US says Israel has agreed to the framework for a Gaza cease-fire. Hamas must now decide

Israel has essentially endorsed a framework of a proposed Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal, and it is now up to Hamas to agree to it, a senior U.S. administration official said Saturday, a day before talks to reach an agreement were to resume in Egypt.

International mediators have been working for weeks to broker a deal to pause the fighting before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins around March 10. A deal would likely allow aid to reach hundreds of thousands of desperate Palestinians in northern Gaza who aid officials worry are under threat of famine.

The Israelis “have more or less accepted” the proposal, which includes the six-week cease-fire as well as the release by Hamas of hostages considered vulnerable, which includes the sick, the wounded, the elderly and women, said the official.

“Right now, the ball is in the court of Hamas and we are continuing to push this as hard as we possibly can,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House to brief reporters.

Officials from Israel and from Hamas did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A senior Egyptian official said mediators Egypt and Qatar are expected to receive a response from Hamas during the Cairo talks scheduled to start Sunday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not publicly authorized to discuss the talks.

There is increasing criticism over the hundreds of thousands struggling to survive in northern Gaza, which has borne the brunt of the conflict that began when the Hamas militant group attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing around 250 hostages.

U.S. military planes began the first airdrops of thousands of meals into Gaza, and the militaries of Jordan and Egypt said they also conducted airdrops. Aid groups say airdrops should be only a last resort and instead urge the opening of other crossings into Gaza and the removal of obstacles at the few that are open.

The European Union’s diplomatic service said many of the hundreds of Palestinians killed or wounded in the chaos surrounding an aid convoy on Thursday were hit by Israeli army fire and urged an international investigation. It said responsibility for the crisis lay with “restrictions imposed by the Israeli army and obstructions by violent extremist(s) to the supply of humanitarian aid.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry raised the death toll from Thursday’s violence to 118 after two more bodies were recovered Saturday. It said the wounded remained at 760.

Israel’s chief military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Israel organized Thursday’s convoy, “and claims that we attacked the convoy intentionally and that we harmed people intentionally are baseless.”

Residents in northern Gaza say they are searching rubble and garbage for anything to feed their children, who barely eat one meal a day. Many families have begun mixing animal and bird food with grain to bake bread.

At least 10 children have starved to death, according to hospital records in Gaza, the World Health Organization said.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from the war has climbed to 30,320. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures, but says women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.

In the southernmost city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s people now seek refuge, an Israeli airstrike struck tents outside the Emirati hospital, killing 11 people and wounding about 50, including health workers, the Health Ministry said. Israel’s military said it was targeting Islamic Jihad militants.

Israel’s air, sea and ground offensive has reduced much of densely populated northern Gaza to rubble. The military told Palestinians to move south, but as many as 300,000 people are believed to have remained.

Roughly one in six children under 2 in the north suffer from acute malnutrition and wasting, “the worst level of child malnutrition anywhere in the world,” Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program, said this week. “If nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza.”

People have overwhelmed trucks and grabbed what they can, Skau said, forcing the WFP to suspend deliveries to the north.

In the violence Thursday, people rushed about 30 trucks bringing a predawn delivery to the north. Palestinians said nearby Israeli troops shot into the crowds. Israel said they fired warning shots toward the crowd and insisted many of the dead were trampled. Doctors at hospitals in Gaza and a U.N. team that visited a hospital said large numbers of the wounded had been shot.

Ahmed Abdel Karim, being treated for gunshot wounds in his feet, said he had spent two days waiting for aid trucks to arrive.

“Everyone attacked and advanced on these trucks. Because of the large number, I could not get flour,” he said.

Radwan Abdel-Hai, a father of four young children, heard a rumor late Wednesday that an aid convoy was on its way. He and five others took a donkey cart and found a “sea of people” waiting.

“Tanks started firing at us,” he said. “As I ran back, I heard tank shells and gunfire. I heard people screaming. I saw people falling to the ground, some motionless.” Many were shot in the back, he said.

Soad Abu Hussein, a widow and mother of five, said more than 5,000 people — mostly women and children — living with her in a school at the Jabaliya refugee camp have not received aid for more than four weeks. A group of people went to the shore to fish, but three were killed and two were wounded by gunfire from Israeli ships, she said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mansour Hamed, a 32-year-old former aid worker living with more than 50 relatives in a Gaza City house, said some are eating tree leaves and animal food. It has become normal to find a child emerging from the rubble with a rotten piece of bread, he said.

Acknowledging the extreme need for food, U.S. President Joe Biden said the U.S. would look for other ways of delivery “including possibly a marine corridor.”

Also Saturday, Israel said three soldiers were killed and 14 injured Friday when they inadvertently triggered explosives in a booby-trapped building outside Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Eight killed in Russian drone attack on Odesa, Ukraine says

A Russian drone attack whose multiple victims included an infant and a two-year-old on Saturday could have been avoided if Ukraine was not facing delays to weapons supplies, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

Seven Western leaders have signed 10-year security agreements with Ukraine in the last two months as Kyiv fights to plug a big hole in stockpiles with a vital package of U.S. military assistance stuck in Congress and facing months of Republican opposition.

"When lives are lost, and partners are simply playing internal political games or disputes, limiting our defence, it's impossible to understand," Zelenskiy said.

As emergency services posted images of bodies being pulled from the rubble of an apartment block in the southern port city of Odesa, he also used his nightly video address to deliver a strong message to his new army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, who replaced Valeriy Zaluzhnyi in a shakeup last month.

"The commander-in-chief has carte blanche for personnel changes in the army, in the headquarters, for any changes," Zelenskiy said. He said he expected a "detailed report and specific proposals for further changes" from Syrskyi when he returns from the front early in the week.

Rescue workers pulled eight bodies out of the rubble and were still searching for more late in the night. Zelenskiy said earlier that an Iranian-supplied Shahed drone destroyed 18 apartments in a single apartment block.

Oleh Kiper, the regional governor, said the adults killed included three men aged 35, 40 and 54, and two women aged 31 and 73. Eight people were wounded, including a three-year-old girl.

Zelenskiy said Russian attacks using Iranian-supplied Shahed drones "make no military sense" and were intended only to kill and intimidate.

"The world knows that terror can be opposed," he said. "Delaying the supply of weapons to Ukraine, missile defence systems to protect our people, leads, unfortunately, to such losses."

Zelenskiy identified the youngest victims of the attack as four-month-old Tymofiy and Mark, aged two.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the infant was found dead alongside his mother and posted a photograph of a rescue worker next to a bloodied blanket, a baby's arm visible on one side and an adult arm extending out the other.

Smoke poured from rubble strewn across the ground where the drone had ripped a chunk several storeys high out of the building.

"My husband quickly ran out to help people ... then I saw people running out and I understood people had died in there," said Svitlana Tkachenko, who lives in a neighbouring building.

Clothes and furniture were scattered in the ruined mass of concrete and steel hanging off the side of the apartment block.

Ukraine's State Emergencies Service posted photos including of a dead toddler being placed in a body bag by rescuers.

"This is impossible to forget. This is impossible to forgive," it said in a statement. It said five people, including a child, had been rescued alive.

Several thousand long-range, winged, Shahed drones have been fired at targets inside Ukraine since Moscow's full-scale invasion two years ago.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Drone attack hits St. Petersburg apartment block

A powerful blast rocked the Russian city of St. Petersburg early on Saturday when a drone crashed into an apartment block, local media have reported. City authorities have confirmed “an incident” took place, likely caused by a UAV.

Local outlet Fontanka said the explosion occurred in the northern part of the city, and that the facade of a residential building was “seriously damaged.”

St. Petersburg Mayor Alexandr Beglov initially declined to say whether it was a drone strike. However, the local department of the National Guard later said that the building had been damaged by what appeared to be a UAV, and that around 100 people had been evacuated.

“There have been no casualties. The balcony windows of two buildings were partially damaged. Residents of the affected apartments have been evacuated,” Beglov wrote on Telegram, adding that police and emergency services were working at the scene.

The press service of the St. Petersburg Health Committee later reported that six people sought medical help following the incident.

Videos from the scene shared by both Baza and Mash showed a yard strewn with debris, with emergency services working at the scene.

Meanwhile, another clip shared by Mash depicts the moment the drone apparently hit the building. The sound of a humming engine can be heard, followed by a loud bang. The outlet suggested that the drone could have been heading for a nearby oil facility, less than 1km away.

Mash later reported that local residents had been warned of a second possible incoming strike, and that that all communications in the area were being blocked.

Local outlet 47news.ru also reported that two drones had been sighted in the St. Petersburg area, suggesting that another UAV may have crashed in the Vsevolzhsky district, to the east of the city.

St. Petersburg and its environs have recently been targeted by Ukrainian drone attacks despite the city being located hundreds of kilometers from the frontline.

Reuters/RT

Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature, William Butler Yeats, aptly put it in his famous The Second Coming. When things fall apart, wrote Yeats, not only can’t the centre hold, even the falcon cannot hear the falconer. I find a corollary in this cause and effects thesis offered by Yeats in the narration of Reverend Richard Henry Stone. Stone was one of the earliest American missionaries to come to Africa during the nineteenth century. He was a representative of the Southern Baptist Convention and spent quality time among the people of Western Nigeria. Stone lived in Ijaye, Abeokuta, and Lagos and, in the process, travelling to places he called Ibadan, “Lahlookpon (Lalupon), Ewo (Iwo), Ogbomishaw (Ogbomoso), and Oyo,” located in today’s Osun and Oyo States.

Stone observed firsthand the destructive Ijaye war of 1860-62, alongside his wife, Susan Broadus Stone, helping to care for wounded soldiers. He also conveyed this brutal war orphans to Abeokuta. More tellingly, Stone met Aare Kurumi of Ijaye, the generalissimo of the war and the ruler of the place he called “Ejahyay” – Ijaye. He had very condescending impression of the war general, a man he called “notorious free-booter and slave hunter”. Kurumi was also a despot who beheaded his subjects for even small infractions. So one day, Stone was speaking with one of his aides in his own house. Having heard that Kurumi was mortally ill, he asked the aide if he was not afraid that Kurumi could die of his illness. The aide looked across his shoulders and whispered, excited, in Stone’s own words, “Be kawlaw bah koo, adieh ko sookoon,” a corrupted version of the Yoruba wise-saying, “Bi kolokolo ba ku, adiye o le sunkun.” In English, this translates to mean, if the fox dies, the chicken will rejoice.

In the jungle, when the fox dies, the chicken is happy. The death of the fox is an opportunity for the chicken to engage in its ancient vagabond walks. In Nigeria of today, the fox is dead, long live the vagabond walk of the chicken. This seems to sound true for any hope of sanity or anything good in so many aspects of the Nigerian life. The moment sanity died in virtually all aspects of our lives in Nigeria, impunity and impudence took over. They strut with peacock pride, everywhere. The one that seems most frightening is the epidemic of counterfeiting in Nigeria. There is virtually nothing in Nigeria today that is impenetrable to the magic wand of fakery. It is so bad that if you want a human being faked, you would get the dross in a twinkle of an eye.

Drug cloning is the most lamentable brand of this Nigerian fakery. Almost every minute, a Nigerian kisses the canvass after consuming fake drugs. Last week, the Nigeria Customs Service Area Controller, Oyo/Osun Command, Ben Oramalugo, announced that the command had intercepted fake pharmaceuticals which included Augmentin tablets, Ampiclox and Amoxycillin capsules. These faked drugs were concealed in 53 sacks which had a Duty Paid Value of N1,739,000,000.00. A few months ago, police officers from the Okokomaiko Division of the Lagos State Police Command also intercepted a Volkswagen LT bus loaded with 70 cartons of expired drugs. Command’s Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, disclosed this. The cartons contained Feed Fine Cyproheptadine Caplets 4g, with an expiry date of 2016. When quizzed, one of the suspects confessed that the expired drugs were being carted to an individual in Alaba who had been contracted to change the expiry dates of the drugs so that they could be freighted to Port Harcourt for sale. In August 2023, the Kano State Police Command similarly confiscated 820 cartons of suspected fake and expired drugs at the Mallam Kato Market, Fagge Local Government Area of the state.

Long before now, in 2009, a shipment of counterfeited anti-malarial drugs was intercepted in Lagos. A Nigerian businessman had colluded with a Chinese drug exporter who outsourced the job to an employee of a Chinese drug manufacturing company. The drug ring included a team of packaging experts, as well as another man with the assignment of shipping the drugs into Nigeria from China. In some instances, drugs are made up chalks which unsuspecting consumers swallow as drugs.

On the surface, this epidemic of drug counterfeiting may look benign to any non-perspective person. But, drug fakery has reached such a frighteningly alarming rate in Nigeria and harvests deaths into its pouch. Almost on a daily basis, scores of our fellow countrymen kiss the canvass for ailments which, with genuine and affordable drugs, they could live on earth for almost an eternity more. A couple of years ago, a diabetic uncle of mine who once lived in the United States and whose drugs were sent to Nigeria periodically had run out of his American drug supply. So he hopped into one of the most famous pharmacies around to procure diabetics drugs. He took them for about three weeks. Feeling somehow unwell, he decided to check his blood sugar rate. What he recorded was a figure almost in a handshake with the sky, immediately requiring an emergency insulin injection. This was what rescued him from death.

The pestilence called counterfeit drugs has led international organizations to observe how this lethal trade works in Nigeria. In 2006, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had to put together a global programme on poor-quality drugs, with particular focus on Africa. Similarly in 2010, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, (UNODC) in its Global Crime Threat Assessment stated that drug fakery had become a major global threat, in concert with cocaine trafficking and allied crimes. So also did Interpol which signed, for the first time, agreement with pharmaceutical corporations to criminalize what it called ‘pharmaceutical crimes’.

Fake pharmaceuticals reveal the underbelly of a porous and ineffective regulation process and laws. While drug fakery history in Nigeria can be traced to as far back as the colonial times, its expansion is driven by the country’s hydra-headed economic crises, the crisis in the pharmaceutical industry and the collapse of Nigeria’s healthcare system which began in the 1980s. Scholars who study this malaise have discovered that unless Nigeria solves her economic and political problems, no matter how policies are made to regulate fake drugs, they would forever encounter failures. Such efforts can be compared to a Babalawo who abandons a more bothersome ailment of leprosy to treat eczema. Nigerian governments have been addressing symptoms of the crisis, leaving untouched the nexus between drug faking and a more fundamental political and economic problem that the country faces. 

The history of drug counterfeiting in Nigeria is synonymous with the history of Nigeria. Indeed, drug clone precedes the existence of Nigeria as an independent country. The roots of unregulated trade in drugs can be clearly linked to colonial times when the trade was not particularly law-abiding. Colonial archives are replete with evidence that trade in medicine in Nigeria was grossly unregulated. From Richard Bailey, who became the first licensed African pharmacist to operate chemist shop in Lagos in 1887, the number of pharmacy shops began to increase into early post-colonial period. It was not until 1990 however that Nigeria first had its comprehensive drug policy. In the 1940s, drug counterfeiting and illegal sale of drugs were so widespread that a 1946 colonial archive said the streets were full of “innumerable market women and itinerant vendors selling small quantities of the common brands of medicine and to attempt to enforce a licensing system against such persons would require a special staff and inspectorate”.

An April 18, 1976 Punch newspaper report with the title “Drugs Shortage: Federal Military Gvmt orders probe,” said that the bid to look outside of hospitals for drugs was necessitated by drug shortages in the mid-1970s onwards. During this time, doctors were forced to ask their patients to find drugs outside the hospitals. This gave birth to government licensing more patent medicine dealers, a system that first came up in the late colonial period. The dealers were empowered to sell first-aid drugs on the counter, especially in rural areas where hospitals were absent. However, the greatest calamity that befell the Nigerian healthcare system came in the 1980s during the military government of Ibrahim Babangida and his Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) policy. With a colossal and sudden reduction in public spending on healthcare, as well as devaluation of Naira, importing drugs became a herculean task. To keep the drug trade running, counterfeiting of imported western drugs became rife, and an unheard of practice of in-hospital mixing of Paracetamol began, according to Gernot Klantschnig and Huang Chieh in their Fake Drugs: Health, Wealth and Regulation in Nigeria, (2018). It manifested in scant adherence to quality control.

Though the 1970s witnessed an upsurge in domestic manufacture of pharmaceuticals, local companies couldn’t survive without imported raw materials which Naira devaluation made unapproachable. As it is now under the Bola Tinubu government, foreign Nigeria-based drug manufacturing companies began to divest and relocate out of the country. By the mid-1990s, they had almost totally vacated Nigeria. This left local drug manufacturers who not only operated at low capacity, but had to make do with the lowering of standards. This resulted in poor quality. In the late 1980s, the press reported two high-profile cases of the result of Babangida’s asinine policy. The first was in Ibadan where Paracetamol poisoned more than 100 children, as well as in Jos of 1990 where falsely labeled poisonous ingredient in a drug’s manufacture became a health scandal. It was linked to a leading drug wholesale market with its roots in the Netherlands. Yet another was the national scandal which erupted in 2008 and 2009 as a result of a Nigeria-manufactured teething syrup named My Pikin where children were recorded to have suffered poisoning.

The advent of Dora Akunyili, Director General of the drugs regulatory agency, NAFDAC however helped to substantially regain Nigeria’s pride. Hitherto, Nigeria was held as haven of counterfeited drugs. Importers of faked drugs, whose main attention is always riveted to drugs that are the most consumed among drugs, regarded as drugs that ‘sell fast’ in the Nigerian market, were fiercely combated by Akunyili at personal cost. The Obasanjo government also funded the huge publicity given by Akunyili to falsified drugs.

Things have since worsened ever since. The twin policies of fuel subsidy removal and unification of exchange rates of the Tinubu government, like the Babangida SAP, have sapped life out of original drugs in Nigeria. Like the dead fox, they have let loose the chicken of counterfeit drugs on the prowl. Unbearable costs of drugs have returned Nigerians to their primordial conception of sickness and return of herbs as potent healing pharmaceutical drugs. Its effects are kidney diseases being battled on a large scale in Nigeria. In Yorubaland for instance, prior to the advent of the white man, it was held that illness was as a result of attack by either enemies (ota), whcih can be further classified into witches (aje), sorcery (oso) or to a god (orisa) and deity (ebora). Europeans’ understanding, on the converse, which gave birth to the philosophy of drugs and hospitals, is based on the belief in the germ theory. This holds that physiological and anatomical disorders show up in man due to activities of germs and viruses inside the body system. Unable to afford drugs’ exorbitant prices, Nigerians are today forced to patronize a litany of counterfeited drugs on the prowl. They are cheaper and affordable but have, regrettably, led to a spike in deaths.

In saner societies, drug regulation is a matter of life and death. America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) jealously protects the people’s public health through ensuring the safety, efficacy and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products and medical devices. Like the proverbial dog that guides the home of Eledumare, it scrutinizes America's drug supply. More often than not, the FDA provides accurate, science-based health information to the public. It is assisted by an American health system that prioritizes the health of its people.

I was moved to tears a couple of weeks ago as I witnessed the American health system in action. My host in New Jersey had taken ill, nearly collapsing in the bathroom. He and I were all alone. We managed to call 911and in about five minutes, three full-kitted men, in an ambulance and another vehicle, emerged by my friend’s Old Bridge apartment. They were kitted in emergency equipment. In a stretcher, they carried my friend down the building and into the ambulance. We were at the Hackensack Meridian Medical Centre, Piscataway in a jiffy. This hospital is strictly dedicated to emergencies. Though I was told this was miniature in America’s investment in her citizens’ healthcare, any Nigerian who manages to be at Hackensack would weep if drawn into comparison between what it is and, for instance, Nigeria’s rich in fossils Ibadan-based UCH. The equipment available were the latest. In four days, Hackensack drilled into probable causes of my friend’s collapse. One of the doctors on ground was a young Nigerian lady said to be a top-notch doctor in America. Hackensack never demanded a dime from my friend. The cost of this first class treatment was borne by insurance, his place of work and a tiny fraction shipped to the patient.

The cause of Nigeria’s healthcare palaver is complex to decipher. Her economic and leadership crises seem to be at the core of its lifelong disease. Other ancillary issues like the greed of the Nigerian and the perception of healthcare as business, rather than a life-saving venture, also rank high. The Tinubu government must stem the daily deaths of our productive countrymen through counterfeited drugs enveloped by a collapsed healthcare system. In the words of the Muhammadu Buhari junta when it struck on December 30, 1983, hospitals had become “mere consulting clinics.” Today, they have become slaughter slabs and pharmacies, dispensers of death. While government’s proposed Executive Order to reduce identified barriers to local drug manufacturing, to enable the industry to thrive, is a necessary immediate remedy, the problem is beyond skyrocketing cost of essential medicines. Nigeria’s healthcare system is an emergency which needs a holistic and immediate intervention.

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him ~ Acts 10:38.

Introduction

The Christian believers are called and chosen as Christ’s ambassadors, witnesses and representatives upon the earth today (2 Corinthians 5:20). However, we cannot fit these roles effectively by our own skills, social positions and acquisitions, but only in the demonstration of the power of God.

Power is a special, peculiar and distinctive prerogative of God and God alone. God is God and all power belongs to Him (Psalms 62:11). Nothing moves except as He directs. Nothing happens except as He permits. Nothing will be except as He allows. Only God rules in the affairs of men and nations.

Contrarily, man remains human no matter the level of grace made available to him. He is naturally frail, fragile and weak. He also faces daunting daily challenges from invisible quarters. Hence, we all require the enablement of the Spirit of God, and regular assistance from Him.

Jesus Christ clearly posited that the Holy Spirit is utterly connected with power (Luke 24:49). He said the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples would wrap them up with God’s power, predicating that they would then serve God in His own roles upon the earth (John 20:21).

True empowerment for life’s assignment, and real equipping against the uncertainties of life comes to man only by the touch of the Holy Spirit.Therefore, pursuing the power of the Holy Ghost is not an option, but a clear divine imperative for the  believers.

Understanding the Holy Spirit

Most people don’t understand the ways or the workings of the Holy Spirit. As a result, they neither recognize nor partake of the power He imparts in our world today.

The early apostles were all spiritually weak before the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But things changed dramatically and rapidly afterwards, particularly after the Pentecost day experience (Acts 2:1-4). They were practically transformed, and enabled for their assignments of destiny: as witnesses of Christ’s power and resurrection.

Now, a better grasp of the personality, power and the workings of the Holy Ghost will be established when we have a robust understanding of the concept of a “spirit” and what it represents.

Commonly translated from “ruach” (Hebrew) and “pneuma” (Greek), “spirit” stands for an immaterial, invisible but powerful entity. This truth is clearly evidenced by the fact that “ruach” also translates to “breath”, “air” and “wind”.

Thus, the Holy Spirit is a spirit entity. As such, He’s Somebody we cannot see physically, but is capable of tremendous influence upon our lives and destinies. He is the Wind of Ages, and He’s capable of carrying everything along in His course in our world!

He blows as He chooses, moves as He wishes, and nobody can question His authority when He enlists anyone or anything for His special powers, blessings, honour and anointing (John 3:8).

Ezekiel was operating under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit when he received an instruction to prophesy to the Wind. He obeyed, and the inexplicable happened: out from the valley of dry bones came forth an exceeding great army (Ezekiel 37:1-10).

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Almighty God, and the third member of the Godhead. He is eternal (Hebrews 9:14), omnipotent (Luke 1:35), omnipresent (Psalm 139:7) and omniscient (1Corinthians 2:10-11).

He is invisible and immaterial, yet the Most Powerful Entity, whose tremendous influence upon our lives and destinies cannot be downplayed or ignored. In fact, the Holy Ghost and Ultimate Power are synonymous in the realm of the spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the Very Presence of God that works actively in His people. Any man that wishes to see great accomplishments on earth must rely heavily upon Him and His power.

His power is the explosive spiritual dynamite or force that comes from God upon the believers at the instance of the Holy Spirit baptism, which empowers them for incredible works, miracles, might and virtue in their operations.

Even Jesus Christ ministered in that power (Luke 4:14-15; Acts 10:38). It is only in Him and through Him that we can find answers and minister solutions to all the complex questions in the world today.

Whenever the Holy Spirit is fully involved, He doesn’t hide or pull back in shame. He rather fearlessly pushes through until the desired wonders are birthed (2 Timothy 1:6-7). And, much more than a tornado in the course of His operations, the Holy Ghost can be very devastating to the dark kingdom of hell.

The Works of the Holy Spirit Then and Now

Operating in the power of the Holy Ghost is a very clear command of Christ to His followers (Matthew 10:7-8). Why? The very grounds we fail to cover is what is left for the devil to oppress. We must stand our ground in the power of the Holy Ghost, to glorify God and better the lots of other citizens on earth.

The following are some of the regular works of the Holy Ghost in the lives of men till today: He enables desirable changes in the lives of men (1Samuel 10:6), and He incubates power for inexplicable and undeniable miracles (Luke 1:35,45).

Again, the Holy Spirit imparts boldness to make His men valuable, vocal, vital and valid witnesses of the power of God (Acts 1:8). He also gives power for discernment, reveals future events, unfolds the mysteries of God and testifies against sin (Amos 3:7; 2 Kings 17:13).

Everyday can be exciting for the Christian who knows that reality of being filed with the Holy Ghost and who lives constantly, moment by moment, under His direction. His directions often lead to distinction, and because He’s eternal, there’s nothing He has done before that He cannot do again and again!

Now, on the authority of the Word, we can confirm that all the miracles, signs and wonders that Jesus Christ did in His earthly ministry were to make people believe the gospel (Matthew 12:38; John 6:30). He even said people won’t believe except they see signs (John 4:48).

Beloved friends, I reasonably assume that you want to be relevant to God’s agenda for the ages. If yes, then, you must readily pay the price to start operating in the fresh power of the Holy Ghost for higher performances (Mark 16:17). You must go for a renewed experience of the Pentecostal infilling (Acts 4:31-33).

Be determined to glorify God in all your walks on earth. Yield to a lifestyle of accord with the Spirit (Ephesians 6:10-12). Cry passionately for His grace, and honestly abstain from sin. Thereafter, He will suddenly appear through you to help you and your world. You won’t miss it, in Jesus Name. Amen. Happy Sunday!

____________________

Bishop Taiwo Akinola,

Rhema Christian Church,

Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Connect with Bishop Akinola via these channels:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bishopakinola

SMS/WhatsApp: +234 802 318 4987

A man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by armed robbers, stripped of his belongings, and left lying half-dead on the road. Divine providence ensured that first a priest, and then a Levite, passed by. But instead of helping the dying man; both quickly moved to the other side of the road and went away.

Finally, a Samaritan came along. Unlike the priest and the Levite, he had compassion on the hapless man, bound up his wounds, took him to the hospital, and paid for his medical expenses.

Good Samaritan

Jesus’ story of this Good Samaritan is deliberate. It is incredible how, as Christians, we fail to recognise its full implications. The first mistake we make is in the identity of the Good Samaritan. When we situate the story in the contemporary setting, (as we should with all scripture), we assume that the Good Samaritan must be a Christian.

However, Jesus deliberately excludes that possibility by providing two characters clearly representative of believers in any age. Today, the priest is easily identifiable as a pastor, while the Levite is a Christian worker.

Who then is the Good Samaritan? Let me repeat this for emphasis: the Good Samaritan cannot be a Christian. The Christian is already adequately represented by the priest and the Levite. The Good Samaritan can only be Jesus Himself.

Jesus’ story eloquently sets forth the goodness and kindness of Christ our Saviour towards sinful, miserable, and defenceless humanity. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Christ comes to give life and to give it abundantly. (John 10:10).

But if Jesus is the Good Samaritan, then Jesus is not a Jew; for Samaritans were not accepted as Jews. As Paul points out:

“He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.” (Romans 2:28-29).

If Jesus is the Good Samaritan, then Jesus is a Samaritan. If Jesus is not a Jew but a Samaritan, then Jesus cannot be a Christian, for it is the Jew that represents the Christian of today in the Scriptures.

Jesus’ killers

By the time some Jews observed Jesus, they concluded that He was not a Jew. In the first place, He refused to be regarded as a disciple of Moses but claimed instead to have come to fulfil the law. (Matthew 5:17). He did not obey the letter of Jewish laws but claimed to comply with its spirit.

He insisted pharisaic religious tradition was old wine which could not be put into the new bottles He provided for the new wine of the New Testament. (Matthew 9:17). He prefaced a lot of His sermons with the statement: “You have heard that it was said to those of old… but I say.” (Matthew 5:27-28).

Therefore, some Jews insisted Jesus was not Jewish. As a matter of fact, their position was that He was a closet Samaritan:

“Then the Jews answered and said to him, “Do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honour My Father, and you dishonour Me.” (John 8:48-49).

Note that Jesus did not contest the charge that He was a Samaritan. But He took great exception to the allegation that He had a demon.

But if Jesus identified with the Samaritans and not with the Jews, then it becomes clear he would not identify with most of the Christians of today. In fact, let me be so bold as to say that if Jesus were in the flesh today, He would not be a Christian.

If Jesus had come today instead of 2,000 years ago, pastors and bishops would also have killed him. Like He did to their forefathers, Jesus would also have exposed the ungodliness of today’s Christian establishments to public ridicule.

Religious irrelevancies

So, if Jesus would not have been a Christian, what would He have been? He would have simply been Jesus without any specific religious affiliation. Today, Jesus has been replaced by theology, but the real Jesus was not religious. Jesus established no religious institution when He was on earth.

Indeed, if Jesus were to show up physically on earth today, most Christians would not recognise Him the same way the Jews did not. If He came as a woman, we would not recognise Him. If He smoked cigarettes, we would not recognise Him. If He drank whisky, we would not recognise Him. If He wore earrings and a nose ring, we would not recognise Him. If He spoke Pidgin English, we would not recognise Him. Since He did not wear trousers, we would be contemptuous of Him. We would disqualify Him by religious irrelevancies instead of identifying Him by His fruits. (Matthew 7:20).

When Jesus asked the lawyer to identify the neighbour of the man who fell among thieves, the man wisely did not say it was the Samaritan. If he had said that, he would have been wrong. Instead, he correctly defined him by his fruit. He said: “He who showed mercy on him.”

He who showed mercy on him could be anybody, Christian or non-Christian, so long as he believed in Jesus and produced the fruits of Jesus’ righteousness.

Merciless Christians

What then does the story of the Good Samaritan mean if, indeed, the priest and the Levite represent today’s Christians? It means that, prophetically, it is the Christians of today who have no mercy. We despise unbelievers, certain they are going to hell. We speak disparagingly of them. We condemn sinners on the grounds they are ungodly.

We stone them because they are caught in adultery. We fail to appreciate that they are hapless travellers on the road of life who have been attacked by spiritual armed robbers and left for dead. We conveniently forget that we used to be in the same predicament until we were rescued by the grace of God.

Therefore, “God is not a Christian,” declared Reverend Desmond Tutu. “We are supposed to proclaim the God of love, but we have been guilty as Christians of sowing hatred and suspicion; we commend the one whom we call the Prince of Peace, and yet as Christians, we have fought more wars than we care to remember. We have claimed to be a fellowship of compassion and caring and sharing, but as Christians, we often sanctify socio-political systems that belie this, where the rich grow ever richer and the poor grow ever poorer.”

One thing is certain. Both the offending priest and the Levite must have had “compelling” reasons for not attending to the man dying on the roadside. They probably could not stop because they were in a hurry to attend a Bible study. The priest decided that the best thing to do was to pray for the man when he got to church. The Levite was hurrying to get to a meeting of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria and could not afford to be late.

Jesus’ parable “kills” the self-righteous believer who thinks he is justified by calling himself a Christian and by going regularly to church. He alerts us to the danger of assuming we are heaven-bound because of our observance of certain religious rites. True Christianity is not legalistic. The love of our neighbour is the emblem of our being Christ’s disciples.

“Dear friends, let us practice loving each other, for love comes from God and those who are loving and kind show that they are the children of God.” (1 John 4:7).

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Throughout history, attempts by mere mortals to plumb the inner recesses of the soul have been seen as hubristic. Shakespeare had Hamlet express this powerfully when he rages against those who “would pluck out the heart of my mystery”. He accuses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of trying to play him like some kind of instrument, rather than treating him as a human being. “How unworthy a thing you make of me,” he chides.

Today, there are no such taboos. Hamlet refers to himself metaphorically as “this little organ” but now we dissect the self by studying a very literal organ: the brain. Neuroscientists are trashing the long-held view that what lies deep inside can only be seen from within.

A new exhibition at the Francis Crick Institute, chirpily titled Hello Brain!, celebrates this desecration of the psyche’s inner sanctum, revealing the many ways in which the institute’s researchers have lifted the lid on the mind.

The Crick’s researchers have found that the brains of mice change in pregnancy, suggesting that the maternal instinct is not solely a spiritual calling but a neurochemical imperative. Another lab’s work on mice supports the emerging scientific consensus that we hallucinate more than we think. Other Crick scientists have studied how birds learn new songs in their sleep, suggesting that the unconscious mind is more important for learning and memory consolidation than we tend to believe.

This is surely fascinating, but do not be lulled by the breezy tone in which the exhibition delivers such discoveries. As the mafioso Henry Hill says in Goodfellas, “your murderers come with smiles.” These wonderful revelations threaten to destroy cherished beliefs about who and what we are. Call it the existential brain drain: the more we understand the brain, the more our comforting views about ourselves go down the drain.

Our age-old (and some might say naïve) conception of human nature has long held on to three dogmas. The first is that we are the originators of our own choices and actions. We are not puppets but responsible, free agents, able to chart our own way in the world. The second is that human beings are special, different from the other animals. Third, we assume that, most of the time at least, our perceptions accurately represent the world as it is.

The scientific study of consciousness has thrown doubt on all three of these beliefs. Take our free will. It should surprise no one to discover that the brains of mothers change during pregnancy. Attributing our moods and behaviours to hormones has become the new common sense. But the idea that our thoughts and actions are the direct result of brain activity can also be disturbing. If “my brain made me do it”, in what sense am I in control of myself? 

A lot of the Crick’s research seems to suggests that the brain is a kind of machine and that we just do its bidding. One lab is creating models of brain circuits, cell by cell, as though it were a giant arrangement of microscopic Lego pieces. Another team has constructed a complete map of a fruit fly’s brain, proof of concept that one day we could do the same for our own complex circuitry. The Crick’s research into Alzheimer’s disease is a sobering reminder that our cognitive capacities are entirely dependent on healthy, functioning brains and that when these break down, so do we.

The fact that much of the research mentioned above has been based on studies of birds, mice and flies also suggests – beyond the need to insulate humans from experimental health risks – that we don’t take the idea that humans are fundamentally different from other animals seriously any more. We study animal brains because they tell us things about human brains. But if the gap between humans and other animals is being closed, does that mean that we ought to give less value to human life, or respect that of other creatures much more? Either way, the species hierarchy upon which we have built our moral universe has been troubled.

Perhaps most disturbing is the idea that we don’t even perceive the world as it is. For centuries we have known that the exact way the world seems to us is determined by our senses, not the things in themselves. The green of grass, for example, is generated by our visual system. But more recent research goes even further. Our brains do not just colour (sometimes literally) our perceptions, they actually construct them. Brains are not passive receptors of perception but are rather “prediction machines” seeing what they expect to see, hearing what they expect to hear. 

Think of it like this. We tend to think that our minds are like video cameras, recording the world. In fact, they are more like projectors, creating our reality. Of course there are data coming in. But those data are used to help train the projector to get better and to flag up when the projection fails to include something critical. That’s why we so often fail to notice things that do not have a direct bearing on our survival, such as features of buildings we pass each day.

Such research makes better sense of psychosis, and leads to the compelling conclusion that people who hear voices are not so different from everyone else. We all have voices inside our heads. One emerging theory is that the only difference is that some people feel that these voices come from someone outside of themselves. This error is all too understandable. If we mostly perceive the projections of the brain, all that needs to happen is for the brain to project the wrong thing and we perceive things that just aren’t there.

Collectively, findings such as these cut the notion of consciousness itself down to size. Consciousness is often thought of as the highest state of being, that which elevates us over mere beasts. For thinkers such as the 17th-century French philosopher René Descartes, our consciousness implied that we were immortal, indivisible, immaterial souls. We are not our bodies but our minds, with a singular and unified perspective on the world.

The image of the mind – and with it of the self – that science gives us today is much messier. We are not immaterial souls but physical animals whose brains do most of the work of thinking. What’s more, these brains are not simple, unified centres of experience. They run all sorts of processes in parallel. Often it’s not just that the left side doesn’t know what the right side is doing: all sorts of things are going on without any of them coming to conscious awareness.

Put all this together and we may well worry that what follows from the Crick’s cheery invitation to say Hello Brain! is that we are also going to be obliged to say “goodbye self”. The science of the brain has shattered our illusions and we just have to accept that we are nothing more than biological machines, maybe more sophisticated ones than mice, rats and birds, but just another animal all the same.

Yet, while humanity could benefit from a dose of humility, it would be a mistake to conclude that science has stripped us of all that we value. There is a tendency to interpret scientific discoveries about the nuts and bolts of human nature as meaning that we are “no more than” or “just” the basic physical processes that science uncovers. But it is a philosophical mistake to believe that the only things that are real are those you find at the most fundamental physical level. Break down a piece of music, for example, and you’ll find no more than a sequence of sounds. But collectively, the sounds that comprise Beethoven’s late quartets have a totally different quality from those that make up the sound of the M25 on a weekday rush hour. 

In the same way, when we dig into the brain, all we find are neurones firing, blood pumping, hormones circulating. But what they give rise to remains truly remarkable. The fact that you can read and understand ideas like this shows how misguided it is to say that you are “just” a kind of biological computer.

That is why we should not be concerned that there is no fundamental divide between us and the rest of the animal kingdom. For sure, our similarities mean we should not be indifferent to their welfare and should end cruel farming practices. But the fact that all animals owe their existence to the same fundamental biological processes does not mean that they are all basically the same. Above all, only we human beings have been able to guide our lives on the basis of anything other than inherited instincts. We can choose not to reproduce, not to eat what our ancestors have eaten, to adopt ways of living that other members of our species have not even thought of.

This is possible because while many other creatures are conscious, our consciousness of our own consciousness is unparalleled. We can reflect on what we perceive, question our motives, and even examine our own brains.

The worry that we do not perceive the world as it is in itself is also misplaced. Although it is true that much of what we perceive is a kind of projection, unless it were a broadly accurate one, we would not survive for long. A creature that projected a flat field where there was really a cliff edge would not live to pass on its genes. Even the colours, textures, smells and sounds that we give to the world must have some correspondence to how it really is. For example, whether a piece of butter tastes delicious or rancid tells us something about its state of freshness.

Whether or not we have free will remains perhaps the most difficult and troubling question raised by science’s study of the mind. If by “free will” we mean a quasi-magical power to generate choices independently of our brain and bodily processes, we most certainly don’t have it. If we simply mean the capacity to make choices for ourselves, we evidently do. It’s just that the “I” that makes the choice is a complex biological system without a central controller.

This can be a difficult concept to get our heads around, since we are so seduced by the idea of a simple, singular inner self, separate from the body. For example, the very expression “my brain made me do it” assumes a difference between “me” and “my brain”. But your brain is not only a part of you, it’s the most important part. We should be pleased, not worried, that our brains play the main role in determining what we do, because if they did not, what else would?

There is much about human consciousness that remains mysterious and undiscovered. But it is high time we lost Hamlet’s fear that uncovering its secrets threatens our humanity. You will leave the Crick’s exhibition as remarkable a creature as the one that walked in, only with the advantage of understanding a little better why you are so amazing. And it is exactly that capacity to see ourselves as though from the outside that makes us human beings so unique.

The Telegraph

MTN Nigeria Plc has reported a loss before tax of N177.8 billion compared to a pre-tax profit of N518.8 billion a year earlier. The losses resulted in a wipe-out of shareholders’ funds. 

The company attributed the losses to a massive foreign currency loss of N740 billion up from N81 billion reported in 2022.

This is the company’s first-ever loss since it became a quoted company in Nigeria.

According to MTN, “the loss was significantly due to operational changes to the Nigerian Foreign exchange market, including the abolishment of the segmented/parallel structure announced by CBN in June 2023.”

MTN also stated that it has used an official (NAFEM) exchange rate of N907.11/$1 as of 31 December 2023 suggesting losss could be wider if the current exchange rate between the naira and dollar persis by the end of March when it publishes its Q1 results.

Key Highlights 

• Revenue (2023 vs. 2022): N2.469 trillion vs. N2.012 trillion, +22.69% YoY. 
• Operating Profit (2023 vs. 2022): N773.660 billion vs. N734.164 billion, +5.38% YoY 
• Finance Income (2023 vs. 2022): N25.815 billion vs. N13.768 billion, +87.50% YoY 
• Finance Cost (2023 vs. 2022): N236.927 billion vs. N147.287 billion, +60.86% YoY 
• Net FX Loss (2023 vs. 2022): N740.434 billion vs. N81.822 billion, +804.93% YoY 
• (Loss)/Profit after tax (2023 vs. 2022): -N137.021 billion vs. N348.727 billion, -139.29% YoY 
• (Loss)/Earnings per share (2023 vs. 2022): -N6.38 vs. N16.76, -138.07% YoY 
• Total Borrowing (2023 vs. 2022): N1.177 trillion vs. N689.673 billion, +70.69% YoY 
• Total subscribers increased by 5.3% to 79.7 million
• Active data users increased by 12.7% to 44.6 million
• Active mobile money (MoMo PSB) wallets increased by 163.2% to 5.3 million
• Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 12.3% to N1.2 trillion
• EBITDA margin decreased by 4.5 percentage points (pp) to 48.7%
• Net loss for the year has resulted in a depletion of its retained earnings and shareholders’ fund to negative N208.0 billion and N40.8 billion, respectively

Other updates

MTN Nigeria communicated that due to the substantial currency devaluation and its repercussions on retained earnings, the Directors will not propose a final dividend payment, given the resultant loss for the year ended December 31, 2023. 

• However, it is important to note that MTN Nigeria had on July 27, 2023, approved interim dividends of N117.48 billion for the year ending December 31, 2023, amounting to N5.60 kobo per ordinary share. 
• MTN Nigeria Communications Plc (MTNN) closed at N222.90 on the last day of February, representing a year-to-date (YtD) loss of 15.6% for shareholders. 
• Shareholders’ worries are compounded by the fact that MTNN has lost 19% of the stock’s value from February 1st to date. 
• MTN also stated that despite the losses, they maintained strong free cash flow generation (up 11.6% YoY to N631.6 billion).

Company Commentary: “2023 witnessed a very challenging operating environment characterised by rising inflation, currency devaluation and foreign exchange shortages, complicated by geopolitical disruptions and cash shortages in Q1 arising from a redesign of the naira.

These factors created severe headwinds for our customers and our business during the year. The inflation rate increased throughout the year, reaching 28.9% in December 2023 – the highest reading in 18 years – with an average rate of 24.5%.

This was further exacerbated by higher fuel prices, arising from the removal of the fuel subsidy in May 2023, with the average prices of diesel and petrol up by 66.4% and 257.1% in 2023 to N1,416.8/litre and N600/litre, respectively. In June 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) adopted a more liberal foreign exchange management system and reintroduced the ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ model.

This has resulted in a 96.7% unfavourable movement in the exchange rate against the US dollar from N461.1/US$ in December 2022 to N907.1/US$ (Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) rate) in December 2023.

This development contributed meaningfully to the upward pressure on the cost of doing business in Nigeria, and for MTN Nigeria in particular, significantly increased the costs in relation to our tower leases.”

Nairametrics

As Nigeria’s vice president cut the ribbon on Procter & Gamble Co.’s diaper production line in 2017, the $300 million facility near Lagos was hailed as a symbol of the country’s economic ambitions. In December, P&G said it was leaving the West African state.

The US consumer goods giant is not alone. In recent months at least three other global conglomerates have announced they are exiting Africa’s most populous nation, and second biggest economy. Among them GSK Plc, Bayer AG and Sanofi SA. Last year Unilever Plc cut some of the products it was manufacturing in the country. Nestle SA has posted losses from its operations.

At the heart of the exodus is a scarcity of the dollars international businesses need to repatriate earnings. The central bank has devalued the naira twice in the past eight months and is still struggling to clear a backlog of demand for greenbacks companies require to pay debts and import raw materials. A near complete absence of a reliable electricity supply and congestion at Nigeria’s ports are compounding the malaise.

“It’s news because it’s P&G. It’s news because it’s GSK. It’s news because they have been in the country for a long time — but there are others that have died quietly,” Segun Ajayi-Kadir, director general of The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria advocacy group said on local television after the P&G announcement. “If the current situation doesn’t improve, certainly we’ll have more closures.”

Some of the world’s largest oil reserves, ample fertile land and a rapidly growing population should have created a lucrative market for consumer goods producers following the restoration of democracy in 1999. Instead policy missteps, corruption and an over-reliance on oil fueled dysfunction in the economy. The middle class didn’t expand as much as expected.

The implications for Nigeria are bleak. Its oil-dependent, $394 billion economy is already hobbled by high levels of imports. The corporate exits — $187 million in investment left the country in 2022 compared with an inflow of almost $9 billion in 2011 — will only exacerbate pressure on the naira, which has depreciated 86% over the last eight years, and deal a further blow to long-standing diversification efforts.

President Bola Tinubu has already introduced unpopular policies to revive the economy since taking office in May. He must now convince business that he can staunch the leak of big name multinationals from the country.

Taxes and duties are being simplified and a committee has been set up within the office of the vice-president to cut red tape, and there’s a plan to improve infrastructure, according to Temitope Ajayi, a spokesman for the president. Tinubu has also vowed to end jihadist violence and criminality that has made shipping goods in much of the north virtually impossible for many major companies.

“They can make a marked difference,” said Pieter Scribante, a South Africa-based senior political economist at Oxford Economics, of the government. “But it will take time — not a couple of years.”

Many companies can’t wait. On Feb. 7, PZ Cussons Plc, a UK-based maker of soap and other personal care products that counts Nigeria as its biggest market slashed its profit expectations for the whole group. Cadbury Nigeria Plc has had to convert loans from its UK parent into equity because it couldn’t find the foreign currency to repay them.

Nestle and Unilever are still operating on the sprawling industrial estate where the P&G production line was shuttered. But outside the walled complex, 65-year-old Raphael Babalola said he isn’t as busy loading boxes onto his truck for distribution as he once was. Some days he even drives off empty. “Companies just aren’t producing like they used to,” he said.

Adigun Daniel, 63, another driver, said he’s idle most of the time when only a few years ago he would transport goods to the east and north of Nigeria, a country almost three times the size of Germany, at least twice a week. Other drivers have given up altogether and sold their trucks, he added.

Nigeria suffered two recessions in eight years after a drop in prices of crude drained foreign-exchange coffers and Covid struck. Of the 230 million strong population, 130 are now multidimensionally poor, and with inflation at a 27-year high, fewer and fewer Nigerians can afford anything but the basics.

“Twenty years ago, 15 years ago it wasn’t a mirage, it was a real business opportunity,” said Adedayo Ademuwagun, a Lagos-based analyst at political risk firm Songhai Advisory of Nigeria. “But given the complications it’s starting to look a lot less attractive.”

Other companies that have tried and failed to crack the Nigerian market include South Africa’s Shoprite Ltd., Africa’s biggest grocer, which left in 2021 — 16 years after opening its first store in a country it then envisaged as the linchpin of its planned expansion across Africa, which has largely been a disaster. Clothing and food retailer Woolworths Holdings Ltd., fashion chain Truworths International Ltd. and cereal and food producer Tiger Brands Ltd. have also packed up.

For manufacturers there’s an added difficulty: competition from lower cost rivals like Turkish diaper-maker Hayat Kimya AS, and a unit of Singapore’s Tolaram Group Inc. that makes Indomie Noodles, a national dish of sorts in Nigeria. While these companies are also struggling, they are too invested to leave, said Girish Sharma, chief executive officer of the Colgate Tolaram joint venture in Nigeria. “Things are tough right now,” he said, but adding “exiting is not an option.”

P&G declined to comment on the closure of its plant. When the news was announced in December, its Chief Financial Officer, Andre Schulten, said; “It’s very difficult for us as a US dollar-denominated company to create value,” and “it’s also difficult to operate, because of the macroeconomic environment.”

The government says Nigerian firms can step in and fill the gap left by the corporate exits. But they are bleeding too, with many of them among the 767 companies that shut down in the first quarter of last year alone. The disused P&G factory did however present an opportunity for Fouani, a local manufacturer, which now makes sanitary pads and diapers in the same complex.

Nigerian firms should be the priority, Ajayi-Kadir said of the Nigerian manufacturers group, adding that he’d like to see less taxes and more lines of credit. “FDI is excellent, but it should come secondary to empowering the local manufacturers,” he said. “That is when you have certainty that come rain, come shine, they will be with you.”

While Tinubu has taken measures that economists and investors in Nigeria’s capital markets say are long overdue those steps are causing misery for ordinary people and sapping the popularity of his government.

Some, like Tolaram’s Sharma, have faith in Tinubu even if the benefits of what he is doing are yet to be seen. “He’s got a tough job,” Sharma said. “He will do things to fix the economy. As we speak lots of things are happening.’’

Bloomberg

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revoked the licences of 4,173 bureau de change (BDC) operators for failing to observe regulatory provisions.

In a statement signed by Sidi Ali, CBN’s acting director, corporate communications, on Friday, the apex bank said the BDCs failed to observe at least one of its regulatory provisions, such as payment of all necessary fees, including licence renewal, within the stipulated period in line with the guidelines.

“The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in exercise of the powers conferred on it under the Bank and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, Act No. 5, and the Revised Operational Guidelines for Bureaux De Change 2015 (the Guidelines), has revoked the licenses of 4,173 Bureaux De Change Operators,” CBN said.

Other provisions not adhered to are rendition of returns, compliance with guidelines, directives and circulars of the CBN, especially anti-money laundering (AML), countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) and Counter-Proliferation Financing (CPF) regulations.

The apex bank said it is revising the regulatory and supervisory guidelines for BDC operations in Nigeria.

“Compliance with the new requirements will be mandatory for all stakeholders in the sector when the revised guidelines become effective,” CBN said.

The financial regulator advised the public to take note.

Some of the affected BDCs are;

• Mountaintop BDC LTD
• Movement BDC
• Pointless FOREX BDC LTD
• Protected BDC LTD
• Reading BDC LTD
• Roundtable BDC LTD
• Shares OF Time BDC LTD
• Stop Over BDC LTD
• Surging BDC LTD
• Valid BDC LTD
• Unical BDC LTD
• Turnover BDC LTD
• Couple BDC LTD
• Happy Ends BDC LTD
• Village WAY BDC LTD
• Welcome BDC LTD
• Oyinbo BDC LTD
• Oyoyo BDC LTD
• Lamshade BDC LTD
• Internal Curry BDC LTD
• Give And Collect BDC LTD
• Give and Take BDC LTD

The full list of the affected BDCs can be found here.

The Cable

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) says corruption is prevalent in the Nigerian judiciary.

A representative of the UNODC, Melissa Omene, said this on Friday at a judicial accountability event in Abuja.

The event was organised by Tapinitiative, a not-for-profit organisation

Speaking on a 2019 survey conducted by the UNODC and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Omene said the survey “found that 20 per cent of those who had contact with the Nigerian judiciary were confronted with a request for the payment of a bribe.

“Indeed, corruption in the Nigerian judiciary is extensive and both male and female judges are party to it.”

Giving a comparative analysis of the issue, a UNODC study on gender and corruption in 2020, disclosed that “male judges are far more likely to be involved in bribe-seeking conduct than their female colleagues.”

The study said corruption amongst judicial officers had eroded “public confidence in the judiciary.”

‘Why public trust in judiciary waning’

Weighing in on the quality of justice dispensation by Nigerian courts, a lawyer, Jibrin Okutepa, blamed lawyers and judges for the loss of public confidence in the judicial system.

Okutepa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a former member of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), said the country is in a moral decay.

He decried the conduct of senior lawyers who compromise judges to get favourable verdicts.

“There is no accountability from the judiciary because the Nigerian society does not demand accountability,” he said.

The lawyer criticised the process of appointment of judges that is based on “rationing.”

Okutepa pointed out that recent judgements of the Supreme Court on crucial cases dealt a fatal blow to public confidence in the judiciary to do justice on matters that come before it.

“The Supreme Court has elevated the rules of court above constitutional provisions. There is no accountability from the Nigerian judiciary,” he submitted.

He lamented that the age-old principle of judicial precedent has been bastardised across the courts in Nigeria.

“You can see five different decisions of the Supreme Court on one issue that are inherently contradictory,” Okutepa said, adding that “precedents are set based on who is before the court.”

In the build-up to last year’s general elections, the Supreme Court delivered two separate judgments affirming the candidacy of Ahmad Lawan, a former Senate President, and Godswill Akpabio as authentic ticket-holders for the National Assembly elections in their respective states of Yobe and Akwa Ibom.

Lawan and Akpabio were presidential aspirants in the All Progressives Congress and could not have been aspirants at the same time for the parliamentary polls because of the latest provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

But the Supreme Court in 2022 declared them winners of the legislative primary elections of the APC, a development that drew outrage amongst close observers of the Nigerian judiciary.

Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State and minister under ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, would later win the main election to become the current Senate President.

Similarly, a panellist at the event, Chioma Onyenucheya-Uko, said the judiciary missed an opportunity to bolster its public image when the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja last year rejected requests by the two leading opposition candidates – Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi – to have the court’s proceedings televised.

The panel, moderated by Lillian Okenwa, a journalist and lawyer, said nepotism was commonplace in judicial appointments.

But, a former judge of the Federal High Court, Ibrahim Buba, rated Nigerian judges high in the discharge of their duties.

Delivering a keynote address on the topic, “Impact of judicial accountability on public trust in the legal system,” Buba said Nigerian judges stood up to dictators and democratic leaders in their judicial functions.

“…having regards to the conditions and environment of work, with all modesty, I say KUDOS to the Nigerian bar and the Nigerian bench, take away politics, where people differ on opinions and questions of law and both may be right, the Nigerian judiciary has given a very good account of itself,” Mr Buba said.

He explained that politicians “who cannot have their way undermine the independence of the Nigerian judiciary, not only starving it of funds but ensuring an erosion of independence of the judiciary and having friction and try to remove the chief judges unconstitutionally.”

“Nigerian judges are courageous, very, very courageous, they have dared the military, they have dared the political class, like every society, they have also dealt even with their colleagues who are found wanting.”

PT