Billionaire investor Ray Dalio is sure that artificial intelligence will soon be a “great disruptor” in all of our lives — for both better and worse.

AI will help people make strides in productivity, education, healthcare and even usher in a three-day workweek, Dalio said on Tuesday at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival 2023. On the other hand, it’ll likely “disrupt jobs” and be a cause of “argument” for employees and legislators who support halting or slowing down AI’s evolution, he said.

“All these changes are going to happen in the next five years,” Dalio, the founder of hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates, added. “And when I say [that], I don’t mean five years from now. I mean that you’re going to see [changes] next year ... the next year, [even bigger] changes. It’s all going to change very fast.”

Some developments are already in motion. ChatGPT has swiftly exceeded most people’s expectations, passing Wharton MBA exams and allegedly helping someone win the lottery less than a year after its November 2022 launch.

Job disruptions may also be underway: As more than 100,000 actors strike for better wages, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is lobbying to replace some of them with artificial intelligence.

The trend could expand to other industries soon. Forty-nine percent of U.S. CEOs and C-suite executives say their current workforce’s skills won’t be relevant by 2025, according to a survey from online education platform edX published on Tuesday.

In the same survey, executives said they’re already trying to hire AI-savvy employees, with 87% citing that effort as a struggle. That could open up a lane of opportunity for workers, who can learn and use AI skills to make some extra cash.

“There are many online learning opportunities to understand how AI works, which then could help [someone] possibly become an AI tutor, or to do some AI training to pass it on to the next generation,” Susan Gonzales, CEO and founder of nonprofit AIandYou, told CNBC Make It in July. 

Just about everyone, from entrepreneurs and freelancers to full-time office workers, could stand to benefit from learning more about AI, Gonzales said.

Whether you’re excited, curious or flat-out scared, “now would be the time to increase your knowledge,” she added.

 

CNBC

Federal Government has approached the World Bank for a fresh loan of $400m for the conditional cash transfer to 15 million households as one of the measures to cushion the effects of petrol subsidy removal on Nigerians.

The $400m will bring to $1.2bn the amount that the Federal Government is borrowing from the World Bank for the cash transfer as it had earlier secured a loan of $800m for the same purpose.

President Bola Tinubu announced the conditional cash transfer to 15 million households in a nationwide address to commemorate the country’s independence on October 1 as part of measures to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal on petrol, which has led to an astronomic rise in the cost of living.

He also announced that the Federal Government would commence the payment of N25,000 monthly to 15 million households for three months from October to December 2023.

The immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had secured $800m from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) to provide post-petroleum subsidy palliatives for over 50 million Nigerians. The loan was meant to be accessed by the succeeding administration.

In his October 1 broadcast, Tinubu also announced the approval of N25,000 provisional allowance for junior federal workers over the next six months.

He said the approval followed negotiations with labour unions and other stakeholders in the business community to increase the federal minimum wage without triggering undue inflation.

“For the next six months, the average low-grade worker shall receive an additional N25,000 per month,” the President stated.

However, following protests about the exclusion of other categories of workers and pensioners and the threat by the organised labour to embark on a nationwide strike, the government announced N35,000 provisional wage award for all treasury-paid Federal Government workers for six months following further consultations with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress.

A top government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue, told our correspondent that the Tinubu administration would fund the N35,000 cash award to civil servants by sending a supplementary appropriation bill to the National Assembly.

The source stated, “The government is funding the N35,000 wage increase for all federal civil servants and it is not taking a loan. The one the government is taking a loan for is the one of N25,000 multiplied by three months for 15 million households. There is a loan of $800m on this one and the government is adding $400m, making it $1.2bn, which will be used for the conditional cash transfer.

“But, the other one (cash award to federal civil servants), the government will fund it. So, most likely there will be a supplementary appropriation for that because it is illegal to spend money out of the government budget.”

Meanwhile, Nigeria has maintained its fourth position on the World Bank’s top 10 International Development Association borrowers’ list.

This was after moving up from fifth position in the 2022 fiscal year.

Despite maintaining its fourth position, the country accumulated about $1.3bn debt within a one-year period.

The World Bank Fiscal Year 2022 audited financial statement showed that Nigeria moved to the fourth position on the list with $13bn IDA debt stock as of June 30, 2022.

However, the World Bank Fiscal Year 2023 audited financial statement showed that Nigeria owed about $14.3bn IDA debt stock as of June 30, 2023, but maintained its fourth position on the list.

Bangladesh ($19.3bn) moved up the list to become the topmost IDA debtor, taking over from India ($17.9bn debt), which fell to the second position.

Pakistan maintained the third position from the last fiscal year with a debt of $16.9bn.

Nigeria has the highest IDA debt in Africa, while the top three borrowers, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, are from Asia.

Also, in the World Bank 2023 Annual Report, Nigeria was among the top 10 countries that acquired fresh IDA loans this year.

The report showed that the bank committed $1.55bn to Nigeria in the fiscal year of 2023, with the country recognised as the ninth-highest beneficiary.

Sunday PUNCH recently reported that the Federal Government was engaging the World Bank on a fresh $1.5bn loan.

The loan is titled ‘Nigeria Human Capital for Opportunities and Empowerment’ based on information obtained from the website of the Washington-based bank.

The objective of the loan is “to strengthen systems for improved delivery of basic education and primary health services in participating states.”

The loan is meant to be implemented in 2024, pending approval by the board of the World Bank Group.

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association, which make up the World Bank, have over the years advanced loans to Nigeria.

The IBRD lends to governments of middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries, while the IDA provides concessionary loans – called credits – and grants to governments of the poorest countries.

The World Bank is Nigeria’s biggest multilateral creditor, with the country owing about $14.51bn as of June 30, 2023.

Further breakdown showed that Nigeria had $14.03bn IDA debt and $485.75m IBRD debt by the second quarter of 2023.

The Debt Management Office recently said the country’s total public debt hit N87.38tn at the end of the second quarter of this year.

The figure represents an increase of 75.29 per cent or N37.53tn compared to N49.85tn recorded at the end of March 2023.

Further breakdown shows that Nigeria has a total domestic debt of N54.13tn and a total external debt of N33.25tn.

While the domestic debt makes up 61.95 per cent of the total debt, the external makes up 38.05 per cent.

It was also observed that there was a significant increase in both domestic and external debt within three months.

The domestic debt rose by 79.18 per cent from N30.21tn while the external debt rose by 69.28 per cent from N19.64tn in Q1 2023.

In its 2022 Debt Sustainability Analysis Report, the DMO warned that the Federal Government’s projected revenue of N10tn for 2023 could not support fresh borrowings.

According to the office, the projected government’s debt service-to-revenue ratio of 73.5 per cent is high and a threat to debt sustainability.

It noted that the government’s current revenue profile could not support higher levels of borrowing.

In a report titled, ‘Report of the Annual National Market Access Country Debt Sustainability Analysis,’ the debt office said, “The projected FGN debt service-to-revenue ratio at 73.5 per cent for 2023 is high and a threat to debt sustainability.

“It means that the revenue profile cannot support higher levels of borrowing. Attaining a sustainable FGN debt service-to-revenue ratio would require an increase of FGN revenue from N10.49tn projected in the 2023 budget to about N15.5tn.”

The DMO stated that the government must pay attention to revenue generation by implementing far-reaching revenue mobilisation initiatives and reforms, including the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiatives and all its pillars with a view to raising the country’s tax revenue to GDP ratio from about seven per cent to that of its peer.

The Federal Government would be unable to borrow a lot as it nears its self-imposed debt limit of 40 per cent, the DMO said.

To reduce borrowing and budget deficit, it stated that the government should encourage the private sector to fund some of the capital projects that were being financed from borrowing through the public-private partnership schemes.

It added that the Federal Government could reduce borrowing through the privatisation and/or sale of government assets.

 

Punch

President Bola Tinubu has said the appeal by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, is lacking in merit, substance and good faith.

Tinubu who said Obi’s appeal which was based on allegations dismissed at the election petition tribunal, argued that the presidential election was peacefully conducted all over the country, and the results of elections were carefully and accurately recorded in the various forms of EC8As.

This was contained in a response by his lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun, to the appeal filed by Obi challenging the decision of the tribunal.

He said, ”The entire petition was nothing but a jamboree of sorts, which was prosecuted more in the media than in the courtroom and the lower court, being a court of law and not of sentiments, dutifully threw away their petition after a painstaking consideration of same.
if considered from every angle, it is lacking in merit, substance, and good faith.

“Be it noted that, unlike previous election petitions over which this honourable court has presided (in time past) and made far-reaching pronouncements on diverse issues, including but not limited to ballot box snatching, vote buying, voters’ intimidation, interference by the military, thuggery, ballot stuffing, violence, disenfranchisement, non-recording of votes in form EC8A, which is the building block or the base of the pyramid, and such other electoral vices, this appeal arising from a dismissed petition, the main grouse of which is that, while the presidential election was peacefully conducted all over the country, and results of elections carefully and accurately recorded in the various form EC8As, some unidentified and unspecified results, even in the appellants’ brief were not uploaded electronically to the IREV portal.”

He noted that Obi failed to prove his allegations of non-compliance and corrupt practices as required by law.

Tinubu said, “Instructively, however, the lower court, appreciating that it is not a court of final instance, proceeded to determine the petition on its merit, while itemising several monumental failures of the petitioners to provide any evidence in support of their much-touted case.

“While affirming the election and declaration of the 2nd respondent at the referenced presidential election, the lower court also found that the appellants did not prove any of their allegations on the requisite standards of proof.”

In his reply on the 25 percent requirement in the FCT, Tinubu told the apex court that Obi was on a “fishing expedition”.

He said, “The other very remote contention is that the 2nd respondent did not score 25 percent of the votes recorded at the Federal Capital Territory.

“With much respect to the appellants, the petition is more of a fishing expedition; much more of evocation of thunder without dews.”

Tinubu, however, said the tribunal judgment was in order, adding that, “It is against the well-considered judgment of the lower court that the appellants have brought this appeal.”

 

Punch

Gaza's desperate civilians flee or huddle in hopes of safety, as warnings of Israeli offensive mount

Desperate Palestinians scrambled for escape from northern Gaza on Saturday or huddled by the thousands at a hospital in the target zone in hopes it would be spared, as Israel intensified warnings of an imminent offensive by air, ground and sea following Hamas militants’ deadly rampage in Israel a week ago.

While workers at an Israeli military base continued efforts through the Jewish Sabbath to identify the more than 1,300 people killed in the Oct. 7 assault, Israel dropped leaflets from the air and redoubled warnings on social media for more than 1 million Gaza residents to move south.

The military says it is trying to clear away civilians ahead of a concentrated campaign against Hamas militants in the north, including in what it said were underground hideouts in Gaza City. Hamas urged people to stay in their homes.

The U.N. and aid groups say such a rapid exodus along with Israel’s siege of the territory would cause untold human suffering. The World Health Organization said the evacuation “could be tantamount to a death sentence” for the more than 2,000 patients in northern hospitals, including newborns in incubators and people in intensive care.

Gaza’s humanitarian crisis already was mounting Saturday amid a growing shortage of water and medical supplies under a week-old Israeli blockade, which has also forced electrical plants to shut down without fuel.

In Gaza City, Haifa Khamis al-Shurafa crowded into a car with six family members, fleeing to the south in the darkness.

“We don’t deserve this,” Shurafa said, before leaving her home city. “We didn’t kill anyone.”

The evacuation directive covers an area of 1.1 million residents, or about half the territory’s population. The Israeli military said “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians had heeded the warning and headed south. It gave Palestinians a six-hour window that ended Saturday afternoon to travel safely within Gaza along two main routes.

In Israel, meanwhile, workers at a miIitary base received special rabbinical approval to continue identifying bodies of the more than 1,300 people, most civilians, killed by Hamas. Work is normally halted on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Be’eri and Kfar Azza, two southern border communities where Hamas militants slaughtered dozens of Israelis, to meet with soldiers and tour the ruins of bloodied homes. Netanyahu has faced criticism that his government has not done enough to meet with relatives of the victims.

Hundreds of relatives of the scores of Israelis and foreigners captured by Hamas and taken to Gaza gathered outside the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, demanding their release.

“This is my cry out to the world: Please help bring my family, my wife and three kids,” said Avihai Brodtz of Kfar Azza. Many expressed anger toward the government, saying they still have no information about their loved ones.

In a nationally broadcast address Saturday night, Israel’s chief military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, accused Hamas of trying to use civilians as human shields and issued a new appeal to Gaza residents to move south.

“We are going to attack Gaza City very broadly soon,” he said, without giving a timetable for the attack against the 40-kilometer-long (25-mile-long) territory.

“The Palestinian civilians in Gaza are not our enemies,” an Israeli military spokesman, John Conricus, said. “We don’t assess them as such, and we don’t target them as such. We are trying to do the right thing.”

Israel has called up some 360,000 military reserves and massed troops and tanks along the border with Gaza. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said late Saturday that the U.S. was moving in a second carrier strike group, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a deterrence to any regional actors seeking to widen the war.

Palestinian militants have fired more than 5,500 rockets into Israel since the fighting erupted, the Israeli military said.

Hamas remained defiant. In a televised speech Saturday, Ismail Haniyeh, a top official, said that “all the massacres” will not break the Palestinian people.

Fighting continued in the run-up to the expected offensive, with Hamas launching rockets into Israel and Israel carrying out strikes in Gaza.

An Israeli airstrike near the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed at least 27 people and wounded another 80, Gaza health authorities said.

Most of the victims were women and children, the authorities said. Doctors from Kamal Edwan Hospital shared chaotic footage of charred and disfigured bodies.

It was not clear how many Palestinians remained in northern Gaza by Saturday afternoon, said Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. An estimated 1 million people have been displaced in Gaza in one week, she said.

At Gaza City’s main hospital, al-Shifa, a crowd of men, women and children that medical officials estimated at 35,000 crammed into bloodied hallways and on hospital grounds, sitting under trees as well as inside the building’s lobby, hoping to be protected from the fighting.

“People think this is the only safe space after their homes were destroyed and they were forced to flee,” said Dr. Medhat Abbas, a Health Ministry official.

Basic necessities like food, fuel and drinking water were running out because of the complete Israeli siege.

Water has stopped coming out of taps across the territory. Amal Abu Yahia, a 25-year-old pregnant mother in the Jabaliya refugee camp, said she waited anxiously for the few minutes when contaminated water trickles from the pipes in her basement. She rations it, prioritizing her 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. She said she is drinking so little herself, she only urinates every other day.

Near the coast, the only tap water is contaminated with Mediterranean Sea water because of the lack of sanitation facilities. Mohammed Ibrahim, 28, said his neighbors in Gaza City have taken to drinking the salt water.

The Israeli military’s evacuation order demands the territory’s entire population cram into the southern half of Gaza as Israel continues strikes, including in the south.

Rami Swailem said he and at least five families in his building decided to stay put in his apartment near Gaza City. “We are rooted in our lands,” he said. “We prefer to die in dignity and face our destiny.”

Others were looking desperately for ways to evacuate. “We need a number for drivers from Gaza to the south, it is necessary #help,” read a post on social media.

The U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians expressed concern for those who could not leave, “particularly pregnant women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities,” saying they must be protected. The agency also called for Israel to not target civilians, hospitals, schools, clinics and U.N. locations.

Al-Shifa hospital was receiving hundreds of wounded every hour and had used up 95% of its medical supplies, hospital director Mohammad Abu Selim said. Water is scarce and the fuel powering its generators is dwindling.

“The situation inside the hospital is miserable in every sense of the word,” he said. “The operating rooms don’t stop.”

Thousands of people crammed into U.N.-run schools across Gaza.

“I came here with my children. We slept on the ground. We don’t have a mattress, or clothes,” said Howeida al-Zaaneen, 63, from the northern town of Beit Hanoun. “I want to go back to my home, even if it is destroyed.”

The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that over 2,200 people have been killed in the territory, including 724 children and 458 women. The Hamas communications office said Israel has destroyed over 7,000 housing units so far.

At Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Egypt, announcement of an agreement to briefly open the closed crossing to allow foreigners to escape brought hopeful crowds to the gates Saturday. But any deal appeared to have fallen through, with the crossing yet to open by nightfall.

Some 1,500 people in Gaza are estimated to hold Western passports, including about 500 Americans, along with citizens from other parts of the world.

A ground assault in densely populated Gaza would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan in Riyadh on Saturday, and both called for Israel to protect civilians in Gaza.

“As Israel pursues its legitimate right to defend its people and to trying to ensure that this never happens again, it is vitally important that all of us look out for civilians,” Blinken said.

 

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

No letup in Russian strikes on Ukrainian town of Avdiivka

Russia's military pressed on with fierce assaults on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka on Saturday, with shelling so fierce that emergency crews were unable to recover the dead from wrecked buildings, the town's top administrative official said.

It was the fifth straight day of assaults on the town in Ukraine's industrial heartland of Donbas, focal point of Moscow's 19-month-old invasion of its neighbour.

Both Russia and the United States have described the upsurge in violence around Avdiivka as a new Russian offensive.

Fighting intensified in other sectors of the 1,000-km-long (600-mile) front. One top Ukrainian commander said clashes further north had "significantly worsened", while another said Russian losses were mounting in the war's southern sectors.

Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka's military administration, said residents had experienced a rare overnight respite from air strikes, but attacks had resumed at daybreak.

"They are striking with everything they have. Bouts of shooting, artillery, multiple rocket launchers, mortars and a lot of aircraft," Barabash told national television.

All rescue operations had been halted, he said, amid reports of people believed to be trapped under rubble of buildings levelled by shelling and air strikes.

"Operations cannot take place in such conditions. It is frightening to leave because the road is under fire. And no easier to stay as there is no place, no basement that can withstand the strikes."

Barabash said 1,620 residents remained in Avdiivka, a town with a large coking plant and a pre-war population of 32,000.

Oleksandr Stupun, a military spokesperson, said Avdiivka was important for Moscow "because it is the only chance to show some kind of victory. They have no other options."

Russian forces in the area, he told national television, "have been increasing for four days in a row. That's why the enemy is taking revenge on the civilian population."

The town, 20 km (12 miles) west of the Russian-held town of Donetsk, has become a watchword for resistance. It held off attacks in 2014 when Russian-backed separatists seized areas of eastern Ukraine and has undergone serious fortification since.

A four-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive has made some progress in both the east, near the shattered city of Bakhmut, taken by Russian troops in May, and in the south, where Kyiv hopes to reach the Sea of Azov. But gains have been incremental.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine's ground forces, visited troops near Kupiansk further north and said Russian forces had regrouped after suffering losses.

"The main objective of the enemy is the defeat of a grouping of our troops, the encirclement of Kupiansk and to reach the Oskil River," a military platform quoted him as saying.

A four-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive has made some progress in the east, near Bakhmut, and in the south, where Kyiv hopes to reach the Sea of Azov, but gains have been incremental.

General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, head of forces in the south, wrote on Telegram that Ukrainian troops were advancing southward and Russian casualties were "continuing to rise".

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia intercepts 27 Ukrainian drones over border regions – MOD

Russian air defenses thwarted multiple attempted Ukrainian drone attacks on the city of Kursk on Saturday night, following several artillery strikes on the region earlier in the day, according to local authorities. 

“This evening, 12 drones launched from Ukraine were shot down over Kursk and the Kursk district. Falling debris was recorded in the city limits and the village of Zorino,” Kursk governor Roman Starovoyt wrote on his Telegram channel, adding that no one was injured in the attack.

The Defense Ministry later confirmed that a total of 18 plane-type drones had been intercepted over Kursk, and two more over Belgorod region on Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Overall a total of 27 drones were downed in yet another foiled “terrorist attack by the Kiev regime,” the Russian military said.

Earlier in the day, the Glushkovsky district in Kursk region was shelled from the Ukrainian side leaving the nearby villages without power and causing a fire that was promptly extinguished, according to the governor. Hours later, the village of Tyotkino in the same district was targeted again, causing damage to residential houses and a gas pipe.

“The village of Tyotkino, Glushkovsky district, was again shelled from the Ukrainian side. There were recorded 10 attacks, four houses were damaged… A gas pipe is also damaged,” Starovoyt said. The official urged the residents to stay at a safe distance from the wreckage, promising to provide assistance to the owners of the damaged property.

The Russian border region of Kursk, home to a large Nuclear Power Plant,  has been frequently targeted by drones since Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Russian officials have repeatedly accused Kiev of plotting acts of sabotage targeting the country’s major infrastructure sites, including nuclear power plants.

Ukraine has significantly stepped up UAV and missile strikes on Russian territory in recent months, amid a ground counteroffensive that has failed to provide Kiev with any notable territorial gains.

** Russia delivers eight multiple-launch strikes at Ukrainian military sites over week

Russian forces delivered eight multiple-launch strikes by Iskander-M tactical missile systems and unmanned aerial vehicles at Ukrainian military sites over the week in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Friday.

"In the period of October 7-13, the Russian Armed Forces delivered eight multiple-launch strikes by Iskander-M tactical missile systems and unmanned aerial vehicles," the ministry said in a statement.

The strikes targeted Ukrainian missile/artillery armament and military equipment depots, workshops of enterprises producing and storing armaments and military hardware, and also the deployment sites of Ukrainian troops, nationalists and foreign mercenaries, the ministry specified.

"The strikes destroyed the following targets: a warehouse storing US-made Willard boats, a field artillery depot of the Ukrainian army’s Joint Battlegroup Kherson, a military hardware depot at the Danube Ship Service ship repair plant in the town of Ilyichevsk in the Odessa Region and also a fuel and lubricants base at the Uman airfield in the Cherkassy Region," the ministry said.

 

Reuters/RT/Tass

Why do Nigerian public officials always fail to see the divide between the public and the private? Perhaps taking a cue from their parents, children of successive Nigerian presidents have also made this a pastime. A recent example is the reported cruising in Nigeria’s presidential jet by the president’s son, Seyi Tinubu. He had flown the aircraft last Sunday to attend polo games in Kano State. By convention, it is only the president of Nigeria, the First Lady, Vice-President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Justice of Nigeria, ex-presidents and a presidential delegation who are authorized to use the presidential jet. The convention does not grant the president any powers to transfer that right of usage of the presidential jet to any of his children. Before Tinubu, children, spouses of Nigerian leaders, and top government officials who should have no business with the aircraft, were forerunners of this aberration. This has provoked the question, is this an endemic problem that should bother us as a people, or it is a mere frivolity that we allow to detain us overtime? In trying to answer this question, permit me to journey to the ecology of the forest in Africa. Perhaps, in the forest, we can locate what is the actual issue at stake.

Ayo Adeduntan’s What the forest told me: Yoruba hunter, culture and narrative performance first alerted me to the fact that African forests speak. Or that, in the forest, there are not only conversations between the hunter and his immediate cosmology, but there are communications in the forest that speak to our everyday human routine and which are essential for our lives as humanity.

In African belief, the forest is not only the place where ghosts, monsters, demons live, it is a place reserved for powerful hunters, the habitats of dangerous animals and where curative plants that herbalists deploy for the health of man can be found. Following the works of writers like Amos Tutuola and D. O. Fagunwa, Adeduntan teaches that, in a literal sense, when hunters go hunting in the forest, there is a dialogue between them and the forest world. This makes hunters “equal actor with animal and nature spirits with whom (the hunter) constantly contests and negotiates space.” It is believed that hunters chant incantations to arrest powerful animals, perfectly understand the life routines of demons and know leaves that can help them survive during the period of their sojourn in the forest.

The dialogue in the forest can explain the unequal nature of our human society, especially between those who are in government, their families and the governed. It can also explain the inequality in the economic systems of the world, capitalism and socialism and the divide between leaders and their followers. I hope it can explain our uproars when children of presidents go on junkets with our national insignia, the presidential jet.

Hunting expedition is actually where I am heading. The first thing hunters do when they embark on hunting is to identify what particular forest to go. When they have done this, judging by prior knowledge of the forest or tales told them about them, they then identify the particular game that makes that forest its habitat, ranging from antelopes, porcupines, buffalo, fox, leopards etc. When a hunting crew embarks on this journey, they divide themselves into two. The first is one that holds dane guns; they are often about two or three persons. There is then the other crew, usually many, as many as ten, called the “forest encircling hunting group.” The job of this group is to encircle the identified forest for game-hunting. With sticks, stones and any other objects, they make sufficient noise and discomforting howls to unsettle the animals from where they are holed. The aim is to get the animals suddenly fleeing their holes and scampering to other parts of the forest in a hurry. In the process of fleeing, they run into the hands of the crew of about three whose guns are readied to be cocked. Then the escaping animal gets pounded by a fiery volley of bullets which immobilizes it and prepares it as a fitting gourmet for dinner.

Game successfully hunted, the hunters then heave the animal, blood dripping from it, depending on its weight, on their shoulders, on a journey back to the village. It is time for sharing the meat, the spoil of the hunting expedition. The crew that encircles the forest, which disrupts the animal from its hole, is decidedly, actually the one that does the most herculean of the hunting expedition. It is comparatively less armed and harm could easily come its way. It also exerts the greatest energy, having to walk inside thorns, briers and thistles in the process of getting the animal to scramble off its comfort zone. The other crew merely holds the gun and shoots when the animal attempts to escape. But, in the sharing of the now dismembered animal, the sharing formula does not follow this pattern of contribution to the hunting. The shooting crew gets the chunkiest part, ranging from the thighs, the neck to even the torso while the “encircling crew” is given less meaty parts.

In underscoring the superiority of the “shooting crew” in a hunting expedition, Yoruba Apala music lord, Ayinla Omowura, apparently excoriating his musical adversaries, likened his superiority to that of this crew that shoots the animal. In one of his songs he entitled E f’awon were sile (don’t mind the incorrigible lot) he likened his adversaries to the “bush encircling crew” whose job was “merely” to get the animals run to him, a man whose gun was cocked to shoot. Between him and them, the world should judge who was the most superior, the real hunter, he boasted. Leave the incorrigible lot alone; let them disrupt the peace of the animals in the bush (while we shoot) and let the world assess who is the greater hunter between us –  E f’awon were sile, k’on rugbo si wa k’a w’aperan t’o ba yanju, he boasted.

So, when Seyi was sighted flying in Nigeria’s presidential aircraft last Sunday, tongues began to wag among Nigerians. He had gone to Kano to watch the 2023 NPA Kano International Polo Tournament at the Usman Dantata Polo Ground, in company of his friends. The crew of young sybarites, on the bill of the Nigerian people, was welcomed on its arrival to the ancient city by Kano state government officials. Thereafter, the president’s son was chauffeured to the Polo Ground, chaperoned by a strong retinue of gun-wielding detachments of the Nigeria Police Force and the State Security Service. Immediately the finals of the two-week tournament were played, with award trophies given to winners, the presidential jet which was waiting at the Kano airport, then picked the president’s son and his pleasure-seeking friends back to Abuja. Seyi is said to be a polo enthusiast and is in fact the patron of the Lagos STL Polo Team in Lagos. Last year at the Lagos Polo Tournament, he was said to be one of the players who represented the club. It will be recalled that the president’s son was on this pleasure ride at a critical time in Nigeria when prices of jet fuel had hit an all-time high, and hardship has become an abiding companion of the Nigerian people.

Nigerians were first confronted with the familial impunity of usage of Nigeria’s presidential aircraft by children of their leaders when on January 17, 1996, Ibrahim, son of late despot, Sani Abacha, who was on same jolly ride to a party and private family engagement in Kano, from Lagos with his friends, crashed. He had boarded the Nigerian Air Force presidential Falcon jet. Ibrahim was with 14 other friends, including his Yoruba girlfriend, Funmi; Bello, younger brother of Aliko Dangote and a wealthy young man called Dan Princewill. They were all swallowed inside the belly of the ill-fated presidential aircraft. The jet was almost landing in Kano when it mysteriously exploded mid air.

Ibrahim, aged 28, was known to be very likeable and wealthy and his friends mourned him as a young man who was not only detribalized but whose friends cut across ethnicities and capital divides. However, he was to later to become subject of many controversial financial engagements, especially foreign plundering of Nigerian resources and illegal avoidance of tax matters. One of the Abacha family bagmen and current minister, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, had told a US court how in February 1994, in company with Ibrahim, he had built a Morgan Procurement Corporation. It was also discovered that Ibrahim had been customer of US Citibank’s private financial businesses since 1988 when he was about 20years old.

The most mysterious aspect of the crash was that the Abacha government refused to investigate the crash. In 2000, the then Minister of Aviation, Kema Chikwe, confirmed this when she said that the report of the crash of the presidential plane carrying Ibrahim, first son of late Head of State and his friends, was never made public because the Abacha government said it was purely a military matter and treated the report thus. The secrecy given the crash had prompted reports at the time which claimed that the late Head of State had a hand in the downing of the jet. The courageous Tell Magazine edition of February 15, 1999 then went ahead to report in a story it entitled How Abacha Killed His Son what actually transpired. Abacha war rumoured to have ordered the crash to obliterate the memory of Ibrahim who was reportedly not his son.

Since then, if there was an earlier usage of the presidential aircraft for private purposes, it was covert, until in 2020. On this day, the man reputed by his followers to be incorrupt and incorruptible, President Muhammadu Buhari, had his daughter fly the presidential jet right under his nose. Hanan Buhari had taken the jet on a private photography trip to Bauchi State. Hanan had then recently graduated with a first-class in photography from Ravensbourne University, London. She was in Bauchi on the invitation of the Emir, Rilwanu Adamu, as special guest of honour. Photographs, which Nigerians considered obscene, showed Hanan disembarking from the presidential aircraft and, like Seyi, being welcomed by Bauchi State government officials. Indeed, the press reported that the traditional durbar event was specifically organized for Hanan so that she could capture in her photography the architecture and cultural ambience of the people and thus document the scenic experiences in pictorial form in her photo gallery. Thereafter, a firework of caustic criticisms of the president ensued with Nigerians accusing Buhari of abuse of office. Before he became the Nigerian president, Buhari had stridently criticized past governments for misusage of public funds, promising that if elected into office, he would sell off some of the jets in the presidential fleet. He reckoned that Nigeria could not afford the high maintenance cost of the fleet. In 2020, Nigeria voted N8.5bn for the maintenance of her presidential aircraft fleet.

The Buhari government justified Hanan’s action. According to presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, the act received the blessing of Buhari who then notified the National Security Adviser (NSA) about Hanan’s usage of the aircraft. Hear him, “The normal practice, in existence for a long time, is that the Presidential Air fleet is available to the President and the first family and four others. These four are the Vice-President, the Senate President the Speaker and any other person(s) authorised by the President.”

America, from where Nigeria cloned its presidential democracy, is very unsparing of private usage of its presidential jet. The Air Force One, the equivalent of our presidential jet, is a designation only for an aircraft the president flies. It has 26 crew members who operate the aircraft as well as providing services to passengers. They are the pilots, navigator, flight engineer, communications specialists, chefs, cabin attendants, two Security Police, and medical staff. In its configuration, the aircraft seats only 76 passengers, which has the President of the United States and ten seats reserved for the press, eight for the Presidential Protection Detail, the President's Doctor, the Military Aide and Football, the Chief of Staff, a Press Secretary or Deputy (sometimes both), the Communications Director, sometimes Speech Writers, the National Security Advisor or Deputy, the President's Body Man, and the secretarial pool, with this assemblage taking about 35 to 42 seats of the aircraft.

As a rule, no one is permitted to fly the Air Force One except the serving president of the United States and anyone he invites on the aircraft. When they fly helicopters, American presidents fly on Marine 1 which are choppers designated for official purposes. America is so rigid about its presidential aircraft that, if a president’s term of office expires at 12:01am on Jan. 20, that is the year after the election is held, the country does not designate any other aircraft the outgoing president would be flying thereafter as AF-1.

Once when President Barrack Obama flew to New York for what was called a "date night" with his wife and for a family vacation in Europe, the press harassed him on the cost of flying the presidential aircraft to taxpayers. Ronald Reagan was also frequently caught flying cross-country on Air Force One to his California ranch while Bill Clinton flew at taxpayers’ expense to expensive vacation spots like Park City, Utah; Amelia Island, Florida and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. There have however never been any reported cases of these presidents’ children flying the presidential aircraft alone. While in some advanced countries, presidents are barred from even flying presidential jets for private matters and if they do, are required to pay from their private purses, Prince Harry, a member of the British Royal family is reported to travel in private aircraft.

The hunting expedition will seem to explain the uproar against private use of Nigerian presidential aircraft by children of presidents. The people believe that their rulers merely use them as canon-fodders even when the principles of democracy consider them, the people, as the central focus of the system of government. Why should we serve those in government and then serve their children as well? they seem to ask. Why should the people, who queue inside the sun to vote politicians, be the ones who get the least when the spoils of the expedition mature?

What the people don’t know is actually that perks that elected executive enjoy are far humongous than the mere talk of usage of presidential jets by their children. Not only do their family members live inside the Villa for free, at taxpayers’ expense, their medicals, schooling, travelling and sundry expensive expenses are borne by the ordinary people. The drafters of the rules and convention envisage that these perks of office will make governance move on an easy and non-distractive plane for the persons who occupy public offices.

However, restricting those aircraft strictly for official usage will promote the principle of fairness and accountability. On its flipside, a school of thought believes that presidents, being human as well, have families and thus, the comfort of their family members will also ensure the smooth conduct of national affairs. With this, a justification is made for the deployment of presidential aircraft for members of families of presidents. But quite significantly, the usage of a revered national instrument as the aircraft for a junket as ordinary as watching polo and a durbar strips the aircraft of its sacredness and respect. Presidential jets are national totems and should be so treated. Otherwise, very soon, they will be flown from Abuja to the Oyingbo market in Lagos to purchase yam!

Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him ~ Psalms 68:1. 

Introduction

Let’s get this straight from the onset: our God is very very powerful (Psalms 62:11). He rules by His power forever, and His eyes behold the nations (Psalm 66:7). All He needs to do is arise and speak, and His counsel will stand fast (Psalm 33:8-9). No wonder Jesus said God is even able to raise up children out of stones (Matthew 3:9).

God’s plan for your life is far greater than your ability. Your strength, or anything you have for that matter, is not capable of sponsoring it. Even the diversity of your human connections cannot bring about its full manifestation. It is impossible, therefore, to excel on earth without His supernatural assistance.

Happily, God is more than ready to help us all the way through our journeys in life (Ephesians 3:20). This is an exciting piece of news for all those who truly want to fulfill their glorious destinies on earth.

Though God doesn’t always “explain” Himself on all particular issues of our lives, and it appears as if we’re sometimes left to search for what is not missing, we must still keep trusting and walking with Him by faith like Jacob did (Genesis 37:33-34). He will surely arise for our help, and redeem us for His mercies’ sake (Psalm 44:26).

Ordinarily, to arise means, “to become apparent, to be stirred up, to stand up and be prepared for action”. But, in the particular context that David used it here, “arise” is certainly a powerful word in the lexicon of supplication: “Let God arise”.

David found himself in a critical situation when his enemies were increasing daily, and they concluded that even God could not help him. However, he beseeched God to arise for him. God helped him and defeated his strong enemies (Psalm 3:1-4).

If Peter had kept quiet when he began to sink when the wind became boisterous, he would have drowned. He cried unto the Lord, and Jesus immediately stretched out His hand, caught him and saved him (Matt. 14:26-31). God is waiting to arise for you today, if you will only call upon Him.

It’s quite important to note that the phrase, "Let God Arise", didn’t start with David in Psalm 68. It was first used by Moses during the wilderness journeys of the Israelites (Numbers 10:35). It was then a cry for change and progress towards the Land of Promise.

God’s people should never be ashamed to cry to Him whenever the occasion arises, or when the issues of our lives require His attention. No matter the situation, we should determine to cry out  to God. When we do, He will certainly arise and give us beautiful testimonies of total victory. Amen.

When God Arises

David was so confident that anytime God arises, His enemies scatter (Psalm 68:1). In this assurance, as in all of God’s  promises, should we also root our confidence (Isaiah 41:10-13). When God arises, His children cannot but rejoice (Psalm 68:1-3).

For the avoidance of doubt, the enemies of God in your life include sin, Satan, afflictions, poverty, troubles, delays, arrested development, diseases, rebellion, hard-heartedness, unbelief, disobedience, lukewarmness and any such things that compete for the glory of God in your life.

When God arises, stagnation comes to an end as God makes a way where there was no way (Exodus 3:1-5; 14:1-28). When He arises, every blockade the enemy arranged against your destiny is removed (Joshua 5:13-6:20), and any Goliath terrorizing your life goes down for it (1 Samuel 17:1-51).

When God arises, mountains skip like rams (Psalms 114:6; 2 Kings 4:1-7), and crooked paths become straightened (Luke 13:10-13). When He arises, joy becomes an overflow, as it happened at the wedding in Cana (John 5:1-10).

When God arises for an individual, a family, or even a nation, every form of fear disappears (Acts 4:31). Chains aimed at preventing the fulfillment of God’s plan are broken (Acts 16:16-30). And yes, all those that are against you and your destiny will be in serious trouble when God arises.

Letting God Arise

Basically, God arises when we set ourselves to start doing things His way (Isaiah 55:8-12). Happily, God’s ways are copiously found in God’s Word as proclaimed in His sanctuary (Psalm 77:13).

Over the years, we’ve learnt that if we praise God in everything, He will arise for us in every situation. Paul and Silas did so in their prison experiences, and God showed up for them. God truly inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). We must praise Him, always.

Furthermore, our fervent prayers of faith move God to arise on our behalf (James 4:2; 5:16). Our humble cry to God for help certainly provokes Him to arise for us (Psalms 50:14-15). But, if we keep managing the situations by ourselves, God’s help may be far away from our reach.

Why try to handle what is drowning you? Why not cry out for God’s help like Peter did (Psalm 44:26)? Humble yourself before God, and cry out to Him for help. He is the Very Present Help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1).

Again, our readiness to observe other ordinances of faith —  unusual offerings, a lifestyle of righteousness and implicit obedience to the Will of God — goes very far in expressing our total dependence on God, and how much we value His mercy. Thus, they arouse God to stand for our help (Psalm 84:11).

Finally, we must get ready for exciting experiences when we ask God to arise. He could lead us into spiritual encounters that will stretch our faith to the maximum and downright amaze us. He may even lead us into brand new territories of His promises, just as He did for the Israelites.

As I see it, the most glorious season of your life till date is just beginning. Nothing is ever too late with God. Times and seasons are in His hands. God will yet arise and help you spiritually, maritally, financially, mentally and in all that concerns you. You will still blossom roundabout, and be so exceedingly fruitful. Even your mockers will come to congratulate you.

Life without the God who arises is just plainly unpalatable. Moreover, when God moves, we must join Him in His Glory Cloud, or else we will be exposed to the scorching heat of the sun, with no manna from above nor waters from the Rock.

Let God arise! Let’s sanctify Him in our hearts by making room for Jesus Christ in our lives (John 3:16; Romans 10:9-10). He will begin to arise for us, and we will start to enjoy His presence, provision, protection, power and purpose.

Friends and brethren, God will send unimaginable help to you,  soon. Everything blocking your path to progress will be utterly destroyed, and all your enemies will be in disarray, in Jesus name (Judges 14:5-6). 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

God is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Beginning and the End. (Revelation 1:8). Because He is the End, the end of everything will be good, for God is good. (Matthew 19:17).

My business has been going through the doldrums. I have tried many fixes without any success. But God said to me: “Femi, I will restore double to you.” (Zechariah 9:12). He said this three years ago and it has yet to happen. But nothing in heaven and earth can prevent this prophecy from coming to pass.

Paul says: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).

I was attacked by armed robbers, but God assured me nothing would happen to me. The robbers shot me in the leg. But God insisted that nothing was wrong with my leg. Paul says: “(Epaphroditus) was sick almost unto death; but God had mercy on him.” (Philippians 2:27). Similarly, a bullet broke a bone in my leg, but God healed my leg.

Wait for God

If you wait prayerfully for God in any adversity, He will definitely show up. Let me put it even more insistently: It is IMPOSSIBLE for God not to show up if you ever wait for Him.

If you wait for God, He will come. He will not just come; He will come with a solution. He will come up with an answer. He will come with an exaltation. He will come with a revelation. He will come with redemption. He will come with a healing. He will come with a blessing.

It can take one week, one month, one year, five years, or twenty years. It does not matter. Just wait. The hope that is in God does not disappoint. It does not make us ashamed. (Romans 5:5).

Jeremiah says: “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” (Lamentation 3:25-26).

Final Say

The songwriter asks: “Who has the final say?” The answer is simple: “Jehovah has the final say.”

When we have an argument with someone, we often want to have the last word. But it is really a waste of time because it is God who always has the last word. We never do so. Neither do our situations and circumstances. That is why God is the First and the Last. (Revelation 22:13).

Job understood this. He knew the principles of “But God.” Therefore, in his afflictions, he expressed the confidence that, no matter how long it took, God would have the last word and redeem him:

“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and He will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see Him for myself. Yes, I will see Him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!” (Job 19:25-27). 

Yes, Job went through great adversity. He underwent great affliction. He lost his wealth and his children. “But God” redeemed him.

“The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters.” (Job 42:12-13).

Promise of God

The promise of God stands sure: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” (Isaiah 43:2-3).

You will pass through the waters, “but God.” You will not drown. You will go through the rivers, “but God.” They will not overflow you. You will walk through the fire, “but God.” You will not be burnt.

Joseph went through a terrible ordeal, but God rescued him.

“The patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favour and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house” (Acts 7:9-10).

Every ordeal of Joseph’s moved him a step closer to God’s final destination for him as the prime minister of Egypt.

When his evil brothers who sold him into slavery discovered that he was now the prime minister of Egypt, they were afraid that he would seek retribution against them. But Joseph recognised the hand of God every step of the way.

He said to them: “But God.”

“As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” (Genesis 50:20-21).

Battle and war

There is a difference between the battle and the war. A child of God may lose a battle, but because of God, we can never lose the war. With a child of God, the devil can only win a battle, he can never win the war.

Children of God should know this definitively for a fact. With us, the devil is a loser and will always be a loser. No weapon fashioned against us can prosper. In Christ, we are always triumphant: “Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 2:14).

Jesus says: “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19).

“But God”

“Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. But God remembered Noah.” (Genesis 7:23-24/8:1).

God will remember you. He has not forgotten you. He can never forget you. He says: “I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.” (Isaiah 49:15-16).

“Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. Then he took his brethren with him and pursued him for seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the mountains of Gilead. But God had come to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said to him, “Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.” (Genesis 31:22-24). God will contend with those who contend with you.

“Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you.” (Genesis 48:21). With every loss, you gain God.

“David stayed in strongholds in the wilderness, and remained in the mountains in the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but Goddid not deliver him into his hand.” (1 Samuel 23:14). The enemy is looking for you. But he cannot find you because you are hidden in Christ in God.

“My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:25). Some have lands, houses and great wealth. But God is your portion.

“When they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead.” (Acts 13:29-30). The same resurrection power is operating in you to redeem you from every adversity and affliction. CONCLUDED.

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

 

Most people agree with the sentiment that money can’t buy you happiness, but what if it actually could?

Arthur C. Brooks, a social scientist and Harvard professor, has an interesting perspective on money and happiness, which he shares in his free Harvard happiness course.

“At low levels, money improves well-being. Once you earn a solid living, however, a billionaire is not likely to be any happier than you are,” Brooks wrote in his article for The Atlantic titled, “How to Buy Happiness.”

But “no matter where we sit on the income scale, with a little knowledge and practice any of us can use money to bring more happiness,” he adds.

Money alone can’t buy you happiness, but it can positively impact your well-being if you use your money wisely, Brooks notes. Here are a few ways that he suggests boosting your happiness with your finances.

3 ways you can ‘buy happiness’ according to a happiness expert

1. Spend money on experiences: Invest your money in joyful experiences that you know will make you feel happier like going to a concert to see your favorite artist, or planning a vacation somewhere you’ve always wanted to go.
2. Buy time: “If you pay someone to do something time-consuming that you don’t like to do (for example, cutting your yard) and don’t waste the time you gain on unpleasant things like doom-scrolling on social media, you can get a happiness boost by spending those extra hours with others,” Brooks wrote.
3. Give money away to help others: Donating your money to support a great cause or using your money to help another person can lead to boosts in “feel good” chemicals like serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin, according to the Cleveland Clinic’s health blog.

“The key factor connecting all those approaches is other people. If you buy an experience, whether it be a vacation or just a dinner out, you can raise your happiness if you share it with someone you love,” Brooks wrote in The Atlantic.

“Anyone who acquires money can use it to buy some happiness, and do a little self-improvement in the process. If we don’t have much, we can spend any extra cash on removing some of the stressors in our daily lives.”

 

CNBC

Nigerian state oil company NNPC has begun buying gasoline via cash tenders, rather than oil swaps, for the first time in nearly a decade, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The company's latest tender to buy gasoline for delivery in November closed this week, the sources said. Two of them added that NNPC would pay the last debts owed under the long-running oil swaps by the end of next month.

NNPC did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

"It is a positive thing," Cheta Nwanze, leader partner with Lagos-based SBM Intelligence, said of the move to pay for oil with cash, rather than valuable oil cargoes. "The question is whether it can be sustained."

Last year, NNPC sent nothing to government coffers, even amid surging oil prices, as oil-for-gasoline swaps consumed all the crude oil it had to sell - and more; NNPC owed traders up to $3 billion worth of oil this year, debts the two sources said would be paid in November.

Tinubu's reforms in May more than tripled petrol prices, and virtually eliminated cross-border smuggling that drained millions of litres per day out of Nigeria to neighbouring countries with higher pump prices.

While it pumps more oil than any other African nation, Nigeria refines little and is almost totally reliant on fuel imports to keep its 200 million people moving.

The last round of swaps included more than a dozen consortia including foreign oil traders such as Vitol, TotalEnergies and Mercuria and local companies such as Sahara.

Despite the reforms, NNPC remains the sole gasoline importer, sources said, due to ongoing foreign exchange shortages and an effective pump price cap that has meant private importers can't make money bringing in fuel.

 

Reuters