SAUDI Arabia has begun making plans to repatriate as many as 11,600 Nigerians stranded in the country by the coronavirus lockdown who have been unable to leave due to the closure of aviation facilities.

LAWMAKERS in the House of Representatives have asked Nigeria's Debt Management Office (DMO) to liaise with the finance ministry and seek a review or the outright cancellation of all the country's loans to China.

NIGERIAN health officials have raised the alarm that members of the public have resorted to scouring rubbish dumps in search of facemasks which they can then sell on as their demand grows in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) I must admit I am no fan of Ibrahim Gambari. He has not been made to account for his role in the Ken Saro-Wiwa murder. At the time, he defended the execution to the hilt, calling Saro-Wiwa and his co-accused common criminals

GOVERNOR Babajide Sanwoolu has warned employers in Lagos State against sacking employees who have contracted coronavirus pointing out that it is not right to discriminate against anyone who has contracted the virus.

WORLD Health Organization (WHO) officials have held a virtual meeting with 70 African traditional medicine experts concerning the treatment of coronavirus as part of a programme to see it they can find a herbal remedy for the virus.

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has just appointed Nigeria's former foreign minister and ex-permanent representatives to the United Nations (UN) Professor Ibrahim Gambari as his new chief of staff to replace Mallam Abba Kyari who recently died after contracting coronavirus.

COCA-Cola and soft drinks bottler the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) has joined the growing list of private companies distributing palliatives to the population in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

NIGERIA'S Catholic community has offered all of its 425 health facilities across the country to the government to be used as isolation centres as its contribution to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) I am not sure the reality of what is coming has really hit the average Nigerian. My people appear to think that Covid-19 will soon be over and life will return to normal. Unfortunately, the government is not telling us that such thinking is utopian. Tough times lie ahead