WAEC’s waxing and waning Results, WHO’s worrisome Report, WhatsApp welcome Restrictions, and other Worthwhile Reports
The West African Examination Council, WAEC has officially announced the release of results for the May/June 2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).
The number of candidates who passed with at least 5 credits, including English and Maths, declined from 1.27 million (1,274,784) in 2021 to 1.22 million (1,222,505) in 2022.
Likewise, the percentage of candidates who passed with at least 5 credits, including English and Maths, declined from 81.7% in 2021 to 76.36% in 2022.
Source: Vanguard, Premium Times; Chart: Dataphyte Research
The newly released WASCE result complete a 5-year pattern of waxing in 2019 and waning in 2020, then waxing in 2021 before waning again in 2022, with regards to the number of candidates who passed and the percentage of the total candidates who passed with at least 5 credits including English and Maths.
Many reasons have been given for the unstable performance of the WASCE candidates, including security in the Northwest and South East. However, it is unclear if the state of insecurity in the country too has been waxing and waning in the past 5 years.
On the other hand, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has accused the Federal Government of misinforming Nigerians about its demands. ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, in an interview with The Guardian in Abuja, refuted the claim by Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, that ASUU was demanding N1.1trillion.
The National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS who at some point demanded the sacking of the Education Minister, has also expressed disappointment in the position of the Federal Government over striking institutions.
Contrary to the foregoing, the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, directed his appeal to the lecturers on strike to resume as soon as possible, saying the delay in resumption is equivalent to procrastination of evil days.
WHO’s worrisome Report
In a worrisome development, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that over 160 million Nigerians are currently at risk of yellow fever. “Nigeria’s population is around 200 million, with 160 million at risk of yellow fever. This makes up around 25% of all the people at risk in Africa,” according to a World Health Organisation Press Release posted by Reliefweb.
According to the NCDC disease factsheet, “Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic illness caused by the yellow fever virus, an RNA virus that belongs to the family Flaviviridae. The virus is found in tropical and subtropical areas of Africa and Central/South America, with the illness being endemic in 34 African countries (including Nigeria) and 13 Central and South American countries.
Transmission in Africa is maintained by a high density of Aedes mosquito populations close to largely unvaccinated human populations. Occasionally, infected travellers from areas where yellow fever occurs have exported cases to countries free of yellow fever.”
Following infection, the virus incubates in the body for three to six days. Many people do not experience symptoms, but when these occur, they vary from very mild, nonspecific, febrile illness to a fulminating, sometimes fatal disease. The clinical symptoms associated with the early stages of infection are indistinguishable from those of influenza or malaria, mainly fever, muscle pain with prominent backache, headache, loss of appetite, and nausea or vomiting.
The NCDC factsheet indicates that “In most cases, symptoms disappear after 3 to 4 days. A small percentage of patients, however, enter a second, more toxic phase within 24 hours of recovering from initial symptoms. High fever returns, and several body systems are affected, usually the liver and the kidneys, and also the heart and occasionally the brain.
In this phase, people will likely develop jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes), dark urine and abdominal pain with vomiting. Bleeding can occur from the mouth, nose, eyes or stomach. Only 15 per cent of people with yellow fever enter this phase, but of those that do, approximately half die within 7 - 10 days.”
The NCDC advised that vaccination with the yellow fever vaccine provides life-long protection and is the most important means of preventing yellow fever. Vaccination strategies useful in preventing yellow fever disease and its transmission include routine infant immunisation, Mass vaccination campaigns designed to increase coverage in countries at risk, and Vaccination of travellers going to yellow fever endemic areas.
The NCDC has also reported that Ondo, Edo and Bauchi States accounted for 10 additional cases of Lassa fever, with Ondo reporting the highest cases of 30%; Edo recorded 26% and Bauchi 14%.
At the state policy level, the Executive Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Masari, has explained why his administration gave vigorous budgetary provisions for the health sector. The governor states that no society could achieve meaningful progress without adequate healthcare services, adding that 293,008 residents of the state had enrolled in the state contributory healthcare scheme.
On the COVID vaccines, the Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib, has disclosed that only 27 million Nigerians have been jabbed 17 months after the rollout of coronavirus vaccines.
WhatsApp’s welcome Restrictions
The Meta-owned messaging service WhatsApp is introducing three privacy features to enhance users’ protection in its messaging app. The 3 restrictions relate to making a stealth exit from a group, controlling one’s online visibility, and restricting another from taking a screenshot of images one sends. WhatsApp listed these 3 incoming restrictions thus:
Leave Groups Silently: “We’re making it possible to exit a group privately without making it a big deal to everyone”. Now, instead of notifying the full group when you are leaving, only the admins will be notified. This feature will start to roll out to all users this month.
Choose Who Can See When You're Online: Seeing when friends or family are online helps us feel connected to one another, but we’ve all had times when we wanted to check our WhatsApp privately. For the moments you want to keep your online presence private, WhatsApp is introducing the ability to select who can and can’t see when you’re online. This will start rolling out to all users this month.
Screenshot Blocking For View Once Messages: View Once is already an incredibly popular way to share photos or media that don’t need to have a permanent digital record. Now we’re enabling screenshot blocking for View Once messages for an added layer of protection. We’re testing this feature now and are excited to roll it out to users soon.
Likewise, the Nigerian Communications Commission’s Computer Security Incident Response Team (NCC-CSIRT) has flagged a new virus that can cause great harm to device performance and jeopardise users’ privacy through Google Play Store.
Unlike WhatsApp, the Communications community is not being reclusive at all about media rights. The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) and Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) have filed a case against the Federal Government of Nigeria for imposing a N5m fine on Trust TV, Multichoice Nigeria Limited, NTA, Startimes Limited and Telcom Satellite Limited over their documentaries on terrorism in Nigeria.
Other Worthwhile Reports
Governors, in a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, presented a proposal carrying 30 steps to rescue Nigeria’s economy. The governors advised the Buhari administration to offer federal civil servants older than 50 years a one-off retirement package to exit the service.
In a series of checks and balances, the House of Representatives has summoned the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, on oil subsidy claims since 2013 to date, demanding documents.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC has also disagreed with a statement by the Presidency announcing the approval of Seplat’s purchase of ExxonMobil’s asset by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Nonetheless, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, through its President, Michael Olawale-Cole, has lamented that the rising debt stock of Nigeria is becoming increasingly problematic and therefore advised the Federal Government to increase the country’s revenue and borrow from cheaper sources to stifle Nigeria’s debt portfolio.
However, the European Union, EU has agreed to assist Nigeria in implementing her National Economic Policies Project with a supporting sum of 1.125 million Euros.
Sharing a piece of bittersweet news, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, on Tuesday alleged that the masterminds of the Owo Catholic Church attack and other daring attacks in the country have been apprehended.
The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, also launched Operation Hattara in Gombe State, stressing the need for collaboration in curbing insecurity and insurgency in Nigeria.
Yet, gunmen have abducted several residents of Shola Quarters, leaving two members of a local vigilante group dead in Katsina State. This coeval the Katsina State government’s return of more than 12,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their community at Shimfida in Jibia Local Government Area of the State.