RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

NATO has boots on the ground in Ukraine – Putin

It is no secret that NATO soldiers are present on the ground in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, noting that those service members are facing extremely grim prospects.

Speaking to his supporters and reporters on Sunday night after the end of the presidential election, which he won by a landslide, Putin stressed that Moscow was well aware of the US-led military bloc’s push to deploy troops in Ukraine.

“We hear both French and English speech there. There is nothing good in this, first of all for them, because they die there and in large numbers,” he said.

He also weighed in on a potential full-scale conflict between NATO and Russia, warning that it could not be ruled out. “Anything is possible in the modern world… But everyone knows that this would be one step shy of a full-scale World War III. I don’t think that anyone is interested in that.”

French President Emmanuel Macron suggested last month that the West “cannot exclude” the possibility of sending soldiers to aid Ukraine. Later, he also described Russia as an “adversary,” insisting, however, that Paris is not “waging war on” Moscow.

Commenting on Macron’s remarks, Putin noted that while NATO troops in Ukraine are expected to act as an auxiliary force, helping Kiev train its military, “this is not much different from what mercenaries are doing there now.” Russia, he added, wants France not to escalate the conflict but to help find a peaceful solution to hostilities.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says Russian missile attack kills one, injures 8 in Mykolaiv

A man was killed and at least eight people were wounded in a Russian missile attack on the Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, after an overnight strike on Odesa on the last day of Russia's presidential election.

Mykolaiv's regional governor, Vitaliy Kim, said on Telegram that said there had been two strikes on Mykolaiv from the same direction as the strike on Odesa, adding that a man born in 1974 died in hospital and the injured included a girl born in 2013.

Ukraine's ministry of internal affairs shared images of damaged houses, wrecked or burnt-out cars, including one with a pair of abandoned shoes and other damaged items strewn on the ground alongside its open driver's door, and rescue workers helping people leave the scene and dousing a blackened car.

"Police found an injured girl with shrapnel wounds who was given first aid on the spot and taken to hospital," the ministry said on its Telegram channel of the aftermath in Mykolaiv.

Separately, the Ukrainian military said Russian air attacks had damaged agricultural enterprises and destroyed several industrial buildings in the port city of Odesa.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 16 drones and seven missiles and 14 drones were destroyed over the Odesa region.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of election sabotagewith days of strikes on Russian infrastructure, one of the most sweeping air operations on Russian territory since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine two years ago.

RT/Reuters

Last week, we read how the signs are not looking good for a nation like ours that wants to be reckoned with internationally. We concluded by asking the federal government to look at ways to reduce the cost of governance and the unimaginable take-home pay of political leaders and redirect the excess towards production. And we emphasised that we must become a productive nation that eats, drives and wears what it produces.

We also exhorted anyone genuinely interested in the welfare of workers, and of Nigerians, to proffer solutions that would boost our economy and strengthen our currency and not suggestions that would bastardise our economy and drive the naira’s value further down. And that salary increase at the moment will not help the economy.

The federal and state governments must also, as a matter of urgency, resuscitate moribund industries dotted across the landscape so as not to only galvanise production but to improve locally generated revenue. And because millions will get direct and indirect jobs if the moribund industries dotting all over the country become alive, the production of local materials will be boosted as there will be more buyers, leading to more employment.

Government, and here I mean the federal and state governments, must always be truthful and fair to the citizens. They must also make their agencies work. The government must let government function. In almost all cases, it is the government that makes government fail because the actors do everything from a prism of personal gain. Nothing about service anymore. Then there is the Nigerian syndrome of “Do you know who I am?”

I will give you an example. Just recently there was a furore that the Presidential Villa owed the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company ₦923 million, the Nigerian Police owed ₦1.4 billion and the office of the Central Bank Governor, ₦1.6 billion. Put together, the federal government and its agencies were indebted to the tune of ₦47billion. And, you see, God save any AEDC official who tries to disconnect power from Villa, Police Headquarters or CBN.

But every year there is money for the payment of NEPA bills in the government and its agencies’ budgetary allocations, so why should the bills accumulate? If the power company has not been paid, where did the appropriated money go? Is the government here not strangulating the electricity company with its hand, yet every day we cry of epileptic power?

It is commendable that President Bola Tinubu ordered the immediate payment of the Villa bill; however, is it enough without instituting an investigation into the failure of the Villa bureaucracy to pay its electricity bills despite budgetary provisions? This is the sort of thing that would make Nigerians sit up and take note. Otherwise, it is just the old system: sweep the sleaze under the carpet and let sleeping dogs lie.

Perhaps, because citizens, rightly or wrongly, think those in authority would naturally dip their hands into the treasury, and also scramble (as the Europeans scramble for Africa) over state resources, that is why some of them scramble over any resources close to them. Maybe this is why any warehouse they see, any trailer load of food that enters their ‘trap’, they pounce on it. And do you blame them when they refuse to pay NEPA bills?

Every day something new is trending. Yesterday it was budget padding; today it is “each senator got ₦500 million.” Who knows what tomorrow will bring? The citizens must feel that their interests are also part of the mix. That sense of belonging would automatically bring down the crime rate substantially.

Governance must be accorded the seriousness it deserves. When you go through our budget and the imputed figures, like a template across the MDAs, one would be forgiven to think that governance is a joke and budget implementation is akin to sharing the national cake within an anointed group.

Justice and fairness must permeate the land. No nation can rid itself of crime as long as its leadership does not go out of its way to give the people a sense of belonging and fairness, and its judiciary fails to give protection to the oppressed.

Therefore, leaders at the centre must be exemplary, which will make those in charge of other tiers of government follow suit. It is not enough for a leader to be mouthing platitudes while his actions go contrariwise. This is what is meant by “Change must begin with the leader” where the Brazilian lyricist and author of The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho, said, “The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”

I will never get tired of hammering it - to all who care to listen - what Usman Dan Fodiyo wrote in his book, Bayan Wujub al-Hijrah alal ibad: that “the death of a thousand good men is not as tragic as having an unfit man in a position of national leadership and that “a kingdom (nation) can endure with unbelief, but it cannot endure with injustice.”

To ensure that justice is served, we must strengthen our legal and judicial systems. We need to reform our laws and improve the capacity and independence of our judges and lawyers. This will earn the system more respect and bring back the trust of the people that has been heavily eroded.

These, and more along this line, are the things our leaders must do to make our country the great nation it is meant to be. Every leader will be proud that under his watch we became a united people and forged ahead to become an industrialised nation.

To stitch the “merely geographical expression” that we currently have, therefore, is a task that must involve all of us. We do not have any other country to call ours. And we cannot afford to see the country put together by God through the British rendered asunder.

Another reason I always look at some Nigerians from the south and north who shout “Let Nigeria be divided” and shudder. Do they know what they are saying? Do they think that that is feasible anymore? Would it be beneficial to all concerned? We will look at this next.

** Hassan Gimba is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Neptune Prime.

It's obvious that Ignorance competes with corruption in our arrested development since all major presidential candidates and the intelligentsia supported subsidies removal and floating the Naira that have turned out to be an economic disaster, because they overlooked the fact that every advanced industrialized economy was built on and continue to be stimulated with production and consumption subsidies. This reaffirms my November 22, 2022 article "2023: Neocolonial administrators or Economic revolutionaries” that the political class were just neocolonial administrators that couldn't uplift the masses from poverty.

The coloniality of knowledge sources mentally enslaves and robs them of knowledge of how to industrialize and economically advance our people out of poverty. Railways complex is the launchpad of industrialization, but stuck in the slave plantation mentality since independence, every regime promises advancing agriculture by returning unemployed to the farms to solve our poverty. They overlook that our urban population is 53.52% of Nigeria's population and the unemployment rates were not much different, 23.9% in rural and 21.2% in urban areas in 2018.

From the 1960s Marketing boards to 1970s Operation Feed The Nation to Eighties Green Revolution and all agriculture programs till date, agriculture should be facing diminishing returns by now. According to the World Bank, Nigeria has the world's fifth highest Agricultural Value Added at $111.97 billion, following Brazil ($130.82b), Indonesia ($163.56b), India ($571.63) topped by China ($1311.31b). Agriculture accounts for 38% of our employment and 24% of our national income compared to the mere 1.6% combined income of Iron and Steel, Plastic and Rubber, Electrical and Electronics that a railways-led industrialization can multiply tenfold to reduce both urban and rural unemployment and poverty issues.

From a comparative analysis of progressive nations and their sectoral contributions to GDP, it shows Nigeria agriculture has an unhealthy high percentage of GDP with agric 21.2%, industrial 22.5%, services 56.4%; compared to Brazil (Agric 6.6% industrial 20.7%, services 72.7%); India agric 15.4%, industrial 23%, service 70.9%; South Africa agric 2.8%, industrial 29.7%, services 67.5%; Egypt agric 11.7%, industrial 34.3%, services 54%; China agric 7.9%, industrial 40.5%, services 51.6%; USA agric 0.9%; industrial 19.1%; service 80%; EU agric 1.6%; industrial 25.1%, services 70.9%); UK agric 0.7%, industrial 20.2%, service 79.2%, Mexico agric 3.6%, industrial 31.9%, service 64.5% - all with agriculture being mere fractions of industry and service.

A structural analysis of the Nigerian economy reveals why we have high levels of unemployment and poverty. In 2022, the services sector accounted for 47.45% of total employment while it accounted for 54.8% of the rebased GDP, with the largest subsector contributors being wholesale and retail trade contributing 16.27%; Information and Communication 11.04% and Real Estate 8.37%. The largest contributor, Retail and Wholesale has low wages and even lower employment and income multiplier effects across the economy since 95% is conducted by the informal sector. Information and Communication has grown with telephone and data companies, which has had multiplier effects in online trading and transport services.

In advancing economies, their service sectors growth leaders are the productive subsectors of transport, information and communication, and business services, and also have higher contributions from government - health and education. Despite the Chinese economy much touted manufacturing, in 1978 at the beginning of its economic growth, agriculture sector accounted for 27.7%, manufacturing 47.7% and services 24.6% of GDP, compared to 2017 with agriculture 7.9% manufacturing 40.5% and services 51.6%, showing a significant change in its services sector from 24.6% to 51.6% due to massive investment in transport services (railways), as well as logistics, warehousing and other services. Initially like Nigeria with a retail trade based on agriculture and imports, with lower wages, and low income and employment multiplier effects, increased Chinese manufacturing and transport services increased retail profit margins.

When you examine our productive sectors such as manufacturing, only 3 subsectors (food &  beverage, cement and textile) account for 77% of manufacturing output. The food, beverages and tobacco are light processing industries that gave our agriculture value added a global high ranking, but the subsector has ten times lower the income and multiplier effects of railways. It is railways that can increase the 1.6% combined income of Iron and Steel, Plastic and Rubber, Electrical and Electronics subsectors of manufacturing. While foods have only a few byproducts, a car has minimum of 30,000 parts while a A380 Airbus plane has 3.8 million parts which are all sources of income and employment for the potential local suppliers.

This is not an attempt to diminish the significance of agriculture, but to show that there are better returns on social investment in railways, and even examine what could be done more to agriculture if anything. Our agriculture is made up of 91% of agriculture crop production, leaving just 9% for fishery, forestry and livestock. So additional investment into agriculture should be concentrated on fishery and livestock till they achieve the global average of 40% of agriculture production. Livestock and fishery must be elevated from cultural pursuits of Afro-Arabic herdsmen and waterside fishermen to modern business models with global best practices.

The modern agricultural sector is capital and technology intensive that can only be efficiently spurred by big business that can buy heavy machinery and fund research. Currently, our agriculture is like our transportation, handled by low income investors for sustenance. It is not only inefficient but dangerous since like Okada and Danfo drivers that are unregulated and could be used to commit crimes, peasant farmers could be used to sabotage our food security since they might take wrong genetically modified seeds unknowingly. We can no longer entrust our food and transport to uneducated poor citizens.

The psuedo elites that clamour for people to be returned to the farms don't advocate such for their children, and one wonders even if the rural conditions for farming are improved to Western levels whether it would attract the youth, otherwise why do the Nigerian youth that travel abroad stick to city jobs instead of agriculture in USA, Canada or UK? Rather than focusing on pumping more resources into peasant agriculture, the government should provide better incentives through direct and indirect subsidies for big businesses coming into agriculture to increase productivity and reduce production cost per unit.

The real income and employment growth driver that can solve Nigeria's income and employment problems is railway that will improve transportation services contribution, as well as its multiplier effects in logistics, freighting, distribution, which in turn improve agriculture and especially manufacturing subsectors of Iron and Steel, Plastic and Rubber, Electrical and Electronics, providing millions of jobs as manufacturing and the entire economy diversifies.

Three East-West mainlines (Lagos-Calabar, Ilorin-Yola and Sokoto-Maiduguri) to compliment the two North-South colonial lines will spark a railway boom by states and private sector that will increase income and employment in both urban and rural areas. Unfortunately the APC government sabotaged the $13b Lagos-Calabar railway line that was to be financed and built by the Chinese. Acting on Western Powers command they cancelled the project commissioned by President Jonathan and gave it to GE USA that neither had the financial nor technical capabilities, then afterwards went begging to Russia unsucessfully. The latest news is that a haphazard part of the railway was allocated to government cronies without any technical expertise and with a laughable share capital of a mere $1,000 to build a $6b project.

** Faloye is an Economist, author of The Blackworld: Evolution to Revolution and other books, media practicioner, President of ASHE Foundation and Deputy Publicity Secretary Afenifere

Whether or not you get hired by billionaire Mark Cuban comes down to two qualities: culture and  competency.

They’re the “two things that matter the most,” Cuban said during a MasterClass course released last month. “Are they competent enough to do the job? And do they fit in the culture of the organization? If they fail on either one, you’re going to be in trouble.”

Culture is more important than raw talent, Cuban said. Most of the workforce agrees: 56% of workers rank a strong workplace culture as more important than salary, with more than 75% of employees saying they’d consider a company’s culture before applying for a job there, according to a 2019 Glassdoor survey of more than 5,000 adults in the U.S., the U.K., France and Germany.

Young millennials and Gen Zers consider company culture a particular priority, the Glassdoor report noted — meaning Cuban’s observation many prove more true over time, as those workers increasingly rise through the ranks.

Cuban does value employees who complete tasks correctly and efficiently — that’s the competency part. But searching for the perfect worker to fix your company’s problems, a “home run hire,” without properly vetting their cultural fit is “probably the biggest mistake I’ve seen my portfolio companies [make],” he said.

To find employees who check both boxes, Cuban said he asks specific job interview questions like:

• What’s one thing you’ve failed at and one thing you’ve succeeded at?
• Tell me about a time you took a chance at work.
• Why did you leave your last job?
• What’s the best culture of a company that you’ve ever worked in?
• Who’s the best manager you’ve ever worked for?

“I want to get them talking about their positive or negative experiences, so I can understand whether or not they’re going to be a fit,” he said.

For Cuban, the right fit doesn’t mean a carbon copy of himself: He looks for employees and partners who “complement” his skill set, but are unafraid to speak up when they disagree with him, he noted.

“I think one of the biggest problems an entrepreneur [or] CEO can make is they hire people who are like them,” Cuban said. “You don’t need to hire people like you. You’ve got you.”

“I don’t need people to tell me yes,” he added. “I can tell myself yes ... I need people who are going to challenge conventional wisdom and challenge me, and when they think I’ve done something wrong, say, ‘I think you think you’re making a mistake here, and this is why.’”

CNBC

Some Nigerians have expressed displeasure over the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the ministry of transportation and MPH Rail Development Limited.

The company, registered in the UK, is expected to manage the design, construction, commissioning, operation, and eventual transfer of the Port Harcourt-Enugu-Calabar-Abuja standard gauge rail line.

“The Minister of Transportation, Said Alkali on behalf of @NigeriaGov has signed an MoU with Messrs MPH Rail Development (UK) Limited for the design, construction, operation & transfer of the Port Harcourt–Enugu –Calabar–Abuja SGR Line on a PPP basis,” the ministry wrote on its X page.

The ministry said the signing followed the approval of the outline business case and the issuance of a compliance certificate by the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC).

This clearance, the ministry said, enables the firm to focus on compiling the necessary documentation for the federal executive council’s (FEC) approval to advance the project.

In another statement, the ministry said vital documents required for the project’s progression include a comprehensive feasibility study report, a complete business case study, an environmental and social impact assessment, the development of a resettlement action plan, and the formulation of a financial model to facilitate project implementation.

The ministry said this would ensure the transfer of the project to the government under a PPP arrangement without incurring loans or debts for the Nigerian government.

However, social media users have knocked the agency for signing an MoU with a company that was only incorporated less than five years ago — September 26, 2019.

Others have described it as a “PI&D (sic) sagain the making”, adding that a project of such magnitude should not be entrusted to a young company of unknown history.

Checks by TheCable confirmed that the company was formed by one Andrew James, a British citizen, in 2019 and went on without any relationship with the Nigerian government or private sector untill August 24, 2023, when the company appointed Osinowo Rotimi as the first director with a Nigerian background.

Subsequently, Osinowo Sayeed was also appointed as a director in January 2024.

Further checks showed that the company had filed as a dormant organisation three times since its registration in 2019.

Other discrepancies pointed out by disgruntled Nigerians are that the company, since its incorporation in 2019, has no track record of engaging in any rail construction business and lacks a website.

Here are the reactions of some Nigerians to the deal.

That Naija Guy™

@IamThatNaijaGuy

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SCAM ALERT:

1.  MPH Rail Development Limited is a UK company incorporated in 2019, with 4 Nigerian directors added late 2023.

2. There are no records of past projects by this company.

3. This company has no website, and there are no records of any previous projects done.

4.… Show more

4:59 AM · Mar 16, 2024

A. Ayofe

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Mar 15

@abdullahayofel

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Dear Mr President @officialABAT some of your ministers may put this country in trouble.

This is the company the transport minister has signed MOU on Abuja to PH standard Guage rail line with.

This company has no website, neither can we trace any work done before.

This company…

Mal. Siraj Mashi

@SirajMashi

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This information is very vital indeed. It's therefore all Nigerians shall put their eyes on the contractors handling projects in their communities. This will no doubt reduce corruption and projects abandoning attitude of Nigeria Government and Contractors.

12:14 PM · Mar 16, 2024

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Federal Ministry of Transportation

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Mar 13

@MinTransportNG

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The Minister of Transportation, Sen. Said Alkali on behalf of @NigeriaGovhas signed an MoU with Messrs MPH Rail Development (UK) Limited for the design,construction,operation & transfer of the Port Harcourt–Enugu –Calabar–Abuja SGR Line on a PPP basis.

http://transportation.gov.ng/federal-ministry-of-transportation-signs-mou-for-portharcourt-enugu-calabar-abuja-standard-gauge-rail-line-on-ppp-basis/

Madam President (rtd) Iyabo Arinola Ifeoma Awokoya

@iyaboawokoya

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It is still an MOU, so I am guessing it will still go through FEC, BPE and ICRC due diligence

7:12 AM · Mar 16, 2024

KWiwa

@KenWiwa4

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THIS IS ANOTHER BIG FRAUDULENT CONTRACT. GOVT PURCHASE PROCEDURE WASN’T COMPLIED WITH. HOW CAN THE GOVT AWARD A CONTRACT OF SUCH MAGNITUDE WITHOUT FOLLOWING DUE PROCESS? WHEN WAS THE TENDER FOR THE CONTRACT RUN? WHO WERE THE OTHER BIDDERS ? THIS RAILWAY IS

10:06 PM · Mar 15, 2024

Bolaji

@bolsaid

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@CCECC8 has experience, visible track records in Nigeria and africa but this minister went to sign MOU with a UK coy for rail and not even a proper UK coy but one SPV. We barely survived P&ID what's this again ooo?

8:18 AM · Mar 16, 2024

ASIWAJU AKANBI ADEYEMI ®

@planetaby

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@officialABAT should matter of urgency arrest this purported SCAM that @saiduaalkali seems to be embarking on with the so-called MPH Rail Dev Ltd.

@officialEFCC and @icpcnigeria

should get involved as everything about the said Firm looks questionable.

This is a BIG SCAM...

Fear Kogi Politicians

@AndyHReal

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Follow

This is another railways am loading in Nigeria.@MinTransportNG I challenge you to name one railway project successfully completed by Messrs MPH Rail Development on this earth, in heaven or anywhere in the universe. How would they deliver?

Who does a railway project on PPP basis?

6:57 AM · Mar 16, 2024

Orelekan Runsewe

@OmoAdetilewa

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This right here, Nigerians, is what is known as an SVP (as used by @atiku ) to fliz Nigeria.

This Minister is going the same path? This company has no track records and very suspicious, why go through the UK when we've had wonderful records with other companies on ground!

8:30 AM · Mar 16, 2024

Mercator

@olumideajala

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My sixth sense tells me this is another PI&D in the making. @officialABAT@PBATMediaCentre  please scrutinize this MOU that's looking like a potential disaster.

11:06 AM · Mar 16, 2024

The Cable

Some residents of warring communities ambushed and killed 16 officers and personnel of the 181 Amphibious Battalion of the Nigerian Army on a peace mission to Okuoma community in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta on Thursday.

Those killed were the commanding officer, two majors, one captain and 12 soldiers.

The Acting Director, Defence Information, Tukur Gusau, made this known on Saturday in Abuja.

He stated that the troops were ambushed and killed while responding to a distress call arising from a clash between Okuama and Okoloba communities in Delta.

Gusau, a brigadier general, stated that the Chief of Defence Staff, Christopher Musa, had directed immediate investigation and arrest of those involved in the heinous crime.

He added that the incident had been reported to the Delta State Government.

“The military, however, remains focused and committed to its mandate of maintaining peace and security in the country.

“So far, a few arrests have been made while steps have been taken to unravel the motive behind the attack,” he assured.

NAN

Cease-fire talks with Israel and Hamas are expected to resume on Sunday in Qatar

Stalled talks aimed at securing a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war are expected to resume in earnest in Qatar as soon as Sunday, according to Egyptian officials.

The talks would mark the first time both Israeli officials and Hamas leaders join the indirect negotiations since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. International mediators had hoped to secure a six-week truce before Ramadan started earlier this week, but Hamas refused any deal that wouldn’t lead to a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, a demand Israel rejected.

But both sides have made moves in recent days aimed at getting the talks, which never fully broke off, back on track.

Hamas gave mediators a new proposal for a three-stage plan that would end the fighting, according to two Egyptian officials, one who is involved in the talks and a second who was briefed on them. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to reveal the contents of the sensitive discussions.

The first stage would be a six-week cease-fire that would see the release of 35 hostages — women, those who are ill and older people — held by militants in Gaza in exchange for 350 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Hamas would also release at least five female soldiers in exchange for 50 prisoners, including some serving long sentences on terror charges, for each soldier. Israeli forces would withdraw from two main roads in Gaza, let displaced Palestinians return to northern Gaza, which has been devastated by the fighting, and allow the free flow of aid to the area, the officials said.

Nearly one in three children under 2 years old in the isolated north have acute malnutrition, the U.N. children’s agency said Friday.

In the second phase, the two sides would declare a permanent cease-fire and Hamas would free the remaining Israeli soldiers held hostage in exchange for more prisoners, the officials said.

In the third phase, Hamas would hand over the bodies it’s holding in exchange for Israel lifting the blockade of Gaza and allowing reconstruction to start, the officials said.

Talks were expected to resume Sunday afternoon, though they could get pushed to Monday, the Egyptian officials said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the proposal “unrealistic” but agreed to send Israeli negotiators to Qatar. His government has rejected calls for a permanent cease-fire, insisting it must first fulfill its stated goal of “annihilating Hamas.”

Thousands of people demonstrated Saturday night in Tel Aviv to show their impatience with Netanyahu’s government and demand a deal to free hostages. Some expressed support for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s sharp criticism of Netanyahu’s handling of the war and his call for a new election.

“I think that we are in a situation where they are completely right, that we have a war that is continuing well beyond what is necessary,” protester Yehuda Halper said.

Netanyahu’s office said Friday he approved military plans to attack Rafah, the southernmost town in Gaza where about 1.4 million displaced Palestinians — more than half the enclave’s population — are sheltering. Israel wants to target Hamas battalions stationed there.

Many fled to Rafah when Israel attacked Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and left another 250 hostage.

The United States and other countries have warned that a military operation in Rafah could be disastrous.

Netanyahu’s office didn’t give details or a timetable for the Rafah operation, but said that it would involve the evacuation of the civilian population. The military has said it planned to direct civilians to “humanitarian islands”in central Gaza.

“Many people are too fragile, hungry and sick to be moved again,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media, adding that there are no fully functional, safe health centers they can reach elsewhere in Gaza. “In the name of humanity, we appeal to Israel not to proceed.”

The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 31,553 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

An Israeli strike early Saturday flattened a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 19 people, including nine children, according to records at the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. An Associated Press journalist there saw the bodies.

Israel’s offensive has driven most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes. A quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, according to the U.N.

As part of efforts to deliver desperately needed aid, a ship inaugurated a sea route from Cyprus on Friday and offloaded 200 tons of humanitarian supplies sent by the aid group World Central Kitchen destined for people in northern Gaza.

The group said it was preparing another vessel in Cyprus with hundreds of tons of aid.

Also on Saturday, Germany joined a group of countries, including the U.S. and Jordan, in conducting airdrops of aid over Gaza. The U.S. also has announced separate plans to construct a pierto get aid in.

Displaced Palestinians living in tents along the Mediterranean coast remained hungry and bleak.

“The situation is so bad that no one can imagine it, and the ship, even if it helps, will be a drop in the ocean,” said Zahr Saqr in Muwasi. “We run like dogs behind air drops.”

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Putin vows to punish Ukraine for attacks as Russians vote

Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine on Friday of trying to disrupt a Russian presidential election that is virtually certain to hand him six more years in the Kremlin, and said Moscow would punish Kyiv for its latest attacks.

The first of three days of voting was marked by disruptions including dye being poured into ballot boxes, a Molotov cocktail thrown at a polling station in Putin's home town, and reported cyber attacks.

Millions of Russians cast their ballots across the country's 11 time zones, with officials putting turnout on day one at more than 35%.

The Ukraine war cast a shadow over voting, with what Putin said was repeated shelling of Russia's western regions and an attempt by 2,500 Ukrainian proxies to cross into two Russian regions with tanks.

"These enemy strikes will not remain unpunished," a visibly angry Putin said at a meeting of Russia's Security Council.

Ukrainian officials said the attacks were carried out by Russian armed groups based in Ukraine who are opposed to the Kremlin.

A Russian ballistic missile attack hit a residential area in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odesa, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 70, in Moscow's deadliest attack in weeks, Ukrainian officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia would receive a "fair response" for what he said was a "vile" strike.

Amid the Ukraine war, the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, Putin, 71, dominates Russia's political landscape and none of the other three candidates on the ballot paper presents any credible challenge.

More than 114 million Russians are eligible to vote, including in what Moscow calls its "new territories" - four regions of Ukraine that its forces only partly control, but which it has claimed as part of Russia. Ukraine says the staging of elections there is illegal and void.

Video released by the Kremlin showed Putin casting his own vote online and waving briefly to the camera. Russians in about a third of the country are able to vote electronically for the first time in a presidential election - something critics say is impervious to scrutiny and open to abuse.

"These are the most closed, most secret elections in Russian history," Stanislav Andreichuk, co-chairman of the Golos vote-monitoring group that the state has branded a "foreign agent", told Reuters in a telephone interview.

DYE, CYBER ATTACKS

Dye was poured into ballot boxes in Moscow, Russian-annexed Crimea, and the Caucasus region of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, according to Russian media, in apparent anti-Kremlin protests.

CCTV footage of one dye-pouring incident showed a young woman depositing her voting slip before calmly pouring a green liquid into the ballot box. A policeman was seen detaining her immediately afterwards.

A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a polling station in St Petersburg, and a 21-year-old woman arrested, the Fontanka news site reported. Arson attempts were recorded at polling stations in Moscow and Siberia.

Russia's electoral commission chief, Ella Pamfilova, said perpetrators of such acts faced up to five years in prison, and suggested they had been paid for by those seeking to disrupt the vote.

"Listen carefully everyone," Pamfilova said, before setting out the article in the Criminal Code that addresses disrupting the work of electoral commissions.

The Kremlin says Putin, in power as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999, will win as he commands broad support for rescuing Russia from post-Soviet chaos and standing up to what it calls an arrogant, hostile West.

VETERAN RULER

Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv's forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian proxies on the other.

If Putin completes a new six-year term, he will overtake Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to become Russia's longest-serving ruler since Empress Catherine the Great in the 18th century.

The West views Putin as an autocrat and a war criminal. U.S. President Joe Biden has called him a killer and a "crazy SOB".

But in Russia the war has helped Putin tighten his grip on power and boost his popularity with Russians, according to polls and interviews with senior Russian sources.

Russia's best known opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony last month and other Kremlin critics are exiled or in jail.

The opposition says the vote is a sham and have called on people across Russia to protest by turning out to vote all at the same time on Sunday, at noon in each of the country's 11 time zones.

** Russia accuses Kyiv of election sabotage, Medvedev warns 'traitors'

Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of using "terrorist activities" to try to disrupt its presidential election and former President Dmitry Medvedev decried as "traitors" the scattered protesters who have tried to set fire to voting booths and pour dye into ballot boxes.

The Ukraine war has cast a shadow over voting in the election, which is all but certain to hand President Vladimir Putin six more years in the Kremlin but has been marked by sporadic acts of protest.

On the second of three days of voting, the Russian foreign ministry said Kyiv had "intensified its terrorist activities" in connection with the election "to demonstrate its activity to its Western handlers and to beg for even more financial assistance and lethal weapons".

It said that in one such incident, a Ukrainian drone had dropped a shell on a voting station in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region.

The state-run TASS news agency quoted a local election official as reporting no damage nor injuries when the explosive device landed five or six metres (yards) from a building housing a polling station before it had opened in a village about 20 km (12 miles) east of the city of Enerhodar.

Reuters could not independently verify the incident.

There was no immediate comment from officials in Ukraine, which regards the election taking place in parts of its territory controlled by Russia as illegal and void.

Meanwhile the head of the electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, said that in the first two days of voting there had been 20 incidents of people trying to destroy voting sheets by pouring various liquids into ballot boxes, as well as eight cases of attempted arson and a smoke bomb.

Commenting on the incidents, Medvedev said those responsible could face treason sentences of 20 years.

"This is direct assistance to those degenerates who are shelling our cities today," he posted on social media, referring to Ukrainian attacks.

On Sunday's final day of voting, supporters of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny have called on people to turn out en masse at noon in a rolling protest against Putin in each of the country's 11 time zones.

UKRAINIAN ATTACKS

Russian media quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Putin had been receiving military reports in recent days of attempted attacks by saboteurs in the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk, including several incursion attempts overnight, all of which he was quoted as saying were thwarted.

A senior Ukrainian intelligence official said on Thursday that armed groups he described as Russians opposed to the Kremlin had turned the regions into "active combat zones".

On Saturday, Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence directorate, said the groups, the Freedom of Russia Legion, the Siberian Battalion and the Russian Volunteer Corps, were "becoming a force" with unified principles.

The groups were fighting "quite well" and were not going to stop any time soon, he said in a Ukrainian television interview, adding, "We will try to help them to the best of our ability."

In the Belgorod region where cross-border attacks from Ukraine have become part of daily life, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported the deaths of a man and a woman in a missile attack, and later in the day, one injury, after he said Russian defences shot down 15 rockets approaching the regional capital.

Video obtained by Reuters showed fires ablaze and air raid sirens sounding on the empty streets of Belgorod city.

Dmitry Azarov, governor of the Samara region 850 km (530 miles) southeast of Moscow, said the Syzran refinery was on fire following a drone attack but an attack on a second refinery had been thwarted.

The fire was later brought under control, officials said, but the incidents highlighted Ukraine's ability to strike hundreds of miles (km) inside Russia to target its energy industry. Two other big refineries were set on fire this week.

In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it had become clear in recent weeks that Ukraine could use its weapons to exploit what he called vulnerabilities in the "Russian war machine."

Russia mounted its deadliest attack in weeks on Friday when its missiles hit a residential area in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odesa, killing at least 21 people and wounding more than 70.

PUTIN'S DOMINANCE

Putin's hold on power is not under threat in the election. Aged 71 and in office as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999, he dominates Russia's political landscape.

None of the other three candidates on the ballot paper - veteran Communist Nikolai Kharitonov, nationalist Leonid Slutsky or Vladislav Davankov, deputy chairman of the lower house of parliament - has mounted any credible challenge.

Overall turnout - an important indicator for Putin as he attempts to demonstrate the whole country is behind him - rose above 58% on the second day of voting.

The rate in Belgorod region was over 76%. Turnout was also high in Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine.

Russia's governing party, United Russia, said it was facing a widespread denial of service attack - a form of cyberattack aimed at paralysing web traffic - and had suspended non-essential services to repel it.

State news agency RIA quoted a senior telecoms official as blaming the cyberattacks on Ukraine and Western countries.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

NATO troops in Ukraine could trigger WWIII – Italy

Deploying troops of the US-led NATO bloc to battlefields in Ukraine might result in an all-out global conflict, effectively a Third World War, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has said. He has ruled out any possibility that his country’s forces will somehow end up deployed to support Kiev’s fight.

The minister made the remarks on Friday during an interview on the sidelines of the LetExpo show in Verona. Asked about the prospect of NATO troops ending up in such a deployment, Tajani spoke out against the idea.

“I think that NATO shouldn’t enter Ukraine. It would be a mistake. We need to help Ukraine defend itself, but entering the country to wage war against Russia means risking World War Three,” the diplomat stated.

Tajani ruled out any possibility of Italy’s own troops ending up in Ukraine. Asked about other NATO nations sending their troops to prop up Kiev in its fight against Moscow, particularly France, the minister said he hoped “it doesn’t happen.”

The statements from Tajani come after French President Emmanuel Macron again brought up the topic of sending Western soldiers to Ukraine, in a fresh interview with broadcasters TF2 and France 2.

Macron bluntly described Russia as France’s “adversary,” insisting, at the same time, that Paris has not been “waging war on Russia” but merely “supporting” Kiev in the conflict. Regarding the potential troop deployment, he refused to say anything concrete, insisting he wanted to maintain a “strategic ambiguity” and that he had his own “reasons not to be precise.”

The prospect of sending Western troops into Ukraine was first mulled by the French president in late February, when he said the idea could not be “excluded” entirely. The remarks prompted a wave of denials from fellow members of the US-led bloc, with its major participants repeatedly rejecting the idea. Minor states of the alliance, however, including new member Finland, backed Macron’s take on the issue.

Reuters/RT

Talented filmmaker, Tunde Kelani, recalibrated a popular Yoruba folklore in his famous Agogo Ewo (the forbidden gong) movie. A supremacy battle ensued between Eledumare – God, and Land. The two earthly ancient principalities had gone hunting and jointly killed an Emo rat. When it was time for sharing of the game, both got locked in a duel on who was the eldest and thus should take the chunkiest part of the animal. Armistice could not be found. In unspeakable display of greed, Land eloped with the totality of the ground game. Furious at this despicable treatment, Eledumare relocated from the earth to the firmament. From then onwards, like the proverbial bitter yam whose excesses made it a pariah and ineligible for a pounded yam meal, Land’s excesses led to its total rejection. In sympathetic protest against Land, all that Eledumare created withdrew their bestowals upon the earth. Rain, for instance, sheathed its downpour and plants adamantly refused to sprout, leading to massive hunger in the land. Weeping and wailing sundered the earth, so much that the mammary glands in maidens’ breasts withered unceremoniously. Abiodun, wife of highly respected and one of the best known, critically acclaimed Yoruba dramatists to have emerged from postcolonial Africa, Duro Ladipo, also known as Moremi or Oya, was the narrator of the folklore. She leads the chorus of the Yoruba incantatory song, Olunrete and her children listeners spice it with the backup, Aja nrete ja. Then, Duro-Ladipo delves into an epic poem of the evil machination of a selfish combine of leaders in an imaginary country named Jogbo. These leaders, she narrates, are locked in a conspiratorial gang-up to castrate the land.

It is important to quote the epic poem verbatim for its relevance in today’s Nigeria: “You form yourselves into parties to selfishly deceive us that you would reform Jogbo. In utter contravention of the spirit of your advertised intention, our collective game which we jointly killed has become the booty you share among yourselves. You are embezzlers (egbe apapin) who shave and beautify one part of the head, wickedly leaving the other half unattended. You indulge in splendor but forget the masses of our country.” The epic ends with the narrator enjoining the masses of Jogbo country to be watchful and vigilant.

Last Tuesday, a roiling crisis struck the Nigerian senate like lightning. When it subsided, it revealed the Nigerian parliament’s sinkhole appetite for filthy lucre. Storm petrel and unapologetic northern Nigerian senator, Abdul Ningi, representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, had stirred his usual hornet’s nest. The recently passed Nigeria’s 2024 budget had undergone serious disparaging from Ningi who claimed it was padded with the sum of N3.7 trillion. As usual, he also attempted to weaponize and whip up Nigeria’s fragile ethnicity sentiment

What Ningi did was to pelt the naked parliament with reeking faeces. The whitewash crew of Solomon Adeola (Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, representing Ogun West) Michael Opeyemi Bamidele of Ekiti Central and Jimoh Ibrahim (Ondo South) immediately sprung up to rescue their pot of soup. As they attempted to dress the parliament in borrowed robes of righteousness, it boomeranged. All that the people saw was naked sanctimony. Unfortunately, their glib talks could not remove the stench from the senate. Rather, they succeeded in making a hero of Ningi, a staunch member of the Apapin Jogbo leaders who, for 17 years, had been part of the rot.

Adeola mellifluously defended the budget. Bamidele delivered one of the most self-serving speeches ever. He went on a binge of ethnicizing a fraternal, group sharing of Nigeria’s budget. He cited the history of gang-ups in the National Assembly and how the senators had been collaborating to undermine the Nigerian people. He then, metaphorically, concluded that it was time for the south under Akpabio to take ownership of the buccaneer sharing of national patrimony that has been going on in the parliament since 1999. Jimoh Ibrahim wanted the police IG to arrest Ningi. He sounded like one suddenly seized by an undertaker mentality. Revelations after the stormy session have shown that, rather than Ningi alone, all the senators who authored that leaflet’s padding should be in the slammer. The deodorants were either too little or too late.   

You would imagine that you were listening to Shakespeare’s Mark Antony. Suave, sweet but poisoned chalice. The senators’ speeches were another “friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” Like a whirlwind, they aimed to blurry the vision of Nigerians from seeing the maggots wriggling inside the 2024 Appropriation Act. Adeola was at his glibbest best. Bamidele descended into the primordial. Jimoh Ibrahim spoke like a butcher in the abattoir, seeking companionship in the cadences of disorder and violence. Ningi must be arrested for treason, he sermonized ad-nauseam. The senators later came across as shrouds deliberately spread to cover the over-two-decades pastime of huge sleazes that have become the way of Nigeria’s parliament. You could compare them to well-fed maggots wriggling out of carrion; maggots whitish in colour but enveloped by dark rots. Senate President Godswill Akpabio was also at hand to wield the gavel. That gavel has given vent to vultures’ feast on Nigeria’s resources in the last 24 years of the Fourth Republic.

After suspending Ningi, the triumvirates must have clinked glasses of celebration. They had succeeded in stoning Ningi, the bird which alerted a flock of vultures to their chunky game. The initiate of the fraternity who betrayed the cult by his unholy disclosure on BBC Hausa Service radio had been handed his just recompense. The senators had hardly dropped their wine glasses when, in the manner of a broken water tap, revelations began to burst out with the fury of Anthony Joshua’s punches. Nigerians began to push back with revelations from the budget. Today, Ningi’s allegation of N3.7 trillion padding is proving to be icing on the cake of a massive heist gone burst. As such, the analogy of Jogbo is proving to be the most fitting explanation of the shameful revelations.

The Apapin concept, whose explanation can be found in a hunter’s forest, I explain underleaf: Apapin is a Yoruba hunters’ lingo. It speaks to the earlier Duro-Ladipo narrative of theft and embezzlement. I once espoused, in Hunting buffalo in presidential jet, (October 15, 2023) that dialogues in the forest can explain the unequal nature of our human society, especially between those who are in government, their families and the governed. It can also explain the inequality in the economic systems of the world, capitalism and socialism and the divide between leaders and their followers. In hunting expeditions, the first thing hunters do is to identify what particular forest to go. When they have done this, judging by prior knowledge of the forest or tales told about them, they then identify the particular game that makes that forest its habitat. This could range from antelopes, porcupines, buffalo, fox, to leopards, etc. When a hunting crew embarks on this journey, it divides itself into two. The first set of hunters is one that holds dane guns; they are often about two or three persons. The other crew, usually many, as many as ten, is called the “forest encircling hunting group.” The job of this group is to envelope the identified forest. With sticks, stones and any other objects, they make sufficient noise and discomforting howls to unsettle the animals from their holes. The aim is to get the animals suddenly fleeing and scampering to other parts of the forest. In the process, the animals run into the crew of about three whose guns are readied to fire. Then the escaping animal gets pounded by a fiery volley of bullets which immobilizes it and prepares it as a fitting gourmet for dinner.

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

What has been happening in Nigeria’s parliament – Senate and House of Representatives – in the last 24 years can be easily explained by the above long narrative of hunters and apapin. Nigerians and the parliamentarians jointly hunted game. Nigerians were the bush encircling crew. The parliamentarians held the gun, the Appropriation Act. At each budget cycle, when it is time for sharing of our collective game, the parliament deploys licit and illicit tricks to swindle Nigerians. It then goes home with the chunkiest meat of the game, leaving miserable bones behind. One top senator in the 8th Assembly was reputed to always send his foot soldiers to “nondescript” federal commissions, agencies and parastatals to solicit their DGs to ask senate to vote funds for their infrastructural projects. The senator would then fight for the projects’ inclusion in the budget. Immediately after budget is passed, he would send his contractors to execute them. Many of the senators have become stupendously wealthy through this trickster gambit. Yet, the game is our collective patrimony. We are hungry, even lean as skeletons, while Nigerian parliamentarians grow rotund cheeks.

Make no mistake about it: Nigeria’s parliament is a fraternity. A coven of witches. Since the revelations of gross trickery in this year’s budget, how many senators of Peter Obi’s Labour Party, PDP of APGA has resigned their positions, or spoken against the padding menace? None. This is because, in fraternities, it is about group interest and nothing else. While the coven/fraternity is cobbled together by secrecy and blood oaths, the Nigerian parliament may, in reality, not be ruled by blood oaths. However, its own oath is mutual sucking of the blood of Nigeria’s collective heritage. For instance, just as it is done in Nigeria’s parliament, a significant portion of Ogboni fraternity operations are deliberately shielded off non-members. Like it, too, the yearly federal budget rituals are deliberately hidden from ordinary eyes. At the death of Ogboni lords, their corpses are (allegedly) requested by living initiates, allegedly with the brief to sever the hearts off the cavity. Such, many times, brings the dead initiates’ families in conflict with the Ogboni elders, most of whom are always in the dark about the card-carrying membership of their departed ones.

In 1960, Peter Morton-Williams did a locus-classicus on the opacity of Yoruba fraternity and cult organizations in his The Yoruba Ogboni Cult, published in Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 362-374. An earlier work on this cult which Yoruba call “secret society” was carried out in 1910 by self-taught German ethnologist and archaeologist, Leo Frobenius, whose works influenced Aime Cesaire and Leopold Sedar Senghor’s Negritude. Frobenius discovered the controlling importance of cults in Yoruba religious organizations and promptly became initiated into the Ibadan Ogboni cult. Subsequent similar scholarly works emerged dwelling on what actually interested the Yoruba in esotericism. One of such was Babatunde Lawal’s A Ya gbo, A Ya To: New Perspective on Edan Ogboni, published in African Arts, vol. 28, no. 1, 1995, pp. 36-49, 98-100, Lawal B.’s Ejiwapo: The dialectics of Twoness in Yoruba Art and Culture, African Arts, Spring, 2008, and Hans Witte’s Earth and the Ancestors: Ogboni Iconography. The books written by Susanne Wenger, a longstanding German devotee of classical Yoruba spirituality and art, known as Adunni Olorisa, who publicly claimed to have been a member of the Ogboni society, are also strong indicators of this. Wenger’s works, like A Life with the Gods and The Return of the Gods:The Sacred Art of Susanne Wenger, where a picture of hers with Ogboni elders is attached, most likely after her initiation rituals, made direct reference to the inaccessible operations of Ogboni cult, its beliefs and symbolism.

When a group of people are united by a common goal, common purpose and mutual financial aspiration, especially when such aspiration is illegal, they become a fraternity. They then sacrifice everything, anything within their powers for the sustenance of that common purpose. King Sunny Ade, famous Juju maestro, dwelled tangentially on the nocturnal minds of fraternities and witchcrafts in one of his albums in the 1970s. He sang that the witch who got drenched by a previous night rainfall will suffer the tyranny of non-disclosure. Where does she tell neigbours she was coming from when the downpour occurred? On an Arise television programme last week, when confronted with details of the opaque nature of Ningi’s suspension from the parliament, Enyinaya Abaribe latched on to an Igbo aphorism for explanation. The palmwine tapper does not say everything he sees on top of the tree. The palmwine tapper’s non-disclosure is against the spirit of a democratic open society. It is regrettably the code of operation in the Nigerian parliament.

As antithetical to modernity as it may sound, the logic of fraternities can be grounded in and corroborated by the history of blood oaths in Africa. Our forefathers’ scamper to seek existential explanations from Ogboni, witches, wizards’ cults and fraternities are poignant reminders of the existence of the sustenance of group interests. This is done through the Aboriginal Ogboni Fraternity or the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity, with their esoteric orders. In this same vein, the Nigerian parliament has proven to be a reincarnate of those sacred groves of fraternities. It holds the executive by the jugular as the constitution empowers it to do. It can castrate and relieve the executive of its office. Since the executive too has dinosaur-sized skeletons in its cupboard, it easily becomes a marionette in the hands of this fraternity. What transpired before, during and after the Tuesday stormy session leading to the suspension of Senator Ningi is a testament to this.

Abdul Ningi violated one of the sacred codes of fraternities and he had to be disciplined by the chief priests of the fraternity. In covens, public disclosure of sacred tenets is equal to treason. Where we copied this democratic system from, Akpabio and all the dramatis personae of this evil attempt to filch Nigeria’s collective wealth would tender their letters of resignation. And walk out of the Three Arms Zone, shamefaced and straight to a jailhouse. Those who scooped maggots into the 2024 Appropriation Act should face the music. The wind has blown. And we have seen the rump of self-centered buccaneers.

So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army ~ Ezekiel 37:10.

Introduction:

True to life, certain unpleasant scenarios occasionally occur on the path of our journeys of destiny. Times come when we are fully pregnant with royal ideas and highly expectant of full expressions, yet the power to deliver does not show up.

At such times, we feel that we've reached the limits of our strength, and yet a demand is made for more steam to go forward. The glories within our reach and the incredible capabilities inherent in our destinies tantalize us, yet the barriers to them look quite thick and insurmountable.

Troubles now seem to have become real troubles, appearing cut and dried. Something must be done very urgently, yet there’s nothing else that we can do!

However, I am quite sure that even in such desolate and despicable circumstances, there’s still a gospel hope, so long as we live in the atmosphere of the infinite power of the Holy Spirit. There is a certain hope in our future (Job 14:7)!

In the vision of Prophet Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 37:1-12, the situation was quite hopeless for the people of Israel at that time. Nevertheless, their “dry bones” were gathered together at last by the energy of God’s Spirit, and made whole again.

Yes, this appalling condition depicts the then wretched state of the Jews, but it’s also a fitting emblem of many men and women wriggling helplessly in sin, sickness, poverty, confusion, insecurity, oppression, and family troubles in our world today.

Moreover, the vision equally serves as an encouragement to all people everywhere who are feeling the sting of hopelessness one way or the other, prophesying their recovery from whatever constitutes theirlong-continued predicament (v11).

Ezekiel was made to look “round about” several times, so that he could take an exact notice of the gravity of the simultaneous liquidation: the number of people involved, and their present condition (v2). His discovery was very awry: “there were very many in the open valley … and they were very dry”.

In other words, their flesh was wholly consumed, and their marrow had dried up; yet, they were still exposed to continuous degradation. They were entirely lifeless, helpless, and hopeless with no strength to regenerate themselves.

In fact, their condition was so bad that they had no sense of danger! Even then, the Almighty God still performed for them, bringing them an incredible restoration by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Friends, destiny recovery is a constant possibility when God is in the picture! And, undoubtedly, there is more than enough power available to turn around the most hopeless situations when the Holy Ghost is involved.

Even in our sad and dangerous moments of spiritual declension and physical deterioration, we can be revived again.However, we must look up to Him who canopen up our graves and bring us forth to a brand new life in Him, through faith (v12).

To the glory of God, we have repeatedly witnessed in our ministry what only the Holy Ghost can perform for humanity: lives dramatically changed by the power of the gospel, twisted jawbones reset, the paralyzed healed, the barren give birth to twins, etcetera! He never fails, but we must choose to live by His guidance!

Engaging Holy Ghost Power In Our Dry Bone Experiences

Dry bones are relics of death’s irreversible devastation. No created power could restore human bones to life; God alone could perform such an incredible feat.Albeit, here He still wanted to see how the prophet would relate with Him in such circumstances, asking: “son of man, can these bones live” (v3)? Can anything or anyone cause these bones to live?

Happily, Ezekiel possessed a great deal of spiritual intelligence. He didn’t pronounce that it was impossible, even though there was no hope, humanly speaking, of their being quickened. He rather wisely referred the situation to the Omniscient and Omnipotent God: “And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest”.

Basically, our faith in God’s unfailing ability is very crucial to the outcome we will see in any unpalatable circumstance we may find ourselves in, any day!

Jesus Christ asked the two blind men who were crying to Him for mercy, “Believe ye that I am able to do this”? They answered in the affirmative, and He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it unto you”. Of course, their eyes were opened immediately (Matthew 9:27-29).

We must, in real faith, leave the questions of possibility with God. Nothing is impossible with Him (Deuteronomy 32:39).Thereafter, we can expect that He will lead us into the path of daring possibilities.

Furthermore, we must receive courage to speak God’s Word over our “dry bone” experiences: “prophesy upon these bones”. That is, foretell clearly, loudly and publicly that they shall live (v4-5). We must talk to “the mountain” that we expect to move!

As Ezekiel prophesied, there was a noiseand a shaking, signifying a mutual collision as the bones came together, and a rattling among them to get to their proper locations (v7).

Today, as we speak God’s quickening Word unto the “dry bones” in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit enters into them to give effect to the Word spoken (Jeremiah 1:10; Ezekiel 2:2). The testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10)!

The Almighty God, who breathed life into Adam and he became a living soul, could do it again whenever His Word is spoken by faith (John 6:63). Such divine honourrests on God’s Word, even in the human mouth. However, he who is of God must always be mindful to speak God’s Word (John 3:34).

Please note here that God is very systematic and orderly! He first laid sinews to join the bones together. Thereafter, He put the flesh in place to cover the bones, and to make themcapable of motion (v6-8).

Meanwhile, though they were now looking like proper men, they were still mere ceramics, earthly and breathless, just like Adam was before God breathed life into him. The Holy Ghost must also be fully involved for us to experience complete and durable miracles.

The Holy Spirit represents God’squickening power! Until He fills a man, hemay assume all the semblances ofspiritual life, yet he remains a mere religious bigot: lifeless, godless and hopeless!

Whenever His breath is wanting in any situation, every change remains only cosmetic. Without the Holy Ghost, our wounds cannot be truly healed, neither can we escape from the dangers of our open-valley experiences: “O breath and breathe upon these slain, that they may live” (v9).

The slaying referred to here is not with a physical sword. Many people are slainspiritually by sin, sicknesses, poverty, loneliness, afflictions and oppression. They’re slain in their career development, family life and even in their walk with God. Only the Holy Spirit can restore life to them.

When the Spirit of God comes, men live by faith in Christ, and "they stand upon their feet" as an exceeding great army for God  (v10). They stand in His grace, and in His house. They also stand firm against all their enemies: sin, Satan, and theworld.

Brethren, we are more than conquerors! It’s our turn to stand firm as soldiers of the Cross in our generation, and engage the power of the Holy Ghost to turn hopelessness around in our lives and in our communities. You won’t miss out in Jesus name. Happy Sunday!

____________________

Bishop Taiwo Akinola,

Rhema Christian Church,

Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

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