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Nigerian press focuses on inauguration of new US President, others

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The end of the road for the United States President, Donald Trump, who fought unsuccessfully to remain in office by approaching court to upturn his defeat by Joe Biden, who will be inaugurated today and the confirmation of the existence of storage facilities to preserve potency of the 100,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria are some of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.


The Guardian reports that it is the end of the road for the United States President, Donald Trump, who fought unsuccessfully to remain in office by approaching court to upturn his defeat by Joe Biden, who will be inaugurated today.

Although he had consistently insisted the election was flawed and stolen from him, it appeared the odds were simply against him. As a result, he reluctantly surrendered power but refused to concede, including participating in today’s inauguration.

Following the violence that trailed Biden’s validation sitting at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 25,000 National Guard troops are now in Washington DC for the inauguration of Biden as the next President of the United States.

Security was intensified after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), alerted other law enforcement agencies that QAnon (a far-right conspiracy theory) adherents discussed acting as National Guard soldiers in Washington to try and infiltrate President-elect, Joe Biden’s inauguration.

The FBI, in an intelligence report it said was obtained by Washington Post, revealed that some persons downloaded maps of sensitive areas around Washington and talked about how those locations could be utilised to penetrate security.

The newspaper says that the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) has confirmed existence of storage facilities to preserve potency of the 100,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines being expected in Nigeria from January 31 to early February.

The Executive Director, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, who spoke when he took journalists on a tour of the agency’s ultra-cold chain equipment in Abuja, observed that the Covax therapy would occupy about 500 litres, as the facility could take a little over 400,000 doses.

He said: “Our ultra-cold chain equipment is fully functional and in good working condition with each having the capacity of 700 litres. The total capacity required to store the Pfizer BioNTech vaccines is 2100 litres. The total requirement for the first 100,000 doses that Nigeria will be receiving by the end of January or early February is 500 litres. So, we have more than the needed capacity to store them.”

Shuaib added that his organistion has similar structures in the six geo-political zones, with every state also having a cold store for the medication and related commodities.
ThisDay reports that economic analysts and representatives of the organised private sector (OPS) have warned against a second lockdown in the country, expressing concerns about possible job losses even as they added that efforts at stimulating economic activities to facilitate an earnest recovery from recession would be hampered.

They warned that any total lockdown of the economy will lead to huge economic and social costs that the country will not be able to manage, adding that what is needed right now is a firmly articulated risk management framework on the spread of COVID-19.

This is coming as the federal government has alleged that there is a groundswell of scepticism and conspiracy theories around the COVID-19 vaccines due to arrive in the country latest by February.

The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, had on Monday warned of another lockdown if Nigerians continued to disregard non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) introduced to combat the spread of COVID-19.

But the Director-General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Ambassador Ayo Olukanni, told THISDAY that the implications of a second lockdown would be too grave for the economy.

He stated that prospects for economic recovery are high while a lockdown will slow down the recovery.
The Punch says that the Nigeria Customs Service on Tuesday released mandatory guidelines that would guide and ensure the smooth implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement across the country.

It also stated that the service was awaiting directives on the list of tariffs for the implementation of the continental agreement.

Spokesperson for the agency, Joseph Attah, said in a statement issued in Abuja that the public should endeavour to abide by the steps required for the smooth implementation of the AfCFTA.

“Sequel to the ratification of AfCFTA by member nations, the NCS has found it pertinent to inform the public about steps which must be taken to enable its smooth and full implementation,” Attah stated.

The service said there was the need for each member country to have a representative in the continental chamber of commerce so as to ensure transparency in the system. It explained that having each country representative would complement the activities of the various chambers of commerce of each nation in the region.

The Sun reports that the January 19, 2021, deadline for the submission of subscribers’ National Identification Number (NIN) to mobile service providers for the synchronisation with SIM cards is causing tension and anxiety among the subscribers as the ultimatum expired yesterday.

This is coming on the heels of an impressive response by the customers as the operators recorded a total of 47.8 million, according to the Technical Implementation Committee under the Ministerial Task Force.

Despite this, the subscribers continued to lament the NIN registration mandate by the the Federal Government.

According to one of them, Mr. Friday Okwara, the crowd at the registration centres were overwhelming. “I have been to three different centres and have not succeeded in updating my NIN.

I think the government should extend the deadline and also employ more hands to ease the stress on the subscribers who wake up as early as possible to queue at the centres to ensure thay are registered”.

The Nation says that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said the average fare paid by air passengers for specified routes single journey increased by 0.42 percent month-on-month and by 18.54 percent year-on-year to N36,454.59 last December from N36,301.74 in November, last year.

It made this known in its “Transport Fare Watch report for December 2020”, which covers bus journey within the city per drop constant route; bus journey intercity, state route, the charge per person; airfare charge for specified routes single journey; journey by motorcycle (Okada) per drop; and waterway passenger transport.

The document that The Nation obtained on Tuesday said states with highest air fare were Anambra (N38,700), Lagos (N38,550), Cross River (N38,500) while states with lowest air fare were Akwa Ibom (N32,600), Sokoto (N33,500), and Gombe (N34,750). It also said the average fare paid by commuters for bus journey intercity increased by 4.98 percent month-on-month and by 41.14 per year-on-year to N2,532.19 in December 2020 from N2,240.66 in November 2020.

States with highest bus journey fare intercity were Abuja (N4,415.73), Sokoto (N3,255.20), and Lagos (N3,250.60) while states with lowest bus journey fare within city were Bayelsa (N1,550.73), Bauchi (N1,600.70), and Akwa Ibom (N1,700.54).

GIK/APA

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