Israel stages airstrikes across Gaza, makes arrests at hospital

Israeli forces carried out arrests in Gaza's largest functioning hospital, health officials and the military said on Saturday, as airstrikes hit across the enclave and rain battered Palestinians taking shelter in Rafah.

Israeli forces raided the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Thursday as they pressed their war on Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that rules the enclave.

"Occupation forces detained a large number of medical staff members inside Nasser Medical Complex, which they (Israel) turned into a military base," said Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday pledged to push on with the military campaign and said troops would move into the southern border city of Rafah.

The Israeli military said it was hunting for militants in Nasser and had so far arrested 100 suspects on the premises, killed gunmen near the hospital and found weapons inside it.

Hamas has denied allegations that its fighters use medical facilities for cover. At least two released Israeli hostages have said they were held in Nasser and Israel has released pictures and videos supporting its claim that Hamas operates within medical compounds.

The Israeli incursion into the hospital has raised alarm about patients, medical workers and displaced Palestinians sheltering there.

About 10,000 people were seeking shelter at the hospital earlier this week, but many left either in anticipation of the Israeli raid or because of Israeli orders to evacuate, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

Further south in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million population are sheltering, the winter cold added to already dire conditions when wind blew away some tents of the displaced and rain flooded others.

INTERNATIONAL CONCERN FOR RAFAH

Israeli plans to storm Rafah have prompted international concern that such action would sharply worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Netanyahu said Israel was intent on taking out Hamas battalions in Rafah - regardless of whether a deal was reached to free the remaining Israeli hostages - and that there will be room to evacuate the civilian population, including in areas north of the city.

"But we need to be sure to do this in an orderly fashion. That's the directive I gave to the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). The IDF is doing it and preparing it."

"Yes, there is a lot of opposition in the world, but this is exactly the moment we have to stand and say 'we will not do half the work or three-quarters of the work'."

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh blamed Israel for a lack of progress in achieving a ceasefire deal in Gaza, the group said in a statement on Saturday.

Haniyeh added that Hamas would not accept anything less than a complete cessation of hostilities, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and "lifting of the unjust siege," as well as a release of Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences in Israeli jails.

Israel's air and ground offensive has devastated much of Gaza and forced nearly all of its inhabitants from their homes. Palestinian health authorities say 28,858 people, mostly civilians, have been killed.

The war began when Hamas sent fighters into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

At least 83 people were killed in airstrikes across the Gaza Strip since Friday, health officials said, including one person on Saturday in Rafah, an area that borders Egypt and which Israel says is Hamas' last bastion.

Residents and medics said more died as night fell on Saturday when Israeli warplanes carried several airstrikes on at least seven houses, killing and wounding dozens of people. Hamas media outlets put the number of those killed at 38. The Israeli army spokesperson said they were checking into the reported strikes.

The Israeli military said its jets had killed numerous militants in Gaza fighting since Friday.

Across the border, air raid sirens warning of incoming rockets sounded in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Saturday.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Shoigu tells Putin Avdeyevka is under full control — defense ministry

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has informed President Vladimir Putin that the town of Avdeyevka near Donetsk has been taken under full control, the Defense Ministry stated.

"Today in the Kremlin, Russian Defense Minister Army General Shoigu reported to the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces that the Center grouping of forces under command of Col. Gen. Andrey Mordvichev has taken under full control the town of Avdeyevka of the Donetsk People’s Republic, which was a massive fortified stronghold of Ukraine’s armed forces," the ministry said.

"In the Kremlin today, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu reported to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin the group of troops Center under the command of Colonel-General Andrey Mordvichev gained full control of the town of Avdeyevka, in the Donetsk People's Republic, which was a major stronghold of the Ukrainian military," the Defense Ministry said.

An area of 31.75 square kilometers has been liberated from Ukrainian nationalists. The enemy’s losses in the fighting for Avdeyevka over the past 24 hours alone exceeded 1,500 men.

Under continued Russian fire only scattered groups of Ukrainian militants managed to escape, abandoning weapons and military equipment. At present, measures are being taken to clear the town of militants and seal off Ukrainian forces that have fled the locality and entrenched themselves at the Avdeyevka coke and chemical plant, the Defense Ministry said.

The Ministry stressed that information about the advance of Russian troops was not made public until the complete defeat of the enemy and the establishment of full control of the locality.

"The liberation of Avdeyevka made it possible to push the frontline away from Donetsk, thus significantly securing it from terrorist strikes by the criminal Kiev regime. The group of forces Center continues offensive operations to further liberate the Donetsk People's Republic from Ukrainian nationalists," it added.

** Russian air defense intercepts 33 Ukrainian drones in 5 regions overnight — ministry

During the night, Russian air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 33 Ukrainian drones in the Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Bryansk, and Kaluga regions of Russia, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Saturday.

"Tonight, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using 33 aircraft-type UAVs on sites on the territory of Russia was thwarted. The air defense systems on duty intercepted and destroyed 4 UAVs over the territories of the Belgorod region, 4 UAVs - over the Voronezh region, 1 UAV - over the Kursk region, 18 UAVs - over the Bryansk region, and 6 UAVs - over the Kaluga region," the ministry reported.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

At least three dead in Russian assaults on Ukraine cities, officials say

Russian forces shelled and fired missiles at a series of cities in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least three people and leaving others under the rubble of shattered buildings, Ukrainian officials said.

Two cities close to the front line in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region -- Kramatorsk and Slovyansk -- came under fire.

The city council in Kramatorsk said on Telegram that a missile hit a section of town used for industry and individual houses, killing two people. Rescuers were combing rubble for another person believed to be trapped beneath it.

Kramatorsk has been the scene of some of the deadliest attacks in the nearly two-year-old war, including a missile strike on the town's train station in April 2022 that killed 63 people.

Russian shells on Saturday struck a school in the nearby town of Slovyansk, with rescuer teams searching for at least one person trapped underneath piles of debris.

Russian forces have been making slow progress in their drive through Donetsk region, but both towns would be certain targets for Moscow if they made greater progress along the 1,000-km (600-mile) front line.

Further north in the town of Kupiansk, scene of heavy Russian attacks for months, one person was killed when a two-storey house was struck by Russian shells, the governor of Kharkiv region said.

Reuters could not independently verify any of the reports, but they occurred in areas where Russian assaults are frequent.

Russia says it does not deliberately target civilian sites.

** Zelenskiy urges leaders to send arms as 'artificial' shortage helps Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged allies at a global security conference on Saturday to plug an "artificial" shortage of weapons that is giving Russian forces the upper hand on the battlefield and said stalled U.S. aid was imperative.

Addressing the gathering of politicians, diplomats and military officials from around the world, who gave him a standing ovation, Zelenskiy mixed gratitude for the support shown by Western countries with urging them for more.

He spoke at a critical juncture in Russia's nearly two-year-old invasion of Ukraine, with his troops forced to withdraw from the devastated eastern town of Avdiivka.

Ukraine faces acute shortages of ammunition and U.S. military aid has been delayed for months in Congress.

"Unfortunately keeping Ukraine in an artificial deficit of weapons, particularly in ... artillery and long-range capabilities, allows (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to adapt to the current intensity of the war," Zelenskiy said.

He said that sending additional packages of weapons and air defences to Ukraine was the most important thing its allies could do.

"If your artillery (range) is 20 km (12 miles), but Russia's is 40 km, there is your answer," Zelenskiy said.

Some European leaders cast a downbeat assessment of Western efforts to help Ukraine.

"We should have supported you much more from the very beginning of this war," said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, "because Ukraine cannot win a war without weapons. Words are simply not enough."

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Europe should have started investing more in its defence industry two years ago.

Along with Ukraine, the conference focused on the war in Gaza, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggesting there was "an extraordinary opportunity" in the coming months for Israel to normalise ties with its Arab neighbours.

U.S. FUNDING

Asked about the delayed U.S. aid after a bilateral meeting with Zelenskiy, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, denounced "political gamesmanship" in Congress that had no place in such matters.

U.S. Republicans have insisted for months that any additional U.S. aid to Ukraine, and Israel, must also address concerns about migration.

Meanwhile Donald Trump, frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, has said he would ask European allies to reimburse the United States for around $200 billion worth of munitions sent to Ukraine.

That has raised concerns by Kyiv and its allies that U.S. funding for Kyiv in its war against Russia would dry up completely if Trump goes on to win a second term in the November U.S. election.

Zelenskiy said there was no alternative though to U.S. aid.

“We are counting on the United States as our strategic partner, that they would remain our strategic partner," he said.

EUROPE MUST UP ITS DEFENCE GAME

The delay in U.S. aid is putting more of a burden on Europe, with Germany the second-largest provider of military assistance to Ukraine. Berlin says it has provided and committed to some 28 billion euros ($30.2 billion) of such aid so far.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz side-stepped questions on Saturday on whether to give long-range Taurus missiles to Kyiv, although he did urge other European capitals to match Berlin's hike in military assistance.

Speaking to Reuters at the conference, Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said his country was "ready to stand up and be counted" on defence spending ahead of a NATO Washington summit in July.

The country last year set a target for the first time to raise its defence spending to at least 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2026, in line with a long-held goal among members of the NATO alliance.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Ukraine must be integrated into Europe's defence programmes as Russia was "outmassing Ukraine" with soldiers and by "throwing quick and dirty weapons produced in North Korea and Iran".

The European Commission will present a defence industrial strategy proposal in three weeks, she said, and will also open a defence innovation office in Ukraine.

A potential return of Trump to the White House is fanning fears about U.S. commitment to defending its allies.

Trump said a week ago that if re-elected later this year he would not defend allies within the NATO western defence alliance who fail to spend enough on defence - although the NATO charter specifically commits members to defending each other in the event of attack.

'STOP WHINING ABOUT TRUMP'

Trump or no Trump, Europe still has to strengthen its ability to defend itself, Scholz and others underscored at the conference, dubbed the "Davos of Defence".

"We should stop moaning and whining and nagging about Trump," said outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. "We do not spend more on defence or ramp up ammunitions production because Trump might come back."

"We have to work with whoever is on the dance floor," said Rutte, frontrunner to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as secretary-general of NATO when he steps down.

Stoltenberg reiterated the importance of not undermining the defence alliance with talk of European defence autonomy.

Talk in particular of a potential European nuclear deterrent that would not involve the United States is "not helpful", he told Munich delegates on Saturday. And it "would only undermine NATO in a time when we really need credible deterrence".

Tass/Reuters

On January 11, 2012, Bola Tinubu published a sober, thoughtful, deeply insightful, and penetratingly foresightful article titled “Removal of Oil Subsidy: President Jonathan Breaks Social Contract With the People” that uncannily prefigured the untoward consequences of petrol subsidy removal that Nigerians are currently grappling with.

The article has trended on social media in the last couple of weeks, but I had never taken the trouble to read it until multiple people who I regard highly sent it to me in what seemed like a coordinated torrent of forwards.

But after reading the 4,000-plus-word article and finding out that it predicted the current petrol-subsidy-removal mass excruciation Nigeria is suffering with almost mathematical exactitude, I became suspicious of its authenticity. It was too good to be true.

My incredulity compelled me to make inquiries, which led me to realize that the Nigerian Tribune had actually fact-checked the genuineness of the article on May 31, 2023. It not only found that it wasn’t fake but also scanned and uploaded a printed copy of the article published in The Nation, Tinubu’s paper.

I encourage everyone to read it. In the article, Tinubu derided the 2012 removal of petrol subsidies as the “Jonathan tax,” and the following paragraphs are particularly noteworthy for the mysterious precision of their prescience:

“Government claims the subsidy removal will create jobs…. The stronger truth is that it will destroy more jobs than it creates. For every job it creates in the capital intensive petroleum sector, it will terminate several jobs in the rest of the labor intensive economy.

“Subsidy removal will increase costs across the board. However, salaries will not increase. This means demand for goods will lessen as will sales volumes and overall economic activity. The removal will have a recessionary impact on the economy as a whole. While some will benefit from the removal, most will experience setback.

“What is doubtless is that the Jonathan tax will increase the price of petrol, transportation and most consumer items. With fuel prices increasing twofold or more, transportation costs will roughly double. Prices of food staples will increase between 25-50 percent….

“Most people’s incomes are low and stagnant. They have no way to augment revenue and little room to lower expenses for they know no luxuries; they are already tapped out. The only alternative they have is to fend as best they can, knowing they must somehow again subtract something from their already bare existence.

“There will be less food, less medicine, and less school across the land. More children will cry in hunger and more parents will cry at their children’s despair…. Poor and middle class consumers will spend the same amount to buy much less. The volume of economic activity will drop like a stone tossed from a high building. This means real levels of demand will sink.

“The middle class to which our small businessmen belong will find their profit margins squeezed because they will face higher costs and reduced sales volumes. These small firms employ vast numbers of Nigerians. They will be hard pressed to maintain current employment levels given the higher costs and lower revenues they will face.

“Because the middle class businessman will be pinched, those who depend on the businessmen for employment will be heavily pressed. States that earn significant revenue from internally generated funds will find their positions damaged. Internally generated revenue will decline because of the pressure on general economic activity. The Jonathan tax will push Nigeria toward an inflation-recession combination punch worse than the one that has Europe reeling.

“This tax has doomed Nigeria to extra hardship for years to come while the promised benefits of deregulation will never be substantially realized. People will starve and families crumble while federal officials praise themselves for ‘saving money.’ The purported savings amount to nothing more than an accounting entry on the government ledger board. They bear no indication of the real state of the economy or of the great harm done the people by this miserly step.”

Like I have done for years, Tinubu also fulminated against “European conservatives” whose economic prescriptions are at variance “with the needs of the Nigerian populace.” He even said something that is eerily close to what I wrote in a previous column. “There has been no nation on the face of the planet that has developed or achieved long-term prosperity by devotion to conservative, ultra-free market economic ideas that dominate this government,” he wrote.

“If no nation has grown using these conservative ideas,” he asked, why are we stuck with them? I have an answer, and it’s three-fold: sadly familiar Nigerian elite self-love, xenophilic obeisance to meanspirited racist wretches at the IMF/World Bank, and a visceral disdain and blithe unconcern for ordinary Nigerians.

Like Tinubu pointed out in 2012, the removal of petrol subsidies in 2023 merely took money from the so-called oil subsidy cabal and put it directly into the pockets of politicians without hurting the bottom line of the subsidy cabal. The cabal simply pushed the extra cost of importing petrol to consumers.

In the aftermath of the removal of subsidies, allocations to the three tiers of government rose by 29.05% in just six months. By the end of 2023, governments shared N15.1 trillion, which represented an increase of N3.4 trillion from 2022.

Note that, according to the Punch of September 22, 2023, N3 trillion was budgeted for petrol subsidies from June 2022 to June 2023 (although it was N1.57 trillion in 2021 and N1.27 trillion from January to May 2022, indicating obvious fraud). In other words, the money that would have been used to keep the pump price of petrol at less than N200 per liter was simply shared between the presidency, governors, ministers, and the rest.

State governors now receive several folds more money than their normal monthly allocations without a corresponding increase in their expenditures. Because they have way more naira than they have use for (of course, they don’t care about the masses), they convert the extra naira into dollars, which contributes to the relentless depreciation of the naira, according to the BusinessDay of February 13.

In other words, to put it even more crudely, the masses and the economy benefited more from the corruption of the subsidy cabal than from what has replaced it since May 2023. But, as I pointed out earlier, the subsidy cabal isn’t hurt in the least by this change. Apart from pushing the cost of importation to consumers, they are now receiving subsidies through the backdoor to keep the price of petrol from climbing to over N1,000 a liter, which the IMF is now instructing Tinubu to stop.

The only losers are ordinary Nigerians, small businesses, the informal economy, and the manufacturing sector. After Tinubu said subsidies were gone in May 2023, the GDP of the transportation sector contracted by 50.64% in the second quarter of 2023 and by 35% in the third quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The road transport sector is the most reliable barometer to measure the health of commerce and of the informal economy in Nigeria. Petrol subsidy removal is killing it. A November 28, 2023, BusinessDay headline succinctly captures this: “Subsidy removal pushes transport industry into recession.”

My job as an inveterate opponent of subsidy withdrawal is made easier by the knowledge that Tinubu knows the truth. He knows for a fact that petrol subsidies are not a waste, especially if the corruption in the administration of subsidies is addressed. He knows that it’s an investment in the people and in the economy.

Petrol doesn’t just power the transportation sector, it’s also the main source of electricity generation for industries, small businesses, and the vast majority of our people. Given that Nigeria has the worst electricity generation record in West Africa (and possibly in Africa), it’s easy to see why a drastic rise in the cost of petrol activates an across-the-board cost-push inflation and deepens the misery index in the country.

Tinubu knows this but has chosen to care more for the validation of the sadistic bastards at the IMF and the World Bank than the comfort and wellbeing of his people.

There’s no doubt that it’s the IMF and its evil twin, the World Bank, that are ruling Nigeria. Tinubu’s government is just a proxy. For example, just two days after the IMF told Tinubu he must remove electricity subsidies (I had no clue such a thing existed given the unreliable electricity in Nigeria) Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu announced that the government would withdraw electricity subsidies.

The same IMF has also instructed that the surreptitious subsidies the Tinubu administration is paying to stop petrol prices from getting to—or even rising above— N1,000 a liter must be stopped. Get ready for another bumpy ride, Nigerians. Until half the country drops dead from starvation, the IMF, which is the real government in Nigeria, won’t rest. I can guarantee you that.

Late Afrobeat superstar, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, in his early musical ensemble days as Africa ‘70, recalibrated a folklore that told the story of food shortage and hunger. The folklore, which Fela entitled Alujanjankijanbrims with the motif of greed and its implications. The hunger folktale goes thus: Long time ago, a very severe famine hit the animal kingdom, leading to intense food crisis. As against the predictions of diviners called to seek the face of divinities for solution, hunger continued to ravage the land, so much that the kingdom’s silos were completely depleted. Lion, the king of the jungle and the monarch of the kingdom, called a meeting of all known animals. After all, don’t the elders say, though “eat” and “become” are rendered same way in Yoruba lingual representation, what to eat occupies a higher hierarchical ladder than what we want to become? (Ohun t’a o je l’agba ohun t’a o je). With hunger pelting their bellies, all the animals literally crawled to the central square. Lion, with his hitherto luxuriant but now withered mane, cleared his throat and spoke. There was no gainsaying that the food crisis in the kingdom would prove fatal, leading to animals dying in droves, he said. Except urgent and quick remedy was procured, Lion underscored the calamity ahead. A drastic action was agreed, to wit, every mother of each animal must be offered in martyrdom to ensure a continuation of the animal race. The agreed modus operandi was that each of those mothers must be brought to the square and mutually devoured, for the sustenance of the race.

Upon hearing this, rather than toe the difficult line of the collective effort to stem hunger in the kingdom, at nocturne, Dog selfishly went home and parceled his mother out of the kingdom. He loved his mother so well that he would rather die than offer her as meal for the survival of the hounds of the animal world. Dog thus fled to a very remote jungle and, perhaps in a conjuration, hid Mother Dog in the sky. Every other animal, including Tortoise the trickster, complied and their mothers were brought to the square, tethered and collectively devoured. So each day, Dog walked to a particular spot and conjured out his mother by singing a song which Fela made a melodious offering of. The song goes thus: “Mother, Mother, send down your rope/All have killed and eaten their own mothers/I, Dog, took my mother to the sky/Mother, Mother, send down your rope.” In its original Yoruba rendition, it goes thus: “Iya, Iya, ta’kun wa le o/Alu jan jan kijan/Gbogbo aye pa yeye re je/Alu jan jan kijan/ Aja gbe ti re o d’orun/Alu jan jan ki jan…”

After each orchestra-like musical rendition, Mother Dog looked down from the sky and magnanimously dropped a rope which Dog climbed to the sky. There, Dog was treated to a feast by his mother. He did this to the curiosity of other animals about his rotund look, until Tortoise the trickster came into the equation. He clandestinely trailed Dog and found out the secret. The next day, the trickster went to the spot and, perfectly mimicking the Dog, sang same song and a rope was lowered. As he climbed the rope, Dog appeared and, totally flummoxed, began to sing, tearfully, that his mother had listened to the voice of a scammer. Didn’t his mother recognize his voice again? Infuriated, Mother Dog cut the rope and Tortoise landed in a ghastly crash which turned his carapace into shell of fragments. Scarcely able to walk, he meandered into the home of a native orthopedic who salvaged the shells by gluing them together. This story, aside teaching morals, using their experience of the desperation of food crisis, became Yoruba’s own cosmological explanation of the tortoise’s fragmented shells.

Make no mistake about it: there is hunger in the land. A viral video last week depicting the Nigerian food crisis in its grim showed a tumult of unruly crowd queuing for N100 bread at Lagos Island being whacked with lacerating cudgels. Among other crises, Nigeria is facing a severe food crisis that is threatening lives and existence. Food stress itself is not a totally new phenomenon in the world. Each country and epoch devises different responses to their hungers. In the period between the 1950s and 1960s, India was thrown into a cauldron of food shortages, so severe that the country of Jawaharlal Nehru became known as a “begging-bowl” nation. The same happened in the pre-historic world that was often ravaged by famine. In each of these countries, responses were devised for the crises. Take the example of Pharaoh’s Egypt during its bitter plague of famine. It bought food from other lands which it stored in silos. Egypt even promoted the biblical Joseph as Prime Minister to manage the era of food shortage.

In 1816, the grueling Napoleon war brought in its wake an extremely cold, dark weather throughout northern Europe and northeastern United States. It was said to have been as a result of a super eruption from the Dutch East Indies city of Indonesia Mount Tambora which triggered global climate shifts. It manifested as smoke and ash that gushed into the atmosphere. The sun was completely covered. It got so severe that in July of that year, in Albany, New York, as well as in other cities in northern Europe, snow was recorded for the very first time. For farmers, the Mount Tabora eruption led to huge crop failures and famine throughout the northern hemisphere. It was so severe that 1816 got nicknamed the “year without a Summer” and the “Poverty Year.” When they couldn’t get bread to eat, people resorted to eating sawdust and straw. The result of the Indonesian eruption was famine, riots, disease outbreak, and mass death. Trust literature to take its full course, the great Romantic poet, Lord Byron, who was living in Geneva at the time of this near apocalypse, penned a poem out of that calamity which he entitled Darkness.Byron drew a picture of an "icy Earth" that is enveloped by desolation, burning cities, and global warfare.

The starvation and famine provoked by the Indonesian eruption was so huge that many German and Swiss residents fled to Russia and the Americas and Italians moved to cities. It led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people who were killed by the combined effects of starvation and exposure to typhus. By 1817, as we have in Nigeria today, food prices had increased astronomically and dramatically. As a response to this, governments had to make direct interventions in failed markets, with local governments coordinating food imports to feed starving people.

Africa also had its own share of food crisis. In the 1970s, the drought in the Sahel and Ethiopia drew global attention to the famine in the Horn of Africa countries of Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia. The Ogaden war, similarly known as the Ethio-Somali war, was a military conflict fought between Somalia and Ethiopia which raged from July 1977 to March 1978 over the Ethiopian region of Ogaden, further worsened the famine. In Nigeria, the unsavoury civil war images of hunger and countrymen devouring lizards and toads for protein scared the world. From Ethiopia, skeletal images of hunger-ravaged Ethiopians surfaced, bespattering world television screens and littering pages of newspapers. As they sat comfortably to devour their dinners, the “unhealthy” images of children with distended stomachs, big heads and tiny legs on their television screens tampered with the appetites of world leaders. They had to do something urgent about it, if only to retain their appetites at dinner.

The current Nigerian food crisis is drilling down to the basest of the people’s agonies. Food and other goods’ inflation has soared to its highest figure ever. Hot protests are erupting like the scalding lava of volcanoes. The upward skyrocket in prices of staple foods is benumbing. Purchasing powers of the people have been stretched so thin that many families cannot afford to feed themselves. Cement price is said to have hit about N10,000 per bag while rice is nearing a hundred thousand Naira. Already, the spiking food prices with its rising inflation figure, is forcing Nigerians to troop to the streets in protests in Niger, Kano, Osun and Lagos States. Those who know the effect of this crisis are scared. The World Food Programme, (WFP) in its latest publication, is afraid that the crisis could have a globally consequential effect on the country’s over 220 million people, Nigeria being the most populated country in Africa and the sixth in the world. Before now, the about 84 million Nigerians, representing about 37 percent of the total population, who lived below the poverty line was worrisome to the WFP. Singling out conflict and insecurity, rising inflation and the impact of the climate crisis for the food stress in Nigeria, the WFP projected that the country’s 26.5 million people would face acute hunger in the June-August 2024 lean season. This is further worsened by the conflict in the North East which has succeeded in displacing 2.2 million people, leaving another 4.4 million food insecure in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.

Now, like the animal kingdom gathering, we are gathered to tame the monster of hunger. So, what are the responses from leaders of Nigeria? On his part, President Tinubu ordered the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to release maize, millet and gari of about 42,000 metric tonnes. He also met Nigerian governors at the Aso Rock Villa on Thursday where he sternly decreed that food importation was not an immediate panacea to the crisis. Tinubu also pleaded with the governors to deepen investments in the agricultural sector of crop production, livestock development and management to shore up food availability.

Northern Nigeria’s response to the food crisis has been to play the ostrich and effectively act the role of the Dog in time of famine. This it is doing by stylishly and selfishly ethnicizing the food crisis situation. The north’s stand is always predictably selfish, as if it is destined to go the way of the self, as against the collective. Reminds me of what my mother would say, of a man destined to go to bed hungry who, even if a bowl of pounded yam is kept on the rafter waiting for him, the rat would climb up to ruffle the bowl to tumble down.

The first selfish Dog was Niger State Governor, Mohammed Umar Bago. In the wake of the protest that rocked Minna a little over a week ago, Bago banned mass purchase of foods by traders from the southern parts of Nigeria from the state's local markets. Emir of Kano, Aminu Bayero, Like the Dog, also took north’s Mother Dog to the sky. While receiving Nigeria’s First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, in his palace last week, Bayero urged her to relate the message to her husband, Bola Tinubu, that hunger, starvation, and insecurity plaguing the country had become urgent issues to address. Also, speaking through an interpreter, in spite of several analyses that have been made on the vacuity of the north northernizing the FCT, by condemning the Federal Government’s plan to relocate offices of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and Central Bank of Nigeria from Abuja to Lagos, Bayero still doubled down on it.

Last Wednesday, at the 6th executive Northern Traditional Council committee meeting held at the Arewa House in Kaduna, Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar and his Northern Traditional Council, like the Alujanjankijan anecdote Dog, took the north’s Mother Dog to the sky. They warned that revolt of northern people looms if the rising poverty, hunger and insecurity in the country were not faced headlong.

There is no doubt that the current food prices are taking their tolls on the people. They also tug at the here-and-now, peremptory policies of successive governments of Nigeria who seem to lack a natural endowment of good leaders – the vision to see tomorrow. Truth be said, there had been warning indicators that Nigeria would face severe food crisis. It didn’t begin today. None of the leaders gave heed to them. When Fulani herders were ravaging the food basket states of Benue, Plateau, Adamawa, Taraba, Kaduna, Yobe, Niger and Jigawa where rice, peppers, cassava, yams, plantains, pineapple, maize, beans, and palm oil were got from, what, for instance, did the government of Muhammadu Buhari do? How did they warn of revolt of other parts of Nigeria? Agreed that the problem became hydra-headed with the announcement by the Tinubu government of an end to fuel subsidy payments at inauguration in May, 2023, as well as the unification of exchange rate windows, we cannot play the ostrich as if we didn’t know that the food crisis of today began under Buhari when farmers, due to insecurity, could not go to the farms.

Feelers from across most of the states still producing foods, in spite of the rampaging insecurity, reveal that a coordinated attempt is being made to stop food going to the south. I imagine what would be the effect if southern states also order essential commodities from their states not to go northwards. What would be the effect, for instance, if petrol is not allowed to go to the north? While the totality of Nigeria is feeling the brunt of the food crisis, northern leaders’ wolf cries appear too self-serving and selfish for comfort. When their son, Buhari, was making Nigeria hell on earth for the rest of Nigeria, how much of those cries did we hear from the Emir of Kano and the Sultan? This subterranean attempt to southernize the Nigerian hunger by the north fits perfectly into a hackneyed pattern of blaming the rest of the country other than it for Nigeria’s crisis. If northern forefathers had tamed the malady of Patience Jonathan’s “Born trowey” children, otherwise known as the Almajiri syndrome, we most likely would not have the banditry system on which Nigeria has sunk trillions of Naira and which has cut short the lives of thousands of the people. In the same vein, if the Borno State-born Mohammed Yusuf’s Islamist group, Boko Haram, was not allowed to grow by selfsame northern elders, Nigeria may not be grappling today with a ravaging insecurity that is majorly responsible for the Nigerian food crisis. If the north is trying to curate an Arewa or Uthmania Republic, it should concisely state this so that we will know that we need visa to enter each other’s zones and shout “to your tents oh Nigeria!” Otherwise, we cannot have a country that puts a leash on intra-trade relations.

The way out of the Nigerian food crisis isn’t to sectionalize our ordeal. It cannot even be helped by a tokenist declaration of national emergency on agriculture by Tinubu. He has to put on the garment of a statesman at this critical time. As urgent as quick fixes in taming deaths from starvation are, government must put on its thinking cap by looking for long-term and sustainable solutions. One way is to face agriculture with unexampled vigour. This is the time for Tinubu to search the length and breadth of Nigeria for his own Adedunmola Hezekiah Oluwasanmi, a professor of agricultural economics from the then University of Ibadan reputed to have incubated Obafemi Awolowo’s highly applauded agricultural programme. Oluwasanmi must still have progenies of his agricultural sagacity scattered all over Nigeria. The Nigerian food crisis demands almost a Marshall Plan, a sound economic policy that will prioritize agriculture and not the tokenism of more than half a century of governance that we have had. Institutional reforms that will safeguard land tenure and raise farmers’ productivity, thus boosting food supplies and lowering prices to consumers are urgently needed. Its final aim will be ensuring good returns for agricultural investments. For instance, why not give Southwest governors incentives to return to cocoa farming which is witnessing remarkable boom and bloom in the world market today, encourage southeast palm-oil and north’s essential farm products?

It is not rocket science. India, already an object of mockery in the comity of nations due to its ravaging hunger in the 1960s, embarked on and successfully accomplished a journey to food self-sufficiency and agricultural development strategy. Today, India is a major exporter of foods. A good, forthright and determined leadership can achieve the Indian Midas touch for Nigeria. Rather than each Nigerian region clandestinely ferrying its mother out of harm’s way like the Dog as the north is doing at the moment, Nigeria must collectively look for remedy to this crisis.

Faith: The Instrument of Supernatural Translation!

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God ~ Hebrews 11:5.

Introduction:

The entire Christian life is a supernatural experience from start to finish. As His children, God is ever ready to do the most extraordinary things for us and through us! He always wishes to move us supernaturally across time through the invisible heavenly realm in order to accomplish His plans, will and purposes on earth.

However, faith is a standard requirement for all of this. Faith is the key to everything in God’s kingdom (Romans 1:17). This is a fact that must be fully internalized by all people who have the dream of living on earth to glorify God.

Everything answers to faith, and faith answers to daring possibilities, even to God’s glory on earth (John 11:40). Faith holds the key that opens incredible doors, and it’s the most potent force of transformation in the whole universe.

We are told in Hebrews 11:5 that Enoch was translated by the force of faith. To translate means to transpose, to relocate, to move from one condition to another, to transport, and to transfer from one place to another. It also means to carry across (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

By faith Enoch was translated from the earth, and he was not found among men, because God took him away (Genesis 5:21-24). In other words, he didn’t experience death; he was taken up to heaven without dying.

Caught up suddenly, Enoch simply disappeared, skipping death completely. He thinned out life and limbs, because God took him up to heaven. Strange and absolutely incredible? Yes indeed, but that’s what faith can do!

I imagine that Enoch’s friends looked for him all over the place, and his foes also, including sin, sicknesses, poverty and death, looked but couldn’t find him because God had taken him. Our God is great and gracious. He’s alive, and He truly cares enough to respond to those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6; Jeremiah 33:3).

Undoubtedly, this experience of Enoch is a pointer to what God can do with the faith journey of the Christian believer (1Corinthians 10:11). Enoch’s sudden removal from mortality to immortality without death is like the change that will be experienced by saints at the rapture (1Corinthians 15:51-55).

Meanwhile, it must be understood that all true believers in Christ have experienced some form of supernatural translation already. We were legally delivered from the power of darkness, and carried across to God’s kingdom of light (Colossians 1:12-13; 2Corinthians 4:6).

We have passed from death to life (John 5:24). We’re no longer where we used to be (Matthew 28:6). We resurrected with Christ, ascended with Him above principalities and powers, and are presently seated at God’s right hand of majesty with Him (Ephesians 1:17-22; 2:6-7).

Certainly, our God is exalted above all gods (Psalms 97:9). Hence, when we were translated into His presence, we were simultaneously moved from satanic dominion to a new realm of light, automatically!

Through faith, Sarah received strength, having been translated to the strength of her younger years (Hebrews 11:11). By faith, Joshua became a commander in the realm of unique wonders (Joshua 10:12-14). And, by faith, King Hezekiah upturned the verdict of death, and had his lifespan extended by fifteen years (Isaiah 38:1-5).

By faith also, the three young Jewish men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who refused to bow to the golden image set up by King Nebuchadnezzar, defied the authority of fire to burn them (Daniel 3:1-30).

Now, we all can equally live in the power of our supernatural translation, practically; but we must determine to pay the price for enjoying the out-of-this-world experiences of these realities by faith on earth.

Pleasing God Is the Pricey Ticket Here!

Pleasing God was the ground of Enoch’s translation, and his walk of faith was his ground for pleasing God. Before he was taken up, he was commended as one who walked with God and pleased Him (Genesis 6:9).

It was his walk of faith that enabled Enoch to be taken up from the earth straight to heaven without seeing death. Certainly, the mechanism of faith in the experience of supernatural translation needs to be studied and well understood.

Walking with God is walking in faith (2Corinthians 5:7). Faith is the start-up mechanism for the out-working of supernatural translation because faith works in such mysterious ways as to generate divine pleasure.

There is no hope of sharing God’s supernatural characteristics if we don’t please Him here on earth (Amos 3:3). Those who would find God, must seek Him with all their hearts. We cannot come to God unless we believe that He is who He has revealed Himself to be in the Holy Bible.

Enoch walked with God, living in constant communion with Him. We too must determine to move experientially from where we are to a higher realm of glory (Deuteronomy 32:11-14).

Friends and brethren, translation by faith in varying forms is a New Testament possibility. It is our inheritance in Christ as well as our legal right as children of God. However, God is always looking for the willing and the obedient before He releases the bounties of the land (Isaiah 1:19).

In this class of Enoch, the Bible indicates that Elijah, Elisha, Philip, John and many other Bible characters enjoyed supernatural translation one way or the other as they allowed God to use them without reservation to accomplish His purposes upon this earth (2Kings 2:11-12)!

God is still moving right now for the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He’s on the lookout for those who will step up in their faith, laying down their own agenda for God’s will. He’s looking for those who will sack their personal fear, doubt, unbelief and carnal propensities. Will He find you?

Meanwhile, we all can enjoy the sweet experience of supernatural translation, not just basking in its legal realities, but practically enjoying it to glorify our God on earth. But we must eschew evil, fully embrace godliness and yield totally to the Holy Spirit.

The power of supernatural translation is a product of the fire of the Holy Ghost. Moreover, walking with God calls for a life of total surrender, a life totally controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Stir up your passion for God. Begin to pursue Him with a heart prepared to please Him in everything (Philippians 4:6-7). Give His Word its prime place also. Choose to walk in faith, always. Thereafter, you will see yourself walking in the reality of supernatural translation. You won’t miss it, in Jesus name. 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

The Santuario Della Beata Vergine Maria Delle Grazie, in Italy’s Lombardia region, is an old church famous for having a real taxidermied crocodile hanging from the ceiling.

What’s the last thing you expect to see when you look up in a church? Granted, there are plenty of interesting answers one can think of, but ‘a crocodile’ definitely ranks up there with the quirkiest of them.

But if you travel to the small municipality of Curtatone, in Lombardia, Italy, you’ll find a church with a five-century-old crocodile hanging from the ceiling. It’s a peculiar sight, to say the least, but one that has been around for as long as anyone can remember. How the croc wound up at the Santuario Della Beata Vergine Maria Delle Grazie is, and will probably remain a mystery, but its purpose had been linked to religious symbolism.

In ancient times, Christianity associated reptilian creatures like snakes, dragons, and crocodiles with evil, either as personifications of the devil or simply animals that lead humans to sin. So having it chained high up in the vault of the church served both as a warning for churchgoers, but also as a symbol of victory of good over evil.

While it might look like a prop at first, this is a real embalmed Nile crocodile (Crocodilus niloticus) believed to be at least 500 years old, with the church itself dating back to the 13th century. Over the years, many legends surrounding the origin of the animal circulated around Lombardia, but the two most popular ones involve a local animal menagerie and two brave brothers who fought the animal.

Some believe that the crocodile was caught and killed after escaping a private exotic zoo on the estate of Francesco Gonzaga, while others claim that the animal one day attacked two brothers resting on the banks of the Mincio River. One of them asked for the help of the Holy Virgin, and armed with a knife attacked and killed the crocodile.

According to another local legend, the crocodile was let out of its cage when a circus stopped in the area for a show, taking refuge among the reeds and lotus flowers. It is said the crocodile was even blessed with the gift of human speech by the Holy Virgin.

Whether you believe in these stories or not, the hanging crocodile of the Santuario Della Beata Vergine Maria Delle Grazie is a worthwhile attraction. It’s quirky, but it also speaks to the taxidermy skills of the monks whose job it was to turn the crocodile into a permanent exhibit.

Interestingly, this is not the only Italian church with a real crocodile on display. The Church of Santa Maria delle Vergini, in Macerata, and the Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime, in Ponte Nossa, have their own stuffed crocodiles.

Oddity Central

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared a two-day nationwide mass protest over the economic hardship being faced by Nigerians.

The two-day warning protest would be held on February 27 and 28.

Benson Ukpa, NLC national head of information, confirmed the development.

He said the decision was reached during an emergency session of the NLC held in Abuja on Friday.

On February 8, the NLC and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) gave a 14-day ultimatum to the federal government over the rising cost of living in the country.

In a joint statement, the unions said the government failed to honour the 16-point agreement that was reached on October 2, 2023, with them.

The labour movements accused the government of neglecting the welfare of Nigerians and the workers.

They warned that “everything must be done within the two weeks to avoid a situation where we may be compelled to take appropriate steps to protect Nigerian workers and masses”.

“These agreements which were reached with the federal government were focused on addressing the massive suffering and the general harsh socioeconomic consequences of the ill-conceived and ill-executed IMF/World Bank induced hike in the price of PMS and the Devaluation of the Naira,” the statement reads.

“These dual policies have had, as we predicted, dire economic consequences for the masses and workers of Nigeria.”

“Widespread Hunger is now ravishing millions of Nigerians, with the Workers purchasing power significantly eroded, while insecurity has assumed an increasing dimension. Nigerians are left wondering where their next meals will come from and what tomorrow might bring.”

The NLC and TUC had also issued a “stern ultimatum” to the federal government to honour their part of the understanding within 14 days from February 9.

The Cable

Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) has vowed to suspend operations on Monday.

Its National President, Yusuf Lawal Othman, made this known in a press statement he issued in Abuja on Thursday.

He noted that the statement is an official announcement from the association’s headquarters that the members are parking their trucks from Monday.

Reason provided for the strike action is because “what we spend on operation is more than what we get in total: both in local and bridging.”

According to him, members have been operating at a loss and it is no longer sustainable for them to endure the losses. 

The President said, “We will have to suspend operations from Monday. We cannot continue to operate at a loss. Most people have parked. A lot more are going to park.”

The President disclosed that NARTO’s efforts at soliciting the intervention of all the key stakeholders in the Federal Government and industry have not yielded positive results.

Othman revealed that the association has written letters to table the plight of unbearable cost of operation to the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu; Minister of Petroleum Resources; Director General, Department of State Services (DSS); Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) Chief Executive Officer; Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Group Chief Executive Officer; and the Marketers.

He said: “We have written letters up to the level of the Chief of Staff. We have written to the Minister of Petroleum Resources (Oil). I will send you the copy. We have written to DG SSS. We have written to the GCEO. 

“We have written to the Authority Chief Executive. We have written to the Major Marketers.”

He stressed that despite the notification to the above stakeholders, “No response.”

Analysing the market situation, which the members have endured for several months, he recalled that the same freight rate that was in force while President Muhammadu Buhari was in government is still subsisting.

According to him, the N32 Lagos to Abuja freight rate that was implemented while the dollar was N650 is still retained now that dollar is N1,615.

He said, “Everybody is aware that all our consumables in terms of operation are not produced in the country.

“So, by virtue of the rate of dollars, every consumable has increased. But the freight they are paying us has been the same even during Buhari’s time.

“So how is that feasible? During Buhari’s time, the dollar was N650. Today, the dollar is now N1,615. The average freight from Lagos to Abuja is N32.” 

Continuing, he explained that   “What I mean by local, you load Lagos, you discharge in Lagos. And bridging, you load from Lagos, you come to Abuja. Lagos to Lagos, we are paid N120,000.

“AGO alone to distribute fuel within Lagos is N140,000 because it is N1,400 per litre. So, they give you N120,000 and you spend N140,000. So, how do you want to operate?

“Talk less about the cost of vehicles, cost of loading, driver’s allowance. That is for local. For bridging, Lagos to Abuja, they give us N32.

“If you have a truck of 40,000 litres, you are talking of N1,280,000-N1,216,000. Less 5% of the amount of N1,280,000 Withholding Tax N64,000. Less 55,000 loading expenses and 15,000 driver allowance. Total expenses N134,000 while balance is N1,146,000. AGO is N1400 for 900 litres, totalling N1, 260,000. There is a total loss of N114,000.

“Meanwhile the cost of a New truck head and tank is N95 million and used is N50 million.So imagine the amount invested on each truck?”

Daily Trust

Ministers of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have adopted a treaty to create a union of states aimed at fostering economic and political integration in the Sahel region of West Africa.

The military-ruled countries last month announced their exit from the Economic Community of West African States, the 48-year-old regional bloc they helped to found. They criticize Ecowas for failing to assist them in their fight against a sprawling Islamist insurgency that threatens their existence.

“Our decision to withdraw is irreversible,” Kassoum Coulibaly, defense minister of Burkina Faso, said during a meeting of ministers in the capital of Ouagadougou late Thursday. Ecowas cannot “divert us from our common goals of defeating terrorism, putting our countries on the path of development and exercising full sovereignty on all fronts,” he said.

The union to be known as the Alliance of Sahel States was first formed in September by the three countries to support each other in the fight against militants. The trio of governments all came to power via coups in the last three years.

The adoption of the treaty Thursday will result in the establishment of the union’s initial organs, namely the college of heads of state, the council of ministers and the representatives of parliament, according to a communique.

Bloomberg

Satellite photos show Egypt building a wall near Gaza Strip as Israeli offensive on Rafah looms

Egypt is building a wall and is leveling land near its border with the Gaza Strip ahead of a planned Israeli offensive targeting the border city of Rafah, satellite images analyzed Friday by The Associated Press show.

Egypt, which has not publicly acknowledged the construction, repeatedly has warned Israel not to forcibly expel the more than 1 million displaced Palestinians now in Rafah into its territory while Israeli troops battle the militant group Hamas for a fifth month.

Israel’s defense minister said Friday that Israel has “no intention” of pushing Palestinian civilians across the border into Egypt. However, the preparations on the Egyptian side of the border in the Sinai Peninsula suggested that Cairo is preparing for such a mass ejection, a scenario that could threaten a 1979 peace deal with Israel that’s been a linchpin for regional security.

The Egyptian government did not respond to requests for comment Friday from the AP. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Feb. 11 issued a statement warning Israel over the possible Rafah offensive and its “displacement of the Palestinian people.”

The satellite images, taken Thursday by Maxar Technologies, show ongoing construction on the wall, which sits along the Sheikh Zuweid-Rafah Road some 3.5 kilometers (2 miles) west of the border with Gaza. The images show cranes, trucks and what appear to be precast concrete barriers being set up along the road.

Those satellite images correspond to features seen in a video released by the London-based Sinai Foundation for Human Rights on Feb. 12. The video shows a crane lifting concrete walls into place along the road.

The construction “is intended to create a high-security gated and isolated area near the borders with the Gaza Strip, in preparation for the reception of Palestinian refugees in the case of (a) mass exodus,” the foundation said.

Nearby as well, construction crews appear to be leveling and clearing ground for an unknown purpose. That can also be seen in imagery from Planet Labs PBC of the area. The Wall Street Journal, quoting anonymous Egyptian officials, described “an 8-square-mile (20-square-kilometer) walled enclosure” being built in the area that could accommodate over 100,000 people.

Homes and farmland in the area previously had been razed during Egypt’s war on an affiliate of the Islamic State group in the area.

Hard-line officials within Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have raised the possibility of pushing Palestinians out of Gaza despite strong opposition from Israel’s main ally, the United States. The Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank are lands the Palestinians hope to have for their future state.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a member of the country’s three-man War Cabinet, said Friday that there were no plans to push Palestinians into Egypt.

“The state of Israel has no intention of evacuating Palestinian civilians to Egypt,” Gallant told reporters. “We respect and value our peace agreement with Egypt, which is a cornerstone of stability in the region as well as an important partner.”

A report by the Israeli Intelligence Ministry, drafted six days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw over 250 others taken hostage, included a proposal of moving Gaza’s civilian population to tent cities in the northern Sinai, then building permanent cities and an undefined humanitarian corridor.

In the time since, the Israel-Hamas war has laid wide swaths of the seaside enclave to waste and killed more than 28,600 people, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

AP