The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has released a publication addressing the condemnation of the malaria vaccine in Africa by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Christ Embassy.

In the report published on Wednesday, April 17, the BBC tagged the clergyman a strong advocate against the vaccine, quoting him as saying “…there was never a proof that vaccines ever worked”.

Citing one of Oyakhilome’s YouTube broadcasts, the online media outfit said he believes everyone has been lied to about the vaccine.

The Broadcast company stated that some medical practitioners have concerns that the pastor’s sermons against the vaccine might negatively affect Africa in the fight against the disease.

As reported by the paper, in August 2023, the pastor had warned in a sermon of “an evil agenda that has been long in the making”, apart from alleging that “malaria was never a problem to those in Africa.”

According to the platform, a World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman, while reacting to the cleric’s submission, said, “Spreading false information about vaccines, especially from influential figures like religious leaders, can contribute to the perpetuation of myths and misconceptions, further fuelling vaccine hesitancy. “This can have devastating consequences for public health, particularly in the WHO African region where vaccine-preventable diseases occur frequently.”

Even more, it was gathered that Pastor Oyakhilome’s remarks were included as one of the disinformation trends “to watch” ahead of the malaria vaccine rollout in a report released in March by The Africa Infodemic Response Alliance backed by WHO.

BBC said it asked (via mail) Oyakhilome about his statements against vaccination but got no response.

In a video that has been trending online, the pastor said that one cannot say they believe in Jesus Christ and be afraid of viruses, adding that Jesus healed the sick by touching them in the bible.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, has called on the immediate-past governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to follow the path of decency and submit himself for probe.

Bello is being wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged corrupt practices while in office as governor of Kogi State.

Galaxy TV reports reports that in the last 24 hours, there have been dramas and hide and seek game between both parties over the move to arrest the former governor for arraignment this Thursday.

According to the AGF, in a statement he personally signed on Thursday, EFCC is empowered by law to invite any Nigerian for interrogation.

He also described the action of the incumbent governor of Kogi State, Ahmed Ododo, who used his immunity to prevent Bello’s arrest on Wednesday as ‘disquieting’, adding that embarking on a temporizing self-help and escapism that can only put Nigeria in bad light before the rest of the world is not the way to go.

According to him, he stands for the rule of law and will ensure no right of any Nigerian is trampled upon.

The AGF said a situation where public officials who are themselves subject of protection by law enforcement agents will set up a stratagem of obstruction to the civil and commendable efforts of the EFCC to perform its duty is to say the least, insufferably disquieting.

He declared his support for the rule of law and called on EFCC and indeed any other agency to order when there is indication of any transgression of the fundamental rights of any Nigerian by any of the agencies adding that institutions of State should be allowed to function effectively and efficiently.

Fagbemi said Nigeria has a vibrant judicial system that is capable of protecting everyone who follows the rule of law in seeking protection.

He therefore encouraged anyone who has been invited by the EFCC or any other agency to immediately toe the path of decency and civility by honouring such invitation instead of embarking on a temporizing self-help and escapism that can only put our country in bad light before the rest of the world.

Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general election, has expressed deep concerns over the perennial power situation in the country, recording 141 times of national grid collapse in 11 years and calls for urgent pragmatic solutions.

Obi noted that Nigeria has only 13,000mw while the demands are about 200,000mw

He said that even with the 13,000mw, only about 3,500mw are available for homes and business­es, noting that the situation puts Nigeria as the lowest per capita wattage in the world.

In an article, titled, ‘The Col­lapsing Electricity Sector’, the former Abia state governor, said, “The Ni­geria electricity supply industry faces real and present danger of collapse despite the efforts made in more than two decades to initi­ate a reform of the NESI.

“It is sad today that we suffer periodic and routinised system collapses that are attributed to such avoidable situations as fire outbreaks at critical transmission lines across our major cities. It is absolutely distressing and a sto­ry of a low level of managerial capability that the entire nation can be plunged into total darkness for a reasonable period because networks go out because of a lack of diligent attention.

“It should worry any Nigerian patriot that the total installed ca­pacity for a country of more than 200 million people with an aspira­tion to become a global medium economy power is a mere 13,000. Worse still, only about 3,500mw are available for homes and busi­nesses from the grid. Sometimes, it grinds to less than 2,500mw. This is unacceptable.

“We can contrast the available supply of electricity with compet­itor countries in Africa like Egypt and South Africa with respective populations of approximately 112m and 59.6m people supply­ing about 60,000mw and 58,000, respectively.

This difference in en­ergy wattage has massive impli­cations for human development and economic growth. Nigeria today has the world’s lowest per capita wattage in the world, lower than those of most of our West Af­rican neighbours. It is really sad that whereas our energy demand is above 200,000mws, we have only 13,000mw installed capacity and can only deliver regularly less than 4,000mw.

It is now possible to live in Nigeria and earn salary in US Dollars with premium domains, you can earn as much as $17,000 (₦27Million) Click here to start.

“After speaking with experts in the sector I have realised that the crisis of power supply in Nige­ria relates to two major sectors: (1) generation, and (2) transmission and distribution. The major chal­lenges of the generation sector are the lack of a regular supply of gas arising from the failure of the government in the last 8 years to provide adequate gas infrastruc­ture facilities, weak commercial­ity of gas to power and failure to control the restiveness of angry youths leading to vandalism.

“It is shameful that for more than 8 years we cannot resolve the infrastructural bottlenecks that constrain the supply of gas to power plants despite billions from CBN for legacy gas debts.

“On the transmission and distribution side, the last 8 years have witnessed terrible failure to overcome the deterioration of networks and transmission and distribution networks and invest in modern technologies like SCA­DA leading to poor coverage, lack of effective coordination between TCN and discos leading to load re­jection and inability to generate public trust for policy reform on tariff and leading to low private sector investments.

“If we had a good project man­ager, we would have massively in­creased generation, transmission and distribution capacity and en­hanced policy coherence that would have crowded private sector invest­ment in the degree to sustained rap­id growth of the grid. The problem is that the government have exer­cised the required political will to appoint the right kind of leadership that understands the problems of the sector and has the singular ded­ication and competence to create quick wins in the short term and transformation in the medium to long term.

“I suggest that the Federal Government immediately consti­tute a technical task force of real professionals without political consideration to present a diag­nosis of the crisis of the sector and to get to work to correct such simple slippage like incessant fire outbreaks that lead to perennial system collapse, drastically im­prove coordination and coher­ence between TCN and DisCos so there will be no load rejection, and breath down on all operators to deliver on their technical respon­sibilities.

“This will rapidly improve power availability in the short term while the government develop clarity to articulate an integrated national electricity policy and a practical implemen­tation roadmap that harmonises national and sub-national elec­tricity reform efforts to ensure rapid and expansive delivery of reliable, adequate, and affordable electricity.

“We are too endowed to be a nation of generators and to be trapped in darkness. We cannot grow our economy in darkness.”