Nigeria's state oil firm NNPC Ltd said on Sunday it had restored 275,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil production at its joint venture unit with Total Energies after negotiating an end to industrial action by workers.

NNPC said in a statement that an agreement to suspend the action had been signed between TotalEnergies, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association and the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, which represent senior and junior workers in the industry.

"The unions have agreed to suspend ongoing industrial action leading to immediate restoration of 275,000 barrels of oil per day production," NNPC said.

NNPC did not disclose the nature of the dispute or the workers' demands, which had not been previously announced.

Nigeria's oil production was 1.49 million barrels per day in October, according to data from the petroleum regulator, still below the 2023 budget target of 1.69 million bpd.

Although production has been improving this year in Africa's biggest oil producer, crude theft, illegal refining and lack of investment in the sector have hobbled output, which has remained below its OPEC quota of 1.74 million bpd.

That has led to fears that NNPC may struggle to supply crude to the 650,000 bpd Dangote Refinery, which has missed several targets to start production.

NNPC Ltd will supply the Dangote refinery with up to six cargoes of crude oil in December to be used in test runs, industry sources with knowledge of the matter have told Reuters.

Reuters

Heavy fighting rages near main Gaza hospital and people trapped inside say they cannot flee

Health officials and people trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital rejected Israel’s claims that it was helping babies and others evacuate Sunday, saying fighting continued just outside the facility where incubators lay idle with no electricity and critical supplies were running out.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed urgent calls for a cease-fire unless it includes the release of all the nearly 240 hostages captured by Hamas in the Oct. 7 rampage that triggered the war.

A day after Netanyahu said Israel was bringing its “full force” with the aim of ending Hamas’ 16-year rule in Gaza, residents reported heavy airstrikes and shelling, including around Shifa Hospital. Israel, without providing evidence, has accused Hamas of concealing a command post inside and under the compound, allegations denied by Hamas and hospital staff.

“They are outside, not far from the gates,” said Ahmed al-Boursh, a resident sheltering there.

The hospital’s last generator ran out of fuel Saturday, leading to the deaths of three premature babies and four other patients, according to the Health Ministry. It said another 36 babies are at risk of dying.

Israel’s military asserted it placed 300 liters (79 gallons) of fuel near Shifa overnight for an emergency generator powering incubators for premature babies and coordinated the delivery with hospital officials. But the military said Hamas prevented the hospital from receiving the fuel.

A Health Ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, disputed the account and also told Al Jazeera the fuel would not be enough to operate the generator an hour. “This is a mockery towards the patients and children,” Al-Qidra said.

Speaking to CNN, Netanyahu asserted that “100 or so” people had been evacuated from Shifa and that Israel had created safe corridors.

But Health Ministry Undersecretary Munir al-Boursh said Israeli snipers have deployed around Shifa, firing at any movement.

“There are wounded in the house, and we can’t reach them,” he told Al Jazeera. “We can’t stick our heads out of the window.”

The military said troops would assist in moving babies on Sunday. But Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity that has supported Shifa’s neonatal intensive care unit, said transferring critically ill infants is complex. “With ambulances unable to reach the hospital ... and no hospital with capacity to receive them, there is no indication of how this can be done safely,” CEO Melanie Ward said.

The only option is for Israel to stop its assault and allow fuel into the hospital, Ward said.

The Health Ministry said there are 1,500 patients at Shifa, along with 1,500 medical personnel and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter.

President of Doctors Without Borders International, Christos Christou, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” it would take weeks to evacuate the patients.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the X social media platform that Shifa has been without water three days and “is not functioning as a hospital anymore.” Several humanitarian groups told The Associated Press they weren’t able to reach the hospital Sunday.

The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said another Gaza City hospital, Al-Quds, is “no longer operational” because it was out of fuel with 6,000 people trapped there. Gaza’s sole power plant shut down a month ago, and Israel has barred fuel imports to prevent Hamas from using them.

One woman fleeing northern Gaza, Fedaa Shangan, said she’d had a cesarean section at Al-Quds: “The wound is still fresh.” She said the Israeli army near the hospital “did not care about the presence of patients, children, women and the elderly. They did not care about anyone.”

Alarm was growing. “We do not want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, people seeking medical care are caught in the crossfire,” President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told ABC’s “This Week.”

“Decisive international action is needed now to secure an immediate humanitarian cease-fire” amid attacks on health care, the U.N. regional directors of the World Health Organization and others said in a statement, adding that more than half of Gaza’s hospitals are closed.

Muhammed Zaqout, director of hospitals in Gaza, said the Health Ministry has been unable to update the death toll since Friday as medics are unable to reach areas hit by Israeli bombardment.

About 2.3 million Palestinians remain in the besieged territory.

Netanyahu has said the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas. Israel has long accused the group, which operates in dense residential neighborhoods, of using civilians as human shields.

EVACUATION WINDOWS, BUT NO PAUSES

The U.S. has pushed for temporary pauses that would allow for wider distribution of badly needed aid to civilians in the territory, where conditions are increasingly dire.

But Israel has only agreed to brief daily periods during which civilians can flee ground combat in northern Gaza and head south on foot along two main roads. Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets across southern Gaza, often killing women and children.

Hospital officials said at least 13 were killed after an Israeli airstrike in the southern town of Khan Younis.

The war has displaced over two-thirds of Gaza’s population.

Wael Abu Omar, spokesperson for Gaza’s border crossings, said 846 people left Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah crossing Sunday. Nearly all were foreigners while a few were patients from Gaza’s hospitals and their caretakers.

He said 76 aid trucks entered Gaza. The U.N. and partners have said much more were needed daily.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on X that he asked European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to apply the same “legal, moral grounds” for EU support of Ukraine to “define its stand on Israel’s war crimes.”

More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing.

At least 1,200 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed in the initial Hamas attack. Forty-six Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.

About 250,000 Israelis have evacuated from communities near Gaza, where Palestinian militants are still firing barrages of rockets, and along the northern border with Lebanon.

NETANYAHU REJECTS U.S. POSTWAR VISION

Netanyahu has begun to outline Israel’s postwar plans for Gaza, which contrast sharply with the vision of the United States.

He said Gaza would be demilitarized and Israel would retain the ability to enter Gaza freely to hunt down militants. He rejected the idea that the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, would at some stage control Gaza.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the U.S. opposes an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza and envisions a unified Palestinian government in Gaza and the West Bank as a step toward a Palestinian state, long opposed by Netanyahu’s government.

The war threatens to trigger a wider conflict, with Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon trading fire along the border. Attacks by Hezbollah on Sunday wounded seven Israeli troops and 10 others, Israel’s military and rescue services said.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Zelenskiy tells Ukrainians to prepare for Russian winter onslaught

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned Ukrainians on Sunday to prepare for new waves of Russian attacks on infrastructure as winter approached and said troops were anticipating an onslaught in the eastern theatre of the war.

A military spokesman said Russian attacks on the shattered eastern town of Avdiivka had eased in the past day, but were likely to intensify in the coming days.

And Ukrainian military intelligence said an explosion killed at least three Russian servicemen in the Russian-occupied southern town of Melitopol, which it described as an "act of revenge" by resistance groups.

Zelenskiy issued his warning during his nightly video address a day after Russian forces carried out their first missile attack on the capital, Kyiv in some seven weeks.

"We are almost half way through November and must be prepared for the fact that the enemy may increase the number of drone or missile strikes on our infrastructure," Zelenskiy said. "Russia is preparing for Ukraine. And here, in Ukraine, all attention should be focused on defence, on responding to terrorists on everything that Ukraine can do to get through the winter and improve our soldiers' capabilities."

Last winter about 10 months into Russia's invasion of neighbour Ukraine, Russia made waves of attacks on power stations and other plants linked to the energy network, prompting rolling blackouts in widely separated regions.

Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Saturday that Ukraine would have enough energy resources to get through the winter, but added: "The question is how much future attacks can affect supplies."

Ukrainian officials last Wednesday said Russia had struck Ukrainian infrastructure 60 times in recent weeks, an indication that a campaign of attacks may already be under way.

In his remarks, Zelenskiy hailed the "heroic" efforts of troops defending Avdiivka, under pressure from attempted Russian advances since mid-October. Pictures show buildings in the town reduced to shells.

Military spokesman Oleksandr Shtupun said the number of infantry attacks in the past 24 hours was half of levels earlier in the week, but air strikes were on the rise.

"The enemy suffered significant losses the day before yesterday and has to regroup," Shtupun told national television.

The head of Ukraine's ground forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Telegram that Moscow's forces were "more active in the Bakhmut sector and trying to recover lost positions".

Bakhmut, north of the city of Donetsk, was captured by Russian forces in May after months of heavy combat, but Ukrainian troops have since retaken nearby villages.

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Russian accounts of the fighting on Sunday said its forces had repelled five Ukrainian attacks near Bakhmut.

Reuters could not verify accounts from either side.

In Melitopol, a hub for Russian occupation forces, the blast killed three men during a meeting at a post office used as a military headquarters, Ukraine's military intelligence directorate said. The dead were officers of Russia's National Guard or FSB intelligence service, the directorate said in a statement.

There was no comment from Russian officials.

Ukraine's military has been increasingly active in attacking Russian-held areas, but does not always acknowledge the strikes.

** Blast kills three Russian officers in occupied town, Ukraine intelligence says

At least three Russian officers were killed in the Moscow-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol in a blast Ukraine's intelligence said on Sunday was an "act of revenge" by local resistance groups.

The blast occurred during a meeting on Saturday of Russian officers in Melitopol, a town in southwestern Ukraine that has become a hub of Russian forces after they captured it in early days of the war.

"This act of revenge, carried out by representatives of the local resistance movement, took place in the (post) offices seized by the Russians," the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's intelligence department said on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters could not independently verify the Ukrainian intelligence claim. Russia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters' request to comment.

The Ukraine intelligence statement said the Saturday meeting was attended by Russian National Guard and FSB intelligence service officers.

"As a result of the explosion at least three National Guard officers were killed at the headquarters," the statement said. "Information of other enemy losses is being clarified."

Both Russia and Ukraine have often underestimated their military casualties in the 20-month-long war, while exaggerated the losses they claim to have inflicted upon each other.

Ukraine has carried out a number of attacks on Melitopol, a town in the Zaporizhzhia region which had a pre-war population of about 150,000 which has become key to Moscow's defence of the lands it now controls in Ukraine's south.

"The enemy does not learn anything and continues to organise its headquarters there," Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, told Ukrainian public television.

Ukraine, which launched a slow and gruelling counteroffensive in the south and east in early June has retaken only a handful of small villages along the front. Kyiv said retaking Melitopol would open a route to the Crimean Peninsula for Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainian forces staged a missile attack on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Russian-annexed Crimea in September. Ukrainian media said an attack last week on the occupied town of Skadovsk in Kherson region also targeted Russian officers.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Next month could decide Ukraine conflict – Macron

The Ukraine conflict could reach a turning point by the end of this year, French President Emmanuel Macron has predicted, several months into Kiev’s counteroffensive, which has so far failed to make significant gains. However, he ruled out the possibility of Ukraine opening talks with Russia in the foreseeable future.

In an interview with the BBC released on Friday, Macron claimed that if Moscow prevails over Kiev, “you will have a new imperial power” in Europe that, he argued, would threaten many of its neighbors, including former Soviet republics.

The French leader reiterated that the West should continue to support Ukraine with military assistance, arguing that next month will be critical in the conflict. However, he did not specify how events in December could affect the eventual outcome.

Regarding a possible cessation of hostilities, Macron suggested that it is “not yet” time for Ukraine to come to the negotiating table with Russia, and that a decision on the matter should be made by Kiev independently. However, he said that at some point it might be possible to “have fair and good negotiations, and to come back to the table and find a solution with Russia”.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been underway since early June, but the frontline remains largely unchanged. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has estimated Ukrainian losses at more than 90,000 service members as well as 600 tanks and 1,900 armored vehicles since the start of the push.

US network NBC News reported last week that Western officials were engaged in “delicate” talks with Kiev to see whether it could consider some concessions to Russia to end the fighting. According to the article, the calls were driven by fears in the West that the hostilities have “reached a stalemate,” and that Ukraine is “running out of forces.”

Russia has repeatedly said it is open to talks with Kiev. Last autumn, however, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree banning all negotiations with the current leadership in Moscow after four former Ukrainian regions overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in public referendums.

Last year, Macron suggested that any peace talks on Ukraine would have to include discussions on security guarantees for Russia, especially regarding the positioning of NATO forces in Europe. Ukrainian officials, however, rejected the idea out of hand.

Reuters/RT

Lawrence Mofoluwaso Olamiti is essentially a newsman, an inquisitive reporter in the footsteps of Africa's legendary news hounds like inimitable Segun Osoba. Theo Ola, Peter Ajayi, Dayo Duyile, Femi Ogunleye, Femi Sonaike and Sola Odunfa to mention a few. He masters the rudiments, the art and craft of news reporting the way a surgeon trains his scalpels. Luckily for Folu, fortune brought him into the notice of the Sage, Obafemi Awolowo, very early in his career and this singular fortune enriched the quality and scope of his news reporting and eventful  journalism career.

As to be expected, A PEEP INTO THE PAST Chronicles the most outstanding news and feature stories written by Folu over the years and most of those stories are about Awolowo's journeys and travails in politics since 1978, the year the Unity Party of Nigeria ( UPN) was founded. This is where Folu's exceptional reportorial skills are best demonstrated, and surprisingly so, because this period coincided with his formative years in journalism. 

The section titled Tributes is a grand display of emotions and appreciation. And leaving through those pages Olamiti as  a very sincere and appreciative being who places a great premium on friendship. He also lavished on those who have helped him one way or the other in his climb in the journey of life.  The tribute to the Matriarch of Awo Dynasty, Hannah  Dideolu Awolowo, gives an insight into the historic lady's under-estimated greatness and political sagacity.  The piece is a classic example of Folu's mastery of imagery and visuals and Mrs Awolowo is presented in a way that one feels her physical presence.  

The same vividness runs through the tributes to Caroline Akin-Deko, Arisekola Alao, Isaac Aluko-Olokun, MacDonald  Chikwendu Nwariaku, Uriah Angulu, Ebenezer Babatope,

and Rufus Eniola Ariyo,

among several people Folu brings up for praise and appreciation. 

This book is more or less a guide and a tutorial on political reporting as well as a study in human and public relations.  Even though it is not a biography or autobiography, it nonetheless reveals the innermost character trait of Folu as a humanist, a philosopher imbued with deepest candour and spiritual piety. It could well have been titled “A Peep into Folu's Mind”.

It is in the travelogue that Folu displays his mastery of prose and development of cinematography in a way that marks him out as a distinguished record keeper with keen eye on details. He describes the towns, cities and other places he has visited such that would create curiosity in the reader and may compel unscheduled adventure. His narratives are so appetizing and tantalizing and the reader is put in the same mode of a traveller thirsting for wine.

The book gives vivid account of Folu's meritorious service as the longest Resident Public Affairs Director for the Independent  Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission ( ICPC) as well as an insight  into the workings of the Agency. 

Similar attention is given to Idanre, the place of his birth, which he celebrates to no end. Idanre to Folu is like Water to Life, or more appropriately like Air to Life. It is with the same gusto he treats Idanre he gives to narratives about his international affairs.

A PEEP INTO THE PAST is a book that showcases news reporting features writing exemplary deployment of images and imagery, while in the same vein shows the techniques of public relations and image management. The reader is led into the workings of international journalism, international politics, and how rare opportunities shape the life of man.

The book has opened my mind to Olamiti's mind, and readers will find the book stimulating and engaging. A Peep into the Past is highly recommended to Journalism institutions as well as students of public and human relations. 

“Governments are best classified by considering who are the ‘somebodies’ they are, in fact, endeavouring to satisfy” – Alfred North Whitehead, 1861-1947

Since his first day in office, when he declared, prematurely, that “subsidy is gone”, President Bola Tinubu has stumbled from one policy decision after another with the intention of dealing effectively and satisfactorily with the after-effects of subsidy removal – without success so far. Instead of providing relief, the Federal Government appears to be making things worse for just about everybody; including state and local governments.

Tinubu, so far, deserves credit for one thing; except for those newly appointed to plum jobs, his policies and actions have not discriminated on the basis of ethnicity, zone, political affiliation, age, gender or religion. Just about everybody in Nigeria today is miserable. Even two of my closest friends, as fanatical supporters of Tinubu before the 2023 election as I was about Buhari in 2011 and 2015, now voice all sorts of maledictions when his name is mentioned.

One, whose business has been wrecked by subsidy removal, is so bitter, tears fall from his eyes every time he recollects the money he spent during the campaign in his area to ensure Tinubu’s victory. He repeatedly asks me: “Dele, did we vote for this?” “Yes you did.” That was my answer; and it is the same answer for all those who failed to make the 2023 election a declaration of no confidence in APC as a ruling party.

However, before going forward with my deeply-felt complaint about “Tinubuism” – a novel sort of political leadership unfolding before us, permit me to make a few comments about a trending matter.

WHO IS GOVERNMENT ELECTED TO SERVE?

“It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong [of a government]” -Jeremy Bentham, 1748-1832

Several philosophers, leaders and statesmen have attempted to provide us with an objective measurement of government’s performance. I strongly believe that Bentham’s idea – the greatest possible good for the greatest number of inhabitants of a country should be the criterion for determining if a government is moving in the right direction or not. This is particularly true of a democracy – which somebody else has defined as “government of the people by the people for the people”.

That is why we vote in democracies; instead of having governments imposed on us. In February 2023, Nigerians voted and a government has emerged. People and those in government need to be reminded that Bentham never said “only those who voted for the ruling party” – just the majority of the people. He knew that it is impossible for any government to please everybody. I also know, from researches and readings, before and after writing the quotations book, that every change of government (even when a political party succeeds itself) produces losers and winners. Some are elevated; others are downgraded in the cake-sharing which inevitably follows.

Because worldwide we live in an era of rising expectations, just as it is expected that a medical clinic would not add to its patients’ problems, people living in a country also expect that a government will not make their lives worse than before. Nigerians are not different. A presidential candidate, who was promoted as a miracle worker, should not be surprised if everybody expected miracles from the first day. When the newly-elected candidate courageously terminated a long standing corrupt atrocity, he built on the expectations.

That was why the immediate repercussions of subsidy removal caught the vast majority of citizens by surprise. So far, it has been all pains and no gains. Worse still, the benefits of subsidy removal are now appearing permanently elusive; and the palliatives are being extended to only the smallest number of Nigerians. The vast majority are being asked to bear the damage to their life styles indefinitely; while only workers in the public sector, less than three millions of 81 million workers, are being offered palliatives as if the rest of us don’t exist. Negotiations have revealed Tinubu and FG’s mind-sets: Only the NLC, TUC, PEGASSAN, ASUU etc matter. The rest of us don’t count.

The most obvious question is: Can a government which declines responsibility for providing subsidy relief for workers in the informal private sector expect those people to cooperate in helping to bring inflation under control? The answer is already being given in the open and supermarkets; where prices of food and other commodities are going to the moon.

Traders, transporters, carpenters, landlords and ladies, barbers and hair-dressers, business centers etc are taking care of themselves – while sending loads of curses and maledictions towards all the Government Houses. Nobody can tell traders not to hoard scarce commodities because the governments in office – particularly the FG – don’t give a damn about them. So, why should they listen to governments which have turned their backs on them after subsidy removal?

RMAFC ENCOURAGING GOVT BANKRUPTCY

“Functions: The body is charged with reviewing the revenue allocation formula every five years, fixing the salary of political office holders, public officers as well as monitoring the inflow of revenues into the coffers of the nation and blocking leakages” – Wikipedia.

The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission was established by Decree 49 of 1989 to ensure, among other things, that governments pay serious attention to revenue mobilisation; that the President of Nigeria and his top executives don’t behave like drunken sailors on shore; spending recklessly.

That was why the framers of the decree, under Ibrahim Babangida, placed mobilisation before allocation. I was privileged to discuss with one of the promoters of the Commission. They were keenly aware that, left to themselves, many governments would lose focus of revenue generation and concentrate only on the allocation or cake-sharing functions.

Unfortunately, the RMAFC has, since the IBB years, become a body only serving the interests of public officials with little regard for revenue mobilisation. Not once during Buhari’s ruinous eight years did the RMAFC raise the alarm that actual revenue each year was out of step with the salaries and others entitlements included in the remuneration package of public servants. Debt is not revenue; but the RMAFC allowed the FG operate as if money borrowed is revenue earned. Nigeria went deeper into debt because the country used debt to pay salaries. The nation was allowed to spend money not earned and which may never be earned by RMAFC which was not established to allocate debt.

It was therefore not surprising that the Commission recently approved increases in salaries and entitlements to various officials. We can all see the alarming result in the numbers of Ministers, Commissioners, Special Assistants and Advisers being appointed by the President and Governors.

Where there is no limit to the number of officials a President or Governor can appoint, a fixed percentage of actual revenue is already allocated to paying these officials – long before the funds are available. And, if the actual revenue collected is less than budget, the first planned expenditure that suffers is capital expenditure. That again explains why the infrastructure gap is getting wider each year – why there is hardly any part of Nigeria where there is no shameful infrastructural deficit. It also explains why there will be few investments.

Vanguard

In today’s competitive job market, retaining talented employees is challenging, particularly given that local companies need to compete against global companies in countries with stronger currencies when hiring great teams. This is how businesses can cultivate nurturing work environments, keep great talent and ensure sustainable growth.

1. What to do

Pay Well: Competitive salaries and benefits packages are your most effective retention tool. This hasn’t changed much, and if you are serious about retention, consider paying above market.

Embrace Freedom: Beyond financial incentives, employees value benefits linked to autonomy. Flexible work hours and remote work options are now expected to be part of the negotiation when hiring. This will ensure you have a happy workforce.

Find Your Purpose: Employees are likelier to stay with a company contributing to a larger societal or environmental cause. A compelling mission provides a sense of purpose beyond daily tasks.

2. Create a culture of belonging

Onboarding Team Members: How you welcome someone into your business is crucial because first impressions are the ones that last. This feeling will stay if the person feels valued and integrated from day one.

Intellectual and Emotional Visibility: Weekly feedback from managers on work performance makes people feel seen and valued, even when the feedback is constructive, and improvement is needed.

Tracking Contribution: Identifying who is thriving – and who needs support – allows for timely interventions. Thriving employees can be promoted, while those struggling can receive counselling. 

Psychological Support: Companies that offer resources for mental and emotional well-being enhance retention by demonstrating care for the holistic health of employees. In the face of rising anxiety and depression, this will be a difference maker.

3. Meaningful contribution

The Power of Meaningful Praise: Sales and customer service live at the core of any business’s performance. Companies that make this a priority generally have happier employees all around.

Shared Narratives: Involve employees in shaping the company’s story. Have an actual book where you write every quarter about how your business progressed and how different people helped.

Share profits: When your company draws profits, share them. Think of more innovative or meaningful forms of measuring and rewarding contributions to create a collective responsibility for the company’s success.

Smart retention drives revenues

Employee retention requires a holistic approach with innovative retention and reward initiatives to fuel sustainable business growth. Taking the right action to retain talented employees is a massive contributor to business sustainability, happier teams and more productive workplaces. 

Having a professional and well-run human resource component is critical to all businesses from the get-go. As global companies increasingly come to Africa to find talent, a strategy that secures staff retention will make a big difference to the business’s bottom line.

Effective employee retention strategies enacted by effective HR realised more engaged employees who get things done. Execution is everything in depressed markets where businesses need to perform.

Rose Elcock is the founder and CEO of VHRS South Africa.

Inc

Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) is speedily uploading polling unit results from Saturday’s governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states on to its IReV portal for public view.

IReV portal is an online platform where the Indepdent National Electoral Commission (INEC) uploads real time the photographic copies of the result sheets from various polling units as soon as recording is concluded.

Designated officers of INEC at the various polling units are expected, as soon as recording and signing of the result sheets are completed, to take the photographs of the results documents with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines and upload them on to IReV with the aid of the same device.

WIthin hours of conclusion of counting in most of the polling units across the three states where the off-cycle governorship election took place on Saturday, well over 70 per cent of the results had been uploaded on to the IReV portal as of the time of our reporter’s visit to the online platform.

The speed with which the results are being uploaded to the IReV portal is in sharp contrast with the almost total collapse of the platform during the 25 February general elections, a development that dealt a huge blow to public perception about the last presidential poll.

Although the Supreme Court last month affirmed the victory of President Bola Tinubu as declared by INEC, it confirmed that the malfunctioning of IReV during the disputed 25 February poll reduced public confidence in the electoral process.

Bayelsa State

As of 11:03pm, the IReV portal indicated that in Bayelsa State, 85.29 per cent of the results had been uploaded, as 1,914 polling unit results had been uploaded out of the 2,242 total polling units.

Imo State

For Imo State, as of 11:18pm, the portal indicated that out of the 4,758 total polling units, 4,287 polling units had been uploaded, representing 90.1 per cent.

Kogi State

For Kogi State, as of 11:20pm, the portal indicated that out of 3,508 polling units, 3,064 polling units had been uploaded, representing 87.34 per cent.

PT

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, said his refinery has secured a license to refine more than 300,000 barrels of Nigerian crude per day and will begin to process gasoline “soon.”

“We don’t want to start our refinery with foreign goods, we want to start with the Nigerian crude,” the billionaire said in an interview Saturday in Riyadh on the sidelines of the Saudi-Nigeria business roundtable. “We’re more than ready and you will see our gasoline products soon.”

The refinery was supposed to start production in August but missed that target in addition to several other over the years. But Dangote insists that his refinery will start producing “very very soon.” The refinery’s first priority is to supply gasoline to Nigeria before exporting to elsewhere, including the West African region, he said.

The 650,000 barrel-a-day facility, which is expected to produce 27 million liters of diesel, 11 million liters of kerosene and 9 million liters of jet fuel, will receive crude from other producers in Nigeria, as well as the country’s state oil company, said Dangote, whose fortune is estimated at $16.2 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Nigeria increased its oil output by 60,000 barrels per day last month, reaching 1.49 million barrels per day — the highest in almost two years. The West African nation has launched a new grade of crude called Nembe through a joint venture, as the nation ramps up its oil output.

The Nembe crude stream is expected to be managed and marketed by a joint venture between state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and oil firm Aiteo Eastern E&P Co. Ltd.

Crude theft and attacks on pipelines in the Niger Delta have crippled the OPEC member’s ability to meet its quota, meaning that the Nigerian government has been struggling to meet its revenue targets.

Bloomberg

Pope Francis has dismissed Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of Tyler, Texas, one of his fiercest critics among U.S. Roman Catholic conservatives, a Vatican statement said on Saturday.

It is very rare for a bishop to be relieved of his duties outright. Usually bishops in trouble with the Vatican are asked to resign before submitting a resignation, which the pope accepts.

Popes make such moves, considered drastic, when a bishop refuses a request to resign. Strickland is 65, 10 years shy of the usual retirement age for bishops. Strickland had said earlier this year that he would refuse to resign if asked.

Strickland, a prolific user of social media who was named to the diocese by the late Pope Benedict in 2012, tweeted earlier this year that he rejected Pope Francis' "program undermining the Deposit of Faith".

He has been particularly critical of the pope's attempt to make the Church more welcoming to the LGBT community and attempts by Francis to give lay people more responsibility in the Church and opposed a recent synod.

The dismissal followed a Vatican investigation earlier this year into the administration of the Tyler diocese, which Catholic media reports said included a review of his handling of financial affairs.

It was announced simultaneously by the Vatican and the U.S. Bishops Conference. Neither statement gave a reason.

There was no immediate response from Strickland. A recording on the diocese's telephone said they were closed for the weekend.

Strickland had become one of the most vocal standard bearers of the ultra-conservative wing of the U.S. Church and has a national following far beyond the small diocese of Tyler in eastern Texas.

Last August, the pope lamented what he called a "reactionary" Catholic Church in the United States, where he said political ideology had replaced faith in some cases.

Strickland is a strong supporter of former U.S. president Donald Trump and is seen as a hero by conservative U.S. Catholic media outlets that are aligned with Trump.

Last year, when the Vatican defrocked ultra-conservative U.S. anti-abortion priest Frank Pavone for "blasphemous" social media posts and disobedience to bishops, Strickland was one of the few American bishops to defend him publicly.

"The blasphemy is that this holy priest is canceled while an evil president promotes the denial of truth and the murder of the unborn at every turn, Vatican officials promote immorality and denial of the deposit of faith and priests promote gender confusion devastating lives...evil," Strickland wrote on the platform then known as Twitter.

The Vatican said Francis named the bishop of Austin, Texas, Joe Vasquez, as the interim administrator of the Tyler diocese.

Reuters

Hospitals have special protection under the rules of war. Why are they in the crosshairs in Gaza?

The head of surgery at Gaza’s largest and most advanced hospital held up his phone Saturday to the hammering of gunfire and artillery shelling. “Listen,” said Marwan Abu Sada as fighting raged around Shifa Hospital.

Shells hissed through the hospital courtyard and crashed into wards while Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants locked in close quarters combat. Doctors tried to help patients even as they ran for cover.

Abu Sada described Shifa as a deathtrap for thousands of war-wounded, medical staff and displaced civilians sheltering there. The Israeli military denied it launched direct strikes or placed Shifa under siege.

In this Israel-Hamas war, hospitals in the main combat zone of northern Gaza have increasingly ended up in the crosshairs as Israeli tanks crunch through the hollowed-out heart of Gaza City. They have also become flashpoints for warring narratives.

Israel says Hamas militants are using hospitals as shields for fighters but hasn’t provided evidence of that, while Palestinians and rights groups accuse Israel of recklessly harming civilians seeking shelter.

The battles around Shifa on Saturday raised an urgent question: When do medical facilities lose special protection under international humanitarian law?

WHAT DOES ISRAEL SAY?

Israel claims that Hamas locates military assets under hospitals and other sensitive sites like schools and mosques. Bloodshed serves Hamas’ agenda, it says, winning international attention and sympathy for the Palestinian cause.

Israel has singled out Shifa, claiming Hamas operates its command headquarters beneath the hospital complex. The Israeli military has released an illustrated map of Shifa marked with claimed locations of the underground militant installations, without offering further evidence. Hamas, and Shifa Hospital Director Mohammed Abu Selmia, deny this.

Israel has said it will pursue Hamas fighters wherever they are, while trying to spare civilian lives.

“If we see Hamas terrorists firing from hospitals, we’ll do what we need to do,” Israeli army spokesperson Richard Hecht said.

Last week Israel defended its bombing of an ambulance convoy evacuating wounded patients from Shifa, alleging that it was carrying Hamas fighters. That strike killed at least 12 bystanders, Abu Selmia said.

Asked about Saturday’s events at Shifa, the chief Israeli military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said the forces were not besieging Shifa Hospital but allowing a safe exit point on the hospital’s eastern side. He said the army was in touch with hospital officials and would help to move babies being treated there to a different hospital Sunday.

Israeli forces also battled Hamas militants in the rubble-filled streets outside Gaza’s Rantisi Hospital for Children, humanitarian officials reported. The Israeli army alleged it identified Hamas militants embedded among civilians in Rantisi when swarming the area last week. Some militants fled after the army opened an evacuation corridor for civilians, it said.

Rantisi Hospital shut down Friday after running out of fuel, said the World Health Organization, and it’s unclear how many people evacuated.

Amos Yadlin, former head of Israeli military intelligence, told Israel’s Channel 12 that the intensifying fight over Shifa and other hospitals creates moral and military dilemmas for commanders.

“Despite that we intend to deal with these hospitals,” he added. “Today it’s clear to all that they are the key command centers of Hamas.”

WHAT DO PALESTINIANS SAY?

Throughout the war, Palestinian families fleeing bombed-out homes have taken refuge in medical compounds, believing them to be safer than other alternatives.

Kamal Najar, a 35-year-old who sheltered at Shifa with his toddler son and infant daughter this week, said he believed that the hospital would be “off-limits, even for Israel.”

“It was the thing we somehow told ourselves wouldn’t happen,” he said, speaking by phone from the central city of Deir al-Balah, where he arrived by foot Friday after escaping what he said were strikes on the hospital with tens of thousands of others.

On Saturday, some 1,500 patients, along with 1,500 medical workers and some 15,000 displaced people were still stranded at Shifa, health authorities said. They said a blackout plunged Shifa Hospital into darkness and switched off life-saving equipment, killing several patients — including a newborn in an incubator.

Palestinian medical workers accuse Israel of mounting an all-out attack on infrastructure to punish the population and force a surrender. “It’s to say, ‘Not only will we kill and wound you, we will ensure you have nowhere to go to be treated,’” said Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a British Palestinian surgeon working for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza City.

Some 190 medical workers were among more than 11,000 Palestinians killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Ongoing Israeli bombardment has wrecked 31 ambulances and knocked 20 hospitals out of operation, the ministry said. The war was triggered by Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed.

“Death always feels close,” said Naseem Hassan, a 48-year-old medic in the southern city of Khan Younis. Too many colleagues, he said, have left the hospital only to return hours later in body bags. He had a close call Thursday when two missiles landed just meters from his ambulance.

“This is a war of all-out destruction and there is no protection anywhere,” he said. “Israel could be more precise but it’s choosing not to be.”

Israel has said it targets Hamas fighters, not civilians. However, it has used powerful explosives in strikes on densely populated areas that have killed large numbers of women and children.

WHAT DOES INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW SAY?

The claims and counterclaims over Gaza’s hospitals have raised pressing questions about what is allowed under international laws governing war.

International humanitarian law lends hospitals special protections during war. But hospitals can lose their protections if combatants use them to hide fighters or store weapons, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

Nonetheless, there must be plenty of warning before attacks to allow for the safe evacuation of patients and medical workers, ICRC legal officer Cordula Droege said.

Even if Israel succeeds in proving Shifa conceals a Hamas command center, the tenets of international law remain in place, said Jessica Wolfendale, expert in military ethics at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.

“It doesn’t license an instant attack,” she said. “Steps need to be taken to protect the innocent as much as possible.”

If the harm to civilians is disproportionate to the military objective, the attack is illegal under international law.

In an editorial published Friday in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan issued a warning to combatants that the burden of proof is on them if they claim hospitals, schools or houses of worship have lost their protected status because they are being used for military purposes. And the bar for evidence is very high.

“If there is a doubt that a civilian object has lost its protective status, the attacker must assume that it is protected,” Khan wrote. “The burden of demonstrating that this protective status is lost rests with those who fire the gun, the missile, or the rocket in question.”

AP