NMA opens endowment for Ebola

Nigerian Medical Association has opened an endowment fund as the country begins building up its preparedness for a probable re-emergence of Ebola virus disease.
The fund comes despite World Health Organisation certifying Nigeria Ebola-free after the disease was contained.
The fund is to pay for training and equipping healthworkers against Ebola, said NMA president Dr Kayode Obembe.
He spoke at the association's Physicians Week in Abuja, dedicated to "War Against Ebola".
Individual doctors will contribute to seed money for the endowment, kicked off on Tuesday with a N250,000 donation by Dr Ibrahim Wada.
"When you are fighting a war, you need finance. The believe will have to be diverted into fighting Ebola," said Obembe.
"There are so many areas we need the money for. We have to buy some of the personnel protective equipment, goggles, handgloves, boots we will be wearing. And when we donate these to some of the isolation centres, it will be creating awareness."
The fund adds to the NMA's N50m budget and will be at the recommendation of the association's special committee on Ebola.
The committee, set up at the start of Nigeria's Ebola outbreak, has proposed to expand preparedness to include other medical and health emergencies, including haemorrhagic fevers as Lassa, Yellow and Dengue fevers.
It proposes to produce and regulalry revise standard protocols for Ebola prevention at all relevant places and emergency preparation at national, state and council levels, according to Dr Michael Asuzu, professor of public health at University of Ibadan.
The committee also plans to press for a national system for emergency preparation and response.

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I won’t step down for anybody – Kwankwaso

    Rabiu Kwankwaso

The Kano State governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso yesterday said he will not step down for anyone in the race for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress.

The governor is among APC’s four presidential aspirants, the others being retired General Muhammadu Buhari, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Mr Sam Nda-Isaiah.
Since Senator Bukola Saraki announced he was shelving his ambition to be president last week, Kwankwaso is reported to have come under pressure to step down for Buhari in order to avoid rancour in the party.
There have also been calls for consensus candidacy in APC such that other aspirants would back the former Head of State.
But Kwankwaso told journalists in Kano yesterday he was staying in the race and was not under pressure to quit for anyone.
He also expressed preference for conducting primaries to going for consensus.
“I’m not under any pressure to step down for anybody. In fact nobody asked me to step down for anybody and doing that will not be even good for the party,” he said.
“You see many people are used to either small parties or let me say medium-sized parties where people sit down and choose somebody in a room. Now we are talking about APC mega party which is not ANPP, CPC, APGA or ACN.
“It’s a collection of all and we always tell people to look at the example of PDP. From 1999 to 2011, each election they had to go for primary elections not arranged election, but real elections.
“Even when we have sitting presidents in 2003 and 2011, there were elections, serious elections. And that’s why the PDP has been winning all along and all others who are making arranged elections are losing elections.
“As you can see as fate would have it, now PDP has decided to do their own primary in the Villa and the APC is going to the field. That shows us clearly that APC will win elections and the PDP will lose election in 2015.”
On the consensus arrangement, he said, “We have always been consistent, but you see many people who are soliciting a president for this consensus, many of them are having in mind that when people go and sit down they will give it to their candidate. That’s consensus to them that’s the main issue.
“And I believe that since this party is very strong, all candidates should go round the country and campaign, bring in more hands, more people. And that’s exactly what we are doing. In the last few weeks many people joined APC because of me and they will continue to join especially if I have a ticket.
“Most of the guys in the PDP, the good ones, are my friends and certainly once I declare and get a ticket, they will cross over to APC or stay there and work for me. One of the advantages that I have is that it is not only APC that will vote, the PDP will also vote for me in the general elections.”
Kwankwaso said he was confident the party will remain united after the primaries, and pledged to support any candidate who gets the ticket.
“If I win the primary election, I will be very happy and other contestants will work together, we are very close, all the three or four of us. And of course if anyone wins elections we will support him,” he said.
Kwankwaso urged for free and fair elections. “And that’s why we are saying to INEC and other people that they must not go and take dictations from the villa and come out and write figures because that will not be acceptable,” he added.
The governor said his formal declaration earlier slated for tomorrow has now been rescheduled for Tuesday in Abuja.
He said the delay was because of the refusal of the Federal Government to grant him permission to use the Eagle Square for the event.
“It was the issue of venue that made me to change the date of my formal declaration because they did not give us approval to use the Eagle Square. It is now going to be on the 28th of this month.  We are still looking for venue but if they don’t give us we will declare on the streets of Abuja because most of the venues are owned by them,” he said.

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Why WHO declares Nigeria Ebola-free

               Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu

The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday declared Nigeria officially free of the Ebola virus disease after six weeks passed without recording any new case.
The declaration by WHO representative, Rui Gama Vaz, in Abuja came 42 days after the last person in possible contact with the virus was taken off observation and three months after the virus was brought into Nigeria by the Liberian American, Patrick Sawyer.
Speaking in Abuja, Rui Gama Vaz who described Nigeria’s Ebola experience as a “spectacular success story,” said the period doubled the 21 days required for observation without recording any new case of Ebola, meaning that the chain of transmission of the virus was broken in Nigeria.
The WHO can declare an Ebola outbreak over if two incubation periods of 21 days pass without new cases. The last case reported in Nigeria was on September 5.
Nigeria praised, cautioned
A Liberian brought the disease to the country in July, but the spread through the country’s 170 million people, the largest population in Africa, has been avoided through swift response after Nigeria declared a national public health emergency.
“The virus is gone for now, the outbreak in Nigeria has been defeated,” Rui Gama Vaz said, adding: “This is a spectacular success story that shows to the world that Ebola can be contained but we must be clear that we have only won a battle, the war will only end when West Africa is also declared free of Ebola.”
Mr Sawyer, the Liberian, later died of the disease, followed by seven Nigerians, including Dr Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, who diagnosed Mr Sawyer and was credited with helping to contain the outbreak at its source.  John Vertefeuille of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Nigeria had taken the right steps to contain the outbreak.
“Nigeria acted quickly and early and on a large scale,” he told AFP news agency. “They acted aggressively, especially in terms of contact-tracing,” he added.
But Rui Gama Vaz also cautioned that though the battle was won, the Ebola war continues until it is defeated in all countries. He urged Nigeria not to relax vigilance at all entry points to forestall any re-entry of the virus.
It was the first time Ebola hit an urban centre like Lagos, with a population exceeding those of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, amidst fears of spreading to millions.
Eight of the 19 people infected with the virus in Nigeria died before it was contained. All others were successfully treated without use of experimental drugs. Former Information Minister Labaran Maku called Nigeria’s success against Ebola “heart-warming.”

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US, investors to build $20bn power plant in Katsina

United States government officials and a consortium of companies have arrived in Katsina State for feasibility studies on a 1000 megawatts gas plant to be financed from the $20 billion Power-for-Africa grant from the US government.

Six other African countries - Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana and Liberia - are to benefit from the grant aimed at improving power supply on the continent.
The officials are looking at the possibility of laying a pipeline from the Soraz Refinery in Niger Republic to the project site in Kastina. Special Assistant to the US president on Power in Africa, Mr Robert Obrien, who led the delegation to the state, said under the agreement, the US government would provide $14 billion while the private investors would inject $6 billion.
An investor, Mr Peter Butt, said 300mgw of power from the plant would be stepped down in Katsina while the remaining would go to neighbouring states.
Governor Ibrahim Shema assured of his administration’s readiness to provide the needed infrastructure to ensure success of the project, saying the peaceful atmosphere in the state and its strategic location attracted the investors.
The state Commissioner for Works, Abdul-aziz Kaita, said the team had already visited many proposed sites for the project and several dams which could be used to cool the turbines, saying they were in talks with relevant government agencies on the actualisation of the project.
An environmental impact assessment is also expected to be carried out to ensure smooth take- off of the project, he said.

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Health workers begin nationwide strike Today

 














Health workers across the country will today begin an indefinite strike over alleged government’s refusal to accede to their demands.
The aggrieved workers ousted their grievances to include intractable leadership crisis in the health sector; non-commencement of residency training programme for health professionals, non-implementation of new call duty allowance and non-payment of arrears of CONHESS 10 skipping, among others.
National President of Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), an umbrella body of group of professionals like physiotherapists, medical laboratory scientists, pharmacists, occupational therapists, optometrists, dietitians, medical social workers, clinical psychologists and dental therapists, Comrade Felix Faniran,  at a news conference in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital said the strike would be total and indefinite.
Faniran, who accused  the Presidency as well as the Minister for Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu and the leaders of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) as  allegedly fueling and sustaining the crisis in the sector traced the origin of the present crisis to how NMA allegedly frustrated the bid to appoint the late Professor Dora Akunyili as Health Minister some years ago.
“When it became apparent that the late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua was unable to continue to discharge his duties as president of the nation due to ill health, his vice, Dr. Ebele Jonathan was sworn in as Acting President after the Senate had proclaimed ‘Doctrine of Necessity’. Mr. President dissolved the erstwhile cabinet and proposed a new one. The name, Professor Dora Akunyili, now of blessed memory and a prominent and vocal member of the previous administration made the new list.
“Most public commentators expected her to be named Minister for Health. Sensing this, the Nigeria Medical Association engaged in media blackmail against the appointment of Dora or any other person than a medical practitioner of NMA membership. This was the origin of the present crisis in the health sector, though, there has been other issues at stake whose roots were found in the administration of Gen. Babangida’s military regime, when Professor Olikoye Ransome Kuti, a medical practitioner, was made minister of health from 1985-1993. Three major challenges were noticed in the Ransome Kuti’s era which affected our people.”

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Taraba 2015: Northern Patriotic Front Rally Support For Acting Governor

Ahead of the 2015 governorship election in Taraba State, the Northern Patriotic Front (NPF) has called on the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to give priority to the acting governor, Alhaji Garba Umar, in the contest for the state’s governorship election.

The group made the appeal in Abuja yesterday while briefing the media on internal democracy in the political parties as a major challenge in 2015 elections.

In a statement jointly signed by the National Chairman, Alhaji Ali Abacha and the Zonal National Vice Chairman (N/East), Hon. Manga Asha, the NPF said that there was a need for the ruling PDP and the people of Taraba state to allow Umar clinch the party’s ticket for the race.

They noted that since his assumption of office, the acting governor has made remarkable achievements in the areas of education, health, youth empowerment and general infrastructural developments among others.

They further stressed on the need for the acting governor to be given the opportunity to run on the party’s ticket to consolidate on the good work he is doing in the state.

“The acting governor, Alhaji Garba Umar has shown purposeful leadership in directing the affairs of the state since he assumed office. He has also introduced an open door policy which has made for better interactions between the people of the state and the government.

“These are some of the qualities of a good leader, considering the fact that the state had almost been thrown into turmoil until his assumption of office. For stability, the acting governor must be allowed to contest. We urge the PDP leadership to do the needful in this regard .Since he assumed office in acting capacity, he has demonstrated high level of transparency and accountability in managing the state funds”,

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PDP Chieftain Commends aspirant for renovating party secretariat, donating chairs

The Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party of Ijumu Local Government area in Kogi State, Alhaji Isau has commended Comrade Tosin Adeyanju for renovating and donating chairs to its party secretariat at Iyara local government. 

Alhaji Isau gave the commendation during the handing over of the secretariat and chairs to the party officials. Tosin Adeyanju is contesting for the House of Representatives under Kabba, Bunu Ijumu Federal Constituency of Kogi State.

The chairman applauded Adeyanju, saying  that no aspirants has done that before and is a first of its kind in the party and thanked him for deepening democratic culture in his constituency by supporting PDP with the necessary infrastructure that would move the party forward.

He advised other politicians in the constituency to emulate the spirit of hard work and respect for party elders as exhibited by Adeyanju.

Speaking in the same vein, the PDP woman leader, Mrs. Fashagba commended Comrade Tosin Adeyanju for the kind gesture.  

According to her, Adeyanju has demonstrated commitment and zeal to bring development to the grassroots which will go a long way to sell the party's ideology to the people.

Adeyanju also visited Kaba Bunu local government officials of the party, where the leadership commended his support and contributions to the party. The chairman, however, appealed to the aspirant to caution his supporters to be law abiding throughout the campaign period.

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Police arrest pastor with human skull in Osun State

A 35 year old pastor with the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Osun state, Clement Oyetunde was paraded by men of the Osun state police command yesterday October 9th after he was found with human skull and other charms at his church premises in the Adeowo area of Modakeke in Osun.

According to reports, Clement said a friend brought the skull to his house and buried it in his compound but that the spirit of the skull kept calling for it to be returned

"I am a pastor of the Cherubim and Seraphim, Oke-Itura parish, Adeowo area in Modakeke in Osun state. It was Wasiu that brought the skull to me, We buried it at my backyard. Wasiu left immediately and I don't know his whereabout, now. Few days later, while I was asleep in the house, I hear strange voices singing and drumming in Christian way as if they were worshiping. The tune suddenly changed into traditional song and some invisible spirits started telling me that I should return the skull of Iya-Orun. They told me that the skull buried in my house was Mama Osun's skull and that the woman was from Ondo in Ondo state. They insisted that I must return the skull and the noise was too much for me to bear as my head. They told me that the skull we buried in my house was Mama Osun's skull and that the woman was from Ondo in Ondo state. They insisted that I must return the skull and the noise was too much for me to bear as my head was swelling. That was why I ran out from the house and called for help so that the spirits would not kill me inside the house. It was then that the people in my area gathered and they eventually called the police" Clement said.

The police say they will find his accomplice, Wasiu, who is curently at large.

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