person of the Year” on Thursday, chosen from a list of finalists that included the man Biden vanquished at the polls – President Donald Trump. The Democratic former vice president and his running mate, a California senator whose election broke gender and racial barriers, together “offered restoration and renewal in a single ticket,” Time said in a profile of the pair, published online with its announcement. Following the most tumultuous U.S. presidential campaign in modern times, waged in the throes of a deadly pandemic, economic devastation and a strife-torn national reckoning with racism, Biden and Harris prevailed in an election that drew the highest voter turnout in a century....
Four finalists compete for Time’s Person of the Year for 2020
Time Magazine names its Person of the Year for 2020 on Thursday, choosing the winner from nominees that include healthcare workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic, the racial justice movement and two U.S. presidential election winners. The news magazine will reveal at 10 p.m. Eastern its selection for the title that signifies “who affected the news or our lives the most, for better or worse,” Time said on its website. Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg last year became the youngest individual winner of the accolade. The 16-year-old Swede inspired young people to take action in 2019 against climate change, grabbing headlines when she regularly skipped school to demonstrate outside Swedish parliament in a push for her government to curb carbon emissions. The Person of the Year is usually...
NCDC: Many health workers still doubt existence of coronavirus
Oladipo Ogunbode, assistant director, department of prevention programmes and management, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), says it is surprising that health workers still doubt the existence of COVID-19. According to newsmen, Ogunbode stated this on Thursday in Abuja while speaking at a conference to mark the 2020 health week, themed: “Outbreak of Disease in Nigeria: Are We Ready?” Ogunbode said it is hard to understand how health workers who had come in contact with victims of COVID-19 in the line of duty, still doubted the existence of the virus. “Health workers should create awareness on COVID-19, but many of them still doubt its existence. We must work hard to remove such doubt,” he said. “It’s amazing and inexplicable for medics to doubt the fact that the pandemic was a real...
Neymar: No place for racism
Paris Saint-Germain and Istanbul Basaksehir played their Champions League match to a conclusion on Wednesday, 24 hours after it had been suspended, with Neymar scoring a hat-trick before saying both teams had felt compelled to make a stand against racism in what was an unprecedented protest over an alleged comment by an official. PSG won the game 5-1 after it restarted where it had stopped the previous day, in the 14th minute, following a touchline argument over accusations the Romanian fourth official, Sebastian Coltescu, had described Basaksehir’s Cameroonian assistant coach Pierre Webo as “black”, or “negru” in Romanian. “Sometimes in extreme circumstances these things need to be done to see if the world can change a little,” said Neymar, who together with other players and the new team...
National Assembly to make smart card reader compulsory in future elections
File Photo The National Assembly plans to make the use of Smart Card Reader compulsory in future elections in Nigeria, a lawmaker has said. The Chairperson of the House Committee on Electoral Matters, Aishatu Dukku, said this at a Joint Public Hearing on “The Bill for an Act to repeal the Electoral Act 2010 (As Amended) and enact the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Act, 2020″, on Wednesday in Abuja. The event was organised by the National Assembly Joint Committee on INEC and Electoral Matters. Ms Dukku said the amendment will affect about 300 clauses in the Act. ” In Section 49 of the Electoral Act 2010 under Use of Ballot Paper, Subsection (1) and (2) are to be amended to read: “A person intending to vote in an election shall present himself with his voter’s card to a pre...
Governor Umahi: I supported President Buhari during 2019 poll
Gov. David Umahi of Ebonyi has admitted supporting President Muhammdau Buhari during the 2019 general election, even as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Umahi said this at the foundation laying ceremony of a housing project in his home town – Uburu on Monday. The governor said that his former party should not waste time in accusing him of giving the president 25 per cent votes during the election. “I preached it in the entire south east zone of the country, that the person who supports us is whom we will support. “I joined the APC for the president’s love for Ebonyi even if for no other reason. “My eyes are on the ball – on what will get to my people,” he said. Umahi said that he plans to submit a proposal for a channelisation work which will cut across the housing project, ...
VP Osinbajo: We’ll do all it takes to secure Nigeria
The Muhammadu Buhari administration will not relent but will do all it takes, including putting new ideas on the table in order to secure the country, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has said. The Vice President is on one-day official visit to Nasarawa State today and was accosted by reporters on his arrival in Lafia after he was received by Governor Abdullahi A. Sule. Below is the verbatim report of the Vice President’s response to the media: As the President said, these group of people have acted insanely in such a dastardly manner, killing innocent people, people who had gone to their farms to work. I spoke to the Governor, Governor Babagana Zulum and the former Governor, Senator Kashim Shettima to express my condolence, but more importantly, to try and think through ways of dealing with...
Joe Biden picks diverse team of top economic advisers
President-elect Joe Biden named former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as his Treasury secretary nominee on Monday, and named three women to other top economic posts, setting the stage for a more diverse White House. While Biden’s transition to the presidency on Jan. 20 appeared to be hitting its stride, he himself was hobbling after fracturing his foot while playing with his dog on Saturday and will wear a protective boot for several weeks, his doctors said. The incoming administration has been hampered for weeks by Republican President Donald Trump, who has refused to concede to Biden, a Democrat. Trump has said without providing evidence that the Nov. 3 vote was fraudulent, claims that state and federal election officials have dismissed. Biden named leading members of an economic tea...
Group rejects South-South governors desire to control NDDC
A Niger Delta group, Vanguard for Transparent Leadership and Democracy (VATLAD), has condemned the desire of South-South governors to control the affairs of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The group described as untrue governors’ claim that their demand for control is borne out of concerned about the rot in the NDDC. In a statement by Comrade Igbini Odafe Emmanuel, national president, the group reminded South South governors that their continued failure to utlilise oil derivation funds and other funds acruing to their states sparked the agitation for the establishment of NDDC, which “will operate independently and without direct or indirect interference or control by our state governors or their agents.” It described as insulting threat by South South governors over NDDC, queryi...
