Weeks
Japan to halt all new entries from abroad next week
Japan will halt all new non-resident foreign arrivals coming from overseas from Monday until late January, Tokyo said Saturday, as the country reported its first cases of a new strain of the coronavirus. Japan currently restricts entry for foreigners from most countries over fears of the virus, requiring all visitors to undergo mandatory quarantine upon arrival. Tokyo now plans to strengthen those requirements: Japanese travellers and foreign residents from countries where the new coronavirus strain has been reported must take tests within 72 hours ahead of their departure for the country and again upon arrival at Japanese airports. It will also strengthen quarantine requirements on all travellers returning to Japan. Citing the Japanese government, the Jiji Press and Kyodo agencies said th...
National Assembly raises 2021 budget by N580 billion, approves N13.588 trillion
The two chambers of the National Assembly yesterday passed the 2021 Appropriation Bill, increasing the budget size from N13.08 trillion presented to them by President Muhamnadu Buhari 11 weeks ago to N13.588 trillion. The passage of the 2021 budget followed consideration and adoption of harmonised reports separately submitted to them by their Committees on Appropriation. The two chambers increased the 2021 budget by about N580 billion and pegged daily crude oil production at 1.86 million barrels per day, while oil benchmark price was fixed at $40 per barrel. They approved N379 to dollar as the official exchange rate while GDP growth rate was pegged at 3 per cent. Highlights of the report approved by the Senate showed aggregate expenditure to be N13,588,027,886,175, statutory transfer of N4...
Coronavirus: Schools to remain close till January 18 – PTF
The Federal Government has said schools in the country would remain shut till January 18, 2021. The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, disclosed this at a press briefing in Abuja on Monday. Mustapha, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, also announced the closure of bars, night clubs, pubs, event centres, and recreational venues for the next five weeks. He further urged religious centres to maintain 50 per cent capacity at all times and as well as ensure strict compliance to Covid-19 protocols at all gatherings. According to him, the measures were important to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease as the country battled the second wave of the pandemic. He said, “All government staff on Grade Level 12 and below are to stay at h...
Nigerian government orders civil servants to ‘stay at home for five weeks’
The Federal Government on Monday ordered all federal civil servants on Grade Level 12 and below to stay at home for the next five weeks from Monday. The chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, made this known in a statement on Monday. He also announced that all schools would remain closed till January 18. Mustapha also said restrictions have been placed on social and religious gatherings for five weeks. He said, “Encourage virtual meetings in government offices. The leadership of such offices are to ensure that all offices are well-ventilated offices, and encourage staff to work from home where possible; “All government staff on GL.12 and below are to stay at home for the next 5 weeks; Permanent Secretaries and Chief Executives are to be held accountable for enf...
Report highlights impact of coronavirus on graduates
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted 47 per cent of graduates and their activities (including job search), a report has stated. Also 17 per cent of graduates lost their jobs due to the pandemic, a research by the Knowledge Exchange Centre (KEC) and BudgIT revealed. The Executive Secretary, KEC, Aghogho Akporido, disclosed this during the virtual graduation ceremony of 43 students in its Graduate Advancement Programme (GAP) network, recently. He said the programme was extended to three months as opposed to the previous six weeks. He also said during the selection process, training session, career counselling and mentoring session and even in some cases, the internship was done virtually (online). Akporido said for the first time there were participants from eight states and volunte...
Tijani Babangida: Gernot Rohr to blame for Eagles poor form
Former Super Eagles winger Tijani Babangida has blamed Gernot Rohr for the national team’s poor form after ending the 2020 calendar year without a win. Babangida made this known during an interview on Friday. The Eagles drew 4-4 against Sierra Leone in Benin City and 0-0 in Freetown in their final games of 2020, and thus failed to clinch an early ticket for the Africa Cup of Nations scheduled for Cameroon in 2021. Former Ajax winger Babangida blamed Rohr for the national team’s woes. “The coach of the Eagles is the one to be blamed for the poor form of the team. He is the one in charge of the team and one thing I know he has deviated from is that he has not followed the football culture of Nigeria’s national team,” Babangida said. “We used wingers during our time with the team, but looking...
Mali shuts bars, schools, restaurants to fight novel coronavirus
Mali on Friday said it would close bars and restaurants for two weeks, close fairs and shutter schools until January 10 to fight the novel coronavirus. Hospitals are overwhelmed with Covid-19 cases in the vast Sahel country, torn by jihadist attacks and currently under a shaky caretaker government following an August coup. The closure of bars and restaurants will start from midnight Saturday, government spokesman Hamadoun Toureh said after a cabinet meeting. The cabinet also decided to declare a six-month health emergency, he said, adding that public gatherings would be limited to under 50 people until January 10. Mali has so far officially recorded 6,049 Covid-19 cases of which 211 have been fatal in a country of 20 million. Daily cases this month have surpassed 150 and hospitals in the c...
California hospitals overrun even as vaccine is rolled out
Even as high profile figures like U.S. Vice President Mike Pence rolled up their sleeves for COVID-19 vaccinations, patients already ill with the disease crowded emergency rooms and overran intensive care units in California, now a worldwide epicenter. Another 41,000 people tested positive in the most populous U.S. state on Thursday, and 300 died, state public health officials said. In a state with 40 million residents, only about 1,200 intensive care beds remained available by Friday – just 2.1% of the total, the California Department of Public Health said. “We anticipated a surge, but I’m not sure if anyone imagined it would be as bad as it has been,” said Adam Blackstone, a spokesman for the Hospital Association of Southern California. Hospitals are strained under the press of patients,...
AFCON: Golden Eaglets fail MRI test three weeks to kick-off
In another embarrassing age-related moment for Nigerian football, 40 out of the 60 boys pencilled down as part of the Golden Eaglets contingent to prosecute the Under-17 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers in Benin Republic failed the mandatory Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) age test. Coming just three weeks to the qualifiers, this means the coaching crew will have to race against the clock to pick a squad qualified enough to represent the country at the West African Football Union (WAFU) Group B qualifiers billed to kick-off on Tuesday, January 5. Out of the 20 players who passed the tests, only five of them are part of the main squad and just two of the five are included in coach Fatai Amoo’s preferred starting lineup for the competition. Most of the players the coach banked on d...
NIMC insists on deadline for linking of NIN to mobile numbers
File Photo Despite criticisms from many Nigerians of the two-week ultimatum for the registration and linking of National Identity Number (NIN) to mobile numbers, the federal government has insisted on the deadline. The director-general of the National Identity Management Commission, (NIMC), Aliyu Abubakar, in an interview with newsmen on Friday said there was no extension for the announced deadline. “Right now, the way it is, there is no extension. We should not be complaining, rather we should see how it can be done,” he said. “It is until after 10 to 12 days then we will see how far it has gone before we beg the government for anything.” When the agency issued a two-week ultimatum for the enrolment, Nigerians took to social media platforms to kick against such a deadline. “In the whole o...
Wuhan’s coronavirus survivors share lessons one year on
In late 2019, Wuhan businesswoman Duan Ling and her surgeon husband Fang Yushun began to hear snippets in hospital chat groups about a disease emerging in the city’s respiratory wards. Duan didn’t pay much attention at first. Fang had that year returned from a stint studying in the United States, and the pair, both 36-years-old, were planning a family, starting a costly round of fertility treatments. “But as more and more news came, we began to realise this was something different from previous infectious diseases,” said Duan. In just over a month, Fang would become one of the first people in the world to contract what came to be known as COVID-19, which has since infected over 74 million worldwide and killed more than 1.5 million. During the early days of the outbreak, the city’s hospital...
Osun mechanic to die by hanging for armed robbery
An Osun State High Court sitting in Ilesa, on Thursday, sentenced a 29-year-old mechanic, Sola Emorua, to death by hanging for armed robbery. The defendant was first arraigned before Justice Isiaka Adeleke on January 29, 2018, on two counts of conspiracy and armed robbery. Justice Adeleke, in his judgment after a trial that lasted almost three years, said the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and subsequently sentenced Emorua to death. The lead prosecution counsel from the Ministry of Justice, Motolani Sokefun, had told the court that the convict and others at large, on May 7, 2015 around 5.30pm in Osu, on the Ilesa-Akure Expressway, while armed with weapons, robbed a tanker loaded with 33,000 litres of kerosene belonging to one Ismaila Azeez. The counsel further expl...
