Author: straightnewsng.com

A professor of medicine says exposure to excessive heat as a result of climate change is contributing to rising cases of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Mr. Rasheed Balogun, a nephrologist at the University of Virginia, United States, stated this on Wednesday in Ibadan at the ongoing 32nd Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Nigerian Association of Nephrology (NAN). The nephrologist said that researches carried out in different countries have linked heatwaves associated with climate change to epidemics of CKD of unknown origin in otherwise healthy young people. “There is evidence across the world that climate change has contributed…

The number of new confirmed Covid-19 infections in China dropped significantly on Thursday as health authorities reverted a decision to count clinically diagnosed patients as confirmed cases. Only 394 new coronavirus infections were counted across China over the past 24-hour period, compared to 1,749 new cases added on Wednesday. The National Health Commission reported a total of 74,576 infections across mainland China and 2,118 deaths including 114 casualties over the past 24 hours. The commission on Wednesday reversed a change in the diagnostic guidelines for coronavirus patients that allowed cases in Hubei province – the epicentre of the outbreak –…

By Akanimo Sampson The off-grid solar industry has grown into a $1.75 billion annual market, providing lighting and other energy services to 420 million users and remains on a solid growth curve, a new World Bank Group and GOGLA report shows. The 2020 Off-Grid Solar Market Trends report finds that the industry has made tremendous strides in the past decade. Since 2017, revenues from the off-grid solar industry continue to rapidly grow, increasing by 30 percent annually. To date, more than 180 million off-grid solar units have been sold worldwide and the sector saw $1.5 billion in investments since 2012. With…

Two human trafficking suspects in Akwa Ibom arrested by Uyo Zonal Command of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) will appear in court next week. The suspects – Okokon Essien Bassey and Ofonime Essien Bassey – were arrested in the early hours of Tuesday, February 17. A statement signed by the Zonal Commander of NAPTIP, Mr Nduka Nwanwenne in Uyo on Wednesday, said the suspects had approached one Mr Emmanuel Monday and his wife who is pregnant and a mother of two children to buy the unborn baby for N500,000. Nwanwenne said the officials of…

By: Akakan Umoh It was the first time, I went to a gas filling station in Akwanga to fill my gas. My gas burner was shaky and rusty, so I had it in mind to change it once I was with enough cash. At the gas station, I was attended to nicely. The gas station attendant did something that really impressed me. He removed my gas burner and replaced it with a fairly used one. I asked him how much it was for the new gas burner he had replaced for me, and he told me not to worry, that…

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the enlargement of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) from three to five members. Consequently, Dr. Joy Nunieh, the immediate acting Managing Director is replaced with Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei. Pondei, the new acting Managing Director, is a Professor of Medicine at the Niger Delta University, and former Provost, College of Health Sciences of the institution in Bayelsa State. The changes were announced in a State House statement by Buhari’s media aide, Mr Femi Adesina, on Wednesday. Buhari also increased the members of the committee from three to five persons,…

As the security situation in the country keeps on deteriorating, some radio callers in Akwa Ibom State want people blaming President Muhammadu Buhari for inaction in some situations to leave him alone and face the problem headlong. Speaking in a privately-owned radio station, Passion FM, Uyo on Wednesday, the callers said that even Mr. President as the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces does not protect himself, but people are protecting him. A caller said every state has Governor, each local government area has a chairman and each village has a village head or a person in an acting capacity. “The…

By Akanimo Sampson Around 10 million migrants are currently on the move in Central Asia, to the thousands of construction sites in the Russian Federation, oilfields of Kazakhstan, and farther afield to Turkey and the Middle East. The vast majority are vulnerable to traffickers, who make huge profits buying and selling people in the construction, agriculture and entertainment industries. In Uzbekistan, where 600,000 new workers enter the labour force every year, a rapid trend towards online recruitment of aspirant migrants has been observed, a highly lucrative for traffickers, who can find easy pickings without ever doing face-to-face recruitment. IOM’s Country Manager for Uzbekistan,…

By Akanimo Sampson The governments of Tanzania and Ethiopia are currently working together to facilitate the release and return of irregular migrants from their countries. The cooperation has made the return of 463 Ethiopian migrants possible this February. For Tamrat and Debebe, two young men who were among the returnees, the costs of dangerous, sometimes lethal passages some irregular migrants make in Africa can be measured in many ways: in currencies, even in lives and also in their hardships in years. While the two countries are working together, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) with the European Union (EU) is…

By Akanimo Sampson Nigeria suffered a major oil revenue loss of about N270 billion which approximates to $750 million to oil theft and pipeline vandals in 2019, going by the disclosure of the country’s national oil corporation. The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, in a statement by the acting spokesman for the national oil corporation, Samson Makoji, in Abuja on Tuesday claimed that the country lost about $750 million to oil theft. Kyari, however, brought this to public knowledge when members of the Executive Intelligence Management Course 13 of the National Institute for…