Two ad hoc officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday told the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja that they were instructed not to give election results sheets to political party agents who refused to sign the documents.

The subpoenaed witnesses – Abidemi Joseph and Grace Ajagbonna – appeared before the five-member panel of the court chaired by Haruna Tsammani to testify in the petition filed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging President Bola Tinubu’s victory.

Atiku and Mr Obi are urging the court to overturn Tinubu’s victory. They are alleging electoral malpractices against INEC and the president.

At the resumed hearing of Atiku’s suit Friday, the two subpoenaed witnesses informed the court that they were directed by INEC management not to hand copies of the election results sheets to any party agent who declined to append their signature on the documents.

Abidemi and Ajagbonna were members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and served as presiding officers for the February presidential and National Assembly elections.

They recalled that during their training as ad hoc staff for the polls, top officials of the electoral umpire gave instructions regarding the signing of results sheets.

Earlier on Thursday, two ad hoc officers of INEC testified that they could not upload the presidential election results on the electoral commission’s IReV portal.

At Friday’s proceedings, Ajagbonna, who was led in her evidence by Chris Uche, Atiku’s lawyer, told the court that she served as a presiding officer in Kogi State during the polls.

She was Atiku’s 14th witness to testify at the court.

Mounting the witness box, Ajogbenna expressed her disappointment in not being able to use the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) device to transmit the results sheet to INEC’s portal.

On her part, Joseph, Atiku’s 15th witness who presented her appointment letter from INEC in evidence, said she served as a presiding officer in Niger state.

She informed the court that the election was hitch-free at her polling unit.

She recalled that all the party agents appended their signatures on the election results sheet.

“I was trained by INEC. It was part of our training that unless party agents signed, we should not give them duplicate copies of the result,” Joseph said, affirming what PDP agents at the polls earlier told the court.

But while being cross-examined by Tinubu’s counsel, Yusuf Alli, Joseph said she did not compel any party agent to sign the results sheet.

While being cross-examined by APC’s lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi, the witness said INEC appointed her as a presiding officer two days before the 25 February election.

Another witness, Obosa Edosa, from Ovia South-West of Edo State, recounted her experience as a presiding officer at the polls.

“I tried to upload the result using the BVAS machine, but it failed. At the end, I took the result to the collation centre.

“Everything went well, apart from the transmission of the results with the BVAS.

“As a Presiding Officer during the election, I performed my duties very well,” Edosa, the 16th witness, narrated.

The witness said she received a phone call to appear as a witness before the court.

In her evidence, Edosa said, “I did the accreditation of voters using the BVAS and the voters’ register. The process went well, and actual voting started afterwards.”

“Afterwards, we sorted and counted the votes and recorded the results in Form EC8A. We entered the figures manually, and after that, I signed, and the party agents signed.”

Objections

Lawyers to the respondents – Tinubu, INEC and APC – objected to the admissibility of the witnesses’ statements on oath.

They promised to articulate their opposition to the admissibility of the statements at the close of arguments in the case.

But Atiku’s lawyer, Uche, prayed the court to dismiss the objections.

Subsequently, the court said it would rule on the objections at the end of the case. It adjourned further hearing in the petition until Saturday.

PT

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman privately threatened to harm the American economy after President Joe Biden warned Saudi Arabia of “consequences” for agreeing an oil production cut with Russia, the Washington Post has reported, citing leaked material.

The Biden administration had said it would re-evaluate relations with the kingdom following a decision by Riyadh to slash crude production against the wishes of the US.

The Crown Prince, who is widely referred to as MBS, warned that he would not deal with the US administration anymore if Biden penalized Saudi Arabia. He also promised “major economic consequences for Washington,” the Post reported on Thursday.

The threat was contained in a classified document that was leaked on a Discord server, but it was not clear whether the remark was part of intercepted communications or a message sent privately to the US.

Biden made his dissatisfaction with Riyadh clear last October after the OPEC+ group of major oil producers including Russia agreed to cut production by two million barrels a day. Washington was working to punish Moscow with sanctions on its oil trade over the conflict in Ukraine.

“There’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done with Russia,” the US president said in an interview with CNN at the time, without specifying any possible measures.

On the campaign trail before his election, Biden vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over the Crown Prince’s alleged role in the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which Riyadh blamed on rogue agents.

This threat never materialized, with White House insiders indicating that the Biden administration had opted against jeopardizing bilateral relations. Under a decades-old arrangement, the US provides security to Saudi Arabia, and in exchange retains access to its oil, which the kingdom trades for dollars, propping it up as a global currency.

A number of top US officials recently traveled to Saudi Arabia, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken. These relations contrast with the reportedly poor personal chemistry between Biden and MBS, who have not met since last July.

The 37-year-old Saudi Crown Prince, who is responsible for the day-to-day affairs of the kingdom in lieu of his father, King Salman, reportedly mocks Biden in private, making fun of his gaffes and mental lapses. Critics of the US president have accused him of caving in to Saudi pressure.

RT

China’s plan for an eavesdropping station in Cuba serves as a marker for Beijing’s global power ambitions, planting its spiraling rivalry with the U.S. on America’s doorstep.

The listening post, which will be 100 miles off Florida, would potentially give the Chinese military capabilities to monitor communications across a wide stretch of the southern U.S. 

More important, the facility roots China in a region of economic and geopolitical importance, broadens the playing field as it jostles Washington for influence and turns the tables on an enduring sore point for Beijing—U.S. spying off Chinese shores.

“The symbolism is much bigger,” said Michael Mazarr, an international security specialist at the Rand Corp. “The days of the United States thinking of the China challenge as one limited to the Indo-Pacific, with the U.S. being the one to encroach on the other’s region in security terms, those days are over.”

Beijing has for decades decried what it sees as U.S. intrusiveness for flying surveillance aircraft and sailing military survey vessels and other warships near Chinese shores or through the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, areas China sees as vital for its security. 

China’s defense minister this past weekend blamed the U.S. for recent close encounters between their militaries and urged Washington to retreat. “What’s the point of going there?” asked Gen. Li Shangfu at a regional security conference in Singapore. “In China we always say, ‘Mind your own business.’”

While a Cuba eavesdropping facility will give Beijing the opportunity to engage in tit-for-tat, it is unlikely meant as a bargaining chip. The U.S. isn’t likely to pull back military deployments from China’s periphery, given Washington’s concerns about Beijing’s more assertive posture and American security commitments to allies from Japan to Australia.

Rather, the Cuba post is a sign that China now sees its struggle with the U.S. as global and that it must operate around the world to fend off Washington and protect Chinese interests. China has set up facilities that could service its navy in Asia and the Pacific and is on a global search for basing sites.

China has for many years looked to Cuba, with its Communist government, as a possible entry point to expand influence in Latin America and edge the U.S. aside in a region Washington long considered an American preserve. The Soviet Union, and later Russia, for decades operated a monitoring facility near Havana, setting a precedent. So, security specialists said, China’s listening post, while angering Washington, isn’t apt to cross U.S. red lines.

China over the last 20 years has become an economic player in Latin America, increasing trade and investment in agriculture, energy, mining and other sectors. It has become the top trading partner for many countries in the region, among them Brazil, Argentina and Chile, acquiring political influence along the way. 

The engagement has given Chinese companies access to copper, oil, soybeans and other resources that Beijing deems critical to grow the Chinese economy and underpin widening influence. 

In recent years, the focus has broadened to include materials critical to energy-saving technologies; a Chinese consortium in January won a bid to develop lithium in Bolivia, home to the world’s largest resources of the metal, which is a component of batteries for electric vehicles. 

“China’s engagement in Latin America is about China getting what China needs for its own prosperity,” said R. Evan Ellis, a professor at the U.S. Army War College who tracks Beijing’s relations in the region. In the longer term, Ellis said, “It’s about China preparing for a world where the U.S. or others may meddle in their attempts to do so.” 

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has said that the U.S. is out to contain China as it rises to become a global peer.

At the weekend gathering where Li spoke, he and other Chinese officials warned that the U.S. is attempting to bring the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into Asia to serve as a check on China. With that in mind, according to Chinese officials and foreign-policy specialists, Xi has placed a priority on preparing the Chinese economy to withstand the kind of sanctions and economic pressure the U.S. and its NATO allies have placed on Russia over its war on Ukraine.

The Biden administration has worked assiduously to bolster defense cooperation with allies in China’s region. Assistant Secretary of Defense Ely Ratner on Thursday touted the gains the U.S. has made in expanding access to military facilities and working with countries such as Japan, Australia, India and the Philippines, describing those relationships as “in overdrive.”

“There’s just a very strong demand signal right now for the United States to be playing its traditional stabilizing role,” Mr. Ratner said at a discussion at the Center for New American Security, a Washington think tank. “It’s no secret that China’s assertiveness and coercion have really underscored the importance of working together.”

Washington and Beijing are also preparing for a visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken that could include a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to officials on both sides. Mr. Blinken is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on June 18, a U.S. official said, his visit having been postponed from February after the appearance of a suspected Chinese spy balloon.

With Beijing planning the eavesdropping facility in Cuba, the U.S. is likely to try to make sure that China’s military presence doesn’t increase. Given economic sanctions and strained ties, the U.S. would likely have to turn to European and Latin American allies to exert pressure on Havana, if Washington isn’t prepared to offer inducements, such as boosting tourism to Cuba.

Unlike the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that traversed North America before it was shot down early this year, the Biden White House and preceding administrations have appeared to accept some Chinese espionage within international norms. Chinese surveillance vessels, for example, have sailed near large-scale U.S. naval exercises with allies off Hawaii.

China’s sole full-fledged overseas military base, in the Horn of Africa country of Djibouti, started off small then expanded. Beijing is looking to set up other bases, including as far afield as the Atlantic Coast of Africa, as the People’s Liberation Army aims to secure China’s far-flung economic interests.

A port-access agreement with Solomon Islands appears limited, though it could easily be enlarged to become a naval base, according to military affairs specialists.

“I’m sure the Chinese would like to have somewhere that they could operate in the Western Hemisphere reliably,” said Zack Cooper, a China security specialist with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “And Cuba is probably more likely to be that place than anywhere else.”

Wall Street Journal

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine reports 'heavy combat' after Putin says offensive has begun

Moscow and Kyiv both reported heavy fighting in Ukraine on Friday, with bloggers describing the first sightings of German and U.S. armour, signalling that Ukraine's long-anticipated counterattack was under way.

With virtually no independent reporting from the front lines and Kyiv saying little, it was impossible to assess whether Ukraine was penetrating Russian defences in its bid to drive out occupying forces.

"We can state for sure that this offensive has begun," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Sochi. "Ukrainian troops did not achieve their goals in any sector."

Ukraine's President Voldymyr Zelenskiy said he had discussed tactics and "achievements" with military leaders but gave little away.

"For our soldiers, for all those who at this time are engaged in particularly heavy combat. We see your heroism, and we are grateful for every moment of your lives," he said in his nightly video address. "Ukraine is as free as you are strong."

Ukrainian military analyst Oleksander Musiyenko, interviewed on Ukrainian NV Radio, said Ukraine was making gains but dismissed Russian reports of a major counter-offensive in south-central Zaporizhzhia region.

"This is simply not true. It is not the main phase of the counter-offensive. It is merely a phase and not the large drive from which we can expect a rapid breakthrough and hundreds of kilometres of liberated territory," Musiyenko said.

The counteroffensive is ultimately expected to involve thousands of Ukrainian troops trained and equipped by the West. The United States announced an extra $2.1 billion in security assistance on Friday, including air defence and ammunition.

Russia, which has had months to prepare its defensive lines, says it has repelled attacks since the start of the week. Kyiv has said its main effort has yet to begin.

Moscow and pro-war Russian bloggers reported intense battles on the Zaporizhzhia front near the city of Orikhiv, around the mid-point of the "land bridge" linking Russia to the Crimea peninsula, seen as one of Ukraine's likeliest targets.

Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said reports from the Russian bloggers of German-made Leopard tanks and U.S. Bradley armoured vehicles near Tokmak south of Orikhiv, if confirmed, would provide the first evidence that Ukraine's new brigades of Western-armed troops had joined the battle.

In all, Kyiv has 12 brigades totalling 50,000-60,000 troops ready to unleash in the counteroffensive. Nine of the brigades have been armed and trained by the West.

"They've got a choice of how many they commit initially and how many they keep in reserve in case the battlefield dynamics change," Barry said, adding that Ukraine's initial priority would be trying to keep the Russians off balance and gain tactical surprise through deception and camouflage.

The Russian defence ministry said its troops had repelled two Ukrainian assaults south of Orikhiv and four near Velyka Novosilka further east, where it said Ukraine's attack force included two battalions of troops supported by tanks. Several battalions of up to 1,000 troops comprise a brigade.

The southern front is where Ukrainian forces are widely expected to attempt their main push, towards the coast. Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said only that battles were continuing for Velyka Novosilka and Russian troops were mounting "active defence" at Orikhiv.

In the east, Ukraine has reported advances around Bakhmut, which Russian forces captured last month after nearly a year of the deadliest ground combat in Europe since World War Two. Ukraine generally bars journalists from reaching its side of front lines during offensive operations.

Reuters could not independently verify the accounts by either side.

FLOOD DISASTER OVERSHADOWS FIGHTING

The initial days of the counteroffensive have been overshadowed this week by a huge humanitarian disaster after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam holding back the waters of the Dnipro River that bisects Ukraine.

Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate homes flooded in the war zone, vast nature preserves have been wiped out and the destruction to irrigation systems is likely to cripple agriculture across much of southern Ukraine for decades. Kyiv said at least four people had died and 13 were missing.

Ukraine's security service released a recording on Friday of what it described as an intercepted phone call in which a Russian soldier confides to another man that a Russian sabotage group had blown the dam up. Moscow says Ukraine sabotaged it.

Western countries say they are still gathering evidence but argue that Ukraine would have no reason to inflict such a devastating disaster on itself, especially right as its forces were shifting onto the attack.

In Hola Prystan on the Russian-occupied side of the river, rescuers evacuatedresidents in rubber dinghies. Villagers carried pets or small children to safety.

"Our house was carried away by a torrent of water," said a woman who gave her name as Oksana, being evacuated in a boat with her teenage daughter and their two dogs.

Some relatives of people in Russian-controlled flooded areas said their loved ones were still stuck on roofs with dwindling food supplies. The United Nations has no access to those areas, its Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine Denise Brown said, adding that some 17,000 people were affected in Ukrainian-controlled areas, with numbers changing "by the minute".

The river divides the two sides, which accuse each other of shelling across it, interfering with rescue efforts. The Kremlin said Ukrainian shelling had killed people including a pregnant woman. It provided no evidence.

Ukraine's general staff said on Friday evening there had been 27 armed engagements in the east over the past 24 hours.

It also reported 58 Russian air strikes and 31 incidents of Russian shelling. "Unfortunately, there are civilian deaths and injuries and damage to private homes, a hospital and other infrastructure," it said, without elaborating.

Ukraine launched 16 air strikes it said, giving no indication of whether the front line had moved.

Russian officials said Ukraine had struck the Russian city of Voronezh with a drone, wounding three people, and reported other drone attacks in Belgorod and Kursk. Kyiv withholds comment on reports of attacks inside Russia.

** Russia has received hundreds of Iranian drones to attack Ukraine, says White House

The White House said on Friday that Russia appeared to be deepening its defense cooperation with Iran and had received hundreds of one-way attack drones that it is using to strike Ukraine.

Citing newly declassified information, the White House said the drones, or Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), were built in Iran, shipped across the Caspian Sea and then used by Russian forces against Ukraine.

"Russia has been using Iranian UAVs in recent weeks to strike Kyiv and terrorize the Ukrainian population, and the Russia-Iran military partnership appears to be deepening," White House spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

"We are also concerned that Russia is working with Iran to produce Iranian UAVs from inside Russia."

Kirby said the U.S. had information that Russia was receiving materials from Iran required to build a drone manufacturing plant that could be fully operational early next year.

"We are releasing satellite imagery of the planned location of this UAV manufacturing plant in Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone," he said.

The U.S. has previously sanctioned Iranian executives at a defense manufacturer over drone supplies to Russia. Iran has acknowledged sending drones to Russia but said they were sent before Russia's February invasion. Moscow has denied its forces used Iranian drones in Ukraine. A White House official said Iran had transferred several hundred drones to Russia since August.

Support between Iran and Russia was flowing both ways, Kirby said, with Iran seeking billions of dollars worth of military equipment from Russia including helicopters and radars.

"Russia has been offering Iran unprecedented defense cooperation, including on missiles, electronics, and air defense," he said.

"This is a full-scale defense partnership that is harmful to Ukraine, to Iran’s neighbors, and to the international community. We are continuing to use all the tools at our disposal to expose and disrupt these activities including by sharing this with the public – and we are prepared to do more."

Kirby said the transfers of drones constituted a violation of United Nations rules and the United States would seek to hold the two countries accountable.

Britain, France, Germany, the U.S. and Ukraine say the supply of Iranian-made drones to Russia violates a 2015 U.N. Security Council resolution enshrining the Iran nuclear deal.

Under the 2015 U.N. resolution, a conventional arms embargo on Iran was in place until October 2020.

Ukraine and Western powers argue that the resolution includes restrictions on missiles and related technologies until October 2023 and can encompass the export and purchase of advanced military systems such as drones.

The Iranian and Russian missions to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.S. accusations.

"We will continue to impose sanctions on the actors involved in the transfer of Iranian military equipment to Russia for use in Ukraine," Kirby said.

He said a new U.S. advisory issued on Friday aimed "to help businesses and other governments better understand the risks posed by Iran’s UAV program and the illicit practices Iran uses to procure components for it."

The advisory highlighted key items sought by Iran for its development of drones, including electronics such as processors and controllers.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian troops had no success due to courage of Russian servicemen — Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukrainian forces achieved no success with their operations at the frontline due to the courage of Russian servicemen, the quality of Russian weapons and proper command organization.

"The enemy had no success in any area. It is all due to the courage and heroism of our soldiers, the proper organization and management of troops and the great efficiency of Russian weapons, especially advanced weapons," Putin told reporters.

He said the fighting has been very intense in the past two days.

Russian releases VIDEO of Ukrainian vehicles destroyed in combat

Russian Ministry of Defense published a video on Friday showing the destruction of armored vehicles supplied to Ukraine by the US and its allies, overlaid by a snippet from the iconic radio broadcast announcing the 1941 invasion by Nazi Germany.

The 45-second video opens with a group of armored cars getting caught by artillery in an open field, somewhere on the Zaporozhye front. This is followed by drone footage of exploding armored cars, personnel carriers and tanks. A still image shows a group of US-supplied Bradley infantry vehicles and a knocked-out Leopard tank. Another Leopard is then seen burning on a dirt road.

While the footage is accompanied by electronic music, the video opens with a blast from the past. “Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated,” says Yuri Levitan (1914-1983), known as the voice of Soviet radio, quoting from the June 22, 1941 broadcast announcing that Nazi Germany and its allies had invaded the USSR.

The Russian Defense Ministry frequently uses another quote from Levitan’s broadcast, “Victory will be ours!” to sign its announcements.

Reuters/RT/Tass

Sudan factions agree day's truce designed to 'break cycle of violence'

Sudan's warring sides have agreed a nationwide, 24-hour ceasefire from Saturday morning, U.S. and Saudi Arabian mediators said, following a week of intensified fighting after a previous truce deal lapsed.

The mediators said the ceasefire was "an effort to break the cycle of violence" between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began battling each other eight weeks ago, sparking a major humanitarian crisis.

The conflict has displaced more than 1.9 million people, some 400,000 of whom have crossed into neighbouring countries. The urban area around Sudan's capital Khartoum, home to at least five million people, has been turned into a war zone, and unrest has also flared in the conflict-scarred western region of Darfur.

Fighting continued on Friday, with residents reporting artillery fire and clashes in the north of Omdurman, across the confluence of the River Nile from Khartoum, and air strikes in Bahri, a third adjoining city that makes up the wider capital.

"There are heavy strikes near us and bullets from every direction in Al-Thawra neighbourhood in Omdurman," said Sanaa Ahmed, a 24-year-old resident. "We are really afraid and we don't know what to do."

Medical charity MSF said fighting had intensified significantly in Khartoum since Tuesday, resulting in a surge of patients to a hospital where it is working.

Another city where the conflict has triggered clashes is El Obeid in North Kordofan State southwest of Khartoum, which lies on a main route between the capital and Darfur, the RSF's power base.

A doctors' group said in a statement that the city had been suffering from water outages for more than a month, shortages of food, medicine and fuel, and two weeks of power cuts. Twelve kidney dialysis patients had died due to the impact of the war and dozens more were at risk, it said.

'SENSELESS WAR'

The ceasefire is due to start at 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) local time on Saturday.

The two sides agreed to "refrain from prohibited movements, attacks, use of aircraft or drones, aerial bombardment, artillery strikes, reinforcement of positions and resupply of forces, and will refrain from seeking military advantage during the ceasefire," a Saudi-U.S. statement read.

They also agreed to allow delivery of humanitarian assistance, it said.

Both sides have broken a string of ceasefire agreements, including a 12-day truce deal that expired on June 3 and was brokered by Saudi Arabia and the U.S. at talks in Jeddah.

Fighting subsided slightly during the period of that truce deal and limited amounts of humanitarian relief were delivered, though aid agencies say their operations have been badly impeded by bureaucratic controls, fighting, and looting of aid supplies.

The army said last week that it was pulling out of the Jeddah talks, though both sides kept delegations in the Saudi city for consultations.

If the parties fail to observe the new ceasefire, "facilitators will be compelled to consider adjourning the Jeddah talks", the Saudi-U.S. statement said.

The army confirmed in a statement that it had agreed to the 24-hour ceasefire while asserting "its right to respond to any violations". The RSF said in a statement it was committed to respecting the truce.

The conflict in Sudan derailed the launch of a transition towards civilian rule four years after a popular uprising ousted strongman President Omar al-Bashir.

Sudan's army and the RSF fell out over the chain of command and military restructuring plans under the transition.

"We have provided both parties numerous opportunities to end this senseless war," the U.S. State Department's Bureau of African Affairs said on Twitter.

"We call on both sides to adhere to the commitment made today for a 24-hour ceasefire, which would allow Sudanese people to receive critical humanitarian assistance."

Reuters

One of the clearest symbols of the failure of the Buhari administration was former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika’s attempt at pulling the wool over the eyes of Nigerians by presenting a hastily repainted Ethiopian Airline plane, chartered for the trick at a high cost, to claim that he had delivered on his mandate of delivering Nigeria Air before the end of his mandate. The tragicomedy was not funny because Nigerians knew about the billions spent on the project with nothing to show for it. Maybe the big question was: Why was Sirika re-appointed to deliver on this mandate, when he had been given the opportunity in the first term of the administration but had failed miserably? For his failure, he was promoted from junior to senior minister in 2019 and his “empire” carved out of the Ministry of Transport, so that he would have sole authority on the matter. The signal was clear: the reward for failure under Buhari was promotion.

It would be recalled that in September 2018, Hadi Sirika’s Nigeria Air project was suspended by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), dashing the hopes of many Nigerians who would have loved to see a national air carrier that we could proudly call our own ferry us around the world, while we make a lot of money in the process, as British Airways, Emirates, Air France etc. are making out of our resources. We know the difficulties of government ownership of airlines and what led to the liquidation of Nigeria Airways in 2004, as such when Sirika announced in December 2015 that his strategic objective as Aviation minister was the establishment of a successful private sector national airline for Nigeria, I put him on my “I like” list. With the suspension of the project and the knowledge that it was all Sirika’s fault, I feel bitter because he could have succeeded if he had consulted widely and planned well. Instead, he conducted one of the most opaque attempts at establishing a project in Nigeria, with no information given about this, almost no consultation with the necessary stakeholders and absolutely no transparency in the process. His second failure is more painful, even if it was expected.

I have followed the airline issue closely and noticed that on numerous occasions, between December 2015 and July 2018, Sirika assured Nigerians that the project was on course but he never gave any details on what was being planned. I noticed that a lot of aviation stakeholders were asking question on what the plans of the minister were but there was no response. It became clear that for him, the airline was his personal project and he did not see the need to discuss it with stakeholders and create a consensus on the best strategy to adopt. Given the total information blackout from the Minister, a lot of speculations arose that he was planning to use the assets of Arik and Aero Airlines taken over by AMCON to start the new line. Others speculated that he was begging Qatar Air and/or Ethiopian Airways to come and set up an airline for us. Speculation became the sole mode of engagement because the minister refused to engage with anybody.

It was only in July 2018 at the Farnborough International Air Show in the United Kingdom that Sirika announced that the name of the proposed new national carrier is ‘Nigeria Air’ and that the proposed national airline would be unveiled before the end of 2018. Then came the bombshell – government would invest $300 million in the new venture and own only 5% of it. With great fanfare, he then launched the logo of the airline for which he had paid some foreign company $600,000 and multiple criticisms arose. The most effective, I recall, was the tweet by Mustafa Chike Obi, former managing director of AMCON, on 21st July 2018 asking why Nigeria was paying $300 million for only 5% of the new carrier, while Air France/KLM had paid $286 million for a 31% share of Virgin Atlantic. The tweet went viral and there was massive reportage in the media that the minister was planning a scam. It was in this context that the next day, the Minister announced that the entire bill for the start-up would be borne by government, which would have 100% and not 5% ownership, but would subsequently sell 95% to the private sector. It was incredible that even at that stage, Sirika was not willing to share basic information on the strategy for the establishment of the airline. After assuring Nigerians for three years that the project would be 100% private, he turned it to a 100% government project and did not even want to tell Nigerians about it.

Part of the problem was that the same Sirika had refused to inaugurate all the governing boards of the parastatals in the aviation sector, despite repeated admonishment from the President, the APC party chairman and the Central Working Committee of the ruling party. He, therefore, single-handedly ran the entire aviation sector. This meant that he was all powerful and it pleased him that he was the master. For his second term from 2019, boards were not even appointed for the parastatals in the aviation sector to please him. Buhari made it a one-man show. In his last two weeks in office, Sirika reorganised the entire ministry, added aerospace to it, appointed new managing directors and directors and even boards for the parastatals. Clearly, having served and failed for the eight years he was there, he decided to stamp his mark of failure on the future of the aviation industry.

In 2018, it was the Economic Management Team (EMT) led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo that examined the Nigeria Air project and discovered with consternation that the Minister had committed the government to a major and immediate investment to set up the carrier, despite knowing fully well that the project had not been budgeted for. Meanwhile, somehow, an $8.8 million preliminary cost had apparently been provided by government. What the money was spent on has not been explained up till now. It was symptomatic of the Buhari regime that for all these failures, he was promoted and asked to deliver the same mandate he had failed to perform earlier. Currently, Nigerians are correctly calling for a probe of Sirika’s second failure. Buhari may be the only human being who could believe that giving him four extra years would produce a different outcome. Today, we are still in stage one of the five-stage process of establishing an airline after eight years work by Sirika.

The real issue about Sirika was that he was close to the President and therefore could act with impunity, fail in his assignment and remain in power, while running the ministry as a personal fiefdom. How could the President even consider a major structural re-organisation of the ministry in his last week in office, knowing fully well that the Tinubu administration was coming in? The bigger picture, of course, is that the lack of scrutiny extended basically to all the other ministries and in the coming weeks and months, we will start learning details of how other ministers ruled and ruined the country. May accountability return to governance.

PT

A 57-year-old man of Nashville, United States of America, claims that he has managed to lose 60 lbs (27kg) of body weight by eating McDonald’s fast food three times a day for 100 days straight.

If you’re trying to lose weight, fast food is probably the first thing you cut out, but one Nashville grandfather’s dieting experiment will probably make you see things from a totally different perspective. 57-year-old Kevin Maginnis had been doing a media tour explaining how he managed to lose a considerable amount of body weight by eating McDonald’s Big Macs, quarter-pounders, french fries, and apple fritters three times a day for 100 days straight. Maginnis also claims that the unusual diet also helped him bring down his cholesterol, blood sugar, as well as his heart attack risk rating. And all he did was cut the portions he ate in half.

“Half a plate to lose the weight – three-quarters of a plate to maintain the weight, any food, including McDonald’s,” Maginnis told NBC’s Today Show. “I was pre-diabetic before – down into healthy ranges now.”

Maginnis first announced his unconventional diet in a TikTok video that went viral, but 100 days after starting it, he actually came back with some impressive results – he managed to drop from 238lbs (108kg) to 179.5lbs (81.4kg), by eating fast food three times per day. After seeing him shed the extra pounds, his wife joined him on his quest to show that portion control is the way to go.

“She’s Mclovin’ it,” he jokingly said. “I think she’s beautiful now so it’s just the health reasons. We want to get into a better overall healthy weight.”

Even though he has been told that eating McDonald’s isn’t sustainable in the long run, Kevin is confident that he has found the perfect way to lose extra weight without feeling miserable. He can still eat whatever he likes, as the McDonald’s menu offers plenty of variety, but he only eats half a portion, saving the rest for his next meal.

“I wait until I have that actual heat, not my head craving foods but my body actually at that place where it’s really truly hungry,” the 57-year-old said. “Hunger, it turns out, is one of the best seasonings you can add to anything.”

“I’m never depriving myself. I’m eating McFurries, I’m eating cinnamon rolls, I’m hitting Big Macs, I’m eating French fries,” Maginnis added. “I’m just delaying myself because I’m going eat the whole thing. I’m just not going to eat it all in one sitting.”

Dieticians will say that even by cutting portions in half, Kevin is still getting well over the recommended 2,300 milligrams of sodium daily” and that many of the ingredients in fast food aren’t ideal for a healthy diet, but he claims that, while consuming different macronutrients is definitely important, shedding the pounds first is more important for his health than focusing on the foods he eats.

“Eating different macronutrients that are going to help my brain function — if I’m dead, my brain function is not going to improve, so let’s get rid of this obesity killer first,” Maginnis said.

Kevin isn’t the first person to lose weight on a McDonald’s diet. Back in 2014, John Cisna, a school teacher from Iowa, ate fast food for 90 days and lost 37 pounds.

Oddity Central

It’s no secret that we physically shrink as we get older, but did you know that your brain (yes, your brain) is also getting smaller? Before you panic, it’s important to know that age-related shrinkage is normal. But if you want to get a head start on improving your brain health, here’s what to do.

When your brain starts to shrink

Most studies indicate that brain volume starts to change in your 30s or 40s; however, “it’s in your 60s or 70s that we start to see more promenade atrophy, or changes in the brain happening, both in normal aging and in disease related,” says Dr. Charles Bernick, staff neurologist at Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.

“We know that normally with age, brain volume declines in a somewhat predictable manner. The weight of the brain declines 5% per decade after the age of 40,” he continues. “That’s due to a combination of loss of cells, degeneration of fibers, reduction in volume of the cells themselves.”

Why your brain starts to shrink

There is a difference between age-related shrinking of the brain, or atrophy, and disease-related shrinking. The concern, according to Bernick, comes into play when the shrinkage is more than what you would expect for age because it can reflect a disease process, whether it’s due to vascular changes in the brain, or a disease like Alzheimer’s.

While there’s no way to monitor brain atrophy due to normal aging, symptoms to look for include changes in mental function, such as memory loss, difficulty with problem solving or finding words.

“Atrophy is only uncovered if you become symptomatic, such as having changes in your memory or cognitive function,” explains Bernick. “Those would be the reasons to have brain imaging done, where you might pick up shrinkage or atrophy.

Symptoms would trigger an evaluation, such as an MRI brain scan, to detect atrophy. There are also automated tools that can determine whether certain volumes are outside the expected range for age, he says.

Ways to maximize your brain health

While it’s not possible to prevent normal brain aging, there are strategies you can use to maximize your brain health and help reduce your risk of developing disease, such as Alzheimer’s. These methods include:

Regular exercise

Diets that are rich in antioxidants, such as a Mediterranean diet

Staying mentally engaged

Getting proper sleep

Attending to other vascular risk factors, such as monitoring and managing blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes

Refraining from smoking

Although some sources claim that brain health supplements, such as creatine and omega-3 supplements can help, Bernick says the science is “murky at best.”

“Our recommendation would be to focus on proper nutrition and getting vitamins and minerals through diet,” he says. “Eating a balanced diet that includes a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats should be your first approach. It’s only if you’re deficient in certain vitamins or minerals that you should look toward supplements.”

Fortune

President Bola Tinubu has signed into law the bill on uniform retirement age for judicial officers.

Tinubu signed the bill into law on Thursday.

In a statement by Abiodun Oladunjoye, state house director of information, the president pledged that his administration would strengthen the judiciary and empower judicial officers.

The bill, titled: “Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, 1999 (fifth altercation) (No.37) bill, 2023”, was the first to be signed by Tinubu since taking the oath of office on May 29.

The law extends the retirement age of high court judges — and others — from 65 to 70 years.

The retirement age of justices of the appeal and supreme courts is already pegged at 70.

The legislation also ensured uniformity in the pension rights of judicial officers of “superior courts of record” specified in section 6(5) of the 1999 constitution (as amended).

On May 2, the national assembly directed Amos Ojo, its clerk, to transmit the bill to former President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.

However, Abubakar Malami, immediate past attorney-general of the federation, advised Buhari to decline assent to the bill.

In a memo dated May 23 and addressed to the office of the chief of staff to the president, Malami said the bill appeared to be “far-reaching, unduly wide, ambiguous”, adding that it made no “justification” for the extension of retirement age and benefits for judges.

The former AGF said the bill if approved, may lead to further agitation for the extension of the retirement age of justices of the supreme court and court of appeal.

The Cable

Labour Party and its presidential candidate in the February 25 election, Peter Obi, on Thursday evening, sought an order of the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja to interrogate the Independent National Electoral Commission.

LP and Obi, among other things, are seeking details relating to the information and communication technology experts used by INEC in the conduct of the election.

LP and Obi are challenging the declaration by INEC that Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress won the election.

In two separate motions argued by their lawyer, Patrick Ikweto, Obi posed 12 questions to be forwarded to INEC as part of efforts to support their petition which questioned the integrity of the election.

The petitioners averred that the interrogatory application if acceded to, would assist them in solidifying their claims that the conduct of the election was flawed.

However, counsel for INEC, Kemi Pinhero, objected to the move, on the grounds that the application was brought outside the time specified and allowed by law.

He contended that moving the application outside the pre-hearing session had robbed the court of jurisdiction to hear it.

Also, both the counsel for Tinubu, Akin Olujimi and counsel for the APC, Lateef Fagbemi, opposed the request.

The presiding Justice, Haruna Tsammani, reserved ruling on the interrogatory applications by Obi and his party.

He also adjourned further hearing in the petition till Friday (today).

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, on Thursday, called their first subpoenaed witness at the Presidential Election Petition Court despite vehement objection by the respondents.

The witness, Friday Egwuma, who was an INEC ad hoc staff, told the court that he served as Presiding Officer at Polling Unit 17, Aba North in Abia State.

Egwuma told the court that he experienced technical glitches at the point of uploading the captured presidential results to the INEC Results Viewing Portal.

He alleged that the results could not be electronically transmitted in real-time after capturing it on the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System.

Egwuama gave the testimony during his cross-examination by the counsel for INEC, A.B. Mahmoud.

He pointed out that the difficulty he encountered was only in relation to the presidential results as other results pertaining to the senatorial and House of Representatives elections were electronically transmitted to the portal seamlessly.

He, however, noted that there was an option to use an offline mode in such a situation.

Earlier on, before the witness testified the respondents had opposed the admissibility of his deposition.

The court reserved ruling on the objection until final judgment.

Punch