A few weeks ago, the governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde rejected bags of rice donated to the state as palliatives. Twitter users, especially those of the opposition APC, were upset by this and accused him of hanky-panky. Interestingly, other states also came forward and indicated that some of the bags of rice they were given were bad. When people pointed out that rejecting rice was not only an Oyo affair, one state governor said, “At no time did we reject anything from the FG. We nonetheless have experienced similar issues experienced by other states with some of the bags. Those not suitable for consumption will be discarded.” Interestingly, the verb “discarded” has as its synonym “reject.”

But this piece is not about the discarded or rejected rice, it is about the English language and how it is often used and mostly abused by users. The English language can be tricky, many of us do not look up words, we simply assume their meanings based on context. As an English teacher, I have often found myself looking up words, even words I use on a daily basis, and sometimes, I am shocked by what I find. This is why when the argument arose over the use of the word “absconded” I went to check its meaning.

For example, this Twitter user https://twitter.com/Mubarak95635853/status/1258855863776948225?s=19 does not believe that people can abscond from anywhere except a gated or enclosed location like an isolation centre. His thoughts represent that of many others like him including media outlets. However, the word abscond simply means to “run away.” I can abscond from my duty post, from the bedroom, from my house and even from a classroom. It simply means I was not at the place that I was expected to be when someone checked and they don’t know my whereabouts (especially when I am in some sort of trouble).

So, it was quite amusing to see the argument that the people who the Honourable Commissioner for Health, Lagos State said “ran away” when they went to pick them for onward transfer to isolation centres, did not “abscond.” It sounded exactly like, “we did not reject them, we will discard them.”

English is of course not our native language in Nigeria, but one would expect that when a person wants to engage in a conversation in a particular language, they would ascertain what the words mean so that they can be more precise.

On another note, the issue of absconders either from isolation centres or from their places of residence, should be cause for concern. I applaud Governor Seyi Makinde for his transparency in revealing that these persons absconded. It is worthy of note that in a tweet later that night, he revealed that one of the absconders had been found while the other case has been transferred to the Sokoto PHEOC following eye witness accounts that the 10-year-old had travelled.

As Lagos has revealed, these absconders are contributing to the community spread of COVID-19. Right now, it has been projected that by July, the number of cases will rise to 120,000. The question is, why are people running away from isolation centres? I have earlier written about the secrecy surrounding COVID-19.

Perhaps, creating more transparency around what goes on in these centres will serve to allay some fears. We must keep sensitising people.

This is truly uncharted territory in more ways than one. Not only is this a disease for which there is no certified cure for now, there are certain register that come with the terrain that throw people off the course in conversations. For instance, some people were angry that Governor Makinde struck out the absconders from Active Cases in Oyo State. But, would it have been truthful to name them Active Cases when they were not receiving treatment “actively” in Oyo State? To be clear, Active Cases means cases that are currently managed in the state. This is why when a case is transferred from one state to another, as we have seen the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control do on certain occasions, the Active Cases in State A decreases while that in State B increases.

Others said he lied about saying they were not originally in any of the state’s isolation centres, because he had said in his original tweet that they were “managed” by the state. But as any medical professional will tell you for free, case management begins with when you have your first meeting with a potential client. In this instance, the state started managing the case when they took the samples of the Suspected Cases for testing.

Indeed, we owe it to ourselves to learn the COVID-19 and indeed medical vocabulary at this time if we are to contribute meaningfully to conversations especially on social media, lest we help in spreading lies and disinformation. We need to take responsibility as we interpret what is said and done at this time. It may also be a great idea to drop our political lens for a bit as we dissect the real issues. As events have shown again and again, what goes around comes around.

The Oyo State Government and the management of the University of Ibadan on Friday met some herbal practitioners in the state with a view to finding a solution that would have scientific validation for the cure of COVID-19.

Speaking with newsmen at the end of its second meeting at the University premises, Rev. Idowu Ogedengbe, the Executive Assistant to Gov. Seyi Makinde, said that some of the herbal practitioners have samples and mixtures.

“We don’t want to take it on the surface and start promoting it but subject them to scientific validation.

“So that by the time our virologists, chemists, botanists, and other relevant professionals within the UI community look at those solutions; we will come up with something that the global community would benefit from,” Ogendengbe said.

The UI Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olayinka Idowu, said the collaboration was important, saying the combination of academia, government officials, people from the private sector, and herbal practitioners would be the perfect and best approach.

Idowu noted that there has been a lot of mistrust over the years as regards traditional herbal medicine, saying that the collaboration would enable them research into scientific basis and ingredients to make the drug effective and acceptable.

As we speak, no drug has been found for the cure of COVID-19; I think our scientists here can collaborate with traditional herbal practitioners to chart a way forward,” the VC said.

Speaking on behalf of the traditional herbal practitioners, Mr. Taye Oyerinde, said herbal medicine was the most realistic solution for the treatment of COVID-19.

Oyerinde observed that the Western colonization of Africans was responsible for the retrogression of traditional herbal development.

He said what Nigeria needed now was a fire brigade approach to cure the COVID-19 pandemic and that herbal practitioners have drugs that could cure it.

Oyerinde added that there was no reason to be looking up to the Western world to proffer solutions for the cure of COVID-19.

The herbal practitioner, who is also the traditional ruler of the Ekotedo community in Ibadan, gave evidence that he was blind for three years but received his sight through the use of herbal medicine.

He expressed optimism that the collaboration of the state government, the University of Ibadan, and herbal practitioners would yield good results.

The Southwest Zonal Director of NAFDAC, Mrs. Preye Edotimi, said the agency was ready to collaborate with all herbal producers to ensure that the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end.

Rotimi said NAFDAC was ready to expedite the registration facilities of their products, saying those with already good manufacturing practice certificate with the agency, needed just to apply as there won’t be any need for inspection and within two weeks they would be given their listing NAFDAC registration number,

“Immediately the University finishes the analysis of the product and gets us the result, we will look into it by taking the product into our laboratory and issue the registration number,” she stated.

The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that two separate sub-committees were set up at the meeting to fast track the submission of product samples and scientific evaluations of samples.

Oyo State has just recorded four new cases of coronavirus.

Governor Seyi Makinde announced this through his twitter handle around 11:15 pm on Friday night.

According to him, four suspected cases came back positive which make the total number of active cases in the state 59.

The Governor thereby appealed to residents of the state to comply with the government’s directive on mandatory use of face masks and observe social distancing as part of efforts to curb the community transmission of the lethal virus.

Not less than fifty travellers from Kaduna and Kebbi States were intercepted by local task force and security operatives in Ogbomoso area of Oy State.

The travellers were said to have been caught while alighting from an articulated vehicle around Federal Government college area of Ogbomoso while others were caught along the express road.

According to Ogbomoso North Local Government Chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Ajagbe who witnessed the incident said the travellers were interested and have been moved out of the state.

“Immediately were heard the information we quickly moved to the scene and stopped them from moving to any part of the community, after interrogating them we took them inside the 3 buses and returned them to Oyo state border with Kwara.”

Ajagbe said The Divisional Police officer, representatives of Ogbomoso Parapo Vigilante group as well as NCDC were involved in the development

The council boss commended all the stakeholders for their prompt response in the fight against coronavirus in the zone

In efforts geared towards ensuring safety of staff and patients, the Chief Medical Director, (CMD), of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Professor Jesse Otegbayo, has said that the hospital management will flag-off training on health and safety for medical staff. He stressed that it would be held at the Emeritus Professor Theophilus Oladipo Ogunlesi Multi-Purpose Hall of South Campus.

This was contained in a release issued on ‘Update on Diagnosed Cases of Covid-19 in the UCH’ by the Hospital’s Covid-19 Media Team and made available to newsmen.

The training is for selected staff representing their departments who will step down the training in their respective departments and the training is based on the guidelines by the World Health Organization, (WHO), and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, (NCDC), with regards to Infection Prevention and Control of COVID-19.

In another development, the Media Team hinted that, The Oyo State branch of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has donated protective equipment to the hospital to support the fight against COVID 19.

The Association led by her Chairman, Dr. Akin Sodipo, noted the UCH is playing a frontline role in the fight against the dreaded disease as well as other medical cases, hence the need for adequate support from all well-meaning Nigerians, Associations and Corporate Bodies.

The NMA stated that, Dr. Sodipo lauded the commitment of UCH to providing quality service even when equipment and materials needed for the arduous tasks are scarce.

The CMD, Prof. Jesse Abiodun Otegbayo while receiving the items appreciated the NMA for the support to the hospital at all times and pointed out that the equipment donated will be put to judicious use.

He enjoined other Associations and more individuals to contribute towards the fight to subdue the ravaging novel coronavirus Pandemic

The four bus terminals approved for construction by the Oyo State government under Engr. Seyi Makinde is a grandiose, elitist project that has no bearing on the wellbeing of the vast majority of the citizens of the state who live “from hand to mouth,” to quote the governor himself.

One is quickly reminded of a similar project, the beautification project embarked upon by the government of Senator Abiola Ajimobi during his first term in office, which ended in monumental waste.

No doubt, governments the world over, finance developmental projects but this is based on critical need assessment, economic impact of such projects on the state as well as promotion of economic wellbeing of the citizenry. It is doubtful if any these was on the table, as the government reason for embarking on the project at a time when the purse of the state will definitely become lean as a result of the economic impact of a post-Covid-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of healthcare system all over the world, as countries struggle to battle with the pandemic. A thoughtful government should be concerned now with massive investment in the healthcare sector rather than concerning itself with the construction of parks, which in the first instance is within the constitutional purview of the local government.

In the first instance, the financial layout for the source of the whooping N48b is yet to be spelt out. Who does the financing? Who will be the managers of the parks; or are they going to handed over to the hand-picked park managers as another pecuniary benefit? What is the payback structure?

Going by the pronouncement of the governor, Engr. Makinde in recent time, one is afraid that the project may go the way of the Iwo Road interchange, which is yet to take off after months of its public announcement.

Also, the park manager arrangement this government has exposed the system as a surreptitious ‘job for the boy’s as the touted revenue source for the government was dead on arrival. The old order, where select individuals are feeding fat on government source of legitimate revenue still reigns. The proposed bus terminals will no doubt go the same way.

Governor Makinde should do a rethink and redirect the N48b earmarked for the bus terminals to the construction of toilet facilities for the rural dwellers who still defecate in the open, a cankerworm that has become a source of worry to WHO.

Equally, part of the money can be invested on opening up of rural and the agrarian communities to better their lots and further reduce rural-urban migration with construction of rural roads, provision of potable water, rural electrification and construction of more healthcare centres.

If all these do not catch the attention of the incumbent government, the education sector is crying for dire attention. Classrooms are in a state of disrepair, schools do not get running grants as at when due while infrastructures are non-existing. These are areas government should focus on at this critical and austere time, and not construction of bus terminals that will have no telling effect on the state if they are not constructed.

Dr. Bayo Busari, JP, is a public affairs analyst