The United States (U.S.) Government has announced a $7 million (about N2.6 billion) emergency health and humanitarian aid to Nigeria amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
This is part of a $274 million (N103 billion) assistance package to no fewer than 63 countries affected by the disease, according to a statement by the Department of States on Friday.
Nigeria’s share, the statement said, will go into funding of “risk communication, water and sanitation activities, infection prevention, and coordination’’.
“This assistance joins more than $5.2 billion (N1.9 trillion) in U.S. health assistance and more than $8.1 billion (N3 trillion) in total assistance for Nigeria over the past 20 years,’’ it said.
As of Friday evening, Nigeria had 70 confirmed cases and one death from COVID-19, whose global infection and fatality figures stood at no fewer than half a million and 26,000 respectively.
The U.S. announcement came a day after President Muhammadu Buhari approved the release of a total of N15 billion to fight the spread of coronavirus in the country.
This includes a N10 billion grant to Lagos State, which has the highest number of 44 cases in the country, and N5 billion to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) as special intervention fund.
Wealthy Nigerians and organisations, including banks, have also announced donations running into billions of Naira in support of the fight against the virus.
Among them is the United Bank for Africa (UBA), which announced a donation of N5 billion.
Some oil industry players, led by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Friday, announced a combined donation of $30 million (N11 billion.
Nigerian businessmen such as Femi Otedola, Abdulsamad Rabiu, Herbert Wigwe, Segun Agbaje and Aliko Dangote, have also reportedly pledged N1 billion each to the efforts.
According to the Department of State, the $274 million aid package includes $64 million (N24 billion) to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR.
This would be used to address challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in refugee and Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps around the world.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has given directive for the protection of staff salaries, pensions of retirees and statutory transfer in spite the challenge posed by COVID-19 that has affected the economy.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this when she appeared as a guest on Channels Television “Politics Today” programme in Abuja on Friday.
Ahmed said the president also directed that key infrastructure projects such as major roads, railway line and power that were critical to growth and development were also protected.
She admitted that the revenue had been threatened by the pandemic, adding that the country’s ability to implement the 2020 budget at the state and federal level would be significantly hampered.
According to her, with all the impact of COVID-19, it is clear that global growth is going to decline significantly and in worse case, the global economy may go into recession and Nigeria is not isolated from this.
“We made a review of the situation and we decided we need to scale back on our plans so as to bring it into the current reality.
“For instance, the crude oil benchmarks of 57 dollars per barrel in 2020 budget, we had to scale it back to 30 dollars.
“We have been reviewing the budget to look at where we can defer expenditures to another period when things pick up and we have done assessment to reduce the size of the budget by as much as N1.5 trillion.
“We are also looking at our debt service obligation by talking to our lenders to renegotiate repayment term or even seek stay of debt service to preserve them because of this current emergency,” she explained.
Also, the Federal Government has taken bold steps to further decongest the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) formations as a measure to curb the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has said.
Malami said that President Muhamadu Buhari has been mindful of the need to decongest prisons with particular regards to the fact that around 79 per cent of the inmates of the NCD were awaiting trial.
Malami made this known in a statement by Dr Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, his Special
Assistant on Media and Public Relations on Friday.
Malami said Buhari has constituted the
Presidential Committee for the decongestion of the
Correctional Centres across the country.
He said the Committee, which is coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Justice, has recorded great success.
Malami said the Committee comprised of the Minister of Interior, Attorney-General of the Federation, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Decongestion of Correctional Service
Centres; the Chief Justice of the FCT and the Comtroller-General of the NCD in order to reconsider what measures could be put in place for decongestion of Correctional Service
Centres in view of the present health challenges.
He said the Committee recommended that Courts, Federal Ministry of Justice, the Correctional Service
formations, Governors, Attorney-Generals of States, among others
be encouraged to intensify actions to ensure that the
Correctional Service formations are not further congested taking into consideration the prevailing health challenges associated with Covid- 19.
The Committee requested that Mr. President may wish to consider his powers of Prerogative of
Mercy in speeding of decongestion, while Governors of States and their CJs be encouraged to visit correctional service formations for the purpose of decongestion.
The Committee is of the view that the Federal Executive Council and the State Governments be encouraged to consider payment of fines in respect of minor offences for those categories of inmates that could not afford paying of same in respect of offences
that attract fines arising from the convictions.
Part of the resolutions were also that Correctional Service should, as well, consider the possibility of moving inmates from congested Correctional Service Formations to
centres that are less congested and have space for accommodation of
inmates, among others.
By way of long term measures, the possibility of amending the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by way of
considering an amendment that will move the
Correctional Service formations from Exclusive to Concurrent Legislative List
among others is equally considered.
The categories of inmates that will be considered most are those that
stayed in Correctional Service Centres for a period above ten years,
those that stayed as inmate for a longer period without any documentation relating to their detention, those that have the option
of fine, those that have been in the Centers on holding charges in
respect of offences that the Magistrate that sent them to Correctional
Service Formations do not have the jurisdiction to try the cases,
among others, but excluding those inmates serving jail terms for capital offences such as murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, rape and treason among others.
Meanwhile, Enugu State Government has directed the closure of all land borders, markets and inter-state transportation in the state with effect from 6pm on Tuesday, March 31, 2020, till further notice,
A statement by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Simon Ortuanya, disclosed that those exempted from the closure include “ those on medical emergency services, dealers on food items, water, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and other basic items of daily domestic need who must comply with the standard hygiene protocol as stipulated by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), including frequent hand washing with soap, use of sanitizer and social distancing.”
The statement directed all Local Government Chairmen “to ensure strict compliance with the closure of the markets within their respective local government councils, without prejudice to the exceptions above”.
It “appealed for understanding from the residents and citizens of the state at this difficult time as no sacrifice is too much to save the lives of our people”.
The statement directed security agencies and the State Medical Response Team to enforce all the directives “as stated above”.
