International

By Muhammadu Sabiu 

The United Kingdom is planning to ban foreign postgraduate students from coming to the country with their relatives except under certain circumstances. 

This is part of the government’s effort to reduce the number of immigrants entering the country. Last year, 135,788 visas were issued under the sponsorship of foreign students, almost nine times the number issued in 2019. 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told UK ministers that the move would help reduce the number of migrants trooping into the country. He told the ministers that the policy, which will come into effect in January 2024, will help reduce the number of people entering the country.

In the past, the Conservative Party promised to reduce the number of people migrating to the UK to less than 100,000 in total. However, this plan was abandoned before the 2019 election.

By Lawal Dahiru Mamman

Brain drain in Nigeria has lingered for some time now. In the medical profession, it is the most dominant issue occupying the mind of physicians and other health personnel. This may not be unconnected to the fact that human life is sacrosanct.

It goes without saying that the incessant brain drain of medical personnel in Nigeria will slow the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), that all people have access to the full range of quality health services, they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship, in this part of the world.

Mainly, the mass exodus of doctors out of the country is caused by poor welfare of medical practitioners, lack of or insufficient working equipment, and poor working environment leading to the need for seeking a more sumptuous alternative – greener pasture as it is called.

This is purely a reflection of the theory which argued that “…… if wages rose above subsistence, the number of workers would increase ….” By implication, wherever our medical brains are sprinting to have a more luscious wage or salary for the profession. This would increase the country’s workforce while wearing out our dear nation.

Discussions have sprung over time on how to salvage the situation. Experts have suggested an increment in the welfare of doctors. In contrast, others have voted for ending medical tourism, especially public officeholders, to enable them to pay more attention to funding health facilities at home.

The most recent attempt to curb the mortal exodus of medical practitioners is to shackle them with the power of the law. This is through a bill sponsored by Ganiyu Johnson, a lawmaker from Lagos. The bill seeks to amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act 2004 to address the brain drain in the health sector. According to the lawmaker, it is only fair for medical doctors who enjoy taxpayer subsidies on their training to give back to society.

The legislation is titled, ‘A Bill for an Act to Amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, Cap. M379, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to Mandate Any Nigeria Trained Medical or Dental Practitioner to Practice in Nigeria for a Minimum of Five Years Before being Granted a Full License by the Council to Make Quality Health Services Available to Nigeria; and for Related Matters.’

While the above is more restricted to medical and dental practitioners, the same lawmaker said on Friday, April 14, 2023, that he would be presenting a similar bill on nurses and pharmacists; when he intends to do that, time will tell.

With different medical associations reacting in negation by stating that the bill has the propensity to trample on the rights of doctors, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said the bill is in order especially looking at the fees paid by the government to subsidise their training at universities, and the service which they render before travelling overseas. However, the minister said the service does not make up for the cost of training.

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has said the bill will not see the light of the day because it impedes the constitutional right to freedom of movement of doctors and violates international labour law, chiefly since the government has subsidised students from all other professions.

The Nigerian Medical Students Association (NiMSA) and the World Medical Association (WMA) have vehemently disapproved of it, too, because the bill, according to the latter, is “not only outlandish but totally retrogressive, unresearched and very ill-informed.”

The bill that intends to give health workers full license only after five years of working in Nigeria has passed the second reading in the House of Representatives. While this may have come out of benevolence, it may not be the piece we search for to solve the puzzle of brain drain in the health sector.

If the bill sees the light of day, after five years, doctors will still have the freedom to travel out, in my opinion even more experienced. So, could this be the solution we yawn for? Instead, a more lasting solution should involve doctors and government officials meeting halfway to save Nigeria’s crumbling health sector.

I want to firmly believe that Nigeria has what it takes to cultivate the soil for growing ‘greener pasture’ our medical professionals continue to voyage foreign lands for. But only leaders fuelled with altruism can summon the political will to do the needful.

Lawal Dahiru Mamman writes from Abuja and can be reached via dahirulawal90@gmail.com.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Mark Zuckerberg, the Chief Executive Officer of Meta, has announced that Whatsapp will unveil the first WhatsApp smartwatch later this year.

Zuckerberg disclosed this in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

The smartwatch will enable Whatsapp users to make phone calls and reply to messages.

“Announced at Google I/O that we’re shipping the first WhatsApp smartwatch app on Wear OS later this year. You’ll be able to start new conversations, reply to messages, and take calls on your wrist,” he posted

By Muhammadu Sabiu  

Representatives of the warring factions in Sudan have gathered in Saudi Arabia for face-to-face peace talks for the first time since the war broke out in mid-April. 

There will be talks sponsored by Saudi Arabia and the United States between the country’s military and the RSF security forces. Several previous ceasefire agreements have failed since the start of the war a few weeks ago. 

Both sides said they would agree to a ceasefire to allow civilians to leave the areas where the war is most intense. On Saturday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, Faisal bin Farhan, welcomed the representatives of both parties who arrived in the country for the reconciliation talks. 

He said he hoped the talks would end the conflict and restore peace and security to the country. General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the RSF forces, stated on his Twitter page that the RSF welcomed the decision to cease fire in order to be able to send support into the country. 

He also said that the RSF is ready to return power to the hands of civilians in the country.

By Lawan Bukar Maigana

The war is still raging. The fight in Sudan between two factional military groups, which started on April 15 — about two weeks ago, has left hundreds of people dead. Thousands have also fled for their safety.

A large number of foreigners in Sudan, especially diplomats and students, have been evacuated by their governments. But some are still stranded in the Sahara desert and in schools, among which are Nigerians.

Heartbreakingly, videos and audio of young Nigerians have emerged online, showing how helpless they have been since the war in Sudan broke out. Some of them claimed that they didn’t eat for days and that life had been hell for them since the start of the war, and the power struggle is still unfolding, leaving millions of people in fear.

No responsible country will leave its citizens at the mercy of rival factions whose attacks on each other can claim lives and properties. Therefore, it is baseless for anyone to compare the Ukrainian war and Sudan’s because the Ukrainian airport was not targeted by Russian soldiers, which is why countries were able to pick up their people safely and peacefully, but that of Sudan was and still is.

If Nigeria had insisted on evacuating Nigerians on the very day the Turkish plane was attacked, many lives would have been lost because the Nigerian plane, too, would have been attacked, but the almighty saved Nigerians. The government got some privileged information about the massive plan to attack evacuation planes, which was hitherto unavailable.

Hence, the Nigerian embassy wrote to the students urging them to be patient and pack their belongings so they could be transported to Egypt by road, where they could be brought home safely without any fear of attacks or victimization by anyone. This has saved the lives of my fellow citizens.

In appreciation, one of the ladies who was seen crying profusely, calling on the Nigerian government to come to their aid, has again made another video saying over 20 luxurious cars have successfully evacuated Nigerian students who were helpless and stranded in Khartoum, the Capital of Sudan.

She added that the government has again sent its representatives to Egypt to work on releasing students who were unable to cross the border due to some issues related to diplomacy. They, too, have been successfully cleared, and they are in Egypt.

It is important for Nigeria’s incoming government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima to, as leaders of the giant of Africa, intervene. They should quickly come to the aid of distressed Nigerians still residing in Sudan. Their prevailing agony can only be imagined. Delay is dangerous, as it is often said in our local parlance.

Lawan Bukar Maigana writes from Maiduguri and can be reached via email: lawanbukarmaigana@gmail.com.

By Muhammadu Sabiu
 
Paris Saint-Germain have reportedly suspended Lionel Messi with immediate effect following his unauthorised trip to Saudi Arabia this week.
 
According to veteran football journalist Fabrizio Romano, the suspension begins now and will take effect for the next two weeks.
 
This means that the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner will not play for the French side if things go as planned.
 
“Leo Messi’s side now still waiting on the official communication from PSG in order to clarify the situation,” Fabrizio Romano wrote on his official Facebook page.

Ibrahim Mukhtar and Dubai Ado

The fierce war between the Sudanese soldiers and some rebels has already scattered and shattered the country, and now almost all of the foreigners staying in Sudan have looked for their ways out of the war-torn country.

Many countries, as reported, have already evacuated their citizens, but Nigerians have been stranded for nearly a week. However, an evacuation effort has already started since yesterday, were most of the stranded Nigerian students are now on their way back to Nigeria.

According to Hamid Alhassan, one of the popular Nigerian students in Sudan who kept on calling the attention of the authorities concerned about the situation on the ground, he confirmed that buses were provided for the Nigerian students to be taken out of the war zone. He posted that “We are now in Atbara, 6hrs and 287km away from Khartoum. We still have another 7hrs and 492km to go to Port Sudan, the final extraction point.

TDR confirmed that Hamid has been reporting the development right from the beginning through live streaming and telling the Nigerian authorities and the whole world about the situation. Sometimes heavy gunfire from the anti-aircraft gun was heard while he was explaining the situation on the ground. According to him, the Nigerian students suffered traumatic experiences during their waiting period while all other nationals were evacuated.

Another student who sent viral videos online, Fauziyya, also sent another video praising the Nigerian government and thanking all those who have shared their stories with the world. She said that they are now very happy and are about to return to Nigeria. She also appealed to all to continue for their safe return to Nigeria as they are right now on their way.

initially, there were reports of some corrupt practices and dubious transactions which were said to have crept in between the Nigerian embassy in Sudan, the bus drivers and the neglect by the Nigerian authorities on the evacuation. However, the students are now confirmed to be out of Khartoum, and they will hopefully reach Nigeria on Monday.

By Muhammadu Sabiu 
 
The Federal Government of Nigeria said in Abuja that it had spent $1.2 million to send 40 buses in Sudan to pick up at least 2,400 stranded Nigerians.
 
Geoffrey Onyeama, the minister of foreign affairs, revealed this to the State House reporters shortly after this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting, which was held in the Aso Rock Villa’s Council Chambers in Abuja.
 
According to Onyeama, the exorbitant expense of the evacuation was necessary to cover security for the eleven-hour trip from Aswan to Cairo and the eight-hour journey from Luxol to Cairo, Egypt.
 
Despite their agreement to end hostilities at midnight on Monday, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces reportedly resumed fighting on Wednesday.
 
The evacuation attempt that was scheduled for Tuesday was unsuccessful because of logistical issues.
 

By Muhammadu Sabiu 

India is soon to overtake China as the world’s most populated country, according to the United Nations Population Division.

John Wilmoth, the director of the UN Population Division, stated this at a press conference held on Monday at the UN’s New York headquarters.

Wilmoth asserted that the fertility rates in the two countries were the primary cause of this trend, stating that China and India together made up more than one-third of the world’s eight billion people.

Wilmoth was quoted as saying, “By the end of April, India’s population is expected to reach 1,425,775,850 people, with projections indicating further growth for several decades more.

“That’s slightly higher than China’s global record of 1.4 billion in 2022.

“China’s population reached its peak size in 2022 and has begun to decline.

“Projections indicate that the size of the Chinese population could drop below one billion before the end of the century.”

By Muhammadu Sabiu 
 
The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, informed Nigerians in Sudan on Saturday that the federal government was working to bring them home.
 
This is contained in a statement released by Manzo Ezekiel, the head of NEMA’s press unit, in Abuja. 
 
He said that NEMA was very worried about the situation, was keeping an eye on it, and was working on all available possibilities to return the trapped Nigerians to their loved ones’ homes in a safe and respectable manner.
 
The statement reads, “The attention of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is drawn to the widespread public concern on the situation in Sudan especially in regards to the ongoing conflict and the safety as well as well-being of stranded Nigerian citizens including hundreds of students in various universities of the country.
 
“It has become necessary to inform the public that NEMA is in constant communication with all relevant partners including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and security agencies while seeking for an appropriate window of opportunity to evacuate all stranded Nigerians back home in a safe and dignified manner.
 
“The current emergency situation in Sudan is very complex with fighting between waring factions going on and all airports and land boarders closed. NEMA is working assiduously with all its partners and is constantly compiling updated information on the situation.
 
“A committee has been set up comprising of professional emergency responders, search and rescue experts to constantly evaluate the situation and seek for the safest way to evacuate the Nigerian citizens even if it is through a country neighbouring Sudan.”
 
Recall that there is ongoing violence involving the Sudanese Army and its paramilitary, which was recently characterised by heavy gunfire and explosions in the capital Khartoum.