SECRETARY to the federal government and chairman of the presidential task force (PTF) on Covid-19 Boss Mustapha led Nigerian Christians in prayer yesterday at the end of a three-day fasting and prayer period launched to rid the country of the virus.

PSYCHIATRIST Dr Oluseun Ogunnubi has warned that Nigeria faces a renewed threat from coronavirus due to the ignorance of the public as affected members of the public resort to cursing health workers and rejecting positive test results in the name of God.

WEST Ham have become the latest English Premier League clubside to express an interest in former Super Eagles skipper Mikel Obi as the race to secure his services ahead of the forthcoming 2020/21 season intensifies.

DOMESTIC airlines operating in Nigeria have hiked their fares drastically ahead of the resumption of activities due on Wednesday July 8 with some of them doubling their prices to absorb the cost of new social distancing guidelines.

Ayo Akinfe

(1) Given that 45% of Nigerian timber exports is rosewood, a highly prized wood used for the production of luxurious furniture, it’s export is henceforth banned

(2) By 2025, Nigeria must match Brazil’s production of 11bn kg of timber production

(3) In each of our 36 states, there must be at least five pulp, laminated wood, sawmill, plywood, furniture or paper mill factory

ENGLISH Championship side West Bromwich Albion (WBA) have joined the list of clubs looking to sign former Super Eagles skipper Mikel Obi on a free transfer ahead of next season as the club pursues promotion to the Premier League.

Ayo Akinfe

(1) It is criminal laziness bordering on a crime against mother nature for a country with 853km of Atlantic coastline to be importing fish. I do not know of any other nation in the same position that does so

(2) Again, this is a another case of crude oil making us lazy. We believed we had enough money to import anything we wanted so we allowed virtually every other sector of our economy to collapse

Ayo Akinfe

(1) Build at least one silo in each of our 774 local government areas to store all our cash crops and food crops. We then need to build processsing plants around these silos with a goal of adding at least 50% value to every agricultural product we produce

(2) Get the Ajaokuta and Aladja steel mills running at full capacity. Nigeria needs to produce at least 10m tonnes of steel a year

NIGERIAN airlines lost a total of $2.09bn during the course of April and June as a result of the coronavirus lockdown according to statistics just published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

KANO State is facing the prospect of an accelerated spread of the coronavirus pandemic after about 193 street urchins known as almajirais tested positive for the virus just as Governor Abdullahi Ganduje eased the lockdown across the state.