NPA

By Chiazo Ogbolu

Management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has inaugurated an 11-member Emergency Response Team for strategic and immediate response to emergencies at the authorities headquarters and port locations.

A statement signed by Mr Adams Jatto, General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications, in Lagos on Thursday indicated that the Managing Director, NPA, Ms Hadiza Bala-Usman, performed the inauguration on Wednesday.

The statement said that Bala-Usman appealed to members to be ready to put themselves at the frontline of emergency response at the Marina headquarters at all times.

It said that the MD was represented by the Executive Director, Marine and Operations, NPA, Mr Onari Brown.

Every head of departments is a constituent part of this emergency response team and they have specific roles to play during emergencies.

Respective officers must have a sense of responsibility to duty and ensure effective collaborations at such delicate periods, the MD said.

She noted that two committees would be constituted at the Port levels vis-a- vis Port Emergency Management Team (PEMT), and Port Emergency Response Team (PERT).

The NPA MD added that details of their membership and modus of operation shall be duly communicated to all the Port locations.

These committees are expected to amongst other things respond proactively during work place emergencies covering fire, explosion incidents and medical emergencies among others.

Other emergencies are public safety threats, armed robbery and terrorism threats, marine vessel collision in the port, accidental release of hazardous substances and natural disasters like flood or storm, she said. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

crude oil

The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources announced on Thursday a new oil discovery in the shallow waters of Geisum concession south of the Gulf of Suez, with an initial production rate of 2,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Indications showed that the new discovery, referred to as GNN-4, contains about 70 million barrels of extractable crude oil, the Egyptian oil ministry said in a statement.

The discovery was made by Petrogulf Misr joint company, on behalf of Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), Pico GOS Petroleum Company Limited and the Egyptian unit of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC), the ministry said.

The concession is technically supervised by Ganoub El Wadi Petroleum Holding Co., according to the statement.

In early June, Egypt announced a new oil discovery made by Borg Al Arab Petroleum Company at Abu Sennan concession in the Western Desert, with a planned daily production rate of 4,100 barrels of crude oil and 18 million cubic feet of natural gas.

Similarly in late 2019, the company announced a petroleum discovery in ASH-2 area of the oil rich Abu Sennan, with an average production rate of 7,000 barrels of crude oil and 10 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Egypt witnessed a 7-percent increase in oil and gas production in 2019 by producing some 650,000 barrels of crude oil and 7.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, according to a former statement by the Egyptian oil minister.

Egypts largest Zohr offshore gas field in the Mediterranean Sea, which was discovered by Italys giant Eni in 2015, greatly contributes to the countrys natural gas production as it produces alone about 2.7 billion cubic feet on a daily basis. (Xinhua/NAN)

Source: NAN News

President Muhammadu Buhari

By Ismaila Chafe

President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated Evariste Ndayishimiye on taking office as President of Burundi after a swearing-in ceremony on Thursday in the political capital, Gitega.

The Nigerian leaders congratulatory message was conveyed in a statement released by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja on Thursday.

The President also felicitated with the Government and people of Burundi on the historic peaceful transition to a democratically elected government, after the sudden demise of President Pierre Nkurunziza.

President Buhari observed that, with a resounding victory at the polls, President Ndayishimiye, has what it takes to consolidate democracy in the east African country.

Ndayishimiye had served as Secretary-General of the ruling CNDD-FDD party, and played an active role in guiding the country on the path of peace and development.

President Buhari said he looked forward to working with the new Burundian leader and his government to strengthen the warm relationship between the two countries.(NAN)

Source: NAN News

Gov. Douye Diri

By Christian Ogbonna

Gov. Douye Diri of Bayelsa has directed the State Task Force on COVID-19 to unseal worship centres that ran foul of measures imposed by the state government to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the state.

The governor gave the directive in Yenagoa on Thursday during a meeting with religious leaders in the state.

Diri, however, urged the violators to retrace their steps as his administration derived no pleasure in shutting down churches.

He urged the religious leaders to partner actively and spiritually with his administration to avert a rise of COVID-19 pandemic through conscious awareness on the threat of the virus to their congregation.

He expressed concern over the daily update from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) with the state recording 54 new cases on Tuesday and 25 on Wednesday.

According to him, all hands have to be on deck to curtail the spread of the virus.

I hereby give fresh guidelines for churches to adhere to.

All mid-week activities in all churches remain suspended till the end of COVID-19, including gatherings at home cells, Diri said.

According to him, for Sunday worship, hand sanitisers or running water and soap must be provided at the entrance of all churches.

Churches having multiple services should observe 30 minutes between services to avoid clustering of people. The essence is that we should not have a gathering of people that will easily transmit the pandemic.

The seating arrangement should be two metres or six feet apart and it is compulsory for every worshipper to wear a facemask. All Sunday services should be held between the hours of 7 a.m and 1p.m.

May I also advise that the mega churches should have their own monitoring team to lighten the job of the state COVID-19 task force.

All guidelines must be strictly complied with for the health benefit of the people, the governor said.

Responding on behalf of the clerics, the Bishop of Niger Delta West Diocese, Bishop Emmanuel Oko-Jaja, expressed satisfaction with the leadership of the governor in addressing and curtailing the spread of the virus since its outbreak in the state.

Speaking earlier, the immediate past Special Adviser on Religious Matters, Pastor Samuel John-Peters, reaffirmed the role of the various church leaders to assist greatly in the fight against the pandemic until it is terminated. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

By Cecilia Ologunagba

The Federal Ministry of Health has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), to boost Nigerias health care delivery.

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, made the announcement in a statement signed by the Director, Information, Media and Public Relations in the ministry, Mr Olujimi Oyetomi, on Wednesday in Abuja.

Ehanire said the agreement came at a time when Nigeria and the world were experiencing the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The minister named the areas of interest to Nigeria in the cooperation between the two countries as public health and primary health care.

It is even more urgent now at the stage of the community transmission of COVID-19, when the health systems of all the countries are being put to test.

We have seen strong and more resilient health systems around the world collapsing with the outbreak of the disease.

It is a time when all countries need to revisit their health system, both the public health and the individual persons health.

Ehanire told his guests that Nigeria had done well to ensure that its health system did not collapse.

COVID-19 is a virus that nobody knows its nature well. The future is not clear hence there is need for knowledge sharing, where the world and all humanity work together to defend their citizens.

It is against this background that we are pleased to be a part of this agreement.

We know that our country is not among the richest and not among the most technologically developed.

We are inclined to share your experiences, your level of development which we see as valuable. Therefore, your excellency, we take this agreement to be sacrosanct.

In a speech, the Director-General of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, expressed his wish to have DPRKs model of centre of disease control replicated in Nigeria.

We are a large population but one model weve been looking up to for many years is the Korea Centre for Disease Control.

We have looked up to the Korea Model Institute, a model government agency that we will like to emulate in many ways.

We have seen how you incorporated the response of all infectious diseases; safety from chronic diseases into one strategic public health agency responsible for the delivery of this critical functions to the people of Korea, he said.

The highlight of the occasion was the signing of the MoU on health by the chief representatives of both countries, supervised by the director, legal services of the Federal Ministry of health.

The DPRK team was led by the countrys Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Jon Tong Chol.

Source: NAN News

Prof. Olayinka Karim of the Department of Home Economics and Food Science, University of Ilorin (Unilorin), has invented a delicacy, using Sweet Potato to enrich Noodles.

In her research work entitled: Good foods yesterday, better today, best tomorrow, the don said noodles were a type of food made from unleavened dough which were rolled flat and cut, stretched or extruded, into long strips or strings.

Karim, who lectures in the Faculty of Agriculture of the uwniversity, stated that Nigeria is the 12th largest noodle market and consumed about 1.67 billion meals in 2010.

According to her, the consumption of the food has risen to 1.76 billion in 2019.

She explained that the study she conducted on the use of blends of wheat, sweet potato and soy flour for production of noodles, showed that 100 per cent wheat noodles took longer time to cook, about 10.5 minutes than from composite flour.

Similarly, the cooking loss was found to increase continuously from 13.59 per cent for noodles made with 100 per cent wheat flour to 25.33 per cent for noodles containing 55 per cent wheat, 25 per cent sweet potato and 20 per cent soy flour, she said.

The nutritionist however said that the noodles from 90 per cent wheat, five per cent sweet potato and five per cent soy bean flour, had the highest cooking yield, best nutritional qualities and strength.

She observed that the quality of sweet potato noodles was far superior, better food than any noodles found around.

She said this was an opportunity for the nation to boost the use of locally produced crops as raw materials for food industries in the country.

The expert in food science explained that the orange-fleshed variety of sweet potato was rich in beta-carotene, the precursor of Vitamin A, and despite the nutritional potential of sweet potato, it remained largely untapped in Nigeria.

The utilisation of sweet potato for the production of today and tomorrows foods should therefore be considered, she said.

Source: NAN News

Ms Amina Mohammed, the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General

By Harrison Arubu

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, on Wednesday, echoed the organisations call for concerted global action against racism.

In a passionate speech to a virtual meeting of the Human Rights Council, Mohammed said the poison of racism still rages, and must be fought to stop.

She highlighted the suffering of people of African descent, saying they remained trapped in generational cycles of poverty created by unfair obstacles to their development.

On a personal level, from my high school days in the United Kingdom through my career across the private sector, civil society and now international public service, I have grown a thick skin.

I have even become numb, to the extent that one has forgotten how to feel the injustice of racial slurs and my human right to live a life of dignity and respect.

When I consider that we are born equal, only to find that the colour of ones skin sentences one to a life of discrimination and injustice.

I ask myself, I ask all of you, I ask people everywhere: How can we possibly continue to turn the other way? Enough is enough, she said.

Her remarks came three days after a group of 22 senior UN officials issued a joint statement denouncing racism and demanding international action.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also been strident in his call for dismantling racist structures and confronting the systemic ills of institutions.

Mohammed said the Secretary-General had launched a one-year process to address the concerns raised by the senior staff members.

The United Nations has a duty to respond to the anguish that has been felt by so many for so long.

This cause is at the heart of our organisations identity.

Equal rights are enshrined in our founding Charter.

Just as we fought apartheid, years ago, so must we fight the hatred, oppression and humiliation today.

We must also never forget the crimes and the negative impacts, in Africa and beyond, of the transatlantic slave trade, one of historys most appalling manifestations of human barbarity.

Across the world, Afro-descendants continue to be trapped in generational cycles of poverty created by unfair obstacles to their development.

They receive unequal services and face unjustifiable housing and employment practises.

Racial profiling is widespread, Mohammed added.

She said black communities were among those mostly affected by COVID-19 due to poverty and structural racism.

As we recover from the pandemic, returning to these systems is out of the question.

We also need measures that will genuinely re-set law enforcement.

The battle against racism did not end with this or that legislation and racism was not vanquished by this or that election.

The poison of racism still rages and so the fight must still be waged, she said.

Source: NAN News

who

By Cecilia Ologunagba

The World Health Organisation (WHO), Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, says the number of coronavirus cases in Africa is now over 256,000

The UN health agency gave the update on its official twitter account @WHOAFRO on Wednesday.

The agency said: There are over 256,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent with more than 117,800 recoveries and 6,800 deaths.

Meanwhile, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organisation (WHO), said the world had now recorded more than eight million cases of COVID-19.

Ghebreyesus, speaking at a news conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva, said that in the first two months, 85,000 cases were reported and in the past two months six million cases have been reported.

There have been more than 435,000 deaths and in the Americas, Africa and South Asia; cases are still rapidly rising, he said.

According to him, there are green shoots of hope, which show that together through global solidarity, humanity can overcome the pandemic.

We now have good examples of many countries that have shown how to effectively suppress the virus with a combination of testing, tracing, and quarantining patients and caring for those that get sick.

Lab capacity has been dramatically enhanced across the world to boost COVID-19 testing, which is critical for identifying where the virus is and informing government actions.

New mega hubs have been established that are now key to the distribution of personal protective equipment, which includes millions of masks, goggles, aprons and gloves; as well as other medical supplies.

Tech companies have developed applications that can assist with the critical task of contact tracing.

And there has been an enormous effort to accelerate the science around the pandemic, he said.

In addition, the director-general said WHO had in February convened a Research and Innovation Forum on COVID-19.

He said the global body convened a forum where hundreds of researchers came together from across the world with the aim of quickly developing quality diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.

One of the key priorities identified was for the world to focus on accelerating research around treating patients with COVID-19.

Specifically, researchers agreed to investigate existing drugs with potential, including steroids.

WHO also developed a core protocol, which has been adapted and used by researchers around the world, he said.

Source: NAN News

The World Health Organisation has welcomed the initial clinical trial results from the United Kingdom (UK) that show dexamethasone, a corticosteroid, can be lifesaving for patients who are critically ill with COVID-19.

Dexamethasone is a steroid that has been used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation in a range of conditions, including inflammatory disorders and certain cancers.

It has been listed on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines since 1977 in multiple formulations, and is currently off-patent and affordably available in most countries.

Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO, said this at a news conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva on Wednesday.

He said: On Tuesday, there was the welcome news of positive initial results from the RECOVERY trial in the United Kingdom.

Dexamethasone, a common steroid, has been shown to have a beneficial effect on those patients severely ill with COVID-19.

According to the early findings shared with WHO, for patients on oxygen alone the treatment was shown to reduce mortality by about one fifth.

And for patients requiring a ventilator, mortality was reduced by about one third.

However, the director general said dexamethasone was shown to not have a beneficial effect for those with milder disease, who did not need respiratory support.

This is very welcome news for those patients with severe illness, these drugs should only be used under close clinical supervision.

We need more therapeutics that can be used to tackle the virus, including those with milder symptoms.

WHO has now started to coordinate a meta-analysis pooling data from several clinical trials to increase our overall understanding of this intervention.

We will update our clinical guidance to reflect how and when dexamethasone should be used to treat COVID-19, he said.

Ghebreyesus therefore thanked the United Kingdom government, the University of Oxford, and the many hospitals, researchers, patients and families who had contributed to this scientific breakthrough.

WHO will continue to work with all partners to develop other therapeutics and vaccines for COVID-19, including through the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator.

Over the coming weeks and months, we hope there will be more treatments that improve patient outcomes and save lives.

While we are searching for COVID-19 treatments we must continue strong efforts to prevent as many infections as possible by finding, isolating, testing and caring for every case; and tracing and quarantining every contact, he said.

According to him, COVID-19 is affecting the whole world but it is important to remember that for the most vulnerable communities, this is just one of many threats they face.

We have consistently stressed the importance of ensuring essential health services continue, including routine vaccination and services for malaria, TB and HIV.

The director general, however, spoke on the need to give attention to the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

NTDs are a group of 20 diseases including elephantiasis, sleeping sickness, leprosy, trachoma and intestinal worms that collectively wreak havoc on the poorest and most marginalised communities.

These diseases disfigure, disable and can kill, and they strike hardest in places of poverty and in remote areas where access to quality health services is extremely limited.

WHO and partners have developed a new roadmap which moves away from single disease programmes to integrated approaches.

It moves away from single diseases programme to the integrated approaches in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of neglected tropical diseases, as part of an overall movement toward universal health coverage, he said.

According to him, the NTDs roadmap puts greater ownership on national and local governments to drive action.

Like with COVID-19, it calls for greater collaboration between governments, academia, civil society and the private sector in order to boost innovation and access to health technologies.

I have seen first hand the courage of people who are living with NTDs, which is why I call on countries not to forget about the most vulnerable, he said.

Source: NAN News

Petrol Pump

By Mustapha Sumaila

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says the consumers of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in Borno paid highest average price of N138.10 per littre in the country in May.

The NBS made this known in its latest report on PMS price watch released on Wednesday.

The bureau said Borno was followed by Taraba at N138.00 and Jigawa where consumers bought PMS at N137.89.

It disclosed that states with the lowest average price of PMS were Abuja where it was sold at N123.50, then Anambra N124.85 and Kwara where it was bought at N124.88.

Average price paid by consumers for PMS decreased by -10.59 per cent year on year and month on month by -0.89 per cent to N129.67 in May from N130.84 in April it added.

Source: NAN News