Headlines
INTERVIEW: Why Kano can’t cope with COVID-19 outbreak–Infectious disease expert

Nazifi Dawud
In this interview with KANO FOCUS, Professor Isa Sadiq Abubakar, the Director, Centre for Infectious Disease Research, Bayero University, Kano (BUK) and Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), shares his thoughts on the need to prevent the outbreak of the new coronavirus or COVID-19 in Kano state. Excerpts:
Q: It seems that here in Kano, many people doubt the existence of the COVID-19 coronavirus, what do you say to these people?
Professor Abubabar: That is a very costly mistake because it is a reality. We are lucky it started from a very far place, that is China and gradually spread to other countries. So, this thing started in December and we are living witnesses that over the last three months it has been spreading, yet it has not come to us.
But it is a reality that whether today, tomorrrow or another day, it will definitely come to us whether we like it or not. So, the best thing is that we should get out from the state of denial and do the needful.

And one thing I want you to understand is that it is a very dangerous disease that is very easily contracted and people get down with symptoms that could be life threatening because nothing is more important to our lives than the air we breath. If a disease will disallow us from breathing normally, destroy our lungs, definitely it is a very deadly disease and we must do all withing our powers to ensure that it doesn’t affect us.
Q: The COVID-19 is a disease that demands isolation and keeping distance from one another, but with the huge population in Kano and our lack of understanding of the disease, how do you think people can be convinced to abide by the rules.
Professor Abubakar: Please I want everybody who has a means to tell another person that we should keep away from each other for now. I implore everyone to do this.
Everyone should be informed that staying at home is the best way to prevent this disease from further transmission because the more we come together the more some of us will be having the disease and spread it to other people either through droplets from sneezes or coughs.
Very recently, we were informed that when a person passes out the virus during coughs or sneeze, it lasts in the air for up to eight hours. That is a very dangerous situation we are facing and so the best way is to keep staying at home.
People who have symptoms should also stay at home, rest and drink lots of fluids. They should be in a humidified room and when they have fever, they can take paracetamol to lower their temperatures and can breath fresher air than when they are out.
Q: Nigeria has one of the worst healthcare systems in the world, do you think our healthcare system can cope with the COVID-19 pandemic?
Professor Abubakar: It is a fact that even the super powers of the world have done everything humanly possible to contain this epidemic but they are being overwhelmed.
If you look at Italy, United Kingdom, United States, they are battling the disease and their medical supplies are being depleted, they are calling for help, they are helpless. What about us in the African continent, especially Nigeria that has the largest population.
In terms of human resources, we have one of the poorest indices in the world. The performance of our health system is very low and so we do not have a resilient health system. Should this problem escalate, we are going to be in a very serious crisis that people can just fold their arms and not be able to contain it.
So, we are just hoping that it shouldn’t take us to that level and the best thing is for people to prevent because the health system as I’m speaking to you everything is in scarcity. We do not have enough protective materials for the health workers to work with.
This is a disease that doesn’t have a vaccine, so we don’t have the capacity to confront this disease. We are not ready to battle this illness, so the best approach is prevention. And the best prevention approach is keeping social distance and hand-washing with soap and water, good coughing habits, wearing face masks and disposing them properly.
Question: Do you advise the Kano government to ban movement of people into the state through closure of motor parks and suspending domestic flights?
Professor Abubakar: It is up to the government to take necessary measures but what I know is that the coronavirus is a very dangerous disease and government needs to reduce the number of people coming into town.
As of now, there is a plan to screen everybody coming in but at a later time it may reach a situation where people will be stopped from coming in entirely.
Q: What category of people does the coronavirus affects the most?
Professor Abubakar: Well, it affects everybody but the people it harms the most include the elderly, people with diabetes, people with weak immunity like HIV, cancer patients, hypertensive or heart disease patients and others.
My Advice for them is to stay at home, maintain social distance and avoid any gathering while adhering to hygienic practices.

Headlines
Gawuna, APC reject Kano governorship election, ask INEC to declare exercise inconclusive

Aminu Abdullahi
All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in the last Saturday gubernatorial election, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna on Tuesday rejected the declaration of Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party NNPP as the winner of the poll in Kano state.
KANO FOCUS reports that Gawuna in his first public appearance after the poll, spoke during a press conference by the party in the state capital.
The Deputy Governor who admitted that power comes from Almighty Allah, however said he aligned with the positions of the party which among others gave INEC 7 days ultimatum to declared the governorship poll inconclusive.
Gawuna who was in the company of party leaders, said it was astonishing that with the same election, 16 of the House of Assembly elections held same day and same conditions were declared inconclusive by INEC.

Meanwhile, the APC in Kano has rejected the announcement of Abba Kabir Yusif of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as winner of the just concluded governorship election in Kano calling for immediate review of the election result by the electoral umpire within seven days.
The APC chairman, who was represented by the party’s legal adviser, Abdul Adamu Fagge insists that the election should be declared inconclusive because the cancelled votes were greater than the margin between the first and the second parties of NNPP and APC respectively as provided by the Electoral Act.
Fagge said that there was no way the election could be declared conclusive with over 270,000 votes cancelled which a margin shows is bigger than the winner’s votes.
The party also drew attention to the cancellation of sixteen House of Assembly elections in the state, sighting violence as the reason, while the same votes were considered in collating the governorship election.
It expressed dismay saying the two elections took place same day, same time, same places and under the same circumstances.
Fagge said, “based on section 65 of the Electoral Laws 2022, we have written to INEC to revisit and cancel the hasty, wrong and selfish declaration of the NNPP as winner of the elections, and declared the conduct inconclusive”.
He said they have since written to INEC to within seven days revisit the elections based on the provisions of the Electoral laws and declare it Inconclusive.
The Legal Adviser explained that INEC Returning Officer, acted not on the only basis of the provisions of laws.

Headlines
Kano govt lifts dawn to dusk curfew

Mukhtar Yahaya Usman
The Kano State Government has lifted the dawn-to-dusk curfew imposed in the state.
KANO FOCUS reports that the state government on Monday imposed the curfew with a view to avoiding a breakdown of law and order.
The order followed tensions generated from the collation of results of the governorship and state Assembly elections.
The state Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs, Muhammad Garba, made the announcement lifting the curfew in a statement issued on Monday night.

He said the decision to lift the curfew followed a careful review of the situation and the relative calm throughout the state.
The commissioner called on commercial banks, public servants and the people in the state to continue their normal activities.

Headlines
2023: Abba Kabir Yusuf wins Kano governorship election

Aminu Abdullahi
The New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, has defeated the All Progressive Party to win Saturday’s governorship election in Kano State.
KANO FOCUS reports that Abba Kabir Yusuf of the NNPP was declared the winner with 1,019,602 votes against his closest rival, APC’s candidate, Nasir Gawuna, who polled 890,705 votes.
The Independent National Electoral Commission Returning officer, Prof Ahmad Doko Ibrahim, announced Yusuf as the winner of the Kano gubernatorial election on Monday morning.
The declaration brought intense electioneering and Saturday election in Kano to an end as two ‘king makers’ – former Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and incumbent Governor Abdullahi Ganduje – in the state tested their might. While Kwankwaso backed Yusuf, Ganduje routed for Gawuna, his deputy, to succeed him.

Yusuf’s profile
Born to the family of Malam Kabiru Yusuf and Malama Khadijatul-Naja’atu in Gaya Local Government Area of Kano State on 5th January 1963, Abba attended Sumaila primary school between 1968 and 1975.
He then proceeded to Government Secondary School Dawakin Tofa and later moved to Government Secondary school Lautai in Gumel where he completed his secondary education in 1980.
Abba Kabir Yusuf bagged a National Diploma (ND) from the Federal Polytechnic Mubi in 1985 and a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Civil Engineering from Kaduna Polytechnic in 1989.
He later obtained a postgraduate diploma in management and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Bayero University, Kano.
Gida-Gida’s grandfather, Alhaji Yusuf Bashari, under whom the NNPP governorship candidate started his Islamic education, was Danmakwaiyon Kano and a former District Head of Gaya.
Abba Gida-Gida began his career with the Kano State Water Resources Engineering and Construction Agency (WRECA), Kano State Water Board and later moved to the state Ministry of Water Resources where he held various positions.
He was appointed as Personal Assistant to the then Kano State Governor, Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso and later Special Assistant (Administration) between 1999 – 2003.
Abba worked again with Kwankwaso from 2003 to 2006 when the former governor of Kano State was appointed Minister of Defence.
He served as the Special Assistant to the Special Adviser to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Darfur/Somalia until 2007.
Abba was also appointed by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua as the chairman, Governing Board of the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), Ondo State from 2009 to 2011.
During Kwankwaso’s second tenure in office, Abba was appointed as the First Principal Private Secretary (PPS) to the governor; and subsequently the state’s Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transport.
The closely contested 2019 governorship election in Kano between the PDP and the ruling APC brought Abba Gida-Gida to the limelight.
Kwankwaso’s anointed candidate contested against the incumbent Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje in an election that was declared inconclusive; but lost after a rerun.
