Nigeria Confirms First Case Of Coronavirus In Lagos

...Plus: Basic Protective Measures Against The New Coronavirus

*Gov Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State addressing a press conference
today on the outbreak of coronavirus in Lagos 

The Nigerian Ministry of Health has confirmed the first case of Coronavirus in Lagos. A tweet sent out by the ministry early today (Friday February 28, 2020), reads:

“The Federal Ministry of Health has confirmed a coronavirus(Covid-19) case in Lagos State Nigeria. The case which was confirmed on 27/02/2020 is the first case to be reported in Nigeria since the beginning of the outbreak in China in January 2020”

Insecurity In Nigeria: Declare A State Of Emergency

By Dan Amor

Nigeria has become a perdition in which everybody is losing and nobody is gaining. Everywhere you ever go, your nostrils are daily confronted with the stench of death. The possibility of scores of our compatriots being killed on a daily basis is almost predictable. From the rampaging Fulani herdsmen killing, maiming and kidnapping hundreds of innocent and defenseless Nigerians on a daily basis to cascading incidents of inter-communal or tribal wars across the country, the growing menace of violent armed robbery and police brutality, and ritual killings, Nigerians are having more than they bargained for. 

All this is happening under the watch of a sitting government whose officials are openly asking native peoples to surrender their lands for cattle ranching to avoid being killed. Several analysts, newspaper editorials and informed commentators have had to proffer solutions to the numerous crises bedeviling the country including the imperative for State Police and the urgent need to tame the so-called ‘indigenes/settlers’ dichotomy, but the government at the centre behaves as though it has the solutions to all the problems of the country whereas its efforts are not adding up. 

For A Total War On Kidnapping

By Dan Amor

Something definitely needs to give in now, otherwise, the growing incidence of kidnapping of innocent persons by unscrupulous elements across the country looks good at getting out of hands in no distant time. We hold this position because, hardly any day passes without one infamous report or another of hostage-taking of innocent people in one part of the country or another.

A very disturbing report recently that about eight people, mostly women and children, were kidnapped within Abuja metropolis is enough to jolt all Nigerians, not least the government, from illusions into stark realities. Just recently, a Lagos-bound bus from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, was shortly after departure, waylaid somewhere at Emuoha town in the state and fourteen of the vehicle’s occupants were forcefully taken into captivity by some unscrupulous persons who proceeded to ask for huge ransom of money before the release of the kidnapped persons.

When A President’s Silence Isn’t Golden

By Banji Ojewale

 Silence isn’t golden when your house is in flames and you’re alone at home. You need to shout for help from the army of neighbours within reach. You need to raise your lone voice above the crackles of the inferno gaining new grounds.

 Silence isn’t golden when your spotless reputation is vociferously impugned or threatened and you have an opportunity to stop the campaign. Silence isn’t golden when there is a cacophony of opinions and reports, false or accurate, reaching the public about your candour. Your silence here isn’t golden; it is grotesque, grisly and grimy.

A Message To The North: The South Is Getting Fed Up!

By Dr Ugoji Egbujo

I have a story to tell the North. I hope it receives it in good faith. I love the North. So I have decided to tell the North how his brother the South truly feels. The South loves the north but the South is getting fed up. The truth may taste bitter but it sets free. I will throw away political correctness and let the North know how the South feels because the North has to sit up and shape up.

The South is getting fed up. Today, it’s Boko Haram. Tomorrow it’s banditry. Yesterday, it was confounding mass illiteracy. And no mention has been made yet about the abiding mass obesity of the North. Family resources are being wasted fighting useless fires! The truth is: the South increasingly sees the North like a slothful, temperamental brother that has stubbornly refused to go to school and has begun to keep the company of bad gangs.

Supreme Court Judgments Are Clearly Reversible

By Chuks Iloegbunam

Nigerians must with one voice put this critical question to the seven-member Supreme Court panel of judges that sacked Governor Ihedioha of Imo State and planted Senator Hope Uzodinma as his replacement: Distinguished as you all are, would you have dared to pronounce this same perversity if other than the All Progressives Congress (APC) is currently in control of the Federal Government of Nigeria?

*Justice Tanko Muhammad

The controversial Supreme Court verdict was read by Justice Kudirat Motonmori Olatokunbo Kekere-Ekun. Mrs. Kekere-Ekun was born in 1958. She earned her first Law degree from the University of Lagos, and the second from the London School of Economics and Political Science, not from backyard or quota colleges that routinely grant admissions to laggards confirmed incapable of passing basic School Certificate subjects like English and Mathematics. Called to the Bar in 1981, she was appointed to the Supreme Court 32 years later.

Notable lawyers hailed her appointment to the apex court, two of whose informed opinions are here: “I have read a few of her judgments; she is very sound in law. In other words, she suppresses technicality and allows substance to prevail. She has that equitable spirit of trying to do justice,” said Professor Itse Sagay, SAN.

Keke, Okada Ban And The Unspeakable Suffering Of Lagosians

Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

A lady resident in Lagos went to address a seminar at a venue in her locality on Saturday, February 1, 2020, the day the restriction order by the Lagos State Government on commercial tricycles and motorcycles came into effect. By noon, when the event was over, she walked down to the market to shop for what her family would need for the week. When she was through, she came out with heavy packs of foodstuff and other items. Her street is a kilometer (or a little more) away. Since she has refused to learn how to drive despite endless prodding from her husband, children and friends, what she usually did on occasions like this was to engage a commercial tricycle to take her to her street, since no bus plies that way or enters any street no matter how long.

It was at this juncture that it painfully dawned on her that she would have to walk home with the heavy load of stuff she had purchased – which was practically impossible. The commercial tricycles had all vanished on “orders from above.” Just immediately, her husband called to enquire where she was and she explained her predicament.

“Just wait for me there, I am coming to pick you now,” came his reassuring voice. And soon, her husband was there, and with much relief, she entered the car and they returned home. In her bewilderment, it had not even occurred to her again to call him to come and take her home. She was used to the tricycles doing that for her.

Reinhard Bonnke: Example Of Successful Ministry

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye 

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith…” (2 Timothy 4:7) 

When on December 7, 2019, news broke that Reinhard Bonnke, the German-born evangelist, whose gospel crusades in many African cities drew multitudes and led many people to make definite decisions to give their lives to Jesus Christ, had died in Florida, the world saw another example of what could rightly be described, by Biblical standards, as a  successful ministry. He was 79. 

*Evangelist Bonnke

The most important item in his life’s history is that, although, he was the son of a gospel minister, Bonnke had a definite testimony of regeneration, that is, being born again – something every genuine child of God should and must  have, but which, sadly, many church people do not have today, including even several preachers! His mother had preached to him when he was nine and he had repented of his sins and given his life to Jesus Christ after which he committed himself to serve God and become a genuine follower of Jesus.

From then, his interest in preaching the Word of God was born and grew. One day, he took a guitar and went into a street in Glückstadt and began to sing. Soon, a small crowd gathered and he brought out his Bible and preached to them. Bonnke was so excited when one man who was convicted by “his preaching knelt down, confessed his sins and gave his to Christ.” 

  

Filled with happiness, he rushed home excitedly and exclaimed as he reported what happened to his father: “Father, it works!  A man came to hear me preach and accepted Jesus. The Holy Spirit really gives us the power to preach!” He could not contain his joy. 

From a very early age, Bonnke began to tell everyone around him of his clear persuasion that he had a very definite calling from God to preach the gospel in Africa. He attended a Bible College in Wales and when he returned to Germany after his education, he met his wife, Anni, and they were married in 1964.