Author: straightnewsng.com

In yet another grim picture, 82.9 million Nigerians are currently living in poverty in the country. The people are living on less than one United States dollar per day, statistics have shown. The 2019 Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria report released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday, represents 40.09 per cent of the total population. The bureau predicted that this rising trend was likely to continue despite the fact that Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer but the sector bedeviled by accusations of corruption. Absolute poverty, according to the report, is measured by the number of people, who…

The cry for hunger among people in Nigeria and in Akwa Ibom has risen to high Heavens as COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging the land. Before the pandemic, the poverty curve was sharpened but the pandemic has worsened the matter, particularly as the vulnerable people and jobless are daily crying for foods. The Akwa Ibom Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Uwemedimo Nwoko on Monday admitted this in his radio interview, “There is hunger in the land.” This is despite the distribution of palliatives by governments, groups, Non-Governmental Organisations and individuals to the various persons and unemployed and vulnerable persons in…

By: Alkali Dan Tsoho Time there was when the slogan One North, One People helped to make every person of the Northern Nigeria region to be his or her brother’s keeper irrespective of ethno-linguistic or religious inclination. The then Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) or Jamiyar Mutanen Arewa largely driven by graduates of the Katsina Teacher’s College propagated the principles of assimilation. Little wonder why the Deputy Leader was Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa whose family background was animist/pagan while most of the leaders of NPC were Hausa/Fulani with a prince of the caliphate, Sir Ahmadu Bello as the overall Leader. Earlier…

A total of 250 persons in Akwa Ibom have been convicted by the mobile court set up to enforce the restriction of movement order during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown by the state government. The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, who had on April 15, 2020 extended the lockdown for the prevention of coronavirus pandemic to April 30 to curtail the spread of the disease set up mobile courts and appointed magistrates for the three Senatorial Districts in the state. But Hon. Godwin Abraham, the state Chief Judge inaugurated the courts across the three senatorial districts in the state to…

Shocked after samples taken from a goat and pawpaw in Tanzania tested positive, John Magufuli, the country’s president on Sunday ordered a probe on its coronavirus testing kits. Speaking at an event in Chato in the northwest of Tanzania, Magufuli said the COVID-19 testing kits imported from abroad had “technical errors.” The president said he had instructed Tanzanian security forces to check the quality of the kits, randomly obtained from several non-human samples, including pawpaw, goat, and sheep, but assigned human names and ages. These samples, according to him, were then submitted to Tanzania’s laboratory to test for the coronavirus, with the…

Nigeria has recorded 170 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 2,558. This is as the leader of the Presidential Task Force Committee on Covid-19, Dr Nasiru Sani Gwarzo on Sunday said coronavirus pandemic is responsible and the cause of the waves of mysterious deaths recorded in the Kano State. In its Twitter handle on Sunday, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said fatalities from coronavirus-related complications have increased to 87. The 170 new cases of #COVID19: Lagos-39, Kano-29, Ogun-24, Bauchi-18, Kaduna-15, FCT-12, Sokoto-12, Katsina-8, Borno-7, Nasarawa-3, Adamawa-2, and Oyo-1. Of all, 2,558 are…

By Akanimo Sampson A month after escaping death, 11 young migrants have now agreed that it’s a miracle they survived. Since being rescued, the magnitude of their life-threatening experience and the dangerous journey is just now dawning. It was a tragedy that shook the African continent when remains of 64 migrants from Ethiopia were found locked in a container at the back of a truck, discovered on March 24 near Tete, Mozambique after crossing over the Malawi-Mozambique border. Last week, the 11 youthful survivors returned to Ethiopia, thanks to coordination by the governments of Ethiopia and Mozambique, assisted by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM)…

No fewer than 200 households in Ikot Mbonde Itam in Itu local government area of Akwa Ibom benefited from foodstuffs worth millions of naira from a Non-Governmental Organisation in the Netherlands. Presenting the foodstuffs- garri, rice and beans- on behalf of the group on Friday to beneficiaries, Mr. Mfon Effiong, said the donations were sent by Akwa Ibom and Cross River indigenes resident in the Netherlands in Europe as a palliative to the community. Effiong said that the donation was borne out of sincere love and feelings the group has for the people during this coronavirus pandemic lockdown. “The criteria…

Unlike other years, the 2020 World Press Freedom Day arrived amidst the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the world. Marked on May 3, the theme of this year’s celebration is Journalism without Fear or Favour. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in a statement, said “As the [COVID-19] pandemic spreads, it has also given rise to a second pandemic of misinformation, from harmful health advice to wild conspiracy theories. The press provides the antidote: verified, scientific, fact-based news and analysis.” Guterres harped on the importance of the press in playing a significant role during the ongoing COVID-19 situation, and how their contribution by the provision of…

Despite the resumption of duty by members of National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Uyo unit, the bone of contention between the hospital authority and the union is still unsettled. The nurses had suspended duty in the hospital for two days when the corporal policeman assaulted one of their members over the suspicion that the nurse might have contributed to the death of his wife. The deceased’s condition was said to have worsened in the University Teaching Hospital, Uyo, after she was scheduled for a dialysis examination on account of post-caesarian acute kidney…