RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Biden allows deployment of US military ‘contractors’ to Ukraine – media

The administration of outgoing President Joe Biden has lifted a de facto ban on deploying US defense contractors in Ukraine to repair American-made armaments, Reuters and CNN reported on Friday, citing anonymous Pentagon officials.

This reversal of previous US policy comes just as vocal Ukraine conflict skeptic Donald Trump won the popular vote and secured his second term in the White House. While it is unclear whether Trump would have continued the prior policy, he has repeatedly promised not to put American lives at risk and to rapidly conclude the conflict once in office again.

The potential American presence on the ground will be “small” and located “far” from the front lines, and they are not expected to engage in combat, Reuters wrote on Friday, citing an anonymous US official. As the US and its NATO partners have provided Kiev with increasingly sophisticated American-made armaments, such as F-16 fighter jets and Patriot air defense systems, restrictions have slowed repairs and proven increasingly challenging. Much of the equipment has been damaged beyond repair by Kiev’s own specialists.

The policy change aligns the Pentagon more closely with the US State Department and USAID, which already have contractors in Ukraine, according to another official.

“These contractors will help the Ukrainian Armed Forces rapidly repair and maintain US-provided equipment as needed so it can quickly return to the front lines,” CNN wrote on Friday, citing a defense official. Specifically, F-16 jets and Patriot batteries “require specific technical expertise to maintain,” they said.

Allowing US contractors to work in Ukraine will provide a faster alternative to the current method of transporting equipment to NATO countries like Poland and Romania for repairs, CNN noted.

Meanwhile the risks of being killed by Russian strikes will fall on the companies bidding for the Pentagon contracts.

“Each US contractor, organization, or company will be responsible for the safety and security of their employees and will be required to include risk mitigation plans as part of their bids,” CNN cited a defense official as saying.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously stated that Moscow is aware of the “direct involvement of NATO troops in this conflict.” He pointed out that several high-tech systems the US and its allies have provided to Kiev, such as ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles, require the involvement of Western officers to operate them.

The Russian Defense Ministry regularly reports airstrikes on repair facilities in Ukraine. This week alone, the Russian military carried out at least 38 strikes on Kiev’s military-industrial complex facilities, as well as supporting energy and military infrastructure, according to the latest report on Friday.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Bloggers report Russian forces moving closer to Ukrainian frontline town

Military bloggers on Friday reported that Russian forces were moving closer to capturing a major town on the eastern front in the war in Ukraine as part of their drive westward to capture all of the Donbas region.

Bloggers on both sides reported that Russian forces had entered the village of Sontsivka and were advancing from the northwest on the city of Kurakhove.

Ukrainian authorities made no acknowledgement that the village had fallen into Russian hands, while noting that fighting on the eastern front was heaviest around Kurakhove and Pokrovsk, a major logistics centre to the northwest.

"The Kurakhove direction and the Pokrovsk direction are the most challenging right now," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. "The military command and brigade command are working on strengthening positions."

Ukraine's General Staff made no mention of the village, saying that Ukrainian forces had repelled 18 of 32 Russian attacks near Kurakhove and 19 assaults near Pokrovsk.

The popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState showed Sontsivka to be in a grey area, with control uncertain.

A Ukrainian officer, identifying himself as Alex, said Russian troops had penetrated Ukrainian defences and secured a foothold in the village. A Russian blogger, identifying himself as Blue Z Beard, issued a similar report, saying the advance would eventually lead to the encirclement of Kurakhove.

After initially failing to advance on the capital Kyiv after their February 2022 invasion, Russian forces have focused on securing control of Donbas, made up of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Russia now controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory. Its military has steadily reported the capture of a string of villages in recent weeks while pushing towards Pokrovsk.

In September, Moscow's forces advanced at their fastest rate since March 2022, according to open source data, despite Ukraine seizing a part of Russia's southern Kursk region.

RT/Reuters

“If they go about solving the problem this way, how many more problems will they have created by the time they are through” -James Baldwin, 1924-1987, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p201, available online.

By any objective measure known to adults globally, what we have on our hands with regard to fuel problem is a fiasco. You cannot ask any of those in control of our fate in this regard a straight question and receive a reliable answer. Two Presidents, the Minister of Petroleum, the Minister of State for Petroleum, the Minister of Finance, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, the Debt Management Office, DMO, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Aliko Dangote, all the regulatory commissions and agencies of government. The conspiracy of falsehood started since the Dangote Refinery was nearing, but still far from, completion in March 2023.

As many Nigerian observers will recollect, President Buhari commissioned the Dangote Refinery using the language that gave the impression that fuel production would start within a few months. We now know the truth. Buhari and Dangote just wanted the former President to be the one to have his name on the refinery plaque instead of his successor. Among the promises made or implied were the following: The refinery would end fuel scarcity and queues at filling stations; it would crash the price of petrol which was about N180 per litre at the time and create 150,000 jobs-directly or indirectly. The impression was also given that Nigeria’s four refineries would be resuscitated to complement the Dangote Refinery supply; and, government would no longer dictate fuel price. It all sounded great then; but my Fellow Nigerians have failed to understand one abiding truth.

“Every government is run by liars; and nothing they say should be believed” – I. F. Stone, 1907-1989, VBQ p80.

Of all the entries in my book of quotations, this I perhaps the one most frequently used; and for easily demonstrable reasons. In Nigeria and elsewhere in the world, the totally honest politician is almost impossible to find. Since politicians run for office, the electorate in every country is condemned to choosing between all the available dissemblers running for office. That, however, is in even a so-called democracy. In totalitarian regimes, the people are destined to accepting the falsehood published by their captors. Nigerian politicians are not the worst by any means; in fact they are better than those in Cameroon or Afghanistan. When it comes to peddling untruths, they are ranking amateurs. That is why what they say is so often easy to disprove – as in the issue of petroleum resources and fuel. Everything that was said by virtually everybody in government and the private sector providers had turned out to be false.

WAS DANGOTE REFINERY ESTABLISHED TO STOP IMPORTATION?

“I am beginning to wonder how many fools it takes to make the term ‘My Fellow Citizens'” – Honore de Balzac, 1799-1850, in LOST ILLUSIONS.

Most of the 220 million Nigerians alive today are not in any way better than their forefathers. Ask anybody if there was free education in the old Western Region?

And, ninety-nine per cent of the time, the answer would be “yes”. I thought so too until August 1964 when I took my Economics la Course at the university in the US. The lecturer would usually start his first class by telling a story which I will repeat below. A young prince, 12, became king when his father, just 40, suddenly died. Not wanting to make terrible mistakes in governance, the monarch gathered all the leading experts in every field – including economics – and instructed them to summarise the ideas, principles, laws etc in their fields. All returned three months after with truckloads of documents; which overwhelmed the poor youth. He asked for further reductions. They returned with twenty four pages of Executive Summary. Finally, like all those with absolute power; he ordered that the ideas be reduced to one sentence. The economists quickly put their heads together and the leader raised his hand; after being recognised he pronounced: “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” For that matter, there is no such thing as free education, free health service and there should be no free ride on highways. I raised my hand out of ignorance to state categorically that “there is free education in the Western Region of Nigeria, Sir.” Dr Cohen looked up; and said:

“You are the third Nigerian who would repeat that statement in my class. How many more fools are there in your country; who cannot distinguish between ‘free and public education?’ What is practised in Nigeria is public education, just like several countries in the world. The taxpayers are paying for that gimmick.” I would have gladly crawled into a hole if one had opened up. I learnt a simple economic principle the hard way. Later, in the third year, I received another knock on the head to drive home a truth which has escaped many Nigerians today. The professor teaching Business and Economy, when opening the section on ‘Entrepreneurship’, would kick off by announcing that the capitalist investor is motivated primarily by his desire to make as much money as possible.

He does not start a business for any other reason. That is why it was at first amusing, and later alarming, to me when several self-deluded Nigerians, including President Buhari, the CBN Governor, financial/economic analysts and commentators, assumed that the Dangote Refinery was being established to stop fuel importation, to create jobs and to grow the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, of Nigeria. Starting with that fallacy, they quickly jumped to the fatal conclusion that Dangote must be given 100 per cent support to achieve his objectives; apparently without regard to the individual and collective interests of “Fellow Nigerians”. Well, the Dangote Refinery is here. Why then are we paying N1, 200/litre for petrol which we fetched for N180/litre before it was established? I must have been one of the few Nigerians who knew right from the beginning that Nigerians were being taken for an unpleasant ride. For reasons I don’t now want to disclose, it is my candid view that the establishment of Dangote Refinery is not the salvation we expected. Most certainly, it will not crash fuel price as expected.

WHERE IS GOVERNMENT IN ALL THESE?

“Leadership is always mysterious. Leadership can be summed up in two words: Intelligence and integrity, or to use two synonyms: Competence and character” – John Brademas, US Congressman, VBQ p125.

Think of anyone in top government positions – Presidency, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, National Assembly, CBN and the Departments and Agencies – who had an official role to play in getting Dangote, the four refineries and Nigerians into this quagmire. Think again of the words – intelligence, integrity, competence and character. Then, ask yourself: Which of these attributes can be applied to any of them? All of a sudden, it becomes clear why our present predicament is inevitable; and the self-delusion, which one of their yes-men call “optimism”, is totally not in the national or personal interest. They should have known that the Dangote Refinery would not alone solve Nigeria’s fuel problems; that the four refineries were septic tanks into which they were throwing public funds without the scantiest hope of returns. Yet, they granted Dangote all sorts of concessions; promoted the idea that, once started, it would crash fuel prices and stop imports. The tissue of lies has been exposed because all lies have an expiry date; and the time is up for these ones.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and the GMD-NNPCL promised Nigerians that the Port-Harcourt and Warri refineries would begin fuel supplies by December last year. Ten months after, there has been no fuel from the two.

In July, the National Assembly was told that crude oil production would reach two million barrels per day, mbpd, and Nigeria would be exporting fuel by December. Who, in his right senses, now believes the two? More to the point: Why are they still in office?

Vanguard

A severely sick Chinese man was pushed to a local bank branch on a hospital bed by his family in order to confirm his identity for a money transfer.

A video that has been doing the rounds on Chinese social media shows a woman struggling to push a man on a hospital bed in a Shandong Province bank after being told that the only way to access his account was to confirm his identity in person. Despite explaining to the bank manager that the account holder was hospitalized because of severe health problems, the family was told that the only way to access their account was to bring them there in person. The man was so sick that he could not move on his own, but even evidence of his hospitalization failed to convince the bank staff, so they had no choice but to figure out a way to bring him in for identity confirmation.

The Shandong bank told the family that they could bring the account holder in an ambulance, but the hospital clearly told them that their ambulances were only available for health-related emergencies, and they certainly couldn’t afford a private ambulance, so the only available solution was to just push the hospital bed he was lying in all the way to the bank.

The sick man’s relatives reportedly needed money to pay for his treatment, but ironically, the only way to access that money was to endanger his life by taking him out of the hospital. A young woman believed to be the elderly man’s daughter can be seen struggling to push his hospital bed all the way to a bank clerk’s counter while trying not to hit anything.

The spectacle sparked a heated online debate, with most social media users claiming that the bank could have made an exception based on the evidence of hospitalization presented by the man’s family, and others calling it an embarrassment for Chinese society that such things can occur without any repercussions.

Oddity Central

Globacom, one of Nigeria’s leading telecommunications providers, has appointed telecom veteran Ahmad Farroukh as its new chief executive officer.

According to the telecom provider, the leadership change aims to strengthen the company’s corporate governance and operational performance, aligning with the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) recent drive for improved governance standards within the telecom industry.

Farroukh’s extensive experience in African telecommunications positions him as a strong candidate to guide the company through an anticipated restructuring.

Ahmad Farroukh brings over two decades of experience to Globacom. He began his career in 1995 as CEO of Investcom Group, a Lebanon-based telecom entity that was later acquired by MTN Group.

He has held several executive roles, including managing director at MTN Ghana, regional director for West Africa under Investcom, and CEO of MTN Nigeria between 2006 and 2010. After serving as CEO of MTN South Africa in 2014, he led Mobily in Saudi Arabia – Saudi’s second-largest telecom provider – until 2017. Most recently, he served as Group CEO of Smile Communications Nigeria Limited (2019). 

Farroukh’s academic background includes a master’s degree in Business Administration and Accounting from the Lebanese American University, and he is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) from New York.

Globacom in a statement said the decision to appoint Farroukh “comes at a critical time as the company faces challenges with its subscriber base.”

“A recent regulatory audit by the NCC uncovered subscriber count discrepancies, which led to a sharp reduction in Globacom’s subscriber count by 69.2 per cent within six months, down from 62.19 million in March to 19.15 million in September.

 “This change underscores the need for strategic reforms to restore confidence and drive growth in a competitive telecom landscape.”

Farroukh’s role will not only involve revitalising Globacom’s subscriber growth but also guiding the telco through structural adjustments.

The company’s move to constitute a board reflects a deeper commitment to fostering robust governance practices, a key aspect emphasised by the NCC.

Daily Trust

The national grid has collapsed for the second time in 72 hours, leaving Nigerians in total blackout.

Data obtained from the Nigerian system operator’s portal showed that the grid recorded zero megawatts (MW) as of Thursday.

TheCable observed that the generation power dropped from 3,743MW at 10am to 2,709MW at 11am.

As of noon, the grid only recorded 3.70MW and 4.10MW at 1pm.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has confirmed the incident.

Ikeja Electric Distribution Company (IKEDC) said it is experiencing a system outage affecting its supply.

“Please be informed that we experienced a system outage today 07 November, 2024 at 11:29Hrs affecting supply within our network,” IKEDC said.

“Restoration of supply is ongoing in collaboration with our critical stakeholders.Kindly bear with us.”

On Tuesday, the grid experienced a collapse – the ninth time in 2024.

TCN had blamed a series of lines and generator trippings as the reason for the instability of the grid and a partial disturbance.

On October 17, Adebayo Adelabu, minister of power, said the frequent system failure at the national grid is inevitable due to the outdated infrastructure.

Adelabu also said the country will continue to experience grid disturbances until there is a complete overhaul of the system.

The minister said more investment in power infrastructure will prevent future collapses.

The Cable

Nigeria's military has warned of a new insurgent group, Lakurawas, infiltrating the country's northwest region from neighbouring Niger and Mali, its spokesperson said on Thursday.

Defense spokesperson Edward Buba, a Major-General, said the group, an affiliate of militias operating in the Sahel region, has been active in northwest Sokoto and Kebbi states. The ideology of the group is not known.

"They began an incursion into northern parts of Sokoto and Kebbi states from the Niger and Mali axis, particularly after the coup in Niger Republic," Buba said in statement.

The influx of Lakurawas is linked to the July 2023 coup in Niger, which disrupted joint military patrols along the border between Nigeria and Niger.

While patrols have since resumed, the military remains vigilant against further infiltration, Buba said.

Nigeria has been grappling with a long-running insurgency in its northeast, primarily driven by the Islamist armed group Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

But the emergence of Lakurawas highlights a growing security threat in the country's northwest, a region already prone to attacks by armed gangs and kidnappings for ransom.

Buba reported that the military had killed 163 insurgents, arrested 82, and rescued at least 80 kidnapped individuals in the northwest region last month.

Reuters

Biden plans final Mideast peace push but will leaders ignore him?

The Biden administration will make a final push for elusive deals to end the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, but Donald Trump's election may leave Washington without enough leverage to bend Israel and other regional players to its will before he becomes president.

Senior U.S. officials who have spent months crisscrossing the Middle East for peace negotiations are now likely to face counterparts reluctant to take big steps, preferring instead to wait for Trump's inauguration in January, according to sources familiar with the matter and independent analysts.

Trump has promised to bring peace to the Middle East but has not said how. If his first term is any indication, however, he is likely to pursue a strongly pro-Israel approach, going even beyond the staunch support given by President Joe Biden to Washington's top regional ally.

Ahead of a second Trump presidency, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday: "We will continue to pursue an end to the war in Gaza, an end to the war in Lebanon, the surge of humanitarian assistance, and that is our duty to pursue those policies right up until noon on Jan. 20."

But with Biden now a lame duck, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close Trump ally, and Arab leaders will likely do little to accommodate the Democratic president and may take their cues from his Republican successor, whose erratic first-term foreign policy kept the region on edge.

"They've got substantially less leverage," said Brian Finucane, senior adviser to the International Crisis Group's U.S. program. "People may still answer their phone calls, but everyone is looking forward to a new administration, one that will have different policies and priorities."

HEDGING THEIR BETS

Since Trump's victory in Tuesday's election against Vice President Kamala Harris, Arab and Israeli officials have already begun hedging their bets.

Egyptian mediators who have been working with U.S. and Qatari counterparts on Gaza ceasefire proposals are waiting to see how Trump's plans take shape for the Palestinian enclave, Egyptian security sources said.

As the world watched the U.S. election on Tuesday, Netanyahu - who left little doubt of his preference for Trump and hailed his win as "historic" - sacked his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, depriving the Biden administration of one of its favored Israeli partners.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has been fighting Israel for more than a year in Gaza following the militants' attack on southern Israel, and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, locked in a parallel conflict with Israeli forces, both appeared to be looking past Biden to the incoming Trump administration.

Reprisal strikes between Israel and Iran have raised fears of a broader regional war.

Hamas urged Trump to "learn from Biden's mistakes," and Hezbollah said it did not hold out much hope for a shift in U.S. policy away from support for Israel.

Palestinian Authority officials say, however, they expect to be working with Biden aides right up to when Trump takes office.

Washington sought to kick start the Gaza ceasefire talks after Israel killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in mid-October, but the effort went nowhere. In Lebanon, U.S. officials have said they have made progress but a final deal has yet to be reached.

When asked about the view that the Biden administration's leverage had eroded post-election, a White House National Security Council spokesperson said: “I’m not going to speculate on hypotheticals."

WAITING FOR TRUMP

Netanyahu and his allies celebrated the election of Trump, a staunch but sometimes unpredictable ally of Israel, hoping that the Republican president who in his first term delivered major wins for the Israeli leader would support Israel unconditionally.

Trump has strongly backed Netanyahu's goal of destroying Hamas but has called for Israel to finish the job quickly.

In his victory speech, Trump said: "I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars." But he did not elaborate.

Biden's support for Israel has divided his Democratic Party and cost Harris the votes of many Arab Americans and liberals.

The Democratic president has firmly supported Israel while pressuring Netanyahu to do more to protect civilians and allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

But Biden has been unable to end the war, with some critics saying he should have done more to restrict billions of dollars of military aid the U.S. sends every year to Israel.

Laura Blumenfeld, a Middle East analyst at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies in Washington, predicted that ahead of Trump's inauguration, Netanyahu would make a limited effort to meet Biden's demands on Gaza aid but would also be mindful of what he needs to do to placate Trump.

"From Election Day to inauguration day, Israel's posture toward the U.S. will be dictated by two things: what Netanyahu needs, what Netanyahu fears," she said. "Netanyahu also fears the erratic wrath of the next American president."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in an Oct. 13 letter demanded Israel take specific measures to improve aid for Gaza or face potential consequences in U.S. military support.

Blumenfeld said that during this interim, Netanyahu would make a minimal effort to comply with that demand, "just enough to avoid critical weapon restrictions."

Some analysts believe Trump may give Netanyahu a freer hand to act against Iran and its proxies.

"Netanyahu knows that Trump will give him carte blanche to carry out his plans, so he is just biding his time," said Brett Bruen, a former foreign policy adviser in the Obama administration.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine suffering ‘colossal’ losses in Kursk – Putin

Ukraine has lost more than 30,000 troops in just three months of fighting since its large-scale incursion into Russia's Kursk Region, President Vladimir Putin told the Valdai Forum on Thursday, noting that the Ukrainian people are paying a “terrible price” for Kiev’s decision to do Washington’s bidding.

Kiev launched an incursion into the region on August 6, deploying some of its best-equipped units. The force was contained by Russian troops and is steadily being pushed back, suffering immense losses, according to Moscow.

“Just look at what is happening now at the front line… They raided the Kursk Region. Well, their losses are colossal – in just three months of fighting, the Kiev regime suffered more casualties than in the whole of last year: over 30,000,” Putin said at the 21st annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi.

Putin asserted that the decision to invade Kursk made little military sense and was rather dictated by purely “political considerations” imposed on Kiev by its “overseas” sponsors.

“Why are they sitting there, bearing such losses? Because they were ordered – from overseas – to hold on at any cost, at least until the US elections, to show that all the efforts of the Democratic administration to support Ukraine were not in vain,” the Russian leader said.

“That’s the price. A terrible tragedy, I think, both for the Ukrainian people and for the Ukrainian army,” Putin stressed.

The Ukrainian incursion has come at a great cost to Kiev, not only in terms of manpower but also regarding dwindling stocks of Western-supplied weapons. The latest update from the Russian Ministry of Defense estimated Kiev's losses at 29,600 casualties, 184 tanks, 106 infantry fighting vehicles, more than 1,000 armored vehicles, and scores of other pieces of heavy weaponry, including 26 military engineering vehicles.

Ukrainian officials have claimed that the operation has slowed Russian advances along the eastern frontline. However, according to media estimates, Russian troops gained more ground in October than in any month this year.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Putin praises Trump, says Russia is ready for dialogue

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday congratulated Donald Trump on winning the U.S. election, praised him for showing courage when a gunman tried to assassinate him, and said Moscow was ready for dialogue with the Republican president-elect.

In his first public remarks since Trump's win, Putin said Trump had acted like a real man during an assassination attempt on him while he was speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July.

"He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a real man," Putin said at the Valdai discussion club in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. "I take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election."

Putin said remarks Trump had made during the election campaign about Ukraine and restoring relations with Russia deserved attention.

"What was said about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to bring about the end of the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion this deserves attention at least," said Putin.

Trump said during campaigning that he could bring peace in Ukraine within 24 hours if elected, but has given few details on how he would seek to end the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two.

The 72-year-old Kremlin chief gave just one note of caution: "I do not know what is going to happen now. I have no clue."

When pressed by a questioner what he would do if Trump called to suggest a meeting, Putin said he was ready to resume contacts if a Trump administration wanted that, and was ready for discussions with Trump.

Russia and Trump have repeatedly dismissed as nonsense some claims in Western media that Trump was a sort of Russian agent of influence. Russian officials say that during his first term, from 2017 to 2021, Trump was tough on Russia.

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigated allegations of collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, but said in a 2019 report that he found no evidence of conspiracy.

Moscow has also repeatedly denied U.S. assertions that Russia meddled in the 2024 and other presidential elections and had spread disinformation in an attempt to sow chaos.

WAR?

The 2-1/2-year-old war in Ukraine is entering what some Russian and Western officials say could be its final - most dangerous - phase after Moscow's forces advance at their fastest pace since the early weeks of the conflict and the West ponders how the war will end.

Putin on June 14 set out his terms for an end to the war: Ukraine would have to drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw all of its troops from all of the territory of four regions claimed by Russia.

Russia controls Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, about 80% of the Donbas - a coal-and-steel zone comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk regions - and more than 70% of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Speaking for several hours on Thursday, Putin railed against the "adventurism" of Western leaders whom he accused of pushing the world to a "dangerous line" by seeking to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia in Ukraine.

"It is useless to put pressure on us. But we are always ready to negotiate with full consideration of mutual legitimate interests," Putin said, just seconds after scolding the West for promising Ukraine and Georgia eventual NATO membership in 2008.

He said that the West had never accepted Russia as an equal partner since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, treating it as a defeated power and enlarging the U.S.-led NATO military alliance eastwards towards Russia.

Russia, Putin said, was ready to restore relations with the United States but the ball was in Washington's court. Putin also said that China was Russia's "ally".

Asked about Kamala Harris' warning that Putin would eat Trump for lunch, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said with a chuckle: "Putin does not eat people."

I understand wealthy US citizens and conservatives of the evangelical hue rooting for Donald Trump. The rich believe he would loosen regulations and protect them and their businesses from excessive taxation. Conservative evangelicals believe he is the bulwark against wokeism, especially the ultra-liberal variety. And white folks want their country back.

But Africans at home and in the Diaspora – what is their business supporting a guy who described their continent as a “shithole” and has worn his anti-immigrant rhetoric on his sleeves? It didn’t seem to make sense that anyone who saw Trump 1.0 would ever dream or wish for the second version. But now, he’s back. He even has the Supreme Court and the Senate in his Red corner as of press time.

With the media (especially the major networks) awash with polls indicating a dead heat up to zero hours, I became more interested in the pro-Trump sentiment among Nigerians. I also checked in with friends elsewhere on the continent, and the feedback surprised me.

Trump, we want

Some friends told me Trump is just the man the US needs to purge itself of its hubris and arrogance. Once upon a time, the US was a moral force for good worldwide. Its exceptionalism didn’t often require bullying others to make the point.

It did many bad things during the Cold War, as did its arch-rival, the Soviet Union. But after that phase and with the fall of the Berlin Wall, many had hoped to see the emergence of a multipolar world, one in which, if you like, the lion and the lamb would lie side by side.

But that was not to be. From Cuba to Venezuela, Libya to the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, and right up to the old sphere of influence of the USSR, the US stoked—and still stokes—a zero-sumness that hardly brooks “live and let live.” Since then, the world has experienced fewer devastating wars, but it has wrestled with no fewer tensions of a new variety aided and abetted by technology.

Same difference?

Trump 2.0, these folks hope, will do at least two things for the world. It would further hasten the internal decay of the US by aggravating racial tensions and emboldening right-wing excesses. Two, Trump’s America First ultra-insularity and his off-the-fly foreign policy style will distance the US from its traditional allies and enable crazies around the world, like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, to run amok.

This sounded more like saying that if US voters were happy to be seduced by their worst selves, they deserve what they get.

But that was not all. Some also wanted Trump’s victory as a stick to beat their leaders back home. On the eve of the election, Larry Madowo of CNN reported that Kenyans wanted Trump to win because “with him, you know where you stand.” The report contrasted Trump’s style with Kenya’s political elite, who could hardly be trusted.

Trumphobes

The CNN report might also have been about Nigeria, where Trumphobes wanted him to win for a slightly curiously different reason. They think his anti-immigration policy will force Nigerians and their government to fix their own country. In the US, Nigeria has the highest diaspora population of Africa, 327,000 citizens, followed by Ethiopia, 222,000, and Egypt, 192,000.

It didn’t matter much to the Trumphobes that Nigeria’s US diaspora sends home $20 billion yearly, an increasingly significant source of support for a distressed economy. What is at work is a reverse schadenfreude, which says that the fewer opportunities Nigerian immigrants have outside the country, the more seriously the government would be obliged to fix the country.

Someone even said to me that the “malicious support” for Trump was payback for the bad leaders that the US routinely propped and supported around the world, a list that included Saddam Hussein, Augusto Pinochet and Mobutu Seseko.

Republican African record

Some pro-Trump sentiments are, however, driven by facts. For example, Republicans have a far better record of engaging Africans than Democrats. The Republican Party opposed colonialism. Its support for African initiatives such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and efforts to combat AIDS contrasts with the Democrat’s preference for aid diplomacy.

The hope is that Trump 2.0 will not be an exception. Here, Diasporans are not too far from their Black cousins in the US. A NAACP poll in September showed that one in four Black men under 50 supported Trump for president.

Trump 1.0 showed tough love towards Africa, but it was on his watch, for example, that the US finally authorised the sale to Nigeria of the much-needed fighter jets for the prosecution of the war on Boko Haram, which President Barack Obama had blocked for eight years. On his part, President Joe Biden will only make a brief visit – his first to Africa in four years – to Angola on his way out of the White House.

Better or worse?

Trump’s overwhelming victory might mean one of two things for his presidency: The weight of the responsibility could humble him and increase the likelihood that he would be more restrained than before. On the other hand, it could also bring out the worst in him – that feeling that he never really lost in 2020, that he was cheated of victory as he claimed, that it's now time to take his pound of flesh with a vengeance.

We’ll have to wait and see. If Trump 2.0 means Africans who were not on the radar during the campaign will now have to look inward and find their way through an uncertain future, then so be it.

Ukraine and Gaza

Trump’s victory might hasten the end of the war in Ukraine and, hopefully, improve the protracted global supply chain crisis that has affected the supply of agricultural products and cooking oils to many African countries. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky knows he cannot depend on Trump to bear the cost of a war that has, for all purposes, become a meat grinder. The war in Ukraine might end sooner than later.

As for the Middle East, Trump. 1.0 moved the Embassy of the US from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem despite protests by the Palestinians and some Arab countries. If that means anything, it should suggest that Trump 2.0 will not walk on the eggshell of a two-state solution in his approach to the current war on Gaza. He’s flat-out pro-Netanyahu and big on oil deals with Gulf states.

I make no pretence of my dislike of Trump’s politics. Nor do I have any illusions that his second term would be significantly different from his first, which left the world holding its breath dangerously for four years. But if he’s the man American voters have chosen to lead them, so be it. Unfortunately, what America does – for good or ill – affects the rest of the world whether or not we cast a ballot.

** Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the book Writing for Media and Monetising It.

Joy Gendusa

When you're on a long journey, there are many twists and turns that require critical decisions. Once you've reached the very last few miles, your choices become even more significant.

In business, this means that the end of the year could require you to make some last-minute (but pivotal) moves in order to generate additional revenue and end 2024 strong.

The good news is you do still have time to finish strong.

In my experience taking a business from nothing to over $100 million in annual revenue, the last quarter can get intense. Here are my best words of wisdom for making the last weeks of the year as successful as possible.

Look back at your marketing choices to learn and make positive changes

In 1975, Edward Packard's Choose Your Own Adventure books were published. The series allowed the reader to select from a myriad of paths within a specific storyline. Each choice of the reader would lead to a different ending of the story.

Why did this series become so popular and sell more than 270 million copies worldwide? It's because people love to be in control of their own destiny; to write their own stories. First, ask yourself: What ending do I want to reach this year? Then, ask: What have I already learned so far that will help me get to that ending?

Have you been tracking your marketing results? If so, pull up the data and start investigating. Go beyond which channel generates the most leads. Which tactic creates the most customers? The most referrals? The most revenue? Look beyond the calendar year if you can, and compare trends year over year.

If you're letting intuition guide you, it's high time you started tracking your marketing. Feelings are no substitution for real data.

In 2023, we did our own research and found that direct mail delivers six times more revenue per lead than digital ads. We figured this out by analyzing 114,373 leads and which of those converted to sales that year and found that if we divide the income by the overall number of leads, we made $229.41 for every postcard lead versus $37.09 for every pay-per-click lead.

After this realization, we increased the number of postcards we mail weekly advertising our services by 20,000. It's your responsibility to do this work and discover what needs to change for positive growth.

For example, did Facebook ads not deliver the revenue you expected them to? You can re-invest the money you had planned to spend in December on digital advertising and redirect it to other marketing avenues like direct mailor connected TV ads.

The truth is that there really are no mistakes, just lessons learned. It's up to you to decide if you make changes for a better outcome.

Consolidate your remaining resources and dedicate them to the marketing channel with the highest ROI

Every year, about 3,000 people hike the Appalachian Trail, but only a quarter of hikers actually finish. One main reason hikers don't make it through is they run out of supplies. Similarly, in business, owners can hit challenges along the year that drain their resources.

If you feel like you're struggling in the last quarter of the year, it's time to take what you have left of your budget and any other available credit or set-aside funds and use them to market your business.

Which marketing strategies delivered the highest return on investment? Whatever you have left of your marketing budget should go towards thattactic. If you don't have much of your annual budget left, consider taking money from other sources to invest it back into your marketing to bring in more leads.

It could be something as simple as finding some savings by canceling a monthly membership. Whatever you choose to do, put as much money as possible back into those marketing tacticsthat have consistently delivered results. Then, next year, you'll have more revenue to invest back into your business for 2025 or take home with you.

Take advantage of potential tax savings by pre-paying for next year's marketing

The end of the journey isn't all about finishing strong — it's also about setting yourself up for future success. By allocating some of the profits you made in 2024 to marketing in 2025 before the year ends, you are getting ahead of the game. Not only are you entering the new year prepared, but you are also getting the added benefit of reducing your 2024 tax burden when you reinvest taxable profits back into your business and your marketing.

At my business, PostcardMania, we offer large discounts for ordering in bulk, which many business owners take advantage of prior to the year's end. They simply add up how much marketing they think they'll need for the following year and pre-purchase at a discount.

If you are a B2B business, you can implement a similar offer by encouraging your customers to pre-order what they'll need next year so that they can get the tax write-offs for the current year.

If you'd like to target customers every year with a year-end offer, you can use automated direct mail to target them faster. After setting up the direct mail automation one time, the postcards or letters are mailed automatically each year based on the criteria you set up. This saves you time and increases revenue by ensuring it happens every year without fail.

At the end of the year, it's satisfying to say that you gave it your all; you did the best you could with the resources available. Avoid feeling regret by considering these marketing paths to success, and then you'll be satisfied with the ending you always wanted to write.

Entrepreneur