The endorsement of Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine amid concerns about its safety by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Nigerian leader’s claim that the proliferation of arms and resultant conflict in the Sahel region was due to the activities of mercenaries escaping from Libya are some of the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Friday.
The Guardian reports that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has backed the continued use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, amid concerns about its safety.
This followed earlier defence of the vaccine by the Nigerian Government, even as Kano residents are reluctant to take the jab.
Rising from its 28th Emergency Teleconference Meeting, the governors, who reiterated their belief in the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccines, said that as state executives, they are committed to continuously encourage use of the vaccines by all eligible persons in their states.
In a communiqué signed at the end of the meeting by the NGF Chairman and Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the governors urged Nigerians to remain calm and report any adverse events noticed following COVID-19 vaccination.
The newspaper says that President Muhammadu Buhari has attributed proliferation of arms and resultant conflict in the Sahel region to activities of mercenaries escaping from Libya.
He said the late Muammar Gadaffi held a “grip on power in Libya for 42 years by recruiting armed guards from different countries, who then escaped with their arms when the Libyan strongman was killed.”
“As far as Libya remains unstable, illegal arms and ammunition will continue to flow in the Sahel region of the African continent,” Buhari added.
The President spoke yesterday at the State House, Abuja while receiving the outgoing Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mohammed Ibn Chambas.
He said: “They didn’t learn any other skill than to shoot and kill. So, they are a problem all over the Sahel countries today.
“We closed our land borders here for more than a year, but arms and ammunition continued to flow illegally. As far as Libya remains unstable, so will the problem remain.”
The Nigerian leader described Chambas, who spent many years in Nigeria in different capacities right from ECOWAS to UN, as “more of a Nigerian than anything else.”
The Punch reports that airlines operating in Nigeria may shut down operations in coming weeks over the frustration they face in the hands of the Nigeria Customs Service and the crash of the naira against the dollar, the Chairman, Air Peace, Allen Onyema, said on Thursday.
Onyema, who spoke in Abuja while receiving the second Embraer 195-E2 aircraft of Air Peace, also revealed that about 20 airplanes of the airline that were flown abroad for maintenance had remained trapped in various countries due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
On why the carriers were contemplating a nationwide shutdown, he said this was because the NCS was not complying fully with Federal Government’s law on waiver for airlines.
On the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on aircraft maintenance, he said, “About 20 of our aircraft that were sent for maintenance are still in different parts of the world because they (countries) are experiencing various levels of lockdown.
Commenting on the just received Embraer 195-E2 new aircraft, Onyema said it was the latest invention in commercial aviation. The Air Peace boss said the airplanes would be deployed on the domestic and regional routes, adding that when the 13 aircraft would be fully delivered, they would create about 8,000 jobs.
ThisDay says that the Director General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mallam Farouk Salim, yesterday issued a three-month ultimatum on the need to clear out of the markets substandard steel bars.
Salim said in a meeting with steel manufacturers and steel distributors that the measure was aimed at ensuring and improving lives through enforcing standards,
A statement quoted the SON boss to have cited the recent spate of building collapse which had claimed hundreds of lives, saying it is a big blow on the nation and especially the construction industry which the steel sector falls under.
According to him, the consequences of the disasters had raised concerns and the onus was always on SON to get to the root cause of the issue with the view to finding a lasting solution.
He further advised that moving forward both the manufacturers and distributors have been given two months to form associations for self-regulation and an organised way of articulating industry challenges to ensure strict compliance and also root amongst their members those engaging in such inimical acts.
The Sun reports that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said Nigeria currently ranks as the 41st country with the highest unemployment rate out of 181 countries of the world.
According to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report on International Unemployment Rate, with the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) standard of 1-hour work per week,
Nigeria’s recent unemployment rate is 33.3 percent. However, the report noted that the methodology of calculating unemployment rate could differ across the countries.
On state-by-state unemployment and underemployment in Nigeria, the bureau said that those with ‘A’ levels have the highest rate of unemployment with 50.7 percent followed by those with first degree/HND at 40.1 percent, while those with doctorate degrees as their highest qualifications reported the lowest rate of unemployment with 16.9 percent.
But by age, those between 15 and 24 years have the highest with 53.4 percent followed by those at the age bracket of 25 and 34 with 37.0 percent.
GIK/APA