Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, has died, the Vatican said in a video statement on Monday, ending an often turbulent reign marked by division and tension as he sought to overhaul the hidebound institution.

He was 88, and had recently survived a serious bout of double pneumonia.

"Dear brothers and sisters, it is with profound sadness I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis," Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced on the Vatican's TV channel.

"At 7:35 this morning the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father."

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope on March 13, 2013, surprising many Church watchers who had seen the Argentine cleric, known for his concern for the poor, as an outsider.

He sought to project simplicity into the grand role and never took possession of the ornate papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors, saying he preferred to live in a community setting for his "psychological health".

He inherited a Church that was under attack over a child sex abuse scandal and torn by infighting in the Vatican bureaucracy, and was elected with a clear mandate to restore order.

But as his papacy progressed, he faced fierce criticism from conservatives, who accused him of trashing cherished traditions. He also drew the ire of progressives, who felt he should have done much more to reshape the 2,000-year-old Church.

While he struggled with internal dissent, Francis became a global superstar, drawing huge crowds on his many foreign travels as he tirelessly promoted interfaith dialogue and peace, taking the side of the marginalised, such as migrants.

Unique in modern times, there were two men wearing white in the Vatican for much of Francis' rule, with his predecessor Benedict opting to continue to live in the Holy See after his shock resignation in 2013 had opened the way for a new pontiff.

Benedict, a hero of the conservative cause, died in December 2022, finally leaving Francis alone on the papal stage.

Francis appointed nearly 80% of the cardinal electors who will choose the next pope correct as of February 2025, increasing the possibility that his successor will continue his progressive policies, despite the strong pushback from traditionalists.

Reuters

In a fiery Easter Sunday state-of-the-nation address delivered in Lagos, Tunde Bakare, the serving overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, delivered a stinging rebuke of President Bola Tinubu’s leadership, accusing him of fostering a dangerous form of politics that threatens Nigeria’s democratic fabric.

Bakare, a former presidential aspirant and one-time running mate to Muhammadu Buhari, warned Tinubu against the perils of absolute power, urging him to “stop playing God” and lead with humility and empathy in a time of national crisis.

A Nation on the Brink

Addressing congregants and the wider nation, Bakare painted a grim picture of Nigeria’s political and economic state under Tinubu’s administration. He decried the descent into what he described as “a mafia state,” driven by legislative rascality, institutional decay, and unchecked executive authority.

“The two main contenders in the ongoing institutional immorality Olympics are the executive and the legislature,” Bakare said, citing the suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and the controversial declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State as signs of overreach and systemic rot.

He also lambasted the Senate’s dismissal of Akpoti-Uduaghan’s sexual harassment allegations against Senate President Godswill Akpabio. The conduct of Onyekachi Nwebonyi during the hearings, particularly his verbal assault on former minister Oby Ezekwesili, was described by Bakare as “street-level vitriol,” further reinforcing his concern over the degeneration of political decorum.

Economic Hardship and Human Suffering

Turning to the economy, Bakare highlighted the severe hardship Nigerians are facing under Tinubu’s reforms. He pointed to soaring food prices, a 430% increase in fuel costs, and widespread poverty as evidence of policy failure. Citing data from the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, he noted that the country now ranks among those with the highest misery indexes globally.

Bakare recalled the tragic stampede deaths during food distribution efforts in late 2024, especially the horrific reports of parents throwing their children over fences in desperation. “These scenes,” he said, “are haunting reminders of a nation in distress, and eerily reminiscent of biblical famines.”

Call to Action: From Prayers to Pragmatism

While acknowledging some gains—such as a $5 billion rise in reserves—Bakare stressed that prayer alone can no longer carry the weight of national recovery. “People of faith have prayed to the point of weariness,” he said. “Any call for prayer now appears to be a mere religious ritual. What we need is action.”

He urged Tinubu to heed wise counsel and adopt a “coordinated programme” to rescue Nigeria. This includes emergency survival interventions, economic stabilisation, debt reengineering, structural reforms, and industrialisation.

Central to his proposed recovery strategy is the creation of a “Consolidated Value Investment and Development Fund”—a reimagined version of the COVID Fund he advocated during the pandemic. This fund, he said, should be decoupled from oil dependency and geared toward inclusive, sustainable growth.

A Personal History, A Longstanding Rift

Bakare’s sharp critique also carries a personal edge. Once close political allies, there is no love lost between him and Tinubu. Bakare has long questioned Tinubu’s political morality, dating back to his tenure as Lagos governor. On the eve of Tinubu’s 2023 inauguration, Bakare declared he would not call him “my president,” citing alleged electoral malpractice.

Though he has been accused of staying silent during Buhari’s controversial administration—perhaps due to their past alliance—Bakare insists his advocacy for good governance remains steadfast.

Conclusion: A Nation at a Crossroads

In his closing remarks, Bakare appealed to the conscience of the nation and its leaders: “No man is wise enough nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power. Mr President, please stop playing God.”

He called for psychological evaluations for political aspirants and stressed that only responsible leadership, rooted in humility, honesty, and vision, can bring Nigeria back from the brink. “With courageous, empathetic, and visionary leadership,” he said, “Nigeria can live again.”

Suspected gunmen have abducted four travellers heading to Offa in Kwara state from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), leaving behind three children.

The incident occurred near Obbo-Aiyegunle, Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State.

The victims who were said to be travelling in a Sienna bus belonging to Olumoh Express, a transport company based in Offa, were reportedly waylaid midway and whisked into the bush to an unknown destination amid gunshots.

Secretary of the transport company, Mikhail Ayobami Oyelade, confirmed the incident to Daily Trust on Sunday adding that they were alerted by fellow transporters who saw the abandoned vehicle on the road around 4pm on Saturday.

“Although we don’t know the exact time it happened, I just came back from Osi police station where we went to report the case.

“We have also reported to the vigilantes in the area who had since stormed the bush since Saturday trailing the kidnappers and their victims and we fervently pray that they will be rescued.

“The bus left the park with five passengers, but the oldest of the children that were left behind told us that two more people later joined them on the way.

“They shot two tires of the vehicle and matched the victims including the driver of the bus into the bush but abandoned the three children who have been reunited with their relatives”, the secretary added.

Confirming the incident, Spokeswoman of the state police command, Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi, said about eighth hoodlums carried out the attack adding that the children were between the ages of two and 12 years old.

“The Kwara Command has intensified efforts through discreet investigation, intelligence gathering and sustained bush combing to track down the perpetrators and secure the safe rescue of the remaining victims.

“The Commissioner of Police, Adekimi Ojo assures the public that the command remains fully committed to the safety and protection of all residents and urged anyone with useful information to report through the established channels of the kwara police command”, she said.

Daily Trust

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of countless violations of one-day Easter ceasefire

Russia and Ukraine accused each other of thousands of attacks that violated the one-day Easter ceasefire declared by President Vladimir Putin, with the Kremlin saying there was no order to extend the pause in frontline fighting.

Washington said it would welcome an extension of the truce, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reiterated several times Ukraine's willingness to pause strikes for 30 days in the war.

But Putin, who sent thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and who ordered on Saturday the halt in all military activity along the front line until midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT) on Sunday, did not give orders to extend it.

"There were no other commands," Russia's TASS state news agency cited Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying when asked whether the ceasefire could be prolonged.

While there were no air raid alerts in Ukraine on Sunday, soon after midnight on Monday the Ukrainian air force issued alerts for east and southeast regions of the country, warning of missile and drone strikes.

Ukrainian forces reported nearly 3,000 violations of Russia's own ceasefire vow, Zelenskiy said early on Monday, adding that Kyiv forces were instructed to mirror Russian army's actions.

"We will respond to silence with silence, our strikes will be to protect against Russian strikes," Zelenskiy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

The largest number of Russian shelling and assault operations took place along the frontline part near the embattled eastern town of Pokrovsk, Zelenskiy said.

Late on Sunday, Zelenskiy said the absence of air raid alerts suggested a "format of ceasefire that has been achieved," and he proposed that Russia abandon drone and missile strikes on civilian targets for at least 30 days.

If Russia does not agree, it will be proof that it intends to continue doing only those things that destroy human lives and prolong the war, Zelenskiy added.

In a separate Easter video message, Zelenskiy urged Ukrainians not to give up hope that peace will one day return.

"We know what we are defending," said Zelenskiy, wearing a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt and standing in front of Saint Sophia's Cathedral in Kyiv. "We know what we are fighting for."

Russia's Defence Ministry said Ukraine had broken the ceasefire more than 1,000 times, damaging infrastructure and causing civilian deaths.

The ministry said Ukrainian forces had shot at Russian positions 444 times and said it had counted more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks, including on Crimea and the Russian border areas of the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions.

"As a result, there are deaths and injuries among the civilian population, as well as damage to civilian facilities," the ministry said.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the battlefield reports.

The apparent failure to observe even an Easter ceasefire shows how hard it will be for U.S. President Donald Trump to clinch a lasting peace deal. The president still struck an optimistic note Sunday, saying that "hopefully" the two sides would make a deal "this week" to end the conflict.

On Friday, Trump and his secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said the U.S. would walk away from peace efforts unless there are clear signs of progress soon.

TRUMP'S PEACE PUSH

Last month, after Ukraine accepted Trump's proposal for a 30-day truce, Putin said crucial issues of verification had not been sorted out. Both Moscow and Kyiv agreed to a moratorium on attacks on energy targets and at sea, which each accuses the other of breaking.

Trump has pitched any end to the fighting as a precursor to both countries doing "BIG BUSINESS" with the United States, he said Sunday, saying that such deals would earn both nations "a fortune."

Washington and Kyiv are currently negotiating a minerals deal that is expected to be finalized in the next week, Ukrainian officials have said, while American officials are looking at ways to ease sanctions on Russia's energy sector if Moscow agrees to end the war, Reuters has previously reported.

Announcing the ceasefire before heading to an Orthodox Easter service, Putin said the truce would show whether or not Ukraine was ready or able to implement peace. Easter fell on the same day this year for Orthodox and Western churches

Ukraine's military said that despite the ceasefire violations, activity on the front line had decreased. Some Russian military bloggers also said frontline activity had declined substantially.

But there was little such optimism from Ukrainian soldiers who spoke to Reuters on Sunday.

"There is no indication of a ceasefire," said Dmytro, 24, from 93rd Kholodnyi Yar separate mechanised brigade.

Serhii, 22, a soldier from the same brigade, said the ceasefire "was announced only to show to the world as if they are making some steps, concessions for us. But in reality, as we can see at the front line, nothing has changed. I think it is blatant lie as it always was."

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Moscow and Kiev hold major prisoner swap – Russian MOD

Moscow and Kiev have held a major prisoner of war swap, with each side returning 246 captives, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Saturday.

Russia has given Ukraine an additional 31 gravely wounded servicemen, receiving some 15 wounded soldiers in return, the military said. The exchange has been mediated by the United Arab Emirates, the Defense Ministry noted.

The freed Russian servicemen are currently in Belarus, where they are receiving all the necessary medical treatment and psychological support, the military said. The former prisoners will be transferred to Russia shortly for treatment and rehabilitation.

The Russian Defense Ministry has released a short video showing the freed servicemen boarding buses in an undisclosed location, apparently as they set off for the transfer home.

The announcement comes shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a temporary pause in fighting with Ukraine. The Easter truce is set to run from 6:00pm Moscow time on Saturday until midnight on April 21.

The Russian president has expressed hopes Kiev will agree to the truce, stating that its attitude toward the pause in fighting will demonstrate whether it is genuinely interested in resolving hostilities through diplomacy. At the same time, Putin instructed the country’s troops to stay on high alert and be ready to respond to potential violations of the ceasefire.

Reuters/RT

On the evening of 5 April 2012, the prime-time bulletin on the television news of the Malawi Broacasting Corporation (MBC), announced to the country that the president, Ngwazi Professor Bingu wa Mutharika, “had…taken ill and had been flown to South Africa for specialist treatment.” At another end of the capital city, Lilongwe, a presidential convoy was on its way to the Kamuzu International Airport (KIA), where an air ambulance awaited with instructions to fly a president who was supposedly alive but unwell to South Africa.

Earlier in the day, around 11:00 in the morning, Ngwazi Bingu had collapsed while receiving in audience the Member of Parliament representing the south-east constituency of the capital city, Lilongwe, Agnes Penemulungu. The judicial commission of inquiry which later investigated what transpired thereafter, received evidence which showed quite clearly that the presidential court had not prepared nor practiced for the possibility of a life-and-death emergency involving the president. Elton Singini, a senior judge, chaired the inquiry.

The commission of inquiry established as a fact that the president died earlier in the day inside the ambulance en route to Kamuzu Central Hospital in the capital city. According to the inquiry report, “the President was brought in dead (BID) at Kamuzu Central Hospital [KCH] at around 11.25 in the morning” of 5 April.

At the time of the news bulletin announcing that he was to be flown to South Africa later on the same day, Bingu had been dead for over eight hours. Despite being aware of this, the presidential retinue instructed staff at the hospital to apply cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the presidential remains for over two hours. In the process, they crushed his rib-cage.

More was to follow. At the airport, the air ambulance pilots from South Africa declined to board the body, citing the fact that their permission was to fly with a patient not a dead body. High level conversations ensued between Lilongwe and Pretoria. It may have helped and was certainly relevant that Malawi’s Foreign Minister at the time was Peter Mutharika, Bingu’s younger brother who was also intent on stepping into the shoes of his just deceased brother. Peter needed time to set the wheels in motion to leap-frog Vice-President Joyce Banda in the succession stakes.

South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma, who had retired for the day had to be woken up to personally authorise the flight. Shortly after midnight on 6 April 2012, the air ambulance took off for South Africa. In Malawi, the people were told their president was headed to South Africa for medical attention. In South Africa, the authorities knew that the air ambulance on its way from Lilongwe would arrive with the dead body of Malawi’s president. Shortly after 02:30 a.m. on 6 April, the aircraft landed at South Africa’s National Defence Force (SANDF) Waterkloof Airbase on the outskirts of Pretoria. From there, the dead body was transferred to a mortuary.

The authors of all this malign chicanery designed to deceive the people of Malawi, however forgot to also notify the processes of bio-chemistry. By the time the body arrived the morgue in South Africa, it had been “in the open without refrigeration for about 18 hours after death.” As a result, the very important and high profile invitees to the state funeral of Bingu, which took place on 23 April, 2012, had to endure the uncomfortable company of flies, as well as the majestic fragrance of human putrefaction. As the report of the Elton Singini Commission of Inquiry recorded, “the body had started decomposing as evidenced by the smell and a few flies hovering around.”

Four years earlier, in August 2008, Levy Mwanawasa, the president of neighbouring Zambia, died in a military hospital near Paris in France. While attending the summit of the African Union in Cairo, Egypt, on 29 June 2008, Mwanawasa had collapsed following what was later understood to be an aneurysm (stroke). He was stabilised there before being transferred to France, where he died two months later. At his death, it came out that two years earlier, during his first term as president in 2006, Mwanawasa had suffered an earlier stroke. For that, he received extended treatment in the United Kingdom. No one told Zambians.

The year after the death of Mwanawasa, in June 2009, Omar Bongo, who had ruled Gabon for 41 years, died in a hospital in Spain. When he left Libreville at the beginning of the previous month, his compatriots believed that their president, the doyen and favourite of France Afrique, was away on a working visit – a phrase all too familiar to Nigerians – to his favourite haunts in Europe. At his death, it emerged that more than one month before his death, President Bongo had been hospitalised for cancer treatment in Spain.

President Bongo was not the last long-serving African president to die in Spain. On 8 July 2022, former Angolan president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, died also there after prolonged cancer treatment. Following his death, a family crisis broke out over his funeral, which delayed the repatriation of his remains to Luanda for more than one month. Six weeks after his death, in the third week of August 2022, a judge in Spain finally authorised the return of the body of dos Santos to Angola for burial.

When he departed Nigeria on 2 April, the presidency in Abuja issued a statement claiming that Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president, was off to France on a “short working visit”, during which he would “retreat to review the progress of ongoing reforms and engage in strategic planning ahead of his administration’s second anniversary.” They barely stopped short of telling Nigerians that their president was headed to Lourdes for the grace of its historic apparitions. Tinubu is a Muslim; it was in the middle of the Christian season of Lent and no one had apparently bothered to advise him or his image makers that it is usually Christians who undertake two week-long retreats in the middle of this season.

The day after the end of the initially announced 14 days, the same presidential retinue disclosed that the president had relocated from France to the United Kingdom, from where he was doing an excellent job as Nigeria’s president in Europe.

The evidence seems inescapable that Tinubu has significant health challenges and needs regular medical attention from doctors overseas. For this, his destination of choice is clearly France. In 22 months as president, Tinubu has made at least eight trips to the country under different guises, for a cumulative period of over 60 days.

While he’s been away this time, hundreds – if not more – have been killed in massacres in different parts of Nigeria. As president, Tinubu is also the commander-in-chief of Nigeria’s armed and security forces. Yet, from Europe, he is reported to be passing the buck to state governors to do that which only he has the tools to accomplish under Nigeria’s constitution.

Excluding the five years and three months of the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, from February 2010 to May 2015, Nigeria has had a presidency in near-permanent occupancy of sanatoriums overseas for 15 years. The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which Tinubu led, was aggressively voluble in asking for candour on the health status of a terminally ill President Umaru Yar’Adua. After going into marriage with Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to create All Progressives Congress (APC), it made a virtue of unlooking when Buhari took up residence in foreign hospitals for much of his presidency.

It should be no news that a man of Tinubu’s age is unwell. Those invested in concealing that reality from Nigerians are more interested in protecting their present perquisites than in the wellbeing of their principal or of the country.

The presidency is more than just an office. For those around the occupant of the office, it also means money, power, and privilege. To preserve it, most people in and around the presidency take liberties, sometimes, even with the wellbeing of their principal or with accountability to the people in whose name he holds office. For the country and even for the president, the wages of this interminable subterfuge are prohibitive.

** Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a professor of law, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Scott S. Powell Across cultures throughout human history, people have sought to flee oppression and escape persecution. A recurring theme in Western literature and in modern classics such as Superman and Disney originals, which revolve around the struggle between good and evil, is the need and critical role for a rescuer or savior. Easter is the celebration of the finished work of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the ultimate rescuer and savior for mankind, who sacrificed his life to provide forgiveness of sin — enabling all who believe in Christ to have a direct relationship with God. That no other religion makes the claim that it was founded by a messiah makes Jesus the most revolutionary figure of human history. Still, some assume Christianity is like other religions that require followers to perform certain works and rituals acceptable to God. Not so with Jesus, for he implores us in Matthew 11:30, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” When a learned Jewish Pharisee, whose life required living up to stressful “dos and don’ts” of the Mosaic law, asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment in the law, Jesus answered simply that if we love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, we will have fulfilled all the laws. Christ is absolutely unique in other ways. First, he is the only Person in history who was pre-announced starting a thousand years before he was born, with eighteen different prophets between the 10th and the 4th centuries B.C. predicting his coming birth, life, and death. Hundreds of years later, the details of Christ’s coming birth, life, betrayal, and manner of death validated those prophecies in surprisingly accurate and minute detail. One thousand years before Christ, David prophetically wrote about the crucifixion of Christ, at a time when crucifixion was unknown as a means of execution. The death of other religious leaders — such as Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Muhammad, and Confucius — brought anticlimactic endings to their lives and work. But Christ came into the world as God’s son to die and pay the price for man’s iniquity. His sacrifice was the ultimate climax of his life, done for the benefit of mankind — opening the way, for all who believe — to earthly fulfillment and certain joyful afterlife. The essence of Easter’s celebration of the resurrection is that Christianity’s founder, Jesus, is still alive, having overcome death. No Jew ever believed that, after Abraham died and was interred, his tomb ever became empty. After Buddha died, no disciple ever claimed that he saw or spoke to him again. As for Muhammed and his teachings that are the basis of Islam, he never appeared to his followers after he had died at age 62. His occupied tomb, located in Medina, is visited by tens of thousands of devout Muslims every year. The “seeing is believing” evidence of God’s power and love is that Jesus was brought back from being dead in a tomb to being alive — resurrected — so that people would have living proof of who he was. The New Testament provides accounts from multiple sources who witnessed Jesus firsthand after the resurrection. Jesus made 10 separate appearances to his disciples between the resurrection and his ascension into heaven — a period of 40 days. Those appearances were to individual disciples, several disciples at the same time, and once to 500 people at one time. It is noteworthy that there were no accounts or witnesses who came forth and disputed these appearances, or called it a “hoax” — not even one. Nor is there any record of any witness accounts that were contradictory. Skeptics of the biblical account of Jesus must come to terms with the fact that there is more reliable historical evidence for his life, teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection than there is evidence for any other historical figure of ancient times. Consider for instance that the authenticity of Alexander the Great, who was born some 350 years before Christ, is based on two original biographical accounts of his life by Arrian and Plutarch, which were written some 400 years after Alexander died. The manuscripts of Virgil and Horace, both of whom lived within a generation of Christ, were written more than four centuries after their deaths. Yet no one doubts Virgil and Horace lived and authored great poetic masterpieces. Similarly, the historical record of Alexander the Great is unquestioned. The reliability of ancient history is determined by three variables: the number of eye-witness accounts, the lapse of time between eye-witness accounts and the written record, and the number of surviving manuscripts of that written record.      Looking at that big picture, there are about 1,000 times more manuscripts preserving the deeds and teaching of Jesus in the New Testament (about 25,000) than there are preserving other classical ancient works of historic figures who lived at approximately the same time, with the exception of Homer, whose Iliad is backed by 1,800 manuscripts. But that is still less than one-tenth the number of ancient manuscripts that back the authenticity of Jesus’ life recorded in the New Testament. We know the historical Jesus through four different accounts known as the Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — not written hundreds of years later, but within a generation or two of Jesus’s life. Apostles Matthew and John provide eyewitness accounts from their years of walking with Jesus as disciples. Mark also had eyewitness experience, although he was likely only a teenager during the public ministry of Jesus. Luke, the doctor, learned about Jesus from his friend Paul, the apostle who wrote most of the letters of the New Testament. Because of their experience with the resurrected Jesus, the apostles were in a unique position, knowing with certainty that Jesus was truly the Son of God. They had witnessed the unparalleled love, profound teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection of Jesus. If the claims about Jesus were a lie, the apostles would have known it. That is why their commitment to their testimony was so powerful and compelling. Additionally, the apostles’ willingness to die for their claims has tremendous evidentiary value — and confirms the truth of the resurrection. No one will die for something they know is contrived or false. Seeing, talking to, and touching the risen Jesus transformed the apostles, who then committed the rest of their lives to sharing the message of salvation through Christ. The historical record suggests that, apart from John (who was banished to the island of Patmos for his testimony of Jesus), the other eleven apostles — including Matthias, who replaced Judas, the betrayer of Jesus — died as martyrs for their beliefs in the divinity of Christ. It turns out that Easter, which has its ultimate meaning through the resurrection, is one of ancient history’s most scrutinized and best attested events. Easter is the commemoration and celebration of the single event that transformed the world forever. The Federalist