Headlines
Prepare for the Worst, WHO Warns Africa As Top Burkinabe Politician Dies
Sub-Saharan Africa has recorded its first COVID-19 death, a high-ranking politician in Burkina Faso, as the head of the World Health Organisation urged the continent to “prepare for the worst”.
“Africa should wake up,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday, pointing out that “in other countries, we have seen how the virus actually accelerates after a certain tipping point”.
Africa has lagged behind the global curve for coronavirus infections and deaths, but in the past few days has seen a significant rise in cases.
Experts have repeatedly warned about the perils for the continent, given its weak health infrastructure, poverty, conflicts, poor sanitation and urban crowding.
Medical authorities in the poor Sahel state of Burkina Faso announced Wednesday that the number of infections there had risen by seven to 27 — and that one of them, a 62-year-old diabetic woman, had died overnight.
The country’s main opposition party, the Union for Progress and Change (UPC), said in a statement that the victim was its lawmaker Rose-Marie Compaore, the first vice president of the parliament.
South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised economy, reported a more than one-third jump in cases, with 31 new infections bringing its tally to 116.
Nearby Zambia announced its first two confirmed cases — a couple that returned to the capital Lusaka from a 10-day holiday in France.
As of Wednesday, a tally of reported cases compiled by AFP stood at more than 600 for all of Africa.
Of these, 16 cases have been fatal: six in Egypt, six in Algeria, two in Morocco, one in Sudan and one in Burkina Faso.
Those figures are relatively small compared to the rest of world — the global death toll has passed 8,800 with almost 210,000 total infections.
WHO chief Tedros said sub-Saharan Africa had recorded 233 infections, but warned the official numbers likely did not reflect the full picture.
“Probably we have undetected cases or unreported cases,” he said.
– ‘We live day-to-day’ –
Watching from afar as disaster unfolds in Asia and Europe, some African countries have wasted little time in ordering drastic measures.
Air traffic has been particularly hard hit, as many of Africa’s initial cases were detected in people who had returned from affected countries in Europe and the Middle East.
Some countries, such as Somalia, Chad, Guinea-Bissau and, most recently, the island of Madagascar have moved to stop all flights into their countries.
On Wednesday, Cape Verde — a tropical archipelago off Africa’s west coast that is heavily dependent on tourism — and the continent’s most populous nation, Nigeria, joined others in banning flights from the countries most affected by coronavirus.
Burkina Faso has ordered the closure of all schools and barred all public and private gatherings until the end of April.
There was concern on the unusually quiet streets of the capital Ouagadougou on Wednesday.
“It’s worrying what is happening with this virus, but we cannot barricade ourselves like developed countries. We lack everything here — we live day-to-day,” said bicycle seller Boureima Baguian.
“We cannot, for example, close the big market. If that happens, it’s not the coronavirus that will kill us but misery and hunger.”
The Democratic Republic of Congo announced similar measures as it reported its first local case, banning flights from affected countries and closing schools and universities for four weeks.
South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa’s worst-hit country, has banned cruise ships from its ports. More than 1,700 people are stranded on a liner off Cape Town over fears that some have the virus.
It is just the latest blow to tourism across the continent, with coronavirus fears also cancelling sporting, cultural and religious events.
Christian and Muslim leaders in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Senegal said they would suspend services to protect their faithful.
– ‘Disease hot spot’ –
A 2016 analysis by the Rand Corporation, a US think-tank, found that of the 25 countries in the world that were most vulnerable to infectious outbreaks, 22 were in Africa — the others were Afghanistan, Yemen and Haiti.
The report identified a “disease hotspot belt” extending across the southern rim of the Sahara through the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, where many countries are struggling with conflicts.
“Were a communicable disease to emerge within this chain of countries, it could easily spread across borders in all directions, abetted by high overall vulnerability and a string of weak national health systems along the way,” the report warned.
Tedros recommended that mass gatherings be avoided, urging Africa to “cut it from the bud, expecting that the worst can happen”.
“The best advice for Africa is to prepare for the worst and prepare today,” he said.
AFP.
The Presidency has dismissed claims that Vice President Kashim Shettima’s recent comments were directed at the political situation in Rivers State or President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s constitutional decisions on the matter.
In a statement on Friday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications (Office of the Vice President), Stanley Nkwocha, the Presidency described the reports as a “gross misrepresentation.”
The statement clarified that Vice President Shettima’s remarks at the public presentation of a book by former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), were misconstrued by some online platforms and individuals.
“These reports have distorted the Vice President’s comments in pursuit of a mischievous agenda,” it stated.
“They twisted his account of how the administration of former President Jonathan considered removing him as Borno Governor during the insurgency to falsely link it with current events in Rivers State.”
The Vice President, who spoke at the launch of OPL 245: The Inside Story of the $1.3 Billion Oil Block in Abuja on Thursday, was said to have referenced the past solely to commend Adoke’s professionalism while in office, and to reflect on Nigeria’s constitutional evolution regarding federal and state relations.
“For the avoidance of doubt, President Tinubu did not remove Governor Fubara from office. The constitutional measure implemented was a suspension, not an outright removal.
“This action was taken in response to the grave political crisis in Rivers State at the time, with the governor facing a looming impeachment and the State Assembly complex under demolition,” Nkwocha clarified.
The Presidency insisted that the action taken by President Tinubu in declaring a state of emergency and suspending the Governor was fully in line with Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which authorises such measures when there is a breakdown of public order requiring extraordinary intervention.
According to the statement, the President’s proclamation invoking Section 305(2) was subsequently ratified by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the National Assembly, confirming the legitimacy and constitutional propriety of the decision.
“The action of President Tinubu in suspending Mr. Fubara and others from exercising the functions of office averted the governor’s outright removal. To conflate suspension with removal is misleading,” the statement further noted.
Nkwocha also stressed that Vice President Shettima’s comments were delivered extemporaneously and intended to underline the importance of public accountability and historical documentation.
He referenced the Vice President’s mention of past public servants, including Adoke and former Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, to illustrate principled leadership.
“His remarks were not in any way a criticism of President Tinubu’s actions, which the Vice President and the entire administration fully support and stand by without reservation,” the spokesman stated.
The Vice President, the statement added, remains in “loyal concert” with President Tinubu and is committed to implementing all constitutional measures necessary to safeguard democracy and uphold order across the country.
Concluding, the Presidency called on media organisations and political actors to desist from misrepresenting public remarks for sensational or partisan purposes.
“We urge media organisations and political actors to desist from the destructive practice of wrenching statements from context in order to fabricate nonexistent conflicts,” Nkwocha said.
Headlines
Akpabio Relieves Natasha of Committee Chairmanship Position, Appoints Akwa Ibom Senator As Replacement
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has replaced suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Diaspora/Non-Governmental Organisations.
In her place, Akpabio named Senator Bassey Aniekun Etim (Akwa Ibom -East).
The Senate President, who made the announcement on the floor in Abuja on Thursday, did not give any reasons.
The committee position had remained vacant since March when the Senate suspended the Kogi-Central Senatorial District lawmaker for six months for flouting the Senate’s rule on the seating arrangement and seat allocation.
The suspended lawmaker, at a point, chaired the Senate Committee on Local Content before Akpabio reassigned her to the Committee on Diaspora/NGO, shortly before she ran into trouble with the Senate over her conduct on seat allocation.
The Supreme Court has affirmed the 2024 governorship election victory of Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), dismissing the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Asuerinme Ighodalo.
In a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Garba, the apex court ruled that the appeal lacked merit. It upheld the earlier judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had both declared Okpebholo the validly elected governor.
