Multimedia journalist, formerly covering development, health and gender at Daily Trust. Newsletter designer and writer; digital marketer; communications designer; social media content developer; video content producer and editor, web editor and manager.
Author of newsletters "The Ville", "The Brief", "Farmers Network" and "5 Things to Start Your Week".
Former author of "COVID-19 Update" newsletter.
2016 Women Deliver scholar.
2017 ICFJ fellow
Six federal monuments dot Kwali area council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), but the area is still very rural. In the shadow of any of the monuments, it is still quite easy for Yabagi Imame to take a dump in the bushes of Yangoji, but that's becoming very unacceptable lately.
In February 2011, I started work as an online reporter. I was giving up the big-fish-in-small-pond world of broadcast journalism at CCN Lokoja to the Nemo-lost-at-sea world of Daily Trust, Abuja. This was just the time when the "online" tag was hitting Nigerian media and existing print publications had no idea what to do about it.
The poxes: there’s small, there’s chicken. And now there’s monkey-and it is scaring the living daylights out of Nigerians. Don’t even mention cowpox or horse pox. The first cases were discovered in Bayelsa. On September 22, health officials there notified the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control of a strange illness in an 11-year-old boy.
From 2009 till date, the uprising in Nigeria’s north east has escalated from insurgency to outright terrorism. Tens of thousands have been killed—in Boko Haram attacks, caught up in the midst of counterattacks by the Nigerian military. But the brunt of suffering has been on children. The dead are counted, the living are shells of themselves.
Some 56,000 of them are in Borno alone, one of three most affected states, according to the Presidential Committee on the North-East Initiative, set up to coordinate humanitarian response to the crisis across the region. Abdullahi Asimi worked until 2013 on a project to identify OVCs, get them into school and get school authorities to waive some fees.
Another year, another epidemic. Now, don't panic. There isn't an outbreak-not at the moment, at least. But one could be lurking around the corner. They come in seasons, so much so the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) speaks of preparing for the "next epidemic season.
The head of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention was in a meeting of physicians discussing what to do when Ebola comes into the country. Then Abdulsalam Nasidi got a message. It has landed, the SMS said. He told his colleagues in Yoruba: "O ti de."
You have a baby, and there comes a time when-by choice or necessity-you might need to introduce infant formula. You go for the choice brand on the market. After all, who wants their precious little one not to get the best? Don’t be deceived.
A mother of six children, 50-year-old farmer Ladi Isaac, is a lynchpin in preventing the next outbreak of Lassa fever in Abuja. She is the epitome of a basic lesson in Epidemic Preparedness 101: physical insecurity compromises health security. And prioritising one at the expense of the other is a huge mistake.
On their second visit to receive their rations of power food, the twin girls looked filled-out. Their health was returning.
Names of young people intimidated, harassed, extorted, killed rolled out in the #ENDSARS protest. Enebeli, a student of marine engineering, couldn't get on the streets. But Enebeli, @kadetXx, could get online. He had started learning how to code online in January. That would be the start of his contribution.
Alkali Musa Kukawa is returning home for the first time since 2014-to his family, the two wives and 34 children he'd been torn away from. "I'm happy, I'm so happy," he says, his voice strained with emotion, tears brimming in his age-worn eyes.
It was the epidemic that didn't happen. In November 2019, Nigeria was yet to be bogged down in the coronavirus pandemic. A passenger's vitals caused a scare at the international airport. Ebola was suspected. The passenger was whisked off to University of Abuja Teaching Hospital.
For 39 years, no case of the rare viral monkeypox disease was reported in Nigeria. Then in 2017, the country was facing its largest outbreak. More than 300 cases were reported between 2017 and 2019, mostly limited to Lagos and Delta on the coast. By September, the virus jumped to the eastern coast, hitting Akwa Ibom.
After two whole weeks of lockdown in Abuja, Lagos and Ogun, the government extends lockdown for another two weeks. Nigerians are reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, in both body and mind, but there's a way to cope.
Five-year-old Biodun was spending Christmas and New Year with his grandmother in Ondo when both were taken ill. They got treatment, and Biodun returned to Abuja as soon he was okay. The grandmother still lay in hospital, and the doctors got a diagnosis: Lassa fever.
All the gaps in the plan had been stopped. The activities required had been mapped. What each would need was costed. Each actor was known and in place. The plan was ready lock, stock and barrel. Lilian Okafor lined it up and tapped a button that said "enter".
Retiring is the new attire Times have changed from the days of business suits, corporate ties and leather shoes polished to within an inch of their life. So, too, for the skirt suit and high heels that go with the work space. Different business sectors are approaching the new dress mode differently.
Twelve weeks later, a call from the office dashed her hopes. HR was recalling her: her leave had ended. A journalist, she argued she was entitled to 16 weeks of paid leave, and had four more to go.
NYSC Orientation Camp once sheltered graduates on compulsory national service for three weeks every year. Now it shelters more than 4,700 people displaced from their homes by Boko Haram insurgency. Nearly 1,000 of them are children aged under five. Among them is Mohammed Munir, 1.
Some were students, some were family heads. The only common thread was that they were found and quickly labelled suicide. And then the media frenzy begins: 300 words on news pages rake through their life, headlines speculate reason, weekend features rake through the grief and confusion the bereaved family is thrown into.
The Nigerian National Association for the Deaf has petitioned the Nasarawa state government to change the principal of the Government Comprehensive Special School, Lafia, citing mismanagement and misconduct. More than 5,960 people have already signed an online petition calling for the removal of Baerbel Jaja, principal of the Lafia-based special school.
The presidency ordered a 14-day lockdown on Lagos, Ogun and Abuja on March 30. And it went on for two more weeks. By May 4, it was starting a "gradual easing" of the lockdown.
On the edge of Nyanya, an invisible line separates Nigeria's capital Abuja from the neighbouring Nasarawa state. Human traffic flows in both directions. A health worker aims a thermal reader at each person's head to get a readout of their temperature. It is the routine for crossing the boundary.
Maryam Ahmed was overweight as a child and is still battling with it. In her adult years, she has committed to diet and exercise-and helping other young people deal with being overweight. "I make sure not to eat too much and that I eat what I am supposed to be eating, an adequate diet," she says.
When Gloria Okwu was diagnosed for breast cancer in 2017, she went into a panic. She considered funds and fear. "People kept telling me cancer treatment kills. Of course, the treatment is not intelligent. If you take those treatments, you suffer side effects," she recalls.
All across the north east of Nigeria, millions of children have been displaced, orphaned or maimed by violence in the wake of Boko Haram insurgency across the region. They live in turmoil: haunted by night, desperate by day. Without help, their futures are bleak, and their country could pay the price. They are stressed. And it is toxic.
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
Daily Trust: In the midst of death, these men and women continue to practise their profession of saving lives, even when all the odds appear stacked against them. Always at risk, and almost never at rest, they share their stories.
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
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(0 Likes) After decades dealing with bloodsucking mosquitoes and the death toll they bring, where is Nigeria on malaria elimination? Six African countries have the potential, according to analysis by the World Health Organisation, to eliminate local transmission of malaria by 2020-and Nigeria is not among them.
(0 Likes) After decades dealing with bloodsucking mosquitoes and the death toll they bring, where is Nigeria on malaria elimination? Six African countries have the potential, according to analysis by the World Health Organisation, to eliminate local transmission of malaria by 2020-and Nigeria is not among them.
In Gaye, Kuje area council of FCT, the lone dilapidated school was converted into a clinic because it has no health centre. By Judd-Leonard Okafor
Guosa is to be to West Africa what Swahili is to the East. "Biko funmi ni ruwa" is "please give me water" in Guosa.
Up to six out of every 10 children in five northern states-Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Yobe, and Zamfara suffer stunting, which impairs their physical and mental development, says new research suggesting malnutrition has reached 'crisis point" in Nigeria.
Botched birth surgeries adding to fistula numbers in women By Judd-Leonard Okafor
Alheri, a forgotten community of people affected by leprosy.
Three-year-old Okikijesu Olawuyi, the Nigerian child without a skull, has undergone six surgeries so far in an American hospital to get a skull, doubling her surgery bill to $530,000, says the charity Global Initiative for Peace, Love and Care, GIPLC. Okikijesu is scheduled to undergo at least eight surgeries in one year from May, initially estimated to cost $234,000.
Daily Trust: Nigerian government is uncertain about some $10 million in funding for therapeutic foods (called plumpy nuts) used in treating children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM), which affects up to 1.7
Daily Trust: The Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) has begun a push for government to extend maternity leave to six months in efforts to protect maternity and exclusive
Daily Trust: The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) on Wednesday arrested a woman who’s worked as a doctor for years using forged documents, making her the first female fake doctor on its
Daily Trust: Advocates of improved breastfeeding of children in Nigeria have called for businesses to help improve the number of babies exclusively breastfed by changing workplace policies in favour of
Maryam Sharif had a false alarm, and the nurses sent her back home. Then she went into labour by evening. Thirteen hours of prolonged agonising labour left her bleeding. She went unconscious before her new little girl arrived. Only a tiny three-gramme tube of chlorhexidine gel stood between the newborn and definite life-threatening infection.
Details Category: News Written by Ruby Leo & Judd-Leonard Okafor Martins Ugwu, who used his friend's medical credentials to work in the health ministry's headquarters is to refund nine years salaries he drew while impersonating his friend.
Necessities are bare and life is uncertain, but new life is being born on camps for displaced people-and no idea how to feed new mouths By Judd-Leonard Okafor
Necessities are bare and life is uncertain, but new life is being born on camps for displaced people-and no idea how to feed new mouths By Judd-Leonard Okafor
'School without walls' takes a look at classrooms after disaster By Judd-Leonard Okafor
A chartered airplane carrying Nigerian volunteers working to help contain Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone landed in Abuja after being delayed for nearly nine hours in Freetown for reasons of documentation. By Judd-Leonard Okafor
Nigeria has a new plan to eradicate malaria by 2020, and it will cost N4.13 billion
Three-year-old Okikijesu Olawuyi, the Nigerian child without a skull, has undergone six surgeries so far in an American hospital to get a skull, doubling her surgery bill to $530,000, says the charity Global Initiative for Peace, Love and Care, GIPLC. Okikijesu is scheduled to undergo at least eight surgeries in one year from May, initially estimated to cost $234,000.
One in four Nigerian carries the gene for sickle cell and two carriers have a 25% risk of having a sickle cell child with each pregnancy. By: Judd-Leonard Okafor
Medical doctor Bariyu Yusuf is Nigeria's answer to ventriloquism with a repertoire of three voices, and counting.At every stage performance, he speaks for himself and two pals-friend Charlie the Chicken and best friend Dog .Never mind the pals are just furry puppets, but their separate voices in a live chat come clear off the stage with precision.
National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development has ruled out any "room for suspicion" in its handling of candidate diabetes plant remedies submitted by herbalists. By Judd-Leonard Okafor Read More: NIPRD rules out "suspicion" over diabetes remedies http://dailytrust.info/index.php/health/16990-niprd-rules-out-suspicion-over-diabetes-remedies
National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development set date for formal opening after delay. By Judd-Leonard Okafor
Nine-year-old Ummi Salma Abdullahi is to undergo a record surgery to correct deformities caused by tuberculosis she suffered at childhood. By Judd-Leonard Okafor Read more: GIRL WITH DEFORMED SPINE SET FOR RECORD SURGERY http://dailytrust.info/index.php/health/17009-girl-with-deformed-spine-set-for-record-surgery
Deep freeze-new keloid treatment using liquid nitrogen. This new treatment can be done using the office procedure where by the procedure can be done and the patient discharge the same day and it does not necessirily require the use of a theatre By Judd-Leonard Okafor
A report on the after effect of the Immigration Recruitment Examination Stampede. Judd-Leonard Okafor
More than 200 girls kidnapped since April still missing, and 100 days on public anger pours out against insecurity, religious divisions and Boko Haram
A teenager who underwent transplant surgery to get a kidney from his father last year has spoken for the first time to the media, urging government to consider funding organ transplants and helping patients get back on their feet.
Katampe, a community that's not had a single health centre for 50 years. Yet women there still choose to give birth at home rather than the next best option of going to Maitama district hospital or Mpape general hospital. By: Judd-Leonard Okafor
On average, 400 children are admitted for severe acute malnutrition a month in Zamfara. Many of them die. But some get on the road to recovery. By Judd-Leonard Okafor
12 children aged 8 months to three years in a series of free open-heart surgeries to correct heart defects. By: Judd-Leonard Okafor Read more: http://goo.gl/L0DDR3
FG's conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme That pays N5000 to pregnant womwen goes mobile cutting off the need for physical cash. By :Judd-Leonard Okafor Read Story http://goo.gl/hixYqi
Some 12,000 women, mostly young and poor, develop VVF every year, but few ever get treatment. Inside the surgery with volunteers repairing women with fistula. By Judd-Leonard Okafor
Nigerians travelling abroad will be required to carry the cards to show they have taken vaccination for yellow fever and that their inoculation is still valid. Recipient countries will no longer recognise the old cards from October in attempts to clamp down on fakes. Judd-Leonard Okafor
Open-heart surgeries used to be like getting on the moon. But that rocket-science status is being continually broken in countries as Nigeria, which exports its patients abroad for high-tech surgeries, along with millions of foreign exchange dollars. Follow the latest open-heart surgery
National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development has ruled out any "room for suspicion" in its handling of candidate diabetes plant remedies submitted by herbalists. By Judd-Leonard Okafor Read More: NIPRD rules out "suspicion" over diabetes remedies http://dailytrust.info/index.php/health/16990-niprd-rules-out-suspicion-over-diabetes-remedies
Seven years on, despite reported progress against malaria, Nigeria still needs ever more funding to tackle the disease and its vector
Seven years on, despite reported progress against malaria, Nigeria still needs ever more funding to tackle the disease and its vector
Relatives search for bodies of victim from the Abuja bomb blast at Nyanya park Abuja. By Judd-Leonard Okafor and Abdulwasiu Hassan
Record open heart surgery on Patient L shows it can be done in Nigeria
Follow a double kidney transplant done by doctors in Nigeria
At least 12 people were killed and dozens injured when a car bomb exploded at a bus stop in Nyanya, Abuja, just meters away from the scene of a similar blast that killed 75 nearly three weeks ago.
Gabriel Onogwu, 20, from Benue, has become a symbol of hope for failing kidneys across the country, after successfully undergoing a transplant.
