On different occasions, people have openly accused the late chief of staff (Abba Kyari) of holding the president to ransom including the wife of the president. The claims were fast becoming rational that anyone could believe it. A lot has transpired at the Presidency which brandished the late Chief of Staff (CoS) as the acting President. However, Kyari’s death received mixed feelings from Nigerians owing to several accusations and controversies emanating from the office. He was a good man, many insisted.

The expectation on who the next CoS would be was not really an interest for Nigerians, especially with the recent COVID-19 pandemic. More so, since the role is based on the President’s discretion most Nigerians were concerned about the President getting the right person – someone who is a professional and also non-controversial too.

Being that the President, Buhari has fashioned an image of a man who takes his time and in exactly 25days after the death of Abba Kyari, he has appointed a new CoS, Professor Agboola Ibrahim Gambari.

Could that right man be Prof. Gambari? Although he hasn’t been a household name in the Nigerian political arena and amongst the common man. Potentially, Prof. Gambari wears a figure of a non-controversial, not to be a surrogate president or a de facto president but someone who could help President Buhari set things right at the Presidency based on the past happenings and also following his background.

Before his appointment as CoS, Prof. Gambari was;

• The Nigerian Minister of External Affairs from 1984 and 1985.
• The chairperson of the African Union Commission as Joint African Union-United Nations Special Representative for Darfur from 2010 to 2012.
• The Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations from 1990 to 1999.
• The President of UNICEF in 1999.
• The Special Adviser on Africa Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1999 to 2005
• The pioneer Chancellor of the Kwara State University in 2013.
• The Founder, Savannah Centre for Abuja.

Prof. Gambari is currently the Special Adviser on the International Compact with Iraq and Other Issues for the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The proven diplomat is an indigene of Kwara State and a distinguished Scholar. Prof. Gambari attended King’s College, Lagos. He got a Bachelor’s in Economics from the London School of Economics in 1968 with a specialization in International Relations. In 1970 and 1974, he got M.A. and Ph. D. degrees from Columbia University, New York, the USA in Political Science, and International Relations respectively. As part of his many accomplishments, he was a lecturer of the great Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, from 1977 to 1980. In 2012, Prof. Gambari received the President Jacob Zuma award in South Africa (the highest honour for non-citizens). Amidst many Nigerians of International repute, the president has chosen Prof. Gambari to do the job of his CoS. The skies are blue and the expectations are high from this sensitivity seat and echelon of power in the Presidency.

President Buhari has unveiled his choice today looking beyond his circle. This is a welcomed idea but time will tell whether he learned from or took into consideration the previous controversies surrounding the late Kyari and the CoS office. What is very clear now is that the choice President Buhari has made, just like in other key appointments, would have far-reaching implications for his administration and the entire nation, either positively or negatively. The honest belief of many Nigerians is that Prof. Gambari will change the narratives in a more positive manner.

I wish Professor Gambari the best outcomes in his newest appointment as CoS as he upholds the honour and glory of our beloved country Nigeria.

As the number of coronavirus cases recedes in China, the authorities are working even harder to ensure total elimination of the virus. Over the weekend, six new cases were discovered in a residential compound called Sanmin, in the city of Wuhan where the pandemic originated.

In a quick response, the authorities ordered a retest of all 14 million residents in Wuhan. The new test will cover both the permanent and mobile population of the city. As 5,000 people were tested, five more cases were detected and it enforced the idea to conduct the test covering the whole of Wuhan.

The Chinese authorities have been wary of the new wave of the outbreak, especially in Wuhan that the order to conduct a fresh test came as fast as new cases were uncovered.

A Chinese professor of epidemiology, who spoke on anonymity, said the fear of a new wave of infections has prompted the order for massive tests.

“The new cases in Wuhan show there is a real risk of a second wave of potential transmission in the community by the asymptomatic carriers or mild symptoms. COVID-19 started with a few after all. Tests on such a broad scale can help find these hidden carriers and eliminate that risk,” he said.

The professor said that China’s testing capacity has been expanded since December 2019, so that a fresh test for the 14 million Wuhan population wouldn’t be a difficult task to execute.

The Chinese authorities have seen testing as a key factor in arresting the pandemic, and are working to expand the capacity of each city to conduct more tests. Wuhan party chief Wang Zhonglin said the city needs to expand its testing regime and also centralize the process.

“We must realize deeply that decisive achievements do not mean a decisive victory, and that downgrading the emergency response does not mean downgrading defenses,” he said

Wuhan was caught up in a ‘downplay of figures’ that forced a review of the number of coronavirus cases upward back in April. Since December, the city has reported 50,339 cases of COVID-19, which resulted in 3,869 deaths.

Dirk Pfeiffer, a professor of epidemiology at the City University of Hong Kong said the authorities’ plan to retest the city of Wuhan is a positive move that will correct any miscalculation that may have taken place before.

“The more cases that can be found the better. Every diagnostic test will produce some negatives and also some false positives.

“So, this test will also miss a small number of infected people, but given the infectiousness of COVID-19, wherever they find a positive, they will probably examine any individuals that have been in contact and will thereby further increase the diagnostic sensitivity of their approach,” he said.

Unlike Europe and the United States, China aggressively enforced lockdown, isolation and testing from the early stage of the lockdown. Experts believe that it contributed largely to the reason the virus was rapidly contained in the south Asian country.

The U.S. has the highest number of the COVID-19 infection with over 1.38 million as of 12 of May. The U.K has 223, 100. Russia came up surprisingly on the chart, beating Spain with a peak of 232,200 confirmed cases. Spain has 269, 500 cases against the receding 219,800 cases in Italy.

How China with its massive population managed to keep the figures at 82,919 is an awe that is emanating from its restriction and testing measures. The rest of the world has failed to decisively enforce strict measures on socialization and work, and the increasing numbers are telling the story.

In Africa, infrastructural deficiencies and economic downturns are forcing the governments to lift lockdowns prematurely, which results in unprecedented increment in cases. South Africa has recorded 10,652 cases as result of the surge that came following the relaxation of its lockdown on May 1. Ghana’s figures rose by over 25% after the West African country lifted its lockdown prematurely. The cases have risen to 4,700 with a significant increase from April.

On other hand, Nigeria is recording a daily rise in the numbers after the government partially lifted the restrictions. In the northern part of the country, many have been killed by some ailments attributed to mystery even though it has symptoms similar to COVID-19. While the implication of a prolonged total lockdown on Africa’s fragile economy is undeniably as deadly as the disease itself, experts have pointed at strategic restrictions following China’s example, as a way out. That includes compulsory use of facemask.

For two weeks now, videos and photos of trucks, containers and luxurious buses packed with almajiris were sighted and turned back by some states in the South-Eastern and South-Southern Nigeria. The Guardian of May 8, 2020 reported that 9 busloads of almajiris were intercepted and turned back by the Enugu State government on May 7 alone. In Abia State, buses conveying more than a hundred almajiris were caught as they tried to sneak into the state on Tuesday, 5 May, 2020. Cross River State intercepted 5 truckloads of these same people on Thursday, 7 May, 2020. This is just to mention a few of the reported cases.

The inception of these travellers was made possible because of the ban on interstate travels. As of today, interstate borders are still closed following the lockdown order that came into effect on 31 March, 2020. If there was no lockdown, or border closure, these people would have freely moved into the states and constituted more problems for themselves, the natives and the respective state governments.

Recently, the Northern Governors Forum banned the Almajiri system and started repatriating them back to their countries, states and local governments of origin. But it is obvious that they only dislodged them and gave them room to flee from the north and seek new homes in the South-East and South-South. But these boys failed to realise that these places they’re running to have cultures that are different from theirs and will, therefore, not be fertile grounds for them.

However, a lot of questions have been raised by concerned Nigerians regarding this massive migration.

• How did these buses and vehicles pass through the security checks?

Market women lament about security officers at state borders and along the roads that frustrate their efforts of getting to other states for agricultural produce. They said these security men, mostly the police, either turn them back or collect heavy bribes from them. These attitudes stop these traders and farmers from transacting their businesses freely. But here we have trucks of humans, who are definitely not essential commodities, passing through tight security checkpoints, crossing through different state borders, and then reaching another region that is far from theirs. This speaks loudly against these security men and makes mockery of them and the so-called border closures.

• Who sponsored the migration?

We know that these boys don’t have any sources of income; they depend on charity to survive. But here we see them paying for transportation that would have cost them nothing less than 10k. So the big question remains, how did these boys manage to raise funds to sponsor their transportation all the way from the far North to the South-East and South-South (one luxurious bus that was intercepted in Enugu came from Kano)? I don’t believe the bus and truck drivers are being charitable by moving these boys free-of-charge. Or are they?

• Why are they migrating down East and South?

Of course, as stated above, the logical answer is that they were banned from the North and so seek for greener pastures in the East. But is that really their reason for going there in large numbers and within a short notice? If they were banned from the North, did the East and South legalise them? It is even a common knowledge that Easterners do not condone vagrancy and pilfering, so how will these boys survive there? Or is someone moving them to use them for cheap labour? Some people, on Twitter, insinuated that the Northern state governments are deliberately sharing their problems to the other parts of Nigeria because they couldn’t contain the almajiris. This assertion may sound logical but we know it is out of place. There’s no way a state government can just deliberately ship its problem to another state knowing it will create a chain reaction that will consume it too. Or are these governments moving these boys? Questions that are craving for answers keep arising from this situation. It is more confusing especially when you consider that these movements seemed well planned and organised.

• Who are the Almajiris’ parents?

It is beginning to become obvious that some of the Almajiris do not have parents. It is possible that the majority of them were abandoned by their parents. Or that they are products of unplanned teenage pregnancy. No one can tell, because their state governments failed them. If these boys do not know who they are, shouldn’t their state governments provide them with identities and keep them in homes? Now that they have nowhere to go to, they are being forced to go to places that will not welcome them.

Of course no one is denying any Nigerian from moving freely and settling down in any part of the country. But the cases of almajiris are different. They are not adults, who could manage their affairs and fend for themselves. These almajiris are children, who have no skills but depend only on charity, pilfering and violence to feed. Such attitudes are condemnable among the Igbos. It needs to be understood that the way of life of the Easterners and Southerners are quite different from that of the Northerners; there is no way Almajiri will be accepted in these places. Whoever or whatever that is drawing these children to any other geopolitical region in Nigeria other than their original homes should understand that these children belong to their parents’ homes, and not on the streets.