The tech industry is trying a new approach to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the work space – work from home. Twitter, LinkedIn and Microsoft have asked their employees to work from home if possible. Google has asked its employees in Dublin to work from home after a report of an employee who had contact with coronavirus.

In China, Facebook has asked its workers to work from home while the social media seek ways to help experts in the fight to contain the outbreak.

In the wake of the ‘work from home’ directive by many companies, businesses offering online meetings like Zoom and BlueJeans witnessed boom due to massive increase in the use of their services.

Google said it is giving G-Suite customers free access to the suite’s advanced features. The advanced feature has the ability to hold virtual meetings with hundreds of participants and stream live events to tens of thousands of people.

Microsoft also announced a plan to offer six-month free trials of Teams, a video chat product that will enable employees to hold discussions among themselves.

Tech companies are seeking ways to protect their employees and people in general. Twitter said in a blog post on Thursday that it is working to ensure that misinformation about the virus is curtailed. The statement also said that part of the efforts is to prevent dehumanization of people who have been infected. The social media platform is making some changes in its policies to accommodate the new rules which include protecting people from dehumanization for their faith.

Jerrel Peterson lead of Twitter’s global safety team said: ‘It just happens to be that we’re having this issue right now with coronavirus. Whenever something happens in the world, people come to Twitter to talk about it. We are seeing lots of conversations about it,” he said.

The blog post said protecting the conversation is a way Twitter is working to ensure that people are rightly informed.

“The power of a uniquely open service during a public health emergency is clear. The speed and borderless nature of Twitter presents an extraordinary opportunity to get the word out and ensure people have access to the latest information from expert sources around the world.

“To support that mission, our global Trust & Safety team is continuing its zero-tolerance approach to platform manipulation and any other attempts to abuse our service at this critical juncture.

“At present, we’re not seeing significant coordinated platform manipulation efforts around these issues. However, we will remain vigilant and have invested substantially in our proactive abilities to ensure trends, search, and other common areas of the service are protected from malicious behaviors,” the post said.

Facebook also announced similar and other measures it is taking to help in the fight against COVID-19. In a post issued by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company outlined many steps, including removing misinformation about coronavirus and directing searches about the disease to the World Health Organization (WHO) or local healthcare authorities.

“We’re focused on making sure everyone can access credible and accurate information. This is critical in any emergency, but it’s especially important when there are precautions you can take to reduce the risk of infections.

“If you search for coronavirus on Facebook, you’ll see a pop-up that directs you to the World Health Organization or your local health authority for the latest information.

“We’re also focused on stopping hoaxes and harmful misinformation. It’s important that everyone has a place to share their experiences and talk about the outbreak, but as our community standards make clear, it’s not okay to share something that puts people in danger. So we’re removing false claims and conspiracy theories that have been flagged by leading global health organizations,” Zuckerberg said.

YouTube is following the steps by directing coronavirus searches to World Health Organization or local health bodies.

Other companies like Amazon and Apple have asked their workers to limit their travel plans to essentials only, especially when the destination is China. Visitors have also been restricted from offices while employees who show symptoms of illness are asked to stay at home until they’re cleared by medical professionals.

While the efforts of the tech companies have been commended, the concern is whether the measures will actually help to stop the spread of scourge, especially the ‘work from home.’ Employees will always go to public places where they will meet people. So the long run may require another approach, though it is not clear what dimension it will take.

As the scourge of coronavirus continues to bare its fangs on humanity, the impacts keep expanding with fierce brute to many areas of life. From life itself to economy to general freedom, the virus has been stumping ferociously, leaving debilitating marks on the go. One area it is turning attention to now is athleticism.

The world of sports is gradually coming in terms with the reality of limited freedom emanating from COVID-19, and it may have a crippling effect.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics has become a doubt out of fear that it may aid the spread of the virus in Japan. There has been a suggestion for cancellation or postponement of the sports event that is billed to take place from July 24 to August 9 2020.

Test events of the Olympics games have been called off at the outbreak of coronavirus in Japan. Vice president of the IOC Dick Pound has said that the ‘right to cancel’ part of the games agreement could be activated if COVID-19 persists beyond May, though it would be an expensive decision to make.

Protesters in Japan are already calling for the Olympic Games to be called off to avoid a possible spread of coronavirus. Or as an alternative, the games should be held without fans being in attendance.

Playing the games without an audience has been seen as a possible way out of suspending the Olympics. British Cycling chief Stephen Park said it is a better choice than moving it to another country.

“Right now, I’m really confident it will go ahead. You would struggle to find a day when the Olympics didn’t take part for any reason.

“So, will it mean that they might be different? Possibly. Look at the World Cup skiing in two weeks’ time in Cortina, they are doing it on a closed circuit with no fans, and that’s going to an area that doesn’t currently have any infections,” he said.

Beyond the Olympics, an array of sporting events has been obstructed by the outbreak. In Europe, the Six Nations game scheduled to take place between Ireland and Italy has been called off.

Italy has been badly hit by the virus, recording over 1,835 cases and over 55 deaths so far. The development is stirring concern in UEFA, the Europe’s football governing body since the games are going to be held in cities across Europe. The opening game between Italy and Turkey is slated for June 12 in Rome, but with the rate the disease is spreading, the organizers are having a rethink. A congress has been held by UEFA in Amsterdam during the week to determine the way forward.

There is ongoing consideration to play the Champions League match between Barcelona and Napoli without the fans. The English Premier League has also banned players and match officials from shaking hands during games. As more cases continue to emerge in the UK, the Football Association has been in touch with medical experts and has made the decision as a precautionary measure.

The statement from the Premier League said: “The Premier League fair-play handshake will not take place between players and match officials from this weekend until further notice based on medical advice.

“Coronavirus is spread via droplets from nose and mouth and can be transmitted onto the hands and passed on via handshake… on entering the field of play, the two teams will continue to line up, accompanied by the Premier League music, then players from the home team will walk past their opposition without shaking their hands.”

The Coppa Italia match between Inter Milan and Juventus has been canceled. The game was to be played on Thursday but has been called off indefinitely amid fears of the outbreak. The Serie A has had a norm of games cancellation since the coronavirus hit Italy, and this would be the twelfth game to be cancelled.

In China, all domestic fixtures at all levels are postponed by the Chinese Football Association. Asian Champions League between Guagzhou Evergrande, Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai SIPG are postponed until April. The kick-off of Korean K-League season has also been postponed and the four teams in the AFC are going to play behind closed doors. Japan also suspended all domestic fixtures of the J-League until mid-March.

Other sports events slated to take place in Asia and Europe have either been postponed or impacted by the outbreak. From car racing, Tennis, Rugby to MotoGP, Cycling, Baseball, Golf tournaments and other championships, athletic activities have been pushed to unprecedented halt.

The news that Nigeria has confirmed her first case of COVID-19 circulated on Friday, 28th February, 2020. Different Nigerian media houses carried this news. Even foreign ones, like CNN, seemed eager to announce first to the world that, finally, coronavirus has been reported in a Sub-Saharan African country. I expected the social media to be lit up with this news. I expected anxiety and panic, but I saw none of those. The news didn’t make waves in Nigerian social media space as was expected. It was as if Nigerians didn’t understand the language.

Some days ago, I read a post written by a Nigerian living in the UK, who asserts that Nigerians residing in Nigeria are nonchalant about the presence of the virus in the country and she couldn’t help wondering the reason behind that. This person compared Nigerians’ attitude towards this disease to that of western countries that were panicking about it. She said that if that sickness manages to get into town, that the effect will be worse than that of a holocaust. I know this lady was concerned about the health of Nigerians but I don’t think this assertion is totally true because Nigerians are concerned about their health. It’s just that they have a lot of other things to worry about too.

But let the truth be said, Nigerians still moved about their normal businesses despite the warning from the ministry of health. Here in Enugu, I’m yet to see anyone using a surgical mask. People only talked about the illness that Friday and let it be. It was as if the news never happened. The only residues of that news were the hilarious videos, memes and write-ups concerning the disease in Nigeria.

The silence and relaxed attitude of Nigerians upon receiving that red flag news make it look like everyone was waiting to hear more about the spread of the disease. People seemed to expect that more cases will be reported, after all the Italian made contact with lots of people before he finally broke down. When nothing was heard, people started speculating that the virus doesn’t affect black people. Then the speculation changed to the fact that this part of Africa was too hot for the survival of the virus, meaning that coronavirus can’t survive in Nigeria.

When Nigerians got tired of testing their hypothesis non-empirically, they turned their attention to the people that released the news in the first place – the Ministry of Health and the government as a whole. They started asking questions concerning the possibility of this virus being in Nigeria. Nigerians started suspecting the government of lying about coronavirus coming into the country.

Like Thomas in the Bible that wanted a series of evidence before he could believe in the resurrection of his master, Nigerians wanted evidence before they could believe that there was an Italian that brought the illness into the country. Nigerians wanted the federal government, or rather the ministry of health to show them the Italian that introduced the virus into the country. They want to see his face or at least get his name. They no longer want audio messages, they want visuals this time.

I don’t really blame people for their desire to do “afu n’ anya ekwe” (seeing before believing) because a lot of funny things happen in this country. The explanation about the patient’s confidentiality didn’t assuage their demands to get the identity of the Italian. Some kept reminding everybody that the identity of the person that brought Ebola was revealed so why should that of the Italian hidden. Some asserted that Sawyer’s identity was revealed because he was African and things like that.

The truth behind this matter is that Nigerians no longer trust their leaders. They believe everything done by government officials has ulterior motives. They never assume that any public officer will do anything with any positive or selfless intent. The government has truly lost the confidence of the populace, who now want to be reassured every now and then with tangible evidences.

Fortunately for all Nigerians, coronavirus seems not to find Nigerian environment favourable because there would have been an epidemic by now. Because, if you truly look at it, since this Italian man, without a name, could comfortably pass through all the coronavirus detectors and screening devices claimed by the Nigerian government to be mounted in the airports, other carriers of this virus must have found their ways into the country.

What Nigerians should focus on right now is how to keep themselves safe from being infected by this disease, should it be in the country, and not whether the government released fake news so that they can see avenues to embezzle public funds.

As we celebrate the 2020 International Women’s Day on 8 March 2020, I am pleased to share a timeline of my research on women (entrepreneurship) over the past decade.

Before I delve into the shortlist of papers, I crave your indulgence to state the obvious lest we forget. As far as women are concerned, we all do have them! Be it mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, nieces, female colleagues, acquaintances and/ or networks.

With that point established, it is now time to move on to my shortlist. Starting with my inaugural article Breaking the glass ceiling in Nigeria: A review of women’s entrepreneurship, which published in 2009 and currently cited 45 times on Google Scholar, I explored the relevance of the age-long conundrum known as the glass ceiling as ever more questionable for a number of compelling reasons. On the one hand, its root in the invisible barriers (push factors) facing women’s career progression prospects in the corporate world is ever-changing at a rapid pace across every region of the globe. Research, on the other hand, shows some evidence of a major dramatic increase in women-owned businesses as being attributable to women’s desire to gain more flexibility in their work arrangements (pull factors). By providing a catalogue of pull factors in women entrepreneurship in the African context (especially Nigerian), I surmised that:

The glass ceiling problem may have well been shattered in numerous spheres, and thus become less tenable as a gender-specific reality in the twenty-first century.

The second article Micro-credit for microenterprises?, which published in 2010 and currently cited 38 times on GoogleScholar, is a co-authored paper that examined those factors that constrain women petty traders’ access to microcredit, and the innovative measures they have initiated in order to counter these constraints. Based on in?depth interviews with 20 women micro-entrepreneurs and/ or petty traders in the market town of Awka in Eastern Nigeria, the study identified three main constraints – internal, socio?cultural and policy induced – as the key moderating influences on their ability to access the arguably widely available micro?credit. 

Moving away, albeit only slightly, from the ‘glass ceiling’ and ‘credit’ challenges facing entrepreneurial women, the third article Setting an agenda for women entrepreneurship in Nigeria, which published in 2011, highlights how the discourse on women, especially in a developing world context, seems to have moved from the margins of international obscurity to the mainstream. Adopting a narrative analysis of a single book on women written by “a woman of status” – i.e. Dr (Mrs) Faseke, a graduate of the University of Ibadan and former Head of the Department of History at the Lagos State University (Nigeria), the study highlights:

The “silent voices” of African women [in an unsung] publication that was encountered purely by chance – Modupe Faseke’s  The Nigerian Woman published by Agape Publications (Ibadan, Nigeria) in 2001.

With three of the aforementioned articles having been based on the Nigerian context, the fourth study brings a breath of fresh air, as the focus is on the Middle East context. The article is a rather interesting one for two main reasons. First with was co-authored by a woman. Second, the acquaintance was coincidental as we struck a mutual relationship having been both conferred Emerald Literati Awards at an event in Dubai in 2010. 

Entitled Broken silence: a commentary on women’s entrepreneurship in the United Arab Emirates, the study took quite a while to eventual publish in 2012, in an equally well sought out journal, which made the longwinded process worthwhile. Currently cited 56 times on Google Scholar, the study draws upon the scant literature on women’s entrepreneurship in the Arab world context – notably the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Some of the highlights from that study include observations of:

Growing numbers of women graduates and businesses are observed, which suggests that the historical silence among this group is gradually being broken and that changes in government policies and the socio-cultural environment are the key drivers behind this evolution.

The fifth article is actually a book chapter entitled Women entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa, published in 2015, which highlights the challenges of women business owners in Sub-Saharan African using in- depth interviews from four different countries – Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa. The primary aim of the study was to pinpoint shared challenges of these women entrepreneurs and/ or business owners drawing upon their narratives and attributions. Four critical dimensions on these similarities and/ or differences in experiences were:

The owner’s background (nationality, ethnicity, education, family etc.); prior motivations (why they chose to start- up); challenges (including start- up capital, government regulations, personal achievements), and plans for the future.

The sixth article, which comes with its own uniqueness as a full case study entitled Heaven Kigali-Knocking on Heaven’s Door, was published in a leading textbook, Strategic Marketing: Creating Competitive Advantage published in 2015. The case study narrates the story of Heaven Restaurant & Bar in Kigali, the capital city of one of Africa’s fastest growing economies, Rwanda. Owned and managed by an American woman doing business in a foreign Francophone African country, the study develops narratives of a woman who sought to overcome the liability of foreignness – not to mention gender. The case was triggered by a CNN documentary focusing on developments in Rwanda – dubbed Africa’s Singapore. Here’s a sneak peek:

Given Rwanda’s tourism plan in its Vision 2020 commitment to improving hospitality and supporting tourism, the story of Heaven, provides an ideal contribution to the realities of doing business abroad and the attendant liability-of-foreignness [associated with it].

Overall, the case highlights how a resilient woman, despite the observed portmanteau of challenges, overcame the liability of foreignness and gender disadvantage. 

Last, but not least, is my interrogation of gender stereotypes in the workplace, which is more international in focus, but drawing rich insights from the UK environment and celebrity chefs.  This 2013 article Sex in the kitchen: changing gender roles in a female-dominated occupation, speaks to the conversation on misplaced gender stereotypes at work and the changing dynamics in this space. It also highlights subtle elements of occupational segregation, safety in the workplace, and rather interestingly, identity and empathy in chef life. These issues, in addition to several others, have prompted both scholarly and policy intervention across unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral levels.

That study was only recently cited in a World Health Organisation report Delivered by Women, Led by Men: A Gender and Equity Analysis of the Global Health and Social Workforce Human Resources for Health Observer the delight of the publishers as reported in WHO recognises research in Inderscience journal. Here are a few excerpts:

He offers a gender entrepreneurship slant on the evolving landscape of the “culinary underbelly”. The well-known occupations stereotypically associated with women more than men social work, nursing, and elementary education.

The research cited brings to the boil the notion of “chef life” and gender segregation in the world of the commercial kitchen. Traditionally it seems cooking has been the preserve of women, in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa. The modern culture of celebrity chefs and the prestige associated with glamorous restaurants has, however, enticed men to don the white apron more than ever before. It is as if men have adopted and adapted to this one last bastion of female career choice.

Overall, women are making major strides globally, are “not easily broken,” and worth acknowledging and celebrating. If not for the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis, irrespective of the cultural contexts, be it Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates, or the United Kingdom, and how they cope with these challenges, one thing remains a given, we all do have them!

Happy International Women’s Day!