'Half the village is gone': Ukraine hamlet reels after missile strike

In a burial plot next to a field outside the remote Ukrainian hamlet of Hroza, residents removed undergrowth and cleared away litter to make space for more graves.

Working quietly, it was something to distract them from the horror of what happened the day before.

As dozens of people gathered in the local cafe for a meal to honour a soldier who died in the war against Russia, a missile struck, killing at least 52 people.

It was one of the most deadly attacks during 20 months of fighting, and one that has devastated the tiny, tight-knit community.

Shock is giving way to grief, as well as questions about how the Russians could have known about the gathering in what some Hroza residents say was a deliberate attack.

Among those killed was Olya, 36, who is survived by three children. Her husband died too.

Her father, Valeriy Kozyr, was at the cemetery preparing to bury her and his son-in-law.

"It would have been better if I had died," he said quietly as he wept. "Oh God, you cannot punish me like this. To leave the father and take the children!"

Wiping tears from his face, the 61-year-old explained that he must now work out how to care for his three grand-children aged 10, 15 and 17. Kozyr wants to bury Olya and her husband side-by-side in a single grave.

He told Reuters he was not in the cafe on Thursday because he worked night shifts as a security guard, and so was spared.

Nearby, three brothers were readying a plot in which to bury their parents, both killed in what President Volodymr Zelenskiy has called a deliberate Russian assault on civilians.

Moscow denies targeting civilians in its full-scale invasion, a position it repeated on Friday in response to the Hroza strike. Thousands have been killed in a bombing campaign that has hit apartment blocks and restaurants as well as power stations, bridges and grain silos.

One brother began to dig while another picked up discarded plastic bottles.

"We lost 18 people on one street, where our parents lived," said the third, 41-year-old Yevhen Pyrozhok. "On one side, the neighbours are gone, and on the other side a woman is gone."

The men said they did not know when they would be able to have the funeral because their parents' bodies were still being examined by investigators in Kharkiv, the closest big city in northeastern Ukraine.

Not all of the victims have been identified. Regional police investigator Serhiy Bolvinov told reporters late on Thursday that authorities would have to use DNA to identify some of the victims, because their remains were beyond recognition.

"Corpses lay there in that yard, and nobody could identify them," said Valentyna Kozienko, 73, speaking near her home close to the site.

'HALF THE VILLAGE GONE'

As darkness fell on Thursday, dazed emergency crews carried bodies placed in white bags on to the back of a pickup truck. A local man knelt down and wept as he lay his hand on the remains of a loved one before they too, were taken away.

Local resident Oleksandr Mukhovatyi said he lost his mother, brother and sister-in-law.

"Someone betrayed us. The attack was precise, it all landed in the coffee shop."

On Friday, rescue workers continued to sift through the rubble of the flattened cafe and nearby shop, while diggers pushed away debris.

On a low table set up a few metres (yards) away, members of the emergency services and local community laid flowers and lit candles in small coloured jars to commemorate the dead.

At the cemetery, one grave stands out.

Freshly dug earth is piled beneath bright blue and yellow bouquets that match the colours of a large Ukrainian flag fluttering above them in the breeze.

This is the final resting place of Andriy Kozyr, a soldier in the Ukrainian army and distant relative of the newly-grieving father, Valeriy.

Andriy had been killed earlier in the conflict, but his family wanted to bury him in his native village when they discovered his remains in an area that had been occupied by Russians before they retreated late in 2022.

Just as local friends and relatives sat down to celebrate his life, the missile landed.

"Half the village is gone, families are gone," said Kozyr, standing beside his wife as she wept. "All the time they miss. Well, this time, they hit.

"Now I'll have to cross out half my phone book."

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Air defense forces repel drone attack in Istra district northwest of Moscow, says mayor

Air defense forces in the Istra district northwest of Moscow downed a drone targeting the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin reported on his Telegram channel.

"Air defense forces in the Istra municipality repelled a drone attack targeting Moscow," Sobyanin said in a post. According to preliminary data, there were no casualties or damage. Emergencies services are working at the scene, he added.

** Russian forces occupy more than 10 Ukrainian strongholds in south Donetsk area

Fighters of Russia’s Battlegroup East improved their tactical positions in the south Donetsk direction as they occupied more than a dozen Ukrainian strongholds there, Battlegroup Spokesman Oleg Chekhov told TASS.

"[Russian] assault teams improved their tactical positions near Novomikhailovka, north of Nikolskoye, west of Novodonetskoye and Novozlatopol," Chekhov said. "More than 10 enemy strongholds have been occupied, with [Ukrainian] manpower being destroyed and two militants surrendering," he added.

According to Chekhov, Russian artillerymen destroyed a Ukrainian communication center and a jamming station in Novomikhailovka.

Also, he said, the battlegroup’s aircraft hit Ukrainian soldiers and military equipment near Novomikhailovka, Urozhainoye, Staromayorskoye as well as north of Priyutnoye.

Reuters/Tass

The strike by the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress earlier set for this week has been postponed. The labour unions were ready to go into an unlimited strike action, following the inability or unwillingness of the Federal Government to introduce significant palliatives that would assuage the intense sufferings of workers confronted by a cost of living crisis that has made feeding, transportation, medical care, etc., almost impossible for the working class. When I listened to President Bola Tinubu’s Independence Day address, the main message I heard was that he is aware of the suffering of the people and is acting to address it. What workers are saying is that they do not see any evidence yet of what is being done to alleviate their suffering.

It is not clear what deal was done with the labour aristocrats, leading the unions to stop the strike for the moment, but the reality is that if the cost of living crisis is not addressed in a substantive way very soon, the explosion would be coming and it may not even be from wage earners. The World Bank says that only 12 per cent of the working class earn a formal wage in Nigeria. The vast majority are farmers or informal workers who have no unions, voice or structure to articulate their interests and they are even more affected by the cost of living crisis.

I was listening to a radio programme interviewing keke and motorcycle taxi operators and their stories were pathetic. Essentially, they cannot increase their charges at the same rate as the increase in fuel costs, for the simple reason that their clients actually have less money to spend now than they used to have, so when the rates went up, the operators simply ran out of clients. They therefore have to reduce their margins to the lowest possible level, which means they often are unable to even replace the cost of the fuel that they bought, with the implications of this being that they find themselves operating at a loss. They describe every ride as a challenge, as clients haggle, beg and cajole them to reduce the fares. Fights are also on the increase as they convey about clients who have no money and they either operate rides that are settled through fights or clients who run away on arriving at their destinations.

As if all these are not enough, the authorities are after them and seizing their vehicles, to completely drive them out of business. Their woes are never heard by constituted authority because they have no organisational structure and no voice. As you go through the various occupations in which poor Nigerians hustle for survival in our cities every day, the stories are similar. The informal economy is crumbling and hustling to survive is getting tougher.

The stories from the rural areas are worse. Gangs of armed criminal enterprises have turned the kidnapping of farmers into a very lucrative activity for the war lords. When a farmer is kidnapped, it is not only his family that is in trouble. All his relations are taxed to make up the ransom payment. As most people have no cash, they have to sell their assets – animals, land and petty possessions – to get the cash, often at giveaway prices. Kidnapping is therefore deepening rural poverty. Many farmers have given up farming all together and moved to towns to live in destitution. Others decide to negotiate with the gangs and pay protection tax, to be allowed to farm. These ones are also not finding it easy because they pay so much upfront and thereafter have no more resources to buy fertilisers and make something reasonable out of the farms. The pressure on more and more of the youth is to join the gangs. As the gangs grow larger, there are fewer farmers to kidnap, as such the gangs would need to move to the major roads and cities to smoke out the middle classes from their homes.

As these miseries deepen, Nigerians are also very concerned about the politics of the country. The drama playing out over Tinubu’s certificate saga, this week, is bringing shame to Nigerians. Why should there be such profound questions about fake and true certificates, gender identity, and possible identity theft around our President? Why are we unable to produce a political class composed of people with clear traceable itineraries and integrity? Meanwhile, the concern of Nigerians is the capacity of the judiciary to deliver justice in the numerous cases in which power and money appear to determine the outcomes, rather than the truth. My fear is that the combination of the suffering from economic woes and injustice from the courts might tilt the balance in provoking explosive anger from the people. The judiciary should know that it is itself on trial in the people’s court.

The distance between Nigeria’s irresponsibly over-affluent political class and the people has become extremely wide. They are having the best times of their lives at a time in which even the middle class is becoming pauperised and forced to sell its assets to survive. As Allister Cooke, the late BBC letter writer from America once explained, POWER CORRUPTS AND ABSOLUTE POWER IS ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. The problem will be when it bursts, there will be no winners. Nigeria’s ruling class is incapable of acting in its enlightened self-interest, so we might just have to wait for the explosion. What is clear is that the social contract between the people and the ruling class is broken, public trust has disappeared and transactional politics is approaching its limits. If someone in government happens to come across this column, think about it and consider the reality that the immediate self-interest of those in power cannot be the sole purpose of government in a country like Nigeria. The security and welfare of the people is the constitutional purpose of government.

** A professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, and Chair of the Editorial Board of PREMIUM TIMES.

PT

Paris fashion week usually celebrates youth, artifice and maximum effort in the department of physical appearance. But this week there has been a big old French fuss about the joy of being natural and authentic.

Pamela Anderson has rocked up at shows “makeup-free at 56”. Andie MacDowell, 65, and Dame Helen Mirren, 78, “sported natural grey hair” (ie, they turned up while possessing hair) on the runway for L’Oréal. Making a lot of effort is, of course, still in fashion. All these looks probably involve complications of one kind or another: an endless carousel of painfully “carefree” outfits or a hairstyle that – at the very least – needs several hours of styling. (Important side note: if you’re still coveting grey hair like Meryl Streep’s in The Devil Wears Prada, that was actually a wig.)

No judgment meant here, though: Paris fashion week should be about fabulousness. And, as the old saying goes, these women would be fabulous in a bin bag. But despite the usual smoke and mirrors, and the mass of products, money and primping that have gone into these looks, real change is afoot. There is a distinct move towards what is called “pro-ageing”, in which the ageing process is celebrated.

The word “pro-ageing” has been used by beauty brands such as Studio 10, Tropic Skincare, Clarins and Look Fabulous Forever for a while, promoting the idea that looking your age is aspirational. Now women who would not have been permitted within the Périphérique during Paris fashion week 20 years ago are championed.

There has always been something tedious about the “debate” around what women are “allowed” to look like; what is applauded, what is encouraged. After all, there is a huge difference between the women Elizabeth Hurley once called “civilians” (non-celebrities) and those whose professional currency depends on their appearance and relevance.

Joan Rivers, an enemy of ageing, let alone pro-ageing, knew this. She underwent a series of medical procedures that were not only designed to make her look younger but also made her the subject of the headlines and gossip that were necessary to maintain a career in showbusiness.

Anderson’s move may be guileless and just how she likes to leave the house nowadays. We don’t know. But it achieves the same effect as Rivers’ surgeries: commentary, pictures, a touch of the viral. All the same, as Jamie Lee Curtis wrote of Anderson, something unusual is happening: “This woman showed up and claimed her seat at the table with nothing on her face. I am so impressed and floored by this act of courage and rebellion.”

Is it really that rebellious? Yes, if your face is your fortune and you depend on the judgment of others. And yes, there is something depressing too about the fact that 70 years after Simone de Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex, we still consider it to be “courageous” if a woman appears in public under the same conditions under which a man of any age appears in public (ie, washed and wearing some clothes).

But this “courageous act” has been in evidence on social media channels for a while now, with “ordinary” people and celebrities posting about growing out their grey hair, being makeup-free and loving their wrinkly neck. One of the biggest influences of recent years in the fashion world is Iris Apfel, who recently announced her 102nd birthday on Instagram to her 2.9 million followers. The good news? Still fabulous. The bad news? She wears 56bn accessories every day (mostly bangles). You can age. But the message is clear: you had better still bloody well make an effort.

The Guardian, UK

Kalu Kalu, one of the lawyers to Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, says the legal battle in the United States has revealed sufficient discoveries to upturn the ruling of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal at the Supreme Court.

Kalu, during the press briefing held by Atiku on Thursdays in Abuja, said the legal team discovered five major discrepancies in the academic records of President Bola Tinubu during the deposition of the Registrar of Chicago State University (CSU), Caleb Westberg.

The lawyer said the Atiku’s team was able to establish that Tinubu committed forgery, has dual citizenship, and presented an NYSC certificate that has a different name from the one he submitted to INEC.

“One, on the certificate issued or released by Chicago State University to the lawyers of Abubakar— Tinubu forged the certificate he presented to INEC.

“Two, that the qualifying certificate from Southwest College to Chicago State University bears a female, therefore, the document does not belong to Tinubu.

“The Chicago State University admission form has a claim that Tinubu attended Government College, Lagos, and graduated in 1970, when indeed that school was established in 1974.

“The same document has it that the owner of that document is a black American, and (in) the document Tinubu submitted to INEC, he denied having dual citizenship, which means it does not belong to him.

“Then, the same document, under deposition, says the “A” in Bola A. Tinubu is Ahmed, but the NYSC certificate Tinubu submitted to INEC says the “A” is Adekunle,” he said.

Atiku had requested the documents from CSU to back his allegation of certificate forgery against Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February poll.

The allegation of forgery was one of those dismissed by the Presidential Election Petition Court in the suit Atiku filed to challenge the election of Tinubu who was sworn in as president in May.

CSU Registrar, Westberg, made a deposition at the court, giving further details on the documents that were released to Atiku’s legal team earlier.

PT

All Progressives Congress (APC) says the press conference held by Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last elections, was filled with “pitiful regurgitation of lies”.

Abubakar on Thursday said Nigeria’s reputation is at stake with the controversy surrounding the Chicago State University’s certificate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by President Bola Tinubu.

In a statement by Felix Morka, national publicity secretary of APC, the ruling party said Atiku’s quest for the academic record of Tinubu has shown his deep animosity that Tinubu was responsible for his serial electoral loss since 2007.

“The All Progressives Congress (APC) is unfazed by the press conference addressed by former Vice President and Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar earlier today,” the statement reads. 

“The press conference lacked purpose and delivered nothing except the pitiful regurgitation of lies, mindless distortions and deliberate falsehood on his infantile obsession with the academic record of Tinubu.

“For several weeks now, Nigerians and the world have watched with incredulity Abubakar’s display of utter desperation in his failed bid to become the President of Nigeria.

“Abubakar holds the unenviable title of Nigeria’s most prolific election loser and longest-running presidential candidate in history, and we see his recent US fishing expedition as the last kick of a roundly rejected presidential aspirant.“

The APC spokesperson said Atiku’s inquiry into Tinubu’s academic record has taken a negative toll on the image of Nigeria. 

The Cable

Nigerian naira has weakened by 40 percent since the mid June 2023 devaluation, making it one of the worst-performing currencies in Sub-Saharan Africa, the World Bank, has said.

The World Bank said this in its report titled, “Africa’s Pulse: An analysis of issues shaping Africa’s economic future (October 2023 | Volume 28).”

“So far this year, the Nigerian naira and the Angolan kwanza are among the worst performing currencies in the region: these currencies have posted a year-to-date depreciation of nearly 40 per cent.”

“The weakening of the naira was triggered by the central bank’s decision to remove trading restrictions on the official market. For the kwanza, it was the decision of the central bank to stop defending the currency as a result of low oil prices and greater debt payments”, the report read in part.

Other currencies with significant losses so far in 2023 in Africa included South Sudan (33 per cent), Burundi (27 per cent), Democratic Republic of Congo (18 per cent), Kenya (16 per cent), Zambia (12 per cent), Ghana (12 per cent), and Rwanda (11 per cent), according to the report.

It noted that parallel exchange market rates are also compounding inflationary problems for some countries in the African region.

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in June 2023, directed Deposit Money Banks to remove the rate cap on the naira at the official Investors and Exporters’ window of the foreign exchange market.

The apex bank directed the banks to allow the free float of the naira against the dollar and other global currencies.

Since then, the naira had fallen from N473.83/$ to around N800/$ officially.

According to the World Bank, the widening difference between the parallel and official exchange rates of the naira had been the case from March 2020 until June 2023, adding that the parallel rate premium increased to 80 per cent in November 2022, and then to about 60 per cent in June 2023, as the Central Bank’s interventions to restrict foreign exchange demand and keep the exchange rate artificially low were met with declining FX supply from oil revenues.

The bank also noted that the unification and liberalisation of the exchange rates in June 2023 allowed the NAFEX rate to converge to the parallel one, closing the gap.

“However, resistance toward the increasing pressure on the Nigerian naira coupled with limited supply of FX at the official window has led to the reemergence of the parallel market premium”, it added.

Daily Trust

Debt Management Office (DMO) has opened an offer for a 10-year N150 billion forward ijarah (lease) Sukuk instrument at a rental rate of 15.75 percent per annum, payable half-yearly.

Patience Oniha, DMO director-general, announced the offer during an event titled “2023 Sukuk Issuance – Investors Meeting” held on Thursday in Abuja.

The Sukuk is a strategic initiative that supports infrastructure development, promotes financial inclusion and deepens the domestic securities market.

Since the establishment of the initiative in September 2017, Nigeria has issued five sovereign Sukuk — 2017 (N100 billion); 2018 (N100 billion); 2020 (N162.557 billion); 2021 (N250 billion) and 2022 (N100 billion.)

Oniha said the instrument was issued by the FG Roads Sukuk Companies 1 Plc on behalf of the government.

She said the proceeds from the offer would be used for infrastructural development across the six geopolitical zones.

The offer opened on October 3 and closes on October 11 with the settlement date being October 13.

She also directed interested investors to contact the issuing houses, including Greenwich Merchant Bank Limited, Vetiva Capital Management Limited, Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited, and Buraq Capital Limited for the offer.

The director-general added that the Sukuk instrument would be listed on the Nigerian Exchange Limited and FMDQ Securities Exchange Limited.

Speaking with reporters after the event, Oniha said since the inception of Sukuk in 2017, about 4,000 kilometres of road have either been rehabilitated or constructed.

“From 2017 till this date, with N742 billion, we have been able to either construct or rehabilitate 4,000 kilometres of road and about three to four bridges,” Oniha said.

“So, there is already evidence to show what Sukuk is doing and for this current Sukuk, it is no different. It is going to impact roads and bridges as well.

“So, it is all about infrastructural financing and infrastructural development.”

The DMO boss said Nigeria’s debt stock as of June 2023, was N87 trillion.

“As of June 2023, Nigeria’s debt stock, which includes external and domestic for the federal and state governments as well as the FCT was N87 trillion,” she added.

The Cable

Russian President Vladimir Putin said pieces of grenade were found in the bodies of Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and other mercenary leaders who died in a plane crash, as he hinted that the man who led an armed revolt against the Kremlin’s military leadership had been a drug user.

“In the bodies of those who died in the air crash fragments of hand grenades were found,” Putin said Thursday at the annual meeting of the Valdai Club in the Black Sea city of Sochi, citing what he said were investigators’ findings. There was no evidence of an external impact on the aircraft, he added.

“Unfortunately, they didn’t test for alcohol or narcotics in the blood of those who died,” Putin said. He went on to say that, in his view, investigators should have conducted such tests because security services “found not only $10 million in cash, but 5 kilograms of cocaine” after searching the Wagner Group’s offices in St. Petersburg.

Prigozhin led a failed revolt in June aimed at ousting Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov after accusing them of repeated failures in Russia’s war in Ukraine and of seeking to “destroy” Wagner. His forces came to within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of Moscow before Prigozhin called off the rebellion that Putin said brought Russia to the brink of “civil war.”

The US has said the plane crash that took place exactly two months later may have been an assassination approved by Putin himself, after the uprising that posed the greatest threat to his quarter-century rule. The Kremlin dismissed that suggestion as an “absolute lie.”

Early US assessments indicated the jet may have been destroyed by a bomb, American officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

All 10 passengers and crew listed as having been onboard the Embraer SA Legacy 600 private jet, including some of Prigozhin’s top lieutenants, died when it crashed en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg on Aug. 23.

Bloomberg

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine has lost 90,000 men since June – Putin

The Ukrainian military has lost more than 90,000 troops since its counteroffensive against Russian forces began in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Thursday. 

“Since June 4 alone, Ukrainian units have already lost over 90,000 people,” Putin told a plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, noting that this number includes both deaths and incapacitations. 

Ukraine has also lost 557 tanks and almost 1,900 armored vehicles in the same timeframe, Putin added.

The counteroffensive began on June 4 with a series of Ukrainian advances along the frontline between Kherson and Donetsk. The operation quickly ran into trouble, however, as Ukrainian units advanced headlong through minefields to meet multiple layers of Russian trenches, tank traps, and gun emplacements. With no air support to cover the repeated Ukrainian assaults, Kiev’s troops were exposed to attacks by Russian artillery, helicopters, and drones.

After adjusting their tactics several times, Ukrainian units managed to capture a handful of villages near Zaporozhye in August, although losses remained high. Western-supplied tanks were destroyed from afar by Russian drones and missiles, and Ukraine lost 17,000 men in September alone, according to figures from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Western officials have publicly acknowledged that the counteroffensive did not proceed as they would have hoped, and media reports suggest that the operation is viewed as a failure in the US and Europe. Even though heavy autumn rains will soon make progress on the battlefield extremely difficult, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has vowed to keep the offensive going into the winter.

The Ukrainian military does not publish its own casualty figures, although some estimates have leaked out. Back in December, the European Commission published and swiftly deleted a video and its associated transcript in which Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the Ukrainian military had suffered 100,000 fatalities in the first nine months of the conflict.

“We understand where and what we need to do,” Putin said on Thursday. “We are calmly moving towards achieving our goals, and I am confident that we will achieve them.”

Putin emphasized that Russia’s goal in Ukraine was not to expand the territory of the Russian Federation, but to build a “new world order” in which NATO or other military blocs were no longer able to impose their will on civilizations that resist. Putin also highlighted Kiev’s repression of Russian-speakers in the Donbass region as a key factor behind his decision to launch the military operation in Ukraine last year.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine reports success in the east, intense fighting further north

Ukrainian troops made headway in the eastern theatre of their counteroffensive to oust Russian occupying forces but are under pressure further north, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.

Russian forces backed by Su-35 attack aircraft had started attacking along the front line in the direction of Makiivka in the Luhansk region, a spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern group of forces said.

"The most difficult area is the Lyman-Kupiansk sector," the spokesperson, Ilia Yevlash, told Ukrainian television, referring to two towns recaptured by Ukrainian troops late last year but still subject to Russian assaults.

"The intensity of assaults there has increased ... The enemy has chosen a new point - Makiivka - and is directing all its main efforts into this direction. Of course, we are also repulsing enemy attacks and inflicting damage on forces and equipment."

Fighting has flared up periodically near Lyman and Kupiansk and Ukraine says Russia has redeployed more than 110,000 troops to the area.

A Russian missile struck a store and an adjacent cafe on Thursday in the village of Hroza, west of Kupiansk, killing 51 people as residents attended a service for a fallen Ukrainian soldier.

Also in the east, Ukrainian forces are battling to regain ground near the devastated city of Bakhmut, seized by Russian forces in May after months of fighting.

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, in its evening report, said Kyiv's forces had "achieved success" south of Andriivka - a village south of Bakhmut captured by Ukrainian troops last month in Donetsk region.

The report said Russian forces had unsuccessfully tried to regain lost positions in an area further south.

Russian accounts of the fighting said Moscow's forces had repelled two Ukrainian attacks west of the Russian-held city of Donetsk.

Reuters was unable to independently verify reports of battlefield activity from either side.

In the southern theatre, Kyiv's forces are pushing toward the Sea of Azov in an attempt to split Russian-occupied territory in two.

The Ukrainian General Staff said its forces were pressing on with their southward advance in the Zaporizhzhia region and had repelled a Russian attack near the village of Robotyne.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has acknowledged that the counteroffensive is proceeding more slowly than the military would like, but has dismissed Western criticism that Kyiv's strategy.

RT/Reuters

In a country of 133 million multidimensional poor, with youth unemployment at 53.40 percent, it would be a pity if anyone looking for an opportunity to earn a living missed the chance to hear the Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma recently. 

In a campaign speech for his second term, Uzodimma promised, as my father would have said, what Napoleon in all his extraordinary conquests and ambition could not even have dreamed of. 

In my humble view, it’s Japa 2.0, a giant leap forward for the youth delivered in a moment of creative genius, the last of which was seen when the Supreme Court’s ruling on his election petition sprung His Excellency from number four position on the Imo ballot list of contestants in 2019, all the way to the Government House.

I must dispense with any further rigmarole and get to the point, while the governor’s generous offer lasts. The governor told a crowd of excited, cheering youths who came to visit him at the Government House on September 26, that he had finally come up with a plan to put at least 4,000 of them out of unemployment, as part of his “Skill Up Imo” programme. He said he had spoken with representatives of some Canadian and European firms in Nigeria. The companies would not only train these youths, but also send them to different choice destinations in North America and Europe to work. 

As if that was not enough, he then added that his government was prepared to pay the flight tickets of all 4,000 eligible persons once their employment has been processed, with the possibility, I might add, that a few lucky ones may even fly first class!

Upon hearing this bonanza, the crowd roared and roared in raptures of ecstasy. Of course, the governor didn’t have to say this too-good-to-believe offer was tied to the potential beneficiaries voting for him at the November 11 governorship election in the state. Quid pro quo was implied.

Campaign in lullaby

Mario Cuomo’s dictum that politicians campaign in poetry doesn’t really do justice to politicians of the Nigerian variety. They do much better – they campaign in lullaby. 

In 1999, for example, a fellow called Ahmed Yerima campaigned for governorship, promising to make Zamfara the believer’s paradise. He vowed to end corruption and enthrone justice and prosperity through political sharia. The seed of his green-eyed fanaticism has bred a deadly variety of bandits that haunt that state today. 

Another fellow, Saminu Turaki, promised that if he was elected governor, Jigawa would become Africa’s Silicon Valley, with a tablet for every voter. It turned out, however, that the only time there was Internet service in the state for most of his tenure was immediately after he received billions of naira in monthly allocation from Abuja. Once the money entered the state’s treasury all lines to the Government House were unreachable until the next allocation.

There’s even a more recent example of campaign by lullabies, the sort that is now ensuing from Imo State. A gentleman governor called Ben Ayade promised among a litany of things during his campaign that he would build a 260km superhighway from Calabar to Katsina-Ala in Benue State. He also promised a deep-sea port in Bakassi and a cargo airport in Obudu.

Voters bought his snake oil and repurchased it by giving him a second term. After eight years, they woke up to the harsh reality of the empty musical notes of Ayade’s broken promises.

Uzodimma-nistan 

Perhaps Uzodimma would be different? What is the price of a vote, anyway, compared with the prospects of a new life, so bright and beautiful that the vistas only compare with a terrestrial realm which, permit my limited imagination, I can only describe as Uzodimma-nistanat this time? 

As I watched the excitement and anticipation in the mostly young crowd, I felt sorry for Uzodimma’s opponents who have so far been thoroughly unimaginative. All they have been doing when they’re not pressing for the Charter of Equity that they say should disqualify the governor from re-contesting, is to talk about some plan to make Imo safe and secure again, and how to end graft and corruption in government. 

After listening to Uzodimma’s extraordinary redemption plan for Imo youths, his opponents should humble themselves and take remedial classes from this man who has been a consummate snake oil salesman long before Imo River. 

The governor’s announcement on September 26 may appear ordinary to the undiscerning, but a friend of mine and obviously a closet Uzodimma admirer expanded the grand dimensions of the governor’s Japa 2.0 programme, totally hidden from my simple heart. 

When I criticised the scheme as a cheap and foolish campaign gimmick, my friend admonished me promptly. How could I compare Uzodimma with Yerima or Turaki or Ayade? Couldn’t I see the governor’s ingenuity, he asked? 

New industry 

First, he said, all the talk about insecurity and corruption would vanish once the 4,000 ambassadors started working and remitting foreign exchange back home. And second, how could I not also see that the announcement by the governor, an accomplished salesman, had unleashed a cottage industry of sorts in the state already? 

According to my friend, as soon as the governor promised to provide jobs for 4,000 youths in Canada and Europe and also to pay their airfares, some smart folks in and around government would take the matter to greater imaginative heights.

In the next few days or weeks, for example, expect some people who might start hawking forms for Cohort One of either the Canadian or European editions of “Skill Up Imo.” If these retailers of snake oil charge only N5,000 per form, for example, they would have made N20m, if only 4,000 bought forms – a very conservative estimate in a state with an estimated population of 5.2 million, mostly youths! 

Imagine what that means for both the personal and government internally generated revenue. Between the sale of forms to the multiple rounds of screening, tests and final selection, my friend said, surely the good times would be back again. 

Think of the hundreds, if not thousands, of young people who instead of risking their lives in the desert of North Africa and the perilous Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe now have the opportunity of not only being trained by some of the best companies in the world but also being employed by them. And all of this on Uzodimma’s ticket, just for the price of a vote to return His Excellency to office! 

Reverse migration never looked so potentially profitable and America and Europe should have no difficulty seeing the win-win in this grand scheme. I therefore urge all busybodies trying to fact-check the governor to think about the implication of their action on this laudable and patriotic project and to desist forthwith.

My regret 

My only regret perhaps is that non-indigenes registered to vote in Imo may not benefit from this programme, although it is likely that given the wild excitement that greeted the announcement and the likely political harvest, the governor may extend this scheme to non-indigenous voters as well, as long as they vote for him and retain a certified true copy of their ballot paper.

There’s a saying in my neck of the woods that if a fashion designer is offering to make you a special wear you must first look at what he is wearing. Surely, anyone like His Excellency, who registered a company in 2012 with a share capital of N5m and won a dredging contract of N26 billion five years later which was diligently not executed, should be trusted to send only 4,000 Imo voters to the moon and back, without much difficulty.

As they say in the South East, “Ya kpo tu ba!”

** Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP