Buhari tests negative for COVID-19, Kyari is positive
Buhari tests negative for COVID-19, Kyari is positive
President Muhammadu Buhari was reported to have tested negative for the COVID-19 virus (Coronavirus) last Tuesday, following a test for the disease that was carried out on him by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The result indicated that the President tested negative for the disease. According to presidential sources, the test for the president was necessitated after his Chief of Staff, Mr. Abba Kyari tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. Three of Kyari’s aides also tested positive.

Kyari had travelled to Germany on March 7 to meet with officials of Siemens in Munich on the Nigerian electricity expansion programme. He returned March 14 but did not show any symptoms.

He was said to have been at a meeting on containing the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria all through Sunday, March 15 but developed symptoms later on.

Widely seen as President Buhari’s right-hand man, the result of the President’s tests raised doubts in certain quarters with many saying there was no way Kyari couldn’t have had contact with him since his return from Germany. But were the doubts necessary? It could be that the President seriously took precautions before any interaction with his Chief of Staff or his immune system is still very active even at 77or that God, considering that his first term was characterised with ill health, does not want any ailment to come close to him in his second term so he would concentrate on delivering on his mandate. Whatever the case, the result is a plus for Nigeria.

APC Governors Seek Investments In The Health Sector
The Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) canvassed immediate reform of the country’s health sector as part of measures to contain the Coronavirus pandemic last Wednesday.

Director-General of the PGF, Dr. Salihu Lukman, in a statement titled: “Nigeria and COVID-19 Challenges: Public Policy Choices,” expressed concern over the dearth of medical facilities in the country.
Stressing the need for urgent investments in both the health and education sectors of the country, he said it behoved the citizens to work with those entrusted with leadership positions in the country to achieve the goal.

When governors lament that the facilities they are supposed to provide are lacking, you wonder what the governed should do. Or was that a case of the governors openly admitting their failures? What else do they expect Nigerians to do other than patriotically paying their taxes and keying into their policies and programmes? Maybe it’s now dawning on them that they need to manage taxpayers’ money more judiciously by investing in not just health care but also in other amenities because presently it’s not advisable for them to go offshore to seek medical attention as they are wont to since there is Coronavirus everywhere. And if claims in certain quarters are anything to buy, there are more chances of survival here than overseas because of the weather condition. Poor Nigerians are watching.

Nabena Takes Over As APC’s Acting National Publicity Secretary
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Yekini Nabena, in a statement he personally signed last Sunday, announced himself as the party’s acting National Publicity Secretary.

Nabena explained that his action was based on a subsisting court order issued by a Sokoto State High Court restraining the APC from appointing or electing “Mallam Lanre Isa-Onilu or any member” into the office except through a National Convention as enshrined in the party’s constitution.

The court last week issued an interim injunction following an application filed by the APC National Vice Chairman (North-West), Inuwa Abdulkadir.
Abdulkadir specifically urged the court to restrain the APC from appointing or electing “Issa-Onilu or any other person” into party positions pending the determination of the substantive suit.

This is another court case threatening the peace in the APC. The APC appears to be positioning itself truly as a party of progressives, nay activists, who understand their rights and head to the court at the slightest provocation.

Barely three weeks ago, a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Jabi, Abuja suspended the National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole following a suit by a member of the party. It took the intervention of the Court of Appeal, which voided the ruling of the lower court and the power brokers in the party to save Oshiomhole’s job.

Court cases cost the APC all the elective positions in Zamfara State, rendered them toothless in Rivers State and threatened the very soul of the party during the attempt to oust Oshiomhole. It appears the party is yet to learn its lessons.
Obaseki, Oshiomwhole Working To End Rift
The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, and his estranged political godfather, Adams Oshiomhole, commenced consultations to end the political rift between them.

Reports had it that Obaseki’s Chief of Staff, Mr Taiwo Akerele, made the disclosure while responding to questions from journalists during an event to mark his 44th birthday in Benin last Sunday.

He had said it was too early to reveal how far deliberations had gone but expressed confidence that appreciable progress had been made.

Well, they may have learnt their lessons, one would say, or they have come to terms with what a national leader of the party and their kinsman, Prince Tony Momoh, said about a quarrel in a recent interview with newsmen.

His words: “Part of measures in settling a problem is to allow the child that is approaching fire to touch the fire to know that it burns if you try to hold him back and he continues to approach the fire. Then he will never go near the fire again. Let me tell you; wars all over the world were fought not because there was no attempt for peace. Those who wanted to fight thought they would win. So, you allow the pugilists to pummel themselves and since they are like two elephants, one must win or two of them will be stalemated. In the end, the one who wins may get the laurel or two of them will fight so much that the laurel will be missing.”

The coming weeks will indicate which way they are headed.

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