WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian forces press on in east, inflict casualties in south, officials say

Ukraine on Thursday pressed on with a gruelling campaign to regain ground near the shattered Russian-held city of Bakhmut and inflicted heavy casualties on Russian forces on the southern front, senior military officials said.

The Ukrainian accounts outlined fierce fighting in many parts of the eastern front, but no new breakthroughs in the three-month old counter offensive.

Ukrainian advances have been much slower than gains they recorded last year in recovering territory in the northeast, as they proceed methodically in the face of deep Russian entrenchments.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other officials have dismissed Western critics who say the three-month offensive is too slow and hampered by strategic errors, like placing troops in the wrong places.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces had repelled eight attacks in the east in hotly contested areas south of Bakhmut.

Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister, Hanna Maliar, said Kyiv's forces were making gains around three villages south of Bakhmut - including Andriivka.

"Progress has been made there," she said on the Telegram messaging app.

Maliar initially reported that Andriivka had been brought under Ukrainian control, but later said that was inaccurate as fighting was still raging around the village.

Russian forces captured Bakhmut in May after months of battles left the city in ruins. Ukrainian forces have since been chipping away at Russian positions, notably south of Bakhmut.

Maliar made no mention of the towns of Avdiivka and Maryinka, further south in Donetsk region, a day after she said both were being subjected to heavy Russian attacks.

On the southern front, where Ukrainian forces have focused on capturing clusters of villages in a drive towards the Sea of Azov, Maliar said Russian troops had sustained "significant losses" in attacks on key towns.

The Russian casualties, Maliar said, had "significantly reduced their ability to defend themselves".

The drive southward is intended to split a land bridge created by Russian forces between the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, and areas they hold in the east, expanded by their full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.

Oleksander Shtupun, spokesperson for troops on the southern front, underscored the heavy extent of Russian losses in Moscow's attempts to recover lost positions.

"The enemy, as a result of attempts to recapture at least some of the lost positions in the Tavria (south) direction in the last two days has lost 15 tanks and 12 armoured vehicles," he said on national television.

He put Russian personnel losses at 665 over the two days.

Reuters could not verify any of the battlefield reports.

** Ukraine attacks Russian warships in Black Sea, destroys air defences in Crimea, Kyiv says

Ukraine said on Thursday it attacked two Russian patrol ships and destroyed a sophisticated air defence system in the west of occupied Crimea, ramping up its strikes to challenge Moscow's dominance in the Black Sea region.

The attacks come a day after Kyiv said it seriously damaged a Russian submarine and landing ship undergoing repairs in a missile strike on a shipyard in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

The Ukrainian military, in a post on Telegram messenger, said it hit two Russian patrol boats in the southwest of the Black Sea, causing "certain damage" in a morning attack.

"The (Sergei) Kotov was hit," military intelligence official Andriy Yusov told Reuters, sharing a grainy video circulated online by a Ukrainian government minister that appeared to show sea drones attacking a vessel at sea.

The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed an attack on the Sergei Kotov in a morning statement, but said the assault involving five sea drones was repelled. It made no mention of damage.

Reuters could not independently confirm the reports or the video.

The southwestern location of the attack would indicate Ukraine's ability to strike Russian targets far from its coast.

While Kyiv's counteroffensive in the south and east has been slowed by minefields and Russian defensive lines, fighting has escalated in the Black Sea region where Russia is imposing a de facto blockade on Ukraine's seaborne exports.

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Russian drones have regularly attacked Ukrainian port infrastructure along the Danube River, a vital alternative export route for the major grain producer. It uses its Black Sea Fleet to rain down missiles on Ukrainian targets from afar.

Ukraine's embattled navy has used sea drones to strike back, hitting the Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship near Russia's naval base at Novorossiysk early last month and a Russian fuel tanker.

'THREE KEY TASKS'

Senior presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine was focused on three key tasks aimed at the de-occupation of the peninsula, which lies far behind the battlelines of southern Ukraine.

Kyiv, he said, was targeting air defence systems to open up the path to more strikes on Russian military and warehouse infrastructure. Kyiv was also attacking transport logistics to "stop the large-scale continuous supply of resources and reserves into the area of active hostilities," he said.

"We need to chase away remnants of the Russian Black Sea fleet from Crimean territorial waters and beyond and reinstate the status of the Black Sea as the sea of external jurisdiction," he wrote in English.

Russia regards the peninsula as strategically important and uses its Black Sea Fleet to project power.

Ukraine's military said it had hit Russian air defence systems in a long-range attack in the early hours of Thursday near the town of Yevpatoriya in the west of Crimea, which was seized by Moscow in 2014.

Russia's defence ministry said its air defences shot down 11 drones overnight over the peninsula and did not mention damage.

Footage circulated on social media showed powerful explosions and a plume of smoke rising in the night sky illuminated by a blaze. Reuters could not verify the video.

A Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters that drones blinded the Russian air defence system by attacking its radar and antenna, and that two Neptune cruise missiles were fired at its launchers.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the account.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Expansion of US sanctions targets Russia's defense, energy, financial sectors — Blinken

The United States is expanding Russia-related sanctions lists targeting more companies in its defense industry, energy and financial sectors, as well as elites, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced.

"The Departments of State and the Treasury are imposing further sanctions on over 150 individuals and entities <…>, " according to a written statement by Blinken. It is specified that sanctions are imposed in connection with the special military operation in Ukraine.

"As part of today’s action, the U.S. government is targeting individuals and entities engaged in sanctions evasion and circumvention, those complicit in furthering Russia’s ability to wage its war against Ukraine, and those responsible for bolstering Russia’s future energy production," the US top diplomat says.

In a similar statement by the US Treasury it is noted that the sanctions are imposed "on Russia’s elites and its industrial base, financial institutions, and technology suppliers."

According to Blinken, the Department of State is applying the current sanctions in an attempt to limit not only Russia's oil and gas production, but also its "export capacity potential" and "operating in Russia’s metals and mining sectors." In addition, the restrictions are aimed at "numerous entities producing and repairing Russian weapon systems, including the Kalibr cruise missile."

These restrictive measures were also introduced against Russian Pavel Shevelin, "an individual affiliated with the Wagner Group involved in the shipment of munitions from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the Russian Federation," the Department of State claims.

Finally, the sanctions affected the "Georgian-Russian" businessman Otar Partskhaladze, Blinken said. According to his version, this businessman "has leveraged to influence Georgian society and politics for the benefit of Russia."

Reuters/Tass

It’s not often that you meet Supreme Court justices, serving or retired. I first met retired Justice Sunday Akinola Akintan casually at a reception in Abuja, for my friend and radical lawyer, Yinka Olumide-Fusika, who had been admitted to the inner bar. Then, we met again about one year later, this time, through his book.

Years after his retirement from the Supreme Court in 2008, Akintan wrote a book, entitled, “Reminiscences: My Journey Through Life,” which Olumide-Fusika asked me to review. What struck me was one of Akintan’s motivations for writing the book. It was an answer to T.O.S Benson’s advice not to be buried without writing a book, which would be a waste of a life’s worth of library. 

If his lordship decided to write just to remember the road he travelled and to share his odyssey, it would still have been a good book. But it was even better because in a profession where the burden of office elevates discretion almost to the oeuvre of a cult, his desire to shed light is a valuable gift. 

There are a couple of rare insights in the book. One of them, which has assumed significant monstrosity over the years, is how the judiciary could not see that getting more and more involved in deciding electoral outcomes would drag it in the mud. 

Or maybe the judiciary saw it but decided, with a helping hand from the inner bar, to take Oscar Wilde’s advice to overcome the problem by yielding to it. And now, it’s beyond entanglement; the Bench is enmeshed!

Over 10 hours of studiously reading a judgment which five judges of the Court of Appeal must have thought was their utmost to deliver justice still left behind a trail of disenchantment, suspicion and criticisms. Not a few, rather sadly and regrettably, still believe it was the judicial equivalent of a grudge match.

As it was…

The judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) last week in the case involving the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar; Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP); and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in which the panel dismissed the petitions against the February 25 election of President Bola Tinubu, has once again put the judiciary in the spotlight.

In the midst of the outrage that followed the judgment, especially among the supporters of Abubakar and Obi, I turned, once again, to Akintan’s book for help to find my way through the maelstrom. And he should know. He’s seen election petitions since 1979.

It's a measure of how we have learnt to forget that the account of the retired justice of the Supreme Court of what happened 20 years ago reads like excerpts from today’s newspapers. If we had paid any heed then, it’s unlikely that the country would be in a place today where the outcome of virtually every election depends not on who voters choose at the ballot, but on who the courts decide.

In Reminiscences, Akintan writes that one of the two most significant things that happened to him when he returned to the Port Harcourt division on a rare second tour of duty as Presiding Judge of the Court of Appeal, was dealing with matters arising from the 2003 general elections. 

There was something about the 2003 election that set his hair on edge and raked his conscience over the coals of the sacred pledge he had made to himself and his family at the beginning of his career not to stain his name. Post-election litigations up and down the country were fierce and bitter. 

But the one between ANPP’s presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari and candidate of the PDP, Olusegun Obasanjo, after the 2003 election was so bitter and so fierce that Buhari called for nationwide protests, because he said the judiciary had been compromised.

Clear, present danger

That was only a foreshadow of what was to come. As the years went by the judiciary came under increasing strain. The stakes, for politicians, got even higher. “They exposed the judges and the entire staff of the judiciary to contacts with the politicians,” Akintan writes, “with the attendant possibility of exposing them to corruption.” What was then a possibility is now a consuming danger.

Akintan was assigned 52 petitions in Port Harcourt alone. On top of that, the President of the Court of Appeal told him he had to go to Jos for eight pending governorship election petitions, which the president of the court obviously needed a trustworthy judge to handle.

To avoid contact with litigants and their lawyers, never mind the felicity of some determined folks even thinking of sending him Sallah ram directly or by proxy as we heard in a recent case in Kano, Akintan moved his base from Port Harcourt to his home town, Idanre, Ondo State.

In spite of the severe scarcity of petrol at the time, it was from Idanre that he commuted weekly to Jos through Abuja. Even in Jos, he still could not trust his driver would not be used to get him.

“Once we arrived in the court in Jos,” he recalls, “I used to collect the car ignition key from my driver to ensure there was no breach of the car being taken into town for any reason.”

According to Akintan, by the time he retired from the Supreme Court in 2008, the system had almost been overwhelmed with politicians working hand-in-gloves with lawyers to suborn elections. Trust and confidence had become casualties.

“The position grew so wild after the 2015 elections,” he writes, “that the number of election petitions far outstripped all other cases filed in all the courts in the country. Many of the senior lawyers who had cornered the very lucrative briefs from the election petitions amassed stupendous wealth.” 

Unfortunately, and in spite of the valiant efforts by a few conscientious judges still on the Bench, the cloud of suspicion has, regrettably, thickened. 

Abuja special status

Apart from Akintan’s personal decision to be different, there was something else in Reminiscences that caught my attention: the judgment in Joseph Ona & another V. Diga Romani Atenda (2000), in which he played a leading role. This judgment by the Court of Appeal, in my view, addressed one of the vexatious points in Obi’s petition that a candidate must have 25 percent of the votes cast in Abuja or else cannot be declared validly elected. 

Until I read the summary judgment in the book, I was under the impression that Abuja residents had two heads; that apart from having a special political status, the dichotomy between “settlers” and “indigenes” was also real.

But in the judgment in the case under reference – a case of trespass, harassment, humiliation and defamation in a land dispute – which was, in fact, referred from the High Court to the Court of Appeal for determination, the court made it clear residents of the Federal Capital Territory are by no means special.

In the words of Akintan, “It is (therefore) totally illegal for any of them to claim any special right over any other Nigerian occupier of the territory.”

Conclusion of the matter

If there is no dichotomy in the status of residents, and they have no exclusive proprietary right over and above citizens anywhere in the country, how can they claim a casting vote that holds the country to ransom at elections? It would be interesting to see how the Supreme Court answers this and other questions that would come before it in the Abubakar-Obi appeal. 

What I hear former Supreme Court Justice Akintan say, clearly in Reminiscences, is that the fewer court-imposed candidates we have – and one might add, the less crooked the political parties, the election management body and the media – the better for the electoral system and the judiciary.

** Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP 

A 6-year longitudinal neuroimaging study in Germany found that social isolation contributes to brain atrophy (progressive loss of brain tissue) and cognitive decline in humans. More socially isolated individuals tended to have smaller volumes in the hippocampus, reduced cortical thickness, and poorer cognitive functioning. Results indicate that dementia risk might be reduced by promoting better social connectedness, particularly among older adults. The study was published in eLife.

As the average duration of human life increases, there are more and more individuals experiencing cognitive and brain changes associated with old age. These changes are multifaceted and can vary from person to person. With age, brain volume tends to shrink, particularly in regions associated with memory and learning, such as the hippocampus. This can result in mild cognitive decline, with some forgetfulness and slower processing speed being common. As the person ages, working memory, the ability to hold and manipulate information, may also decline.

Older adults often compensate for these cognitive changes by relying on accumulated knowledge and experience. However, the impairments sometimes become very severe indicating conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Dementia is the collective name for a group of disorders characterized by a severe decline in cognitive function, affecting memory, thinking, and daily functioning.

Studies have indicated that social isolation, the objective lack of contact with other people, may be one of the factors accelerating the cognitive decline of older adults. Neuroimaging studies have found adverse changes in the microstructure of the brain and lower volumes of neural tissue in brain regions like the hippocampus in socially isolated adults. The data point to a clear adverse effect of social isolation on brain health. But previous studies often used small samples and did not observe changed over time.

Study author Laurenz Lammer and his colleagues wanted to examine how the volume of the neural tissue in the hippocampus region of the brain changes with age and whether it is associated with social isolation and its change over time. They also wanted to examine whether atrophy of specific regions of the brain, i.e., a progressive loss of brain tissue, the reduction in their volume and size, and Alzheimer’s disease symptoms are associated with social isolation. They hypothesized that more socially isolated individuals will have smaller volume of the hippocampus, thinner brain cortex and poorer cognitive functioning.

“Research on drugs targeting dementia development have not yet yielded any results with a clear clinical benefit, offering at most a minor alleviation of symptoms,” said Lammer, a MD student at University Hospital Leipzig and Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences. “Therefore, preventative measures aimed at stopping or delaying the onset of the disease are of utmost importance, and identifying risk factors for developing the disease may be our most promising target.”

The researchers analyzed data fromLIFE-Adult-Study run by the Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases. This study includes over 10,000 adult participants, mainly between 40 and 79 years of age, from Leipzig, a large city in Germany. Data used in this study were collected between 2011 and 2014 and six years later – 2017-2020.

The researchers used data of 1,335 cognitively healthy participants over 50 years of age who completed magnetic resonance imaging scans at the start of the study. Of these, 912 completed magnetic resonance imaging scans and assessments 6 years later. The average age of participants at the start of the study was 67 years. It was 73 at the follow-up. For specific analyses, researchers included additional participants up to a total of 1,992 for the start of the study and 1,409 for the follow-up. 60% of participants had hypertension.

Participants also completed assessments of social isolation (the Lubben Social Network Scale), chronic stress (the Trierer Inventar zum chroniches Stress, TICS) and cognitive functions (assessments of executive functions, working memory, and processing speed). Cognitive testing was performed in the early part of the day, between 9:00 and 13:00.

The results showed that participants not living alone, married, employed, younger, with no migration background tended to feel less socially isolated. Participants who were more socially isolated at the start of the study and whose social isolation increased after 6 years (in the follow-up) had a smaller volume of the hippocampus region of the brain. These individuals also had poorer performance on the cognitive assessment, particularly on the assessment of the executive function.

“Simply put, assuming that everything else remains stable, the difference between having three or four close and supportive friends is comparable to a one-year difference in hippocampal ageing,” Lammer said in a news release.

Poorer memory was also associated with higher social isolation, but this link disappeared when researchers controlled for potential confounding factors. Processing speed was not associated with social isolation.

The researchers further identified eight clusters of neural cells in the brain associated with social isolation. More socially isolated participants tended to have thinner clusters of brain cells in the left precuneus, cuneus, precentral gyrus and posterior cingulate gyrus, right supramarginal gyrus and cuneus regions of the brain cortex. Increase in social isolation over time was linked with decreased cortical thickness in one cluster in the right superior frontal gyrus region of the brain.

“We showed a significant link between stronger baseline social isolation and increases in social isolation over the course of ~6 years and smaller hippocampal volumes. Both predictors had an effect size per point on the LSNS [measure of social isolation] comparable to a 2.5 months difference in baseline age in this age range. Simply put, assuming that if everything else remained stable, the difference between having 1 or 3–4 close and supportive friends is comparable to a 1-year difference in hippocampal ageing,” the study authors concluded.

The study sheds light on the links between social isolation and brain changes in older adults. However, study authors note that attrition during the 6-year period i.e., the fact that some participants dropped out of the study during the six-year period, might have affected the results. Additionally, all participants were from Germany. Studies on individuals from other cultures might not yield equal results.

“Our study adds support to the view that social isolation is associated with accelerated brain ageing and cognitive decline in mid- to late-life adults,” said senior author Veronica Witte. “Our findings further imply that social contact prevents detrimental processes and thereby preserves brain structure and function. Henceforth, targeting social isolation through tailored strategies might contribute to maintaining brain health into old age and preventing the onset of diseases such as Alzheimer’s dementia.”

PsyPost

When I worked in manufacturing, I regularly visited other facilities to assess productivity, waste, costs, retention – basically everything the plant measured. (And to recommend a few areas they should measure.) 

I was fairly good at spotting problems and creating plans to address those problems, but I didn't follow a formal structure. A little pattern matching, a dollop of experience – those were my guides.

What I needed was the approach described by Jocko Willink, a former Navy SEAL, bestselling author, and leadership instructor in his new class on MasterClass. 

"There are four laws of combat leadership," Jocko says. "Cover and move, simplify, prioritize, and decentralized command. Almost every company has a problem in one or more of those areas."

Take decentralized command. In most startups, the founder naturally makes all the important decisions. As a company grows, that command and control leadership structure makes less and less sense.

"If you're doing everything yourself," Jocko says, "if you are the 'easy' button, you're doing a terrible job as a leader. When most decisions flow through you, your primary focus remains down and in when it needs to be up and out. Making longer-term plans. Developing employees. Building relationships with key vendors, suppliers, and customers."

That's just one example. A company without priorities is a company that may have empowered its employees, and is quick to move – but doesn't necessarily do things that best move the needle.

The four laws of command leadership are a simple framework for assessing the effectiveness, efficiency, leadership, and overall focus of any business. Thinking back, few facilities I assessed scored highly on decentralized command. Most also lacked focus; again, just because you can act quickly doesn't mean you are acting on or reacting to what is truly important.

Because you, as a leader, haven't made your "why" as clear and simple as possible.

"Clearly if an employee understands why," Jocko says, "they tend to make a connection. But that's not enough. Even more important is that the leader understands the employee's why. It may be love for the industry. It may be a step on a career path. It may be as simple as wanting to pay the bills. When a leader understands each person's why, then they can create opportunities that are important to that person."

"In the SEALs, we say if you take care of your gear, your gear will take care of you," Jocko says. 

"The same thing applies to people. If I take care of you, you will take care of me. That's why it's so important to understand why people are working for you, what goals they're trying to achieve, and help them move in that direction." 

And then there's you. To start a company you need to possess irrational optimism. You must embrace self-belief and push aside all the self-doubt: the feeling you aren't smart enough, dedicated enough, adaptable enough, or simply that, in spite of your best intentions and best efforts, you won't succeed.

"As an entrepreneur," Jocko says, "you have to take risks. You have to have an egocentric attitude to move forward. You need to believe in yourself. 

But at some point, you have to shift to a decentralized leadership structure. That means you have to put your ego aside. Your attitude has to shift from "I think I'm right" to "I think I'm wrong, and I need to listen." 

Try it. Take a step back and assess your business using the four laws of combat leadership. 

Does every person both understand and embrace the same priorities? Can you move quickly? (If you can't, the problem likely isn't your employees; the problem is you haven't given them the authority to make decisions.) Are your goals simple and easy to understand?

Most important, have you set your ego aside?

Because, as your business grows, you'll need to. Otherwise, you won't tap into the collective wisdom, talent, and experience of the people around you.

Check out Jocko's class on MasterClass. It's great.

And it will definitely – especially if you're willing to do a little soul-searching – make you a better leader.

Inc

Investors on the stock market of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) have lost N757 billion in two days over the demotion of the exchange from frontier to unclassified market status by FTSE Russell.

The downgrade by FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of London Stock Exchange Group (LSE), was against the backdrop of Nigeria’s foreign exchange (FX) challenges, which was a new source of negative sentiment capable of triggering stock sell off on the market.

The stock market, which had closed last week at N37.295 trillion, dropped by 2.07 per cent or N757 billion to close yesterday at N36.538 trillion.

The NGX All Share Index (NGX ASI) also depreciated by 2.03 per cent or 1,383.14 basis points to 66,760.20 basis points yesterday, from the 68,143.34 basis points it closed for trading last week.

The NGX banking Index, with highest foreign investors participation between last week and yesterday, had declined significantly, amid downward performance in some banking stocks.

Specifically, the NGX banking index dropped by 8.54 per cent in two days to 653.15 basis points, from 714.16 basis points it opened for trading this week.

Despite being dominated by local investors, the downgrade affected stock market performance on the first two trading this week, as most indices recorded notable sell pressures while year-to-date (YTD) returns tumbled to 30.3 per cent yesterday.

Activities in the local bourse have been dominated by local investors, who accounted for 94 per cent of market participants, while foreign investors accounted for six per cent as of July 2023, as analysts noted that the report might not be a major concern for the local market, saying greater concerns are the local dynamics.

Speaking on the report, Vice President, Highcap Securities Limited, David Adnori, attributed the decline in stock market performance to possible downgrade by FTSE Russell, stressing that foreign investors since the report was released have shown negative sentiments.

According to him, “I think the FTSE Russell report may be relevant to foreign investors who have been suffering from the inability to repatriate their dividend for several years.”

FTSE Russell is a subsidiary of London Stock Exchange Group that produces, maintains, licenses, and markets stock market indices. The division is notable for the FTSE 100 Index and Russell 2000 Index, among others.

Nigeria’s downgrade, which had reportedly been ratified by the FTSE Russell Index Governance Board, takes effect from September 18, 2023.

Effectively, the Nigerian index constituents would be deleted at zero value (0.0001 NGN) from five FTSE Russell equity indices, including the FTSE Frontier Index Series, the FTSE Frontier 50 Index, FTSE Ideal Ratings Islamic Index Series, and FTSE/JSE All Africa Index Series.

Others are FTSE Middle East & Africa Extended Index Series and FTSE/MV Exchange Index.

In a report obtained by THISDAY, yesterday, the group stated that the reclassification was further to the June 30, 2023 FTSE Equity Country Classification – Watch List Status for Nigeria, which had analysed feedback from market participants on repatriations.

The ratings agency affirmed that although Nigeria had adopted a floating FX regime for the naira in the Investors & Exporters’ (I&E) FX Window, which is now operating on a “Willing Buyer, Willing Seller” basis, the lack of liquidity in this window continued to adversely affect the ability of international institutional investors to replicate benchmark changes.

The group stated that the country’s downgrade became inevitable as “index changes for Nigeria within FTSE Russell equity indices have been suspended since September 2022 and with no improvement in the ability of international institutional investors to repatriate capital at a foreign exchange rate that would be used in FTSE Russell equity indices.”

It, however, explained, “Nigeria will be retained in the FTSE ASEA Pan Africa Index Series, with the implementation of certain corporate events suspended until further notice.”

Thisday

The federal government has moved the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to the Ministry of Interior as part of efforts to resolve issues around passport processing in the country.

On assumption of office, Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, promised to work towards having the NIMC in the ministry for proper coordination of identity data of Nigerians.

This process is now being accelerated in line with President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s directive to remove all impediments and bottlenecks from obtaining passports.

The National Identity Number (NIN), domiciled in NIMC, is one of the major conditions for obtaining of International Passports.

NIMC was until now supervised by the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy.

A source who would not want to be mentioned because he is not authorised to speak on the matter told our correspondent that a meeting was held on Wednesday at the ministry with staff of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

He said the meeting was to harmonise the activities of the two government organisations.

“The process is ongoing and should be finalised by Friday because there is another meeting scheduled for Friday,” the source at the ministry said.

Under the previous administration, the NIMC in conjunction with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) collaborated for the linkage of NIN with the Subscribers Identity Modules SIM, to fight incidences of kidnapping banditry, and terrorism. Over 100 million Nigerians linked their NIN with SIM within three years.

Daily Trust

Saidu Alkali, the minister of transportation, has inaugurated cargo movement on the single-gauge rail (SGR) from the Apapa port to Ibadan.

Alkali inaugurated the project during his first official tour of the Lagos-Ibadan rail corridor on Tuesday.

The minister kicked off the tour at the Ebute Meta station before proceeding to Apapa for the launch, and then to Ibadan over 

the 157-kilometer rail track.

Alkali flagged off the freight train loaded with 30 wagons (containers) to Ibadan from the Apapa Port Complex.

WE’VE ALWAYS CLAMOURED FOR DIFFERENT MODES OF CARGO

Reacting to the development, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in a post on X, said it always clamoured for “different modes of cargo evacuation out of the ports to lessen the burden on road transportation”. 

The authority said other alternatives are rail and barge operations.

“We are excited about the launch of the single-gauge rail linking Apapa Port to Ibadan,” NPA said.

“In one year, the narrow-gauge rail received 1,886 TEUs of cargo deliveries, 3,640 TEUs of export cargo, 262 TEUs of empty.”

With the SGR, cargo evacuation would be faster and more efficient, the ports authority said.

HAULAGE ON NARROW GUAGE ON LAGOS-KANO CORIDOR TO BEGIN IN 3 MONTHS

Meanwhile, the minister said the freight wagon haulage on the narrow gauge from Lagos to Kano will begin in the next three months.

Alkali spoke when he visited the Kajola Wagon Assembly Plant in Ogun state.

He said the railway corporation was using a standard gauge to carry cargo from Lagos to Ibadan, but will begin the operation from Apapa to Kano in three months’ time.

The minister said the federal government had already fixed the narrow gauge from Lagos to Kano, and will now get some locomotives and wagons to take containers from Apapa and move them to Kano.

“Once we evacuate containers from Lagos, we will use the narrow gauge to move them to Kano,” Alkali said.

The minister directed Fidet Okhiria, managing director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), to look into the cleanliness of the coaches in order to enhance patronage on railways.

FREIGHT RAIL CHARGES HIGHER THAN ROAD MOVEMENT

On his part, Okhiria said the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NCS), being the port regulator, and the former minister of transportation, set up a ministerial committee headed by the former permanent secretary of the ministry of transportation, to look into freight charges.

He said the committee was created to ensure a smooth operation of freight rail.

“The impact on NRC is that the terminals are charging N60,000 per container for moving the container to the wagon freight, which is still higher than the movement on trucks, and the Shippers’ Council is working on that,” he said.

“The terminal charges are high because of the double handling; presently, moving cargo by rail is more expensive than road but is faster.

“We are looking to see how we can do it, we have minimum operational cost, and we don’t need to go and borrow money to buy diesel, that is why we are starting the freight rail movement of cargo handling now.”

Okhiria said the NRC had started the freight rail movement from the port pending when they receive orders from the minister to reduce charges.

WHY OPERATING RAIL FREIGHT ON NARROW GUAGE WAS STOPPED

He said the NRC was operating the rail freight on the narrow gauge before now, but stopped due to security issues.

According to Okhiria, the corporation would use a month to repair all the vandalised tracks on the narrow gauge, adding that the management would also assemble all the wagons and service them before putting them on track.

The managing director said NRC had about 120 narrow gauge wagons, adding that the federal government had been proactive as the corporation had placed orders through the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC).

The Cable

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Putin says millions of Russian volunteers cross the border to join war in Ukraine

More than a quarter of a million Russians have voluntarily joined the armed forces in recent months, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, claiming 1,000-1,500 Russians were signing voluntary contracts to join the military every day.

Ukrainian intelligence stated that the Russian military has concentrated more than 420,000 military personnel in occupied Ukraine. This, as Ukrainian and UK military officials reported that there could be more coming.

** Russia has ‘overcome sanctions’ – NYT

Russia has defied Western sanctions and export controls intended to cripple its military firepower, ramping up missile production to even higher levels than it achieved before the Ukraine conflict began, the New York Times has reported.

Although the sanctions curtailed Russian missile output for approximately six months after Moscow launched its military offensive against Kiev in February 2022, the nation’s defense contractors later managed to restore and even increase their production capacity, the newspaper said on Wednesday, citing unidentified US officials.

The manufacturing feat has left Ukraine “especially vulnerable to intensified attacks in the coming months,” including possible strikes on energy infrastructure in the autumn and winter months, the report added. US officials, who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity, conceded that Russia’s military industrial complex had overcome Western efforts to stymie production.

The officials claimed that Moscow had obtained scarce components through an “extensive smuggling network,” routing them through such countries as Armenia and Türkiye. Part of the problem is that some of the materials aren’t specific to the defense industry and therefore don’t raise red flags.

“One of the challenges for the US government is that Russia does not need higher-end chips that are easier to track, but commoditized chips that can be used in a wide range of things, not just guided missiles,” the newspaper said.

Russia has doubled its production of missiles and artillery shells to as many as 2 million a year, achieving higher output than the combined capacity of Ukraine’s many Western backers, according to the report. Ukrainian officials warned in June that Russia had achieved even larger increases in production of Kalibr and Kh-101 missiles, boosting output as much as fourfold. However, US officials claimed that Russian ammunition producers hadn’t been able to keep pace with the rate of artillery firing in the conflict’s first year, which amounted to around 10 million shells.

Russia also is overcoming Western sanctions economically. The country’s GDP is on track to grow by more than 2% this year after contracting by 2.1% – far less than the 11.2% drop predicted by the World Bank – in 2022. “We have emerged from the crisis, and our prospects for rapid development are good by today’s standards,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last month.  

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says Russian naval vessels badly damaged in Crimea attack

Ukraine said it seriously damaged two Russian naval vessels and struck port infrastructure in the Crimean city of Sevastopol early on Wednesday, in what appeared to be the biggest attack of the war on the home of the Russian navy's Black Sea Fleet.

The strike on Crimea, seized and annexed by Russia in 2014, was confirmed by Moscow. It highlighted Kyiv's growing missile capabilities as Russia continues to bombard Ukraine from afar with long-range missiles and assault drones.

Ukrainian military intelligence official Andriy Yusov told Reuters that a large landing vessel and submarine had been hit in the strike, and later described the damage as "considerable" in televised comments.

"We can say now that it is highly likely (the vessels) are beyond repair," he said.

Russia's defence ministry said that Ukraine attacked a Black Sea naval shipyard with 10 cruise missiles and three uncrewed speedboats in the early hours, damaging two military vessels that had been undergoing repairs.

It said it downed seven of the incoming missiles and that the attack boats had been destroyed by a Russian patrol ship. It later said its two vessels would be fully repaired and return to service, contradicting Kyiv's account.

An image circulated online and verified by Reuters showed a docked vessel that had sustained serious damage.

Ukrainian military analyst Volodymyr Zablotsky told news outlet RBK Ukraina the damaged vessels were the "Minsk" Ropucha-class large landing ship and the "Rostov-on-Don" Kilo-class attack submarine, which can carry Kalibr cruise missiles.

"It carries six torpedoes or four Kalibr missiles in one salvo. So we can calculate that Russia is now down four Kalibr missiles. It would seem that they have lost one missile launcher, at least partially, for several months."

'BIGGEST ATTACK'

Retired Ukrainian navy captain Andriy Ryzhenko, speaking to Reuters by telephone, said: "It really is the biggest attack on Sevastopol since the beginning of the war."

The city is home to the Black Sea Fleet which the Kremlin uses to project power into the Middle East and Mediterranean and - during the war in Ukraine - to impose a de facto blockade on Ukraine's seaborne food exports via the Turkish straits.

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Ukraine has tried to push back against the fleet's naval power by attacking with sea drones packed with explosives, but Russia has continued to use its warships for missile attacks on Ukraine throughout the more than 18-month-old war.

It was not clear what kind of missile was used by Kyiv in the attack on Sevastopol, which lies about 300 km (185 miles) from Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa.

Ryzhenko said Ukraine may have used domestically made Neptune anti-ship missiles that had been modified to work against ground targets. British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles were another possibility, he said.

Britain's Sky News cited unnamed sources saying Storm Shadows were used in the attack.

The West has poured weapons worth billions of dollars into Ukraine to help it fend off Russian forces that have occupied swathes of territory in the south and east since their full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Ukrainian military, which launched a counteroffensive in early June, took the unusual step of publicly claiming responsibility for the strike, something it does not typically do for attacks on Russia or the Crimea peninsula.

"On the morning of Sept. 13 the Ukrainian armed forces conducted successful strikes on naval assets and port infrastructure of the occupiers at the docks of temporarily occupied Sevastopol," it said on Telegram.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea and a major Black Sea port, said on Telegram that at least 24 people had been injured.

He posted a night photo of flames engulfing what appeared to be port infrastructure. Russian Telegram channels posted videos and more photos of flames at a facility by the water.

On the streets of Sevastopol on Wednesday afternoon, residents said the attack had woken them up.

"My child was woken up as well. It was about 3 in the morning. We got very scared. Everything was shaking," said Nadezhda Lunyova.

Euronews/RT/Reuters

Two developments that happened last week seemed disparate but were interconnected. First, it was the Bola Tinubu administration’s 100th day in office. That timeline used to be for an administration to glance back and celebrate its bold and decisive decisions that potentially set the country on track, but this one was rather muted. Several op-eds appraised how the (in)actions of the government foreshadow what is yet to come, but the atmosphere fell short of what one would expect from an administration that exaggerates its own worth.

The second came during the Presidential Electoral Petition Tribunal when one of the judges, Mistura Bolaji-Yusuf, alluded to social media discussions bordering the election petitions. Since the petitioners could not have been the ones intimidating her on social media, her snide comment must have been referring to supporters of the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi.

Here is how I view both incidents: We are at a time when organised political opposition and activism have seriously waned, and filling the lacuna is this diffuse band of disaffected citizens on social media called the Obi-dients.

In the wake of the PEPT judgment, I must have read a dozen articles putting down Obi (and his supporters) for daring to contest the election results. Interestingly—and maybe curiously too—the opprobrium at dragging the election was mostly reserved for Obi. It was almost as if the other petitioner, Atiku Abubakar, did not exist. Commenters, of course, have a right to their reflections, but then, it is always easier to attack what you do not like than to acknowledge its significance.

Pesky irritants they might be, if there is anything still called political opposition and activism in Nigeria now, it is the Obi-dients.

Political opposition in Nigeria takes more than a principled stand against the establishment; it is all shades of risks. Largely because Nigeria runs a mono-economy where all economic power is reposed within the single centralising authority of the presidency, occupation of the post sets you up for invincibility. We can argue that some checks and balances are built into democracy to counterbalance this overwhelming power, but they hardly function as envisaged where the president mostly controls resources. Without economic power, there is no political power, but there can also be no political power without economic power.

What allowed the All Progressives Congress and their band of so-called political activists to survive this impasse while they were the political opposition was that they had Lagos State right from the start. With the immense resources of the state, they set the place up as the organisational centre of political opposition. They could also commandeer the intelligentsia to endow an industry of self-interests with the sheen of principled oppositional activities. From academics to the commentariat, their foot soldiers nurtured regional disaffection while maintaining a superficially ideological stance against the Federal Government.

Whatever you might have against the APC, you cannot but acknowledge their skills at organising political opposition. Most of their so-called “best of the best,” the talents supposedly fished out by their godfather, authenticated their public profile by pretending they stand for progressiveness. What was redacted in the whole farce was the lush state resources that bought the intellectual agenda and moral vision of the APC. It was why they fought tooth and nail to retain Lagos in the last general elections. If the opposition had dislodged the Lagos APC, it would have exposed the rot in their governance system and ended a key source of their power.

Since 2015 when the APC finally achieved its goal of making it to the federal, opposition politics has not been the same. The first problem is that the APC was engineered to be a vehicle for oppositional politics, and they struggled with their change of status. They serially found themselves in this weird place where they concurrently maintained an establishment and anti-establishment attitude. Second, Abuja exposed the ideological vacuity at the base of their opposition politics. Everything they previously stood against while they were the opposing party, they reproduced.

Unfortunately for all of us, there is no equivalent of the APC at either the regional or federal level to stand up to them and enforce a measure of accountability. Nobody can afford to create another organised opposition vehicle like the APC did primarily because nobody has similar access to a steady stream of money. The PDP that should naturally have slid into the space that the APC occupied until 2015 has been found wanting in that respect.

If there is one charge everyone lays against the PDP, which did not help their cause during the 2023 presidential election, it is the poor quality of their opposition politics. The loss of federal power weakened them considerably, hauling them from their powerful position—where they arrogantly boasted they would be in power for 60-100 years—to a state of perpetual perplexity. The party cannot determine how they should function without the federal political power that organised them and has been mostly lethargic. They have yielded significant moments where they could have held their opponents accountable and even scored some political goals. These days, it is hard to remember that that party once housed some of the most powerful politicians in the country. Power changed hands, and chaos ensued.

Not only are they still demoralised from the 2015 aftermath, but the political ambition of their recent presidential candidate, Atiku—who will likely recontest in 2027— demobilises them. Atiku is to the PDP what Donald Trump is to the Republican Party in the United States. His path to the presidency is uncertain, but his followership base is wide enough to keep the flame of his ambitions burning. The hope that he can still make it to the presidency effectively paralyses the party from discovering new talents. Consequently, the party is consigned to serving one man’s political ambition.

Worse for the PDP is that Rivers, the state that could have served as the equivalent of APC’s Lagos, is not quite within their grasp. By appointing a vulgarian who has many axes to grind with the PDP into power, Nyesom Wike, the APC effectively stymied any radical opposition that might come from that direction. Wike is no longer the governor, but he retains a considerable hold on local politics to ensure that Rivers does not become an organising centre for political opposition. He will not leave the PDP, but he will petrify them, so they do not threaten his political future. Even worse, his style of being a member of one political party while serving the party in power will be the model other ideological cross-dressers like him will copy in the coming years.

Judging by the PDP bogged down on one side by Atiku’s ambitions and on the other by Wike’s vindictiveness, the fate of political opposition in the country is doomed.

You can despise the Obi-dients all you like, but they are what subsists as opposition politics in the country for now. They have been resilient. They stood up to some of the APC’s best foot soldiers who dipped their pens in toxic ink jars to denounce the Obi-dients until those ones fell on their own dictionaries and thesauruses.

Their greatest strength so far has been the dispersed nature of its authority—without a leader or an arrowhead, there is nobody to be summoned to Abuja and compromised. For those paying attention to trends, that diffusion is the shape of things to come. Political opposition organising and activism has changed forever universally due to the advancement in technology. For Nigeria, this evolution also coincided with the recession of viable organised political opposition.

You do not like the Obi-dients? That is understandable, but that will also not make them disappear. Your dislike for a phenomenon might even be the reason it will thrive.

Punch

Inc.com columnist Justin Bariso answers questions about how to handle workplace and management problems using emotional intelligence. (Note: Some names have been changed.)

A reader asks:

How do you deal with angry or irate customers, and/or prevent others from getting angry in the first place?

For example:

• A product they are waiting for is not ready in time due to factors outside of our control (being short-staffed, extremely busy)
• How to deal with customer that is being unreasonable
• How to best promote a product (required by the company) without coming across as pushy

Thanks in advance for your help.

Jason 
Customer Service Representative 
Retail Business 
Pennsylvania

Bariso responds:

Great questions. The key to using emotional intelligence when dealing with customers is to utilize the following qualities:

Transparency: People know when you're avoiding their question or giving them the runaround. And they hate it. 

So, be as honest and direct as you can. At the same time, try to give them something positive to take away: a discount, a giveaway, or at least some hope.

Empathy: Before responding, put yourself in the shoes of the customer. Strive to relate, not to their problem, but to their feelings. 

In other words, you could care less about a customer's specific problem. But when's the last time you desperately needed something and it didn't arrive? Or you paid for an expensive product and it didn't work as advertised? 

Now, think: What could someone say or do that would help you feel better about the situation? How would you want them to speak to you? Use the answers to those questions to inform what you say and do.

Now, to address your specific situations:

Situation 1: The product they're waiting for is not ready in time due to factors outside of our control (being short-staffed, extremely busy).

Try this: 

Be direct, and relate to their feelings. You can say something like: "I understand your frustration; I would be frustrated too." 

Be transparent as to when the product will actually be ready – don't make false promises. If you don't know, or if more time is needed, suggest they call back, or offer to take their contact information so you can provide an update as soon as possible. 

Finally, provide something positive to assuage them – a discount off a future product, a freebie, etc.

Situation 2: How to deal with a customer that's being unreasonable.

Try this: This is one of the most challenging scenarios, and one you have to think through to define your strategy.

When I have an unreasonable customer, I have no problem encouraging them to do business elsewhere (again, after making reasonable attempts to satisfy them). The investment of time and emotional resources are often not worth trying to satisfy such a person. Better to lose one out of 50 customers – especially if that customer is taking 10 times the time and effort to deal with.

In contrast, if 10 (or more) out of 50 customers have problems, then they're likely not being unreasonable. In that case, you probably have an issue with the product, service, or terms your company is offering.

Situation 3: How to best promote a product (required by the company) without coming across as pushy.

Try this: Focus on discovering the needs of the customer, and be as helpful as possible. Do whatever you can to actually solve their problems and fill their needs. If this product solves a specific need, your helpfulness will often move them to purchase it. 

And if it doesn't fill a need, you've established trust and goodwill. So they'll be more willing to buy something else, or come back to your company in the future.

Inc