RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Kremlin responds to Ukraine’s threats to assassinate Putin

Russia is aware of the dangers coming from the “Kiev regime,” including its threats to assassinate President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

The spokesman was approached for comment on assassination threats against the Russian leader that had been voiced by the head of Kiev’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), Kirill Budanov, in a recent interview. Moscow is aware of the threats and takes measures accordingly, Peskov said.

“All the threats coming from the Kiev regime are obvious. Therefore, the security of the president is established at the proper level,”the spokesman told Russian media outlet Life on Saturday.

Budanov, who had been placed on Moscow’s terrorist and extremist list over his activities, revealed Kiev’s efforts to kill Putin in an interview with Ukrainian news outlet NV published earlier in the day. His service has made several attempts to assassinate the Russian president, he claimed, without providing any further information.

“[The attempts to assassinate Putin] took place, but, as you can see, they were unsuccessful thus far,” Budanov claimed.

Amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, several Western media outlets reported attempts on Putin’s life, attributed to Kiev. In September 2022, British tabloid The Sun reported an explosion near the Russian president’s motorcade, while, in early 2023, several German media outlets claimed the president was unsuccessfully attacked by a drone. At the time, the Kremlin dismissed such reports as empty sensationalism with nothing behind it.

 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Two dead in Russian 'double tap' attack on town near Ukraine's Kharkiv

Russian forces launched a "double tap" missile attack on Saturday on a small town near Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, killing two people, an emergency services official and a police officer, officials said.

Officials also reported four dead in a series of attacks in Donetsk region to the southeast and two more in southern Kherson region.

Prosecutors said the mid-afternoon missile attack targeted the railway station in Budy, southwest of Kharkiv. After rescue teams arrived, a second missile hit the area.

They said 25 people were injured in the incidents, including two children.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the head of the Kharkiv district emergency services was killed, along with a police officer from a rapid reaction unit. Among the injured were three emergency workers, a policeman and about 20 civilians.

Reuters could not verify independently the accounts and Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians. But Russian forces have used the "double tap" tactic to devastating effect.

Kharkiv remained out of Russian hands in the initial advance of the Kremlin's forces after the February 2022 invasion.

The city and surrounding area have since come under constant attack, though Ukrainian officials say the frequency has diminished since U.S. supplies of weaponry to Ukraine resumed after a break of several months.

Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin said an attack by multiple rocket launchers hit a multi-storey apartment building killed one person in Chasiv Yar -- a town targeted by Russian forces as a staging point in advancing through Ukraine's east.

A guided bomb, increasingly used in Russian attacks, killed one person near the town of Kurakhove, where some of the heaviest fighting is taking place along the 1,000-km (600-mile) front.

Two bombs dropped on a village further west near the town of Komar killed two people. Ten buildings and a shop were damaged.

In southern Kherson region, regional governor Oleksander Prokudin said Russian shelling had killed a couple in a village outside the main administrative centre, also known as Kherson.

Prokudin said Russian forces had shelled Ukrainian-held positions throughout the day. Russian forces seized Kherson region in the early days of the 2022 invasion, but Ukrainian forces recaptured many areas later in the year.

 

RT/Reuters

 

I’ve written this before. Ten years ago, but this man's story is new every time. To me. And to many who have crossed his path. On his 80th birthday on July 14, I’m repeating this story with the zeal and delight I shared it ten years ago: 

If the lot had fallen on Ajibola Ogunshola to be the undertaker, not many would have blamed him for the fate of PUNCH. 

He was 40 when he was appointed director. Though he was a star in the insurance world (former Managing Director of Niger Insurance) and one of Africa's leading actuaries (a consultant to the UN on pensions), he did not know jack about newspapers, if you get what I mean. 

For the three months that I worked in PUNCH as an intern in 1986, after Olatunji Dare's note paved the way, our paths did not cross. The Aboderin family was still in turmoil after the passing of the founder, James Olubunmi Aboderin, in 1984 at 49 years of age. 

Aboderin, an accomplished accountant at National Bank, was an extraordinary man whose presence and legacy were legendary. At the time, co-founder Sam Amuka (fondly called Uncle Sam) had left, but a relic of his time, like the famous armchair tucked away in a room in the last office at the old wooden building, was still there.

After the founder's death, Ogunshola's half brother, Moyosore Aboderin, who took over, invested quite a fortune to turn the company around, but the prospects remained bleak. The destiny of the Aboderin publishing empire – quite formidable in its heyday – now rested mainly on the shoulders of a 43-year-old non-newspaperman.

I returned in 1989, this time as a reporter. At that time, you could gauge the public mood or government temperament by the writings of newspapermen, whether in the Tribune, Sketch, Triumph, Daily Times, New Nigerian, Newbreed or 

Newswatch.

PUNCH was also a significant force. On the Board were the likes of Lekan Are and Lolu Forsythe, who, together with those in the editorial department, especially Najeem Jimoh and Ademola Osinubi, would be instrumental in helping Ogunshola rebuild in the years ahead. However, the company's redemption was squarely the burden of this non-newspaperman.

He turned this "disadvantage" into an incentive. He became an avid consumer of the news and how it is produced, distributed and consumed, letting facts and figures show the way. Most of all, whenever decisions were made, he ensured execution with ruthless efficiency.

I learnt of one rare occasion when Are – perhaps the most feared and respected in equal measure on the Board – brought an advert for publication. Are handed the copy to the editor (in the presence of Ogunshola) and asked him to publish the next day. There was no discussion of payment. The Editor was afraid to ask. 

When Are left the office, Ogunshola asked the editor about payment. 

“I didn’t ask him, sir,” the editor replied.

“Well, go and tell him it will be paid for.”

The editor rushed after Are, who returned with him to the office, obviously upset.

He asked Ogunshola if he had sent the editor after him.

“I did, boda,” Ogunshola reportedly responded firmly but politely. “You remember that we agreed at the Board meeting that all adverts must be paid, without exception.”

Are opened his wallet and wrote the cheque.

I am trying to remember which of my stories or feature articles first caught Ogunshola’s attention. I was a small fry, unconcerned about what was happening at the top. But, somehow, Ogunshola noticed. 

After I had been in the PUNCH for nearly one year, the Editor, Osinubi, told me that the chairman was gathering materials for a book. He wondered if I could help with research. 

I was confused. At the time, Ogunshola had the reputation of a taskmaster amongst staff. When he took over as Chairman, he sacked 400 or so of the 600 staff members in one day. I thought sending me to his Ajele, Lagos office was putting me on the supplementary sack list.

But I met a completely different man. He is challenging, deep and engaging - a man who calls a spade by its first name. I spent the next 18 months in his office researching, asking questions and taking notes. This was the inside story of how court battles, family feuds and not a few frenemies brought Aboderin’s dream dangerously close to the edge.

We toyed with a few names for the book, and I think he finally settled for Against All Odds – a fitting title for a book that never was.

If he didn’t restart the book on his 70th birthday, it’s improbable he would do so now. 

“I have cleared my library substantially,” he told me at the height of Covid-19 in 2021. “I do only essential reading and retain the most important records.”

He has left a trove of living words in my heart with chapters to read for a lifetime. I still have one of his lectures, “Lessons from the 2014 National Conference,” delivered at the Second Chris Ogunbanjo Lecture Series on May 18, 2017.

I believe there is no better summary of the National Conference than the one provided in Ogunshola’s 16-page lecture. I have carried it in my bag for seven years and used it very often, especially on matters related to restructuring.

Before measurement became a hot topic at international journalism conferences, Ogunshola insisted that "what cannot be measured cannot be rewarded". He infused PUNCH with the values of innovativeness and a near-obsession for rational thinking. His work ethic makes you strong if it doesn't kill you. 

He is a man of strong views. He resents tardiness, collectivism and all shades of intermediaries in a way that reminds me of Thomas Sowell’s contempt for collective bargaining.

He waged trade wars against newspaper agents and advertising agencies for fairer commissions or more transparent practices. Some of these were solo wars, which earned him powerful enemies, while a few were under the umbrella of newspaper publishers, of which he was president.

Apart from the crisis after the death of the founding chairman, perhaps one of the most challenging wars was the one against the military. PUNCH was shut down thrice, the third and longest under General Sani Abacha, which lasted 18 months.

There was pressure on Ogunshola to beg Abacha. He refused, insisting that the newspaper had done nothing wrong. It was a very, very tough call. I remember him saying afterwards, "If the closure had continued for another three months, the paper would have gone down irretrievably." 

But he stood his ground, and the rest is history.

At 80, he is slowing down. But thanks to a lifestyle of moderation, contentment, and empiricism – a decent amount of money to keep him as well as he can be at 80 – he looks good for another 10, at least. 

The non-newspaperman has paid his dues, with some change to the bargain. 

Long may your legacies endure, Baaroyin of Ibadan!

** Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP

 

The Iloko, offspring of Arelu, (Iloko Omo Arelu) are held in awe in Yorubaland. For a people who fought one another in internecine wars that began in 1793 and lasted for almost a century, Yoruba give effusion of reverences to people with unusual bravery. Their reverence for the Iloko however comes from this clan’s queer and odd brand of bravery: Spillage of blood. The Iloko earned their renown from decapitation of heads. They cut off human heads with magisterial finish, holding the familial history of being the king’s executioner. In ancient England, as execution of enemies of the monarchy was done through the guillotine, in the Oyo Empire, it was done by the Iloko with sword. Iloko harvested multiple cognomens on account of their deft beheadings. They were the meticulous Cutter of heads, the Bé’ríolá (one who relishes decapitation) and whose swords guzzle blood. The Iloko is one who, even if the sword is as pint-sized as a Kèmbè short, masterfully uses that sword to decapitate his in-laws. His rationalization for beheading one with whom he shares matrimonial bloodline is, whoever gives one their child to marry is the rightful one to behead.

A verse in Iloko’s cognomen recitation depicts their bloodthirstiness. When other farmers cultivate yearly hectares of plantations of maize, okra, yam and “òsìbànbà tí ńbe l’órùn ebè”, the Iloko mock these farmers’ naivety of true essence of farming. To demonstrate how farming should be done, the Iloko dug thousands of heaps. Therein, he buried decapitated heads like yam heads. Unfortunately, the heads refused to sprout. When his attention was called to the barrenness of his planted seedlings, the Iloko’s excuse was that every human creation, including animals, has their own setbacks! The paradox came when the Iloko ran afoul of the king’s laws and he was slated for execution. The Iloko then stretched his legs and hands pleadingly and demanded from the executioner which of his body parts would be cut off: the hands or legs?

Last week, in my J. F Odunjo and the hunger this time, I reflected the acute hunger ravaging Nigeria. It is an understatement to say that many of our countrymen are dying of hunger. Some wander aimlessly on the streets, uttering indecipherable monologues, dialogues with God-knows-who. Some are locked up in sanatoria, their sanity dispossessed off them as a result of social de-masculinity. Once cohesive homes lose the social glue that gums them in amity; no thanks to the emptiness of their pantries. Financial impotence is leading to husbands losing their manhood, causing katakata in homes. Many once prude wives are now delectable prawns on adulterous beds of men with money. Female children are forcibly dispossessed of age-long home values at money-point, becoming easy preys to the lures of Sodom. In the midst of this social upheaval, Aso Rock’s tepid and Babelian answers to our affliction of hunger appear like a kick-and-go children community football. Its policies stagger and somersault like a village Burukutu local alcohol drunkard.

Before the ink of my pen dried last week, however, Aso Rock had provided answer to Nigerians’ hunger. The First Lady of Nigeria, Remi Ahmed Tinubu (RAT), immediately moved to her backyard inside her expansive powerhouse abode. Therefrom, she emerged with solutions. She planted okra, ewedu, waterleaf, green vegetable, lemon grass and bitter leaf. She even suddenly became a doctor. Like a knowledgeable medic, RAT clinically told us how measles can be cured by eating ewedu. For ulcer, said the medic, plenty waterleaf is answer. No contribution to the national food drive could be greater.

Less than a week after, the Nigerian president, Bola Ahmed-Tinubu (BAT) also came up with government’s response to the stasis in Nigeria’s agriculture. Last Tuesday, he announced the creation of a new Ministry of Livestock Development. Its establishment was part of the recommendations of ex-Kano State Governor and Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje-led National Livestock Reforms Committee. Then, he appointed a herder in academic gown, Attahiru Jega as co-chair of the committee. With Ganduje and Jega, Tinubu is prepared for the hara-kiri of sacrificing a child of Ore to the Ore deity.

President BAT and Madam RAT’s responses to the acute hunger in the land possess features similar to the Iloko. Is this couple of Iloko descent? It is only Iloko who plant human heads in heaps in the guise of yam seedlings. The way the Aso Rock couple is going about this hunger quench drive, rather than okra, ewedu, waterleaf, green vegetable, lemon grass and bitter leaf, they may need to dig more millions of heaps and furrows. Dry heads of hungry Nigerians may occupy those heaps. Does Madam RAT not know that home gardening is too tokenistic, too tiny an offering to propitiate to the god of acute hunger that ravages Nigeria? I also see the Iloko paradox in BAT’s Ministry of Maalu (cows). In demanding from his executioner which of his body parts would be cut off, the Iloko executioner conflated a process he jolly well knew to be wrong. He then deliberately chose to sell a dummy of personal naivety to his nemesis. Does President BAT actually believe that a ministry of livestock is response to our hunger? And it is a response to the farmer-herder crisis that has ravaged Nigeria for close to a decade now? Do BAT and RAT, like Iloko, take pleasure in hunger literally decapitating Nigerians?

It looks like this is a season when our own bat is being smoked out by owls, hawks and snakes, the bat’s greatest predators. Chiropterologists (scientists who study bats) reveal that, apart from these predators, the greatest threat to the bat is a disease called the white-nose syndrome. It is a white fungus that perches on the muzzle and wings of bats and which affects their hibernation. In Canada, white-nose has killed 90% of one of bat’s species. It was detected in 37 states and seven Canadian provinces. In Nigeria, the cause of our unprecedented inflation in history is ascribed to a disease called white-nose. It afflicts our BAT and its prognosis is Bretton Woods’ economic prescriptions.  With them, the beak-nosed economists hold our bat by its balls. Brian Tamuka Kagoro, Zimbabwean human rights activist and constitutional lawyer, defines this as political elites “getting into cahoots with foreign interests and are willing to sell their children, great grandchildren and grandmothers in exchange for expensive cars, for investments overseas, for little shining trinkets, never factories that produce… a splendid display of foolishness.”

Within Nigeria, the bat is also facing demonic predators. They come too in the form of owls, hawks and snakes. It is Northern Nigeria. For a man who said his life-long ambition was becoming the Nigerian president, the North is intent on putting sand-sand inside BAT’s second term gari. The northern anger is manifest. Afro-haired Twitter minstrel, Shehu Sanni, alerted us to this. That northern adder – Nasir El-Rufai, and his irreverent-tongued legislator child are fighting like a decapitated venomous snake. While the father is sending cryptic messages laced with apocalypse on X, the son is spitting venom like a badly-brought-up puppy spits saliva. BAT is their target. His northern enemies are also coalescing. Recently, we saw an elésìnrìn (worthless) pilgrimage to Daura, where the most effete of Nigerian leaders in modern history lives. Nasir, the adder, was also there to offer his infamous kneeling before powerful leaders. Shakespeare predicted this coalesce in Julius Caesar: “It is the bright day that brings forth the adder and that craves wary walking.” BAT’s bad governance of the last one year has brought forth the adder of flip-flops that dog his path.

Not minding its ambiguity, the north is also using the Samoa agreement as ploy for re-grouping of bile. In the senate last week, the north had scathing words for BAT. Ali Ndume, who in 2021 was quizzed for his alleged romance with Boko Haram, complained that the Lagos Boy runs a government that blocked access to quality advice. So also Ahmad Lawan who complained that Tinubu’s policies “have caused hunger and unbearable hardships.” Wonders seem to have ended! Like sharks that can smell blood hundreds of meters ahead, the north has smelled a BAT wall with huge cracks opened by mis-governance. This was a region that kept mute for eight years as Buhari picked his teeth and drifted into deep sleep. It preened its feathers like an Odidere bird when BAT announced a presidential Muslim-Muslim ticket. What it didn’t know was that BAT is just a jolly good fellow who enjoys good life. Full stop! Those Islamic religious prescriptions the sons of Uthman Dan Fodio thought he would help them fight mean nothing to him. 

The kitchen is now getting hotter. The North’s opportunist alangba (lizard) must poke its nose inside this man-made crack to feed on ants. What could not be achieved under a Muhammadu Buhari whose greatest joy on earth was to own cows in his ranch is now being pushed under a man who hails from where the philosophy is not to bow for the cow for the sake of its meat. For the jolly good fellow, to dobale (prostrate) to the maalu so as to have access to its meat is a moral non-starter. It is immaterial. Establishing a Federal Ministry of Maalu is a dobale to the maalu. Perhaps this will appease the children of Fodio?

The wisdom in establishing a Maalu ministry is very far between. If the motive is to placate the north for a second term, does the Iloko know that blackmailers, all over the world, are insatiable? Blackmailers are akin to the proverbial wastrel child, the Omolokun, who won’t rest until it demands his parents’ life. Second, as has been revealed over the years, herders are terrorists who do not deserve human pity. The kernel in that alleged statement from Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is eternal: “It is God’s prerogative to forgive terrorists but my own business is to dispatch them to Him.” Yes, insecurity has decimated food security in Nigeria, with food inflation cruising at frightening altitude. What Nigeria needs now isn’t a beatification of terrorists, nor pandering to a set of people by a government afraid of re-election. It is strategic planning, emergency measures that can tackle insecurity and cross-border pressure on our food production. The minister of agriculture was quoted recently to have said that our silos are empty.

The hugest problem the Maalu ministry will face is that southern governors will still not allow herders graze on their soil. It is a truism that nowhere in the world are herders allowed to graze openly and brazenly as they do in Nigeria. It is obvious that in its conception of this Maalu ministry, FG didn’t reckon with the poultry and grains sector, as well as other livestock animals like piggery which are currently facing the most horrendous policy hemorrhages. Should we now have a ministry for each of them? By the way, which brand of federalism do we practice in Nigeria where a federal government that has no livestock under its umbrella, creates a ministry of livestock?

As last week got set to wind up, the Iloko got decked in victory regalia. The Supreme Court announced that the executioner has secured yet another 774 heads to plant on his heaps. Thirty-six heads of state governors were already in the kitty, demonized and tar-brushed as enemies of the struggle for a better Nigeria. We must thank the Iloko for this victory against our governor-vassals who have turned local governments into their backyard farming? It is to the 774 heads we must look up to for redemption of our decadent infrastructure, impassable roads, payment of teachers’ salaries, council workers’ salaries, gratuities, new minimum wage and others. It is the greatest victory yet for the Iloko whose sword is law. As the Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde, brilliantly remarked, “The Supreme Court’s judgment…is a distraction; we need to face the real issues we have. Nigeria is not productive. There is hunger and anger in the land.”

We hope, with this judgment, Betta Edu will now be taken to the court to answer to the charge of allegedly siphoning N585.2 million from the Humanitarian Affairs ministry and that gari will now be within the reach of the common man. God bless this Supreme Court judgment that will make hunger a thing of the past in Nigeria. 

 

The god at 90

When I wrote Is Soyinka, the god unraveling?, (April 9, 2023) many people thought I belonged to the rank of those misbegotten children who make a pastime of casting aspersions on the literary avatar, Wole Soyinka. As Yoruba will shout while expressing their indignation, can an epileptic, who makes serial pun of dying, ever be compared to one who dies once and totally? – “taa l’ó ńjé omo akuwárápá níwájú omo akúyányán?” What equation will come on earth that will make a small fry like me look into the eyes of a god like Soyinka?

The truth is, very few human beings are capable of unbuckling the sandals of that literary god. We must however keep the tradition of keen interrogation, fearless x-ray of personas and personages which Soyinka himself taught us through his non-conformist and iconoclastic essays, plays and public interventions. Kongi never taught us that gods were beyond fallibility. As fiery as King Sango was in old Oyo Empire, his major flipside was his scorching temperament which led to his suicide at Koso. Soyinka has his’ and his children-sans-biology like us owe him the responsibility of bringing out what we consider the mucks in his eyes.

Several parts of Soyinka the elephant have been explored and I am not ready to regurgitate them here. However, I am sure Soyinka cannot die. While here with us in human form, his deeds have transited him from mere mortality into enduring immortality. He will live like the Great mythic musician, Orpheus and his wife, Eurydice. Soyinka has left the realm of the human. He is a mythical being who, when this Isara god eventually transits, would just transmute into an imaginary myth recited in incantations. As a hunter, his guild would sing the Iremoje, hunters’ recitals at their colleague’s passage.

Happy 90th birthday to the god we are opportune to behold in human form.

 

Ogunsola: Celebrating the man who wanted my head

In the year 2000, whilst I was Features Editor of the Nigerian Tribune and a budding columnist with the newspaper, a friend from the Punch alerted me that a hunt for my “head” was in the offing. He narrated how it began. Chairman of the newspaper, Ajibola Ogunsola, suddenly walked into one of the newspaper’s editorial meetings and declared me wanted. He was said to have declared his admiration for my writings and asked that I be head-hunted. The man he saddled with that responsibility was the highly respected columnist and editor of the newspaper, Azubuike Ishiekwene.

It was impossible not to have heard of Ogunsola. Mere mention of his name evoked dread and awe in Nigerian newspapers’ newsrooms. Several tidbits about him oscillated in the media firmament. An actuary, this Ibadan, son of the famous Ibadan textile merchant, Madam Janet Alatede, sat like an octopus as head of Punch’s board. To some, his octopus hold on the newspaper was desirable at a time when mediocrity had become a pestilence in newsrooms. To many others, Ogunsola was deserving of general dread. He didn’t allow people to make second mistakes, we heard. You could resume in Punch in the morning and head for the gate before dusk, your infraction being an unconscionable murder of the god of English grammar. More frighteningly, we were told Ogunsola was an atheist. The latter didn’t scare me, having had a romance with atheism, too. My teachers in the philosophy department of the University of Lagos pumped magnum opuses of atheist philosophers into my brain. Teachers like C.S. Momoh, Mama Sophie Oluwole, Joseph Omoregie, Tanu de Peter Bah, (TDP Bah) then doctoral student, Kolawole Olu-Owolabi, (God bless his soul; with his then emerging limping legs!) among others. Martin Heidegger, Albert Camus, Jacques Derrida, French satirist Voltaire and the likes played atheistic hide and seek on our heads. They were only diluted by the faith teachings of hunchback Danish theologian, Soren Kikekergaard.

Not long after, Ishiekwene called me. In those days, if Azu of the highly regarded Azu on Saturday column spoke to you, you had heard from God. It was same with Funke Egbemode, another columnist of the newspaper’s Saturday paper. They were delights, indeed must-read, for their wits and pithy dissection of issues of Nigeria’s contemporary socio-politics. So Azu delivered Ogunsola’s message.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I had committed the gaffe of telling one or two of my colleagues what I heard from the Almighty Chairman of Punch. In those days, Punch and Tribune were like the famous thespian, Oyin Adejobi’s dramatization of his cripple-from-birth life story called Orogun Adedigba – the jealous co-wives. The two newspapers sought to best each other in quality and quantity of their daily sales.

In the process of transmission of the tale, our avuncular Managing Editor, Folu Olamiti heard of my impending club transfer. He never asked me. I just began to get unsolicited pieces of advice from those who surrounded me. I shouldn’t dim my “stardom” by leaving the Tribune. It was better to be a star in a known firmament than being a moon in an uncharted stratosphere. Then, a few weeks after, Olamiti suddenly made some promotions. I became Deputy Editor, with a fatter take-home. So, when Ishiekwene called, I had more of dread of Punch than a desire to port.

Thirteen years or so after, one Sunday morning, I had an opportunity to meet the highly feared, reported atheist in his Lagos home, in company with Olalekan Ali, Oyo State Secretary to the State Government. Our boss, Abiola Ajimobi, felt Punch, owned by his kinsman, one of the greatest scions of Ibadanland, Olu Aboderin, was unfair in its reportage of his administration. So we met Ogunsola who told us that government should deliver its promises to the people and Punch would promote its activities. Ogunsola then gave us a great breakfast. As we ate, I broached the story of his order for my head. Smilingly, he confirmed it. I left him that morning elated to have met one of the strongest pillars of Nigeria’s journalism administration.

Today, Baba Ogunsola clocked 80 years. I got this information from the brilliant tribute to him penned by my sister, Abimbola Adelakun, last Thursday. All I have to offer Ogunsola are the evocative words of our elders called Ayajo. Ayato are incantatory words deployed in esoteric metaphors and similes in Yoruba discourses. They are targeted towards desirable outcomes. They are also known as transcendental words spoken to issues that need magical powers to come to pass. While offering prayers of continuous availability and good health for valuable persons, traditional Yoruba initiates chant, and I chant along with them, for Baba Ogunsola: As’odunm’odun l’awo as’odunm’odun, as’orom’oro l’awo as’orom’oro. Ase!

For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ ~ Romans 5:17.

Introduction:

The subject of dominion is quintessential to the Christian life. It cannot be over-emphasized neither should it ever be overlooked on our journeys of destiny. In fact, failing to give sufficient attention to it may result in being dominated upon by situations one does not understand and may be unable to control.

Since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the possibility of reigning alone eluded man once and for all time. And Satan has also enthroned himself as a big crafty monarch, so much so that no man can free himself from his diabolical rule. Hence, all those who wish to truly reign in life can only do so through Christ Jesus.

From Revelation 5:10, we clearly see that heaven has concluded that “we shall reign on the earth”. The position here, as in some other Scriptures, is that the dominion over the earth has been given to the saints (Genesis 2:28; Exodus 19:6; 2 Peter 1:3).

The word, "reign", in the context above, means that the believers in Christ are exalted to a glorious state of authority that we might be triumphant over all our enemies (Revelation 21:4; 22:5). It denotes a complete freedom from condemnation, and a bestowal of power over sin, sickness, poverty, fear and death.

We reign in life when we reign over all appearances of evil through the victory we have in Christ, wherein Satan is bruised under our feet in our daily encounters. No doubt, reigning in life though Christ provides the believers with certain heaven-on-earth experiences.

Of course, we shall eventually reign with Christ in His thousand-year reign in the new earth, where righteousness will be fully enthroned (Revelation 20:4). And by reason of this, we shall gain the ultimate victory, and partake in the splendors of Christ’s dominion above, where there shall be no more sorrow (Revelation 3:21; Luke 22:30). And, this is the sure estate of all the saints in glory (John 3:36). Alleluia!

Saved to Reign in Life

The settled fact to hold tight at this stage is that, indeed, we are “born-again” to reign again in life, and God has provided abundant grace to put this into effect in our daily experiences (Romans 5:17-18).

Adam transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and this attracted death to the entire human race. But, Jesus died to redeem us, and to restore unto us the lost platform of dominion, to reign in life!

Meanwhile, it is very important that we understand that the reign of saints on the earth is not only in a spiritual sense. Our reign practically covers all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Jesus Christ who called us unto His glory and virtue (2 Peter 1:3).

God expects that His people would gain so much ascendancy, and that the affairs of the nations would be in their hands (Revelation 1:6). Yes, He expects us to have roles in governance, fill places of trust and responsibility, and have controlling voices in the affairs of our societies (Daniel 7:27, Revelation 20:1-6). These are facts to keep, and very basic Bible truth we all must fully internalize!

Validating Your Reign in Christ Jesus

Please observe that nobody makes it big in this world without a very strong connection in the realm of the spirit to start with. This is because our world is a product of the spirit realm.

In addition, you must know that your present identity in life as well as the future status you desire to see are very closely associated with your thoughts and feelings, which are also intrinsic to what you hear, receive and believe.

In order, therefore, to validate our reign in Christ Jesus, it is basic that we fully embrace the gracious truth which defines and empowers it. This makes it imperative, therefore, to believe in Christ Jesus who died for our offenses, and freely offered us His gift of righteousness as a necessary qualification for reigning in life (John 1:12; Jn.13:20).

These above require very dynamic engagements of faith, but we cannot do otherwise because receiving it or not implies either reigning with Christ or being overruled by the mundane circumstances of life. Yes, salvation is the key to becoming enlisted among the approved operators in the realm of the spirit.

Jesus Christ is the One who carries the original signet of authority to dominate and rule this earth (Matthew 28:18). Hence, only He can initiate and establish the believers in the spirit realm of dominion and life (John 3:3).

Notwithstanding, receiving the truth and becoming initiated is just the beginning of the process of reigning in life. The truth must also be retained if we desire to truly reign in life. Moreover, reigning actively strikes the present continuous sense if we go on to daily engage the grace bestowed on us.

Those who receive, retain and engage the abundant grace offered by Jesus Christ are not only redeemed from the empire of death, but are also connected to the throne of God to reign with Him forever (Revelation 1:5-6; 2:7,10-11; 3:21).

Furthermore, in order to engage the grace of God to become successful in our active bid to reign with Christ, living daily as a “meditating Christian” is a practical approach to adopt in our lives.

Why meditation? The Bible posits that your life is shaped by your thoughts, and you would end up becoming what you habitually think of (Proverbs 4:23). Hence, God told Joshua to keep meditating on His Word if he would experience good success in his life and calling (Joshua 1:8).

Dear friends, please keep in mind that while freedom and might are implied in the figure of ‘reigning’, ‘Zoe life’ is the glorious atmosphere for it. God’s kind of life, ‘Zoe’, springs out of justification, in contrast with the death that springs from sin and condemnation.

This is life in its widest sense, and it fills the entire being for the entire duration of the believer’s human existence, and even beyond. This blissful eternal life springs in the human spirit, soul and body out of a loving relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

In conclusion, it is important to consider it that, apart from reigning here on earth, your destination hereafter matters much more. If you maintain a positive connection with God on earth, you will make it to heaven. But, the truth is: real hell for all eternity equally awaits those who reject the life of God, no matter how successful they appear to be here on earth. May God be merciful unto us all, in Jesus Name. Amen. Happy Sunday!

____________________

Bishop Taiwo Akinola,

Rhema Christian Church,

Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Connect with Bishop Akinola via these channels:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bishopakinola

SMS/WhatsApp: +234 802 318 4987

One day, as I was reading Jesus’ Sermon of the Mount yet again, I suddenly heard the Lord say to me, deep within my spirit-man: “Femi, the end justifies the means.” 

What does this have to do with the beatitudes? Can we, should we, justify the end by the means? Is it godly to do so? I decided to search the scriptures for the answer.  

Immediately, the whole thing opened to me like a book. I discovered that, in the kingdom of God, the end always justifies the means. 

Does this mean it is okay to rob a bank, as long as you succeed? Yes; that is precisely what it means. But there is a catch-22. It is impossible to rob a bank successfully. No matter who we are; we are all going to answer to God for our actions and inactions. Therefore, if we were to rob a bank we might escape the detection of men; but we cannot escape the judgment of God. 

David thought he had killed Uriah, married his wife, Bathsheba, and gone scot-free. But nine months later, Prophet Nathan showed up to inform him God saw it all. All evil is done in the sight of God. There is no escape for the wicked.   

Wisdom of serpents

Jesus says: “The sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” (Luke 16:8). 

When the sons of this world have an objective, they go to any lengths to achieve it. Tell them to bury five hundred cows and they will do it. Tell them to bring the foreskins of one hundred Philistines and, like David, they are likely to bring two hundred in order to make assurance doubly sure. Tell them to sleep with ten prostitutes possessed by legions of demons and they will obey.

Paradoxically, God likes this kind of people. They have the raw materials the Holy Spirit can readily work with. They are the ones likely to remove the roof of a building in order to get to Jesus. They are the riffraff, like blind Bartimaeus, who refuse to keep quiet until they get Jesus’ attention. 

Jesus says: “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matthew 11:12). In the kingdom of God, the last become first, and the first become last. The last go all the way, but the first are usually complacent.

Have you never wondered why God loved Jacob so much? Jacob was a master practitioner of the kingdom dynamic whereby the end justifies the means. He knew what he wanted, and he went for it by all means. He refused to be denied. 

If you refused to give Jacob something, he would steal it. If you refused to give him money, he would pick your pocket. If you refused to tell him the time, he would steal your wristwatch. Jacob would climb any mountain and cross any ocean to get what he wanted.

God loves this kind of person. He is the kind of sinner Jesus is looking for in his kingdom. Once converted, he will not be lukewarm but will suffer violence and take the kingdom by force. If you can get this kind of sinner to fall in love with God, you can be sure he will be a man after God’s heart.

What about the sons of light?

We are a bunch of jokers. We say we want to go to heaven but tell us to sell all we have and give the proceeds to the poor, and we are likely to have a change of mind. Tell us to fast, and we will not. Tell us to pray, and we come up with excuses. Tell us to read the bible, and we would rather read “Mills and Boons.” 

But do we really want to go to heaven? Yes, we do. But we do not want to pay the price. Jesus says: “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we mourned to you, and you did not weep.” (Luke 7:32).   

Make no mistake about it; the sons of this world give up a lot for success. They give up joy, peace, and love. They murder sleep. Some even mortgage their souls in order to make it. The end justifies their means. In the end, they realise their dreams and become ministers, commissioners, ambassadors, and managing directors.    

But the sons of light have been deceived. We have been sedated into slumber. We have been churched into believing Jesus has done it all and we need to do nothing. Yes, it is the good pleasure of the Father to give us the kingdom. Nevertheless, there are giants on the way to the Promised Land. That means we must go through the wilderness and fight spiritual battles upon battles. But we fight, knowing we will win in the end.

The End

You watch a film and, after about ninety minutes of twists and turns, the hero finally marries the princess, and then “THE END” appears on the screen. But it is a lie. The story did not end there. In fact, at that point, the marriage just began. 

Only Jesus can declare THE END. It is the end that justifies the means. But remember, Jesus is the beginning and the ending. You rigged the election and became President of the Republic. Who told you that is the end of the story? What shall it profit a man if he becomes the President and loses his own soul? 

It does not end with this world. It ends with Christ. It ends with the Lord in heaven and the means to the end is the choice we make, whether to follow God’s narrow road that leads to life.

Way of suffering

A Christian wants to go to heaven, so he goes to the motor-park church. He asks which vehicle is going to heaven. They tell him Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6).  

He asks which vehicle is Jesus? They show him a terrible ramshackle old mammy-wagon. It has neither form nor comeliness. There is no beauty in it that he should desire it. (Isaiah 53:2). On the vehicle is written boldly the caption: “Life of Suffering.” 

But beside it is a Rolls Royce. “Where is that one going?” he asks. “That one is going to Abuja.” The man decides he would rather travel in a Rolls Royce than in a battered mammy-wagon. As a result, he ends up in Abuja where he gets a lot of government contracts and makes a lot of money. But heaven, and not Abuja, is the final destination.

The beatitudes are all unpleasant. There is nothing nice about being poor or mournful. Neither does it feel good to hunger and thirst. The meek are often taken advantage of, and it is not wonderful to be persecuted and reviled. 

Nobody likes it when all kinds of evil things are said falsely against us. But if that is what it takes to confirm our status in the kingdom of God, then the glorious end certainly justifies the suffering means. 

Jesus says: “He who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 10:22).

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; www.femiaribisala.com 

Sam Pyrah

We’ve stopped believing they’re messages from the gods. So what are dreams – and what purpose do they serve? Here’s what the science says

When my husband brought me a cup of tea in bed the other morning, I could barely muster a “thank you”. I was furious that he’d spent the night blatantly cavorting with another woman (a friend of ours, no less).

Never mind that it only happened in a dream. The emotions – betrayal, outrage, rejection – felt real. My next words – “I had a dream last night” – echoed what Oscar Wilde is said to have deemed the most frightening sentence in the English language.

My husband would probably agree. He rolled his eyes as I told him what he’d been up to. It’s not my mind’s first screening of this particular dream, though the exact cast and plot vary.

Do such dreams reveal anything? A generalised anxiety? A deep-seated mistrust? A premonition? Or, as some researchers have posited, is dreaming meaningless “noise” – a byproduct of the frantic neuronal activity that occurs during the phase of sleep known as “rapid eye movement” or REM sleep?

Jane Haynes is a London-based psychotherapist. She originally trained as a Jungian psychoanalyst and still believes there is great value in working with dreams and the unconscious. “Dreams carry a message of some kind,” says Haynes. “They communicate in a nocturnal language.”

It’s not, however, a language that lends itself to universal translation. Despite pop psychology claims to the contrary, dreams about teeth, or flying, or being naked in public do not each have their own one-size-fits-all meaning that can simply be decoded.

“As a psychotherapist, I am guiding, not decoding,” says Haynes. “It’s always the context that’s important when trying to make sense of a dream. Someone telling you what your dream means takes away your agency.”

Haynes, along with neurologist and sleep physician Oliver Bernath, curated a Dream Symposium at the Royal Institution in London on 21 June. One of her motivations is to encourage people to take dreams more seriously. “They are an incredibly important part of our lives,” she says. Consider that we spend roughly one-third of our lives asleep – and about 20% of the time we are asleep dreaming – and it’s hard to argue.

Before we delve into the question of why exactly it is that we spend so much time in essentially a hallucinatory, delusional state, a word to those of you who claim not to dream at all. Sorry: you’re wrong.

Sleep laboratory research has shown that when people who say that they don’t dream are monitored and periodically woken up during the night, they have been dreaming. They just don’t remember it in the morning.

The study of dreams – called oneirology – has a long history. In traditional Chinese culture, dreams were a portal into the future; in ancient Greece, it was believed that dreams were messages from the gods. “Sleep dormitories were held in the great arenas, where citizens could go to incubate their dreams, with ‘dream guides’ on hand to interpret them,” says Haynes.

While we now know that dreams come from within, it’s still not entirely clear what purpose they serve.

It’s a question that Mark Solms, a neuroscientist at the University of Cape Town and the keynote speaker at the Royal Institution’s symposium, has been investigating for more than three decades. His research has shed light on an intriguing, and seemingly contradictory, function of dreaming.

It’s natural to assume that the brain is in a resting state during sleep. Far from it. “Brain imaging studies show that during REM sleep, neuronal activity increases in many regions,” Solms says. These include the visuospatial lobe and motor cortex, which govern movement and perception; the amygdala and cingulate cortex, which are the emotion-processing centres; and the hippocampus, which deals with autobiographic memory.

The other sleep phases characterised by greater brain activity are shortly after falling asleep (in what’s known as the “sleep onset phase”), and when we are moving towards waking up (the “late morning effect”). “All three of these phases are associated with dreaming,” says Solms.

You’d think one would get a better night’s rest without having to flee marauding zombies or play a piano concerto naked at the Royal Albert Hall – but Solms’s hunch was that dreaming actually protected sleep. To test his theory, he studied a group of people with damage to a particular part of the brain called the parieto-occipital cortex, which meant they did not – could not – dream. “They woke up repeatedly, especially just after they entered each phase of REM sleep,” he says. “I have rarely witnessed such poor sleep.”

In simple terms, this suggests that one of the functions of dreaming is to harness all the brain activity that occurs during REM sleep, rather than allowing it to wake you up.

One region of the brain is less active during REM sleep: the prefrontal cortex. This is the rational decision-making centre of the brain; Solms calls it the “head office”. It’s as if when this rational part of the brain is off duty, other parts can run riot.

For Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, dreams represented our suppressed (and usually sexual) desires. But this has largely been dismissed. As Solms points out, “many of our dreams are anything but wishful thinking”.

Indeed, research spanning 40 years and looking at more than 50,000 dream reports shows that negative emotions are more commonly experienced than positive ones during dream states. The most commonly reported emotion is anxiety; over 80% of people have dreamed of being chased. Haynes says that this slant towards the dark side is reflected in the dreams that symposium attenders have been uploading to the event’s website. “I don’t know why so few joyful dreams have been reported. We mustn’t just focus on dreams as unpleasant states of mind.”

But there may be method to the brain’s madness. In a series of fascinating studies, beginning in the 1960s, the late Rosalind Cartwright (AKA the “Queen of Dreams”) monitored the sleep and dreams of people going through marital breakdowns. She woke them up during each phase of REM sleep to find out what they were dreaming about and discovered that those who dreamed about their situation were better able to cope with their real-life stress than those who did not. She also found that the “emotional tone” (the term used to describe feelings associated with dream “action” – anxiety, confusion or shame, for example) of these dreams lessened with each phase of REM-sleep dreaming, eliciting a more neutral emotional response.

When Cartwright reassessed her subjects a few months later, those who had not experienced dreams about their spouse/marital breakdown were more likely to have become depressed, leading her to describe dreaming as “an internal psychotherapist”.

When I tell Haynes about my recent dream, and how I couldn’t help feeling annoyed with my husband in the morning, she tells me that it is common for waking mood to be affected by dreams – remarkably, even when we don’t remember them. “Being able to attribute your mood to a dream experience is actually quite valuable, because it gives you the power to defuse it,” she says.

The idea that dreaming can help us work through unpleasant thoughts and events – the “emotional regulation” hypothesis – is now widely accepted and backed up by further research. In one study, subjects were exposed to a set of emotionally powerful images while having their brain activity measured inside a functional MRI scanner. One half of the subjects saw the images in the morning and again, 12 hours later, in the evening. The other half saw them in the evening and for the second time the following morning, after a night’s sleep. Those who’d “slept on it” reported a less emotional response to the images the second time around than those who had not, and their MRI scans showed less activity in the emotional processing centre of the brain, suggesting that sleep – specifically, REM sleep – had toned down the distress associated with the experience.

There are, however, other theories about the function of dreams.

Simulation theory – rooted in evolutionary biology – posits that dreams are a rehearsal for threats and negative situations, offering us “experience” to draw on should we face such situations in real life. (I’ll be well rehearsed if my husband ever does run off with someone else, then.)

Rehashing, rather than rehearsing, is the basis for the continuity hypothesis, which frames dreams as a reflection of recent waking life concerns, thoughts and experiences (something Freud called “day residue”). For example, animal rights activists dream more about animals than the average person. And dog owners who sleep in close proximity to their dogs dream more about dogs than those whose canine companions sleep in a different part of the house.

If that all sounds a bit literal, it’s worth noting that research by Robert Stickgold, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, suggests that continuity isn’t concerned so much with events as with the associated emotional tone. He found that dreamers themselves were able to recognise the emergence of daytime emotions, experiences or concerns in their dreams.

Stickgold went on to look at the effect of dreams on memory consolidation, using a virtual maze study. First, subjects had to find their way out of the maze from different random locations, passing memorable landmarks along the way. Over the next five hours, half the group got a 90-minute nap while the others remained awake. When they were retested in the maze, sleep had had a positive effect on memory but people who had dreamed specifically about the maze, or clearly related themes, improved their performance 10 times more than those who did not. Sleep was important, but it was dreaming that served as a problem-solving activity.

It is said that the 19th-century Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev envisioned the periodic table in a dream. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan: or A Vision in a Dream allegedly came to him in a dream (and remained unfinished because he was disturbed while trying to write it down on waking). While the evidence that dreaming (as opposed to sleep, per se) can boost creativity is largely anecdotal, Haynes says that our dreams are a unique resource through which we can access our creativity. “And they are free,” she adds.

I’m still not sure what to make of my infidelity dream – let alone the one in which I have killed someone and hidden the body, only for it to be discovered decades later. But I am convinced that there is more to it than random electrical activity.

“I have no trouble with the idea that dreams reveal something,” says Solms. “What’s surprising is that after 120 years of dream research – and all the technology at our fingertips – we still know so little.”

 

The Guardian, UK

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that approximately 60% of public sector workers were hired through nepotism, bribery, or both between 2020 and 2023. The findings are part of the "Corruption in Nigeria: Patterns and Trends" report, based on a survey conducted with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The survey showed that 27% of respondents used bribery, 13% relied on nepotism, and 19% used both methods to secure employment. Additionally, 46% of those hired admitted to paying a bribe, a significant increase from the 31% reported in 2019.

In a video on social media, Amarachi makes a stew that replaces pricey tomatoes with more affordable watermelon chunks. “Today we say bye-bye to tomatoes,” she says. As Nigerians adjust to soaring food prices, the video has gone viral.

Tomato prices that fluctuate with the seasons are normal in Nigeria, but the record annual pace of food inflation, which hit 41% in May, is not. Most pinched are the poor. Staples such as beans and maize cost 400% more than they did a year ago, while a 100kg bag of sorghum has more than tripled in price. Since wages have barely moved, the result is a deepening food crisis. Whereas hunger was once concentrated in conflict-ridden areas in northern Nigeria, now it affects poorer households nationwide. Of the 44m people in west Africa and the Sahel who do not get enough to eat, more than half are Nigerian.

Much of the blame should be heaped on the government. A haphazard introduction of new banknotes under the previous administration led to a shortage of legal tender. This caused most hardship in the countryside, where penetration of bank or mobile-money accounts is lowest. With cash scarce, farmers charged middlemen a premium if they used electronic payments, pushing up prices in the markets.

A weakening naira dealt another blow—its 40% fall against the dollar made it the worst-performing currency in the world in the first half of this year. That has pushed up the cost not only of imported foods, but also of seeds and fertiliser. The government’s removal of fuel subsidies, though necessary, further raised the cost of running farming machinery and taking harvests to markets.

Even after the effects of these short-term problems have passed, Nigeria will still face the longer-term challenges posed by climate change. Most crops in Nigeria are rain-fed, which makes them vulnerable to drought. Meanwhile desertification is causing nomadic pastoralists to move their herds onto arable land, where the animals trample or eat crops, leading to conflict with farmers. Terrorism in the north-east, farmer-herder conflict in the north-west and criminality in Nigeria’s “middle belt” have all kept farmers away from their lands in the country’s breadbasket.

To ease the suffering, the UN’s World Food Programme is helping more than 1m of the most vulnerable people a month in northern Nigeria. And the World Bank has provided $800m for a conditional cash-transfer programme targeting 15m households. Though the programme has been launched and then relaunched, it remains stalled by bureaucratic inertia.

A year ago Bola Tinubu, the president, declared a state of emergency for food insecurity. Yet promises that savings from the fuel-subsidy removal would be reinvested into farming have not materialised. A programme to give free fertiliser to farmers to boost production was subverted by politicians, who put their faces on the sacks and gave them to loyal voters.

This week the government announced plans to waive import duties on maize and wheat and to set a recommended retail price. The government itself also plans to import 500,000 tonnes of grain. But so far Tinubu’s administration has been unable to stop prices from soaring. Last year Nigerians were already spending 59% of household incomes on food, a higher share than in any other country. How much harder can they be squeezed?

The Plateau government says 22 people died and 132 were injured in the collapsed building of Saints Academy in Jos, the state capital.

On Friday, the two-storey school building, which is located in the Busa Buji community of Jos north LGA, collapsed while students and teachers were in classes for the third term examination.

Speaking at the scene of the incident, Musa Ashoms, Plateau commissioner for information and communication, said the school had a population of about 400, adding that the section that collapsed was accommodating 200 students.

The commissioner said the collapsed school building was built on a waterlogged area, which did not meet construction standards.

Providing an update on the incident, Ashoms, in a statement, said the incident recorded 154 casualties, out of which 22 have lost their lives.

The Plateau commissioner said 132 victims are currently receiving medical treatment at various hospitals in the state.

“The collapse resulted in 154 fatalities and injuries. Emergency responders are currently at the scene conducting search and rescue operations,” the commissioner said.

“As of 6:00 pm, 154 people have been rescued from the debris. Sadly, 22 individuals have been confirmed deceased. Injured students and staff are receiving medical treatment at various hospitals across Jos.

“The Plateau state government activated emergency response protocols immediately upon notification of the incident.”

 

The Cable

Gaza talks explore alternative to Israeli troops on Gaza-Egypt border

Israeli and Egyptian ceasefire negotiators are in talks about an electronic surveillance system along the border between Gaza and Egypt that could allow Israel to pull back its troops from the area if a ceasefire is agreed, according to two Egyptian sources and a third source familiar with the matter.

The question of whether Israeli forces stay on the border is one of the issues blocking a potential ceasefire deal because both Palestinian militant group Hamas and Egypt, a mediator in the talks, are opposed to Israel keeping its forces there.

Israel is worried that if its troops leave the border zone, referred to by Israel as the Philadelphi corridor, Hamas' armed wing could smuggle in weapons and supplies from Egypt into Gaza via tunnels that would allow it to re-arm and again threaten Israel.

A surveillance system, if the parties to the negotiations agree on the details, could therefore smooth the path to agreeing a ceasefire - though numerous other stumbling blocks remain.

Discussions around a surveillance system on the border have been reported before, but Reuters is reporting for the first time that Israel is engaging in the discussions as part of the current round of talks, with a view to pulling back forces from the border area.

The source familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the discussions are about "basically sensors that would be built on the Egyptian side of the Philadelphi (corridor)."

"The idea is obviously to detect tunnels, to detect any other ways that they'd be trying to smuggle weapons or people into Gaza. Obviously this would be a significant element in a hostage agreement."

Asked if this would be significant for a ceasefire deal because it would mean Israeli soldiers would not have to be on the Philadelphi corridor, the source said: "Correct."

After Reuters published this article, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying it was "absolute fake news" that Israel is discussing withdrawing from the Philadelphi corridor.

"The prime minister insists that Israel remain on the Philadelphi corridor. He has instructed the negotiating teams accordingly, made this clear to U.S. representatives this week, and updated the Security Cabinet to this effect last night," the statement said.

The statement from Netanyahu's office appeared to diverge from remarks made on Tuesday by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

Gallant said, according to his office: "A solution is required that will stop smuggling attempts and will cut off potential supply for Hamas, and will enable the withdrawal of IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) troops from the corridor, as part of a framework for the release of hostages."

The two Egyptian security sources, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israeli negotiators had spoken about a high-tech surveillance system.

Egypt was not opposed to that, if it was supported and paid for by the United States, according to the two Egyptian sources. They said though Egypt would not agree to anything that would change border arrangements between Israel and Egypt set out in a prior peace treaty.

At a military event on Thursday, Netanyahu said he could only agree to a deal that preserved Israeli control of the Gaza-Egypt border, but he did not spell out if that meant having troops physically present there.

Talks are underway in Qatar and Egypt on a deal, backed by Washington, that would allow a pause in the fighting in Gaza, now in its 10th month, and the release of hostages held by Hamas.

Israel started its assault on the Gaza Strip last October after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, its forces have killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to medical authorities in Gaza.

Israeli officials have said during the war that Hamas used tunnels running under the border into Egypt's Sinai region to smuggle arms. Egypt says it destroyed tunnel networks leading to Gaza years ago and created a buffer zone and border fortifications that prevent smuggling.

Israel's advance into southern Gaza's Rafah area in early May led to the closure of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza and a sharp reduction in the amount of international aid entering the Palestinian territory. Egypt says it wants aid deliveries to Gaza to resume, but that a Palestinian presence should be restored at the Rafah crossing for it to reopen.

 

Reuters