The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Monday Okpebholo, has been declared the winner of Saturday’s governorship election in the state.

The INEC Returning Officer for the election, Faruk Kuta, made the declaration at exactly 9:27 p.m. at the State Collation Centre in Benin City on Sunday evening.

Kuta, a professor and vice-chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, announced the final results after collating results from the 18 local government areas of the state.

The returning officer said Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes to defeat his closest challenger and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Asue Ighodalo, who scored 247,274 votes.

The candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Olumude Akpata, came a distant third with 22,763 votes.

“That Monday Okpebholo of the APC, having satisfied all the requirements of law and scored majority of the lawful votes, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” Kuta declared.

The final results showed that Okpebholo won in 11 local government areas in the state while Ighodalo won in seven.

The candidate of the Labour Party, Akpata, did not win in any local government area.

Unless his victory is overturned by the courts, Mr Okpebholo will succeed the incumbent governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki, whose second term will end on 12 November.

Meanwhile, the PDP in the state has protested against the election result, which it alleged was manipulated in favour of the APC candidate.

Earlier, Tony Iyoha, the PDP state agent, said the results did not reflect the votes cast at polling units.

Iyoha asked the electoral officials to suspend further collation of results because the election process did not follow the procedures of the electoral body.

But Kuta asked those who have issues with the exercise to file a formal petition against it.

PT

Hungarian intelligence agency interviewed CEO linked to exploding Hezbollah pagers

Hungarian intelligence services have conducted several interviews with the CEO of BAC Consulting, a Budapest-based company linked to deadly explosions of pagers used by Hezbollah members this week, the Hungarian government said on Saturday.

Taiwanese pager firm Gold Apollo said on Wednesday that the model of pagers used in detonations in Lebanon were made by BAC Consulting, adding it had only licensed out its brand to the company and was not involved in the production of the devices.

Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, 49, the Italian-Hungarian CEO and owner of BAC Consulting, told NBC News earlier this week that she did not make the pagers and said she was "just the intermediate."

Hungarian intelligence agencies have been conducting their investigation since Wednesday and have interviewed Barsony-Arcidiacono several times, the Hungarian government's international press office said in a statement.

It quoted the Constitution Protection Office (AH), one of Hungary's intelligence agencies.

The AH reiterated an earlier statement from the government that said that the pager devices used in the mass detonations were never in Hungary.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government also said earlier that BAC Consulting was "a trading-intermediary company, which has no manufacturing or other site of operation in Hungary".

In two days of attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded. The total death toll in those attacks has risen to 39, and more than 3,000 were injured. The attacks were widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's air defence units destroy 71 Russian drones, Ukraine's air force says

Ukraine's air defence units destroyed 71 out of 80 attack drones that Russia launched overnight, Ukraine's air force said on Sunday.

Six more of the Russian drones were lost after getting neutralised by Ukraine's electronic warfare, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia also launched two guided missiles from occupied parts of Ukraine's Luhansk region, the air force said. It did not say what happened to the missiles.

** Russian strike on apartment block in Kharkiv injures 21

Russian forces struck a multi-storey apartment building in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, on Saturday evening, wounding 21 people and prompting an evacuation of some of its residents, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

Kharkiv, 30 km (18 miles) from the Russian border, has been a frequent target of Moscow's attacks since the Kremlin's troops launched their February 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbour.

Terekhov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the Russians had deployed a guided bomb and that 60 residents had been evacuated from the building. An 8-year-old and two 17-year-olds were among the wounded, he added.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the strike and repeated his call for more weapons from Kyiv's Western partners to defend against Russian strikes.

"Ukraine needs full long-range capabilities, and we are working to convince our partners of this," he wrote on social media.

Further south, a Russian drone attack killed two people on Saturday in the city of Nikopol, the regional governor said.

In the eastern town of Kurakhove, one of the focal points of Russia's slow advance through the industrial Donetsk region, one person was killed in a Russian artillery strike, regional prosecutors said.

And local authorities in Sumy region said Russian aircraft struck energy infrastructure in the town of Shostka.

Sumy has been another frequent target of Russian attacks and lies opposite Russia's southern Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion last month.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia says battlegroup West struck 4 Ukrainian brigades

The Russian battlegroup West struck four Ukrainian brigades and caused the enemy to lose up to 420 troops, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Units of the battlegroup West improved their tactical position, struck manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian 30th, 53rd and 116th mechanized brigades and the 114th territorial defense brigade in the areas of Petropavlovka and Peschanoye in the Kharkov Region; Serebryanka and Torskoye in the Donetsk People's Republic; and Nevskoye in the Lugansk People's Republic. Five counterattacks by assault groups of the Ukrainian 66th and 67th mechanized brigades and the 1st brigade of the National Guard were repulsed," the ministry said.

According to the ministry, the enemy lost up to 420 servicemen, two tanks, three pickup trucks, two 152mm D-20 guns, two 122mm D-30 howitzers, a 122mm Gvozdika self-propelled artillery unit and three US-made M119 105mm guns. Also destroyed were US-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar station and five ammunition depots.

Russia says its forces strike Ukrainian military airfields

Russian forces hit the infrastructure of military airfields and energy facilities that supply power to Ukraine's defense enterprises, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Tactical aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles, rocket troops and artillery of Russian battlegroups destroyed a 36D6 radar station for detection and tracking of low-altitude targets, struck energy facilities that support the operation of Ukrainian defense enterprises, the infrastructure of military airfields, workshops for the production of unmanned aerial vehicles, and clusters of enemy manpower and military equipment in 141 areas," it said.

Russia says Ukraine lost up to 160 soldiers in area of responsibility of battlegroup North

Ukrainian forces lost up to 160 servicemen in the area of responsibility of the Russian battlegroup North over the past day, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Units of the battlegroup North in the Liptsy and Volchansk areas struck the formations of the Ukrainian 57th motorized infantry brigade, the 36th marines brigade and the 5th border units of the Ukrainian Border Service in the areas of the settlements of Volchansk and Liptsy in the Kharkov Region. The enemy lost up to 160 servicemen, an infantry fighting vehicle, two motor vehicles, a 152-mm D-20 gun and two 122-mm D-30 howitzers," the ministry said.

Russia says its air defenses shot down 6 Hammer bombs, 6 HIMARS rounds

Air defenses shot down six Ukrainian Hammer bombs, six HIMARS projectiles and 106 unmanned aerial vehicles over the past day, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Air defense capabilities shot down six guided French-made Hammer aerial bombs, six US-made HIMARS rounds, two S-200 anti-aircraft guided missiles, which were converted for firing at ground targets, and 106 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles," the ministry said in a statement.

Since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed a total of 646 Ukrainian warplanes, 283 helicopters, 32,089 unmanned aerial vehicles, 579 surface-to-air missile systems, 18,325 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,457 multiple launch rocket systems, 15,025 field artillery guns and mortars and 26,370 special military motor vehicles.

Reuters/Tass

When Major-General Muhammadu Buhari overthrew the elected civilian administration of President Shehu Shagari on the last day of 1983, he inherited an economy in a mess and a political system in a turmoil. This crisis of a dysfunctional political economy was Buhari’s principal reason for sacking the Shagari administration.

For Buhari, Nigeria’s crisis of balance of payments was the result of two things: indiscipline and economic crimes. His answer to the former was a War against Indiscipline (WAI), a catch-all acronym for everything from instilling a queue culture in the population to capital punishment for drug suspects. Turning to the latter, Buhari invented a very capacious category of economic sabotage. Those arrested for these did not necessarily have to suffer a predictable judicial ritual.

In 1984, the Buhari regime ordered the detention of five citizens of Taiwan arrested by the officers of the Customs Service who caught them in possession of blank attested and proforma invoices for goods supposedly imported into Nigeria. One of the arrested persons was known as Wang Chin-Yao. They were supposedly involved in economic sabotage of the country which was meant to be a crime. Rather than charge them with a crime known to law, however, the regime arranged to have them locked up in administrative detention under the State Security (Detention of Persons) Decree No. 2 of 1984. Under this decree, a detention certificate issued by the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters was enough to lock a person away interminably. Among its features, the decree precluded courts from inquiring into anything concerning the detention of persons held under its authority.

Fearing interminable detention, Wang Chin-Yao and his compatriots sued the Chief of Staff in the hope that the court could pronounce on the lawfulness of their detention but the High Court chose to emulate the Biblical Pontius Pilate and decided that the decree under which they were held precluded it from questioning the detentions. On All Fools Day (1 April) in 1985 the Court of Appeal decided their appeal against the decision of the High Court. In a judgment delivered by Phillip Adenekan Ademola, the Court of Appeal affirmed the ruling of the High Court. Adenekan Ademola, whose father was the first indigenous Chief Justice of Nigeria, stated his reasons with flamboyant economy holding “that on the question of civil liberties, the law courts of Nigeria must as of now blow muted trumpets.”

These words were to prove exceedingly corrosive in their effect on judicial imagination under the military. A mere three years after this judgment by Ademola, his bossom friend and Sarkin Wurno, Shehu Malami, became the subject of considerable interest by the security services of the military government when he threw his hat into the ring to become the 18th Sultan of Sokoto at the death of Sultan Siddiq Abubakar III. It was impossible to find a court without its own muted trumpet. The muted trumpets of the courts enabled the abuses that ultimately made military rule untenable and brought about its demise one decade later.

The hope – with the end of military rule – was that the return of the country to government with electoral legitimacy would unleash the civic imagination of Nigerians. In the run up to Nigeria’s presidential elections of 2023, part of the claim made in favour of the man whom the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) eventually anointed as president, Bola Tinubu, was that he had fought the excesses of military rule as a chieftain of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), a pro-democracy collective, many of whose leading members were exiled during the last half decade of military rule in Nigeria. It is natural to expect that the government of a man with those credential would be a paradise for the kinds of rights for which he reputedly took the military to task.

The reality has been anything but…. The government of Tinubu has instead become the graveyard of freedoms of expression and association and of the right to protest in Nigeria and it is only just a little over 15 months in power. The numbers are there to prove it.

In the first year of the Tinubu administration, the Press Attack Tracker recorded 37 incidents of attacks against journalists and the press. The first five months of 2024 alone witnessed 27 such attacks. For comparison, advocacy organization, Global Rights, which monitored similar patterns under the Buhari regime recorded 189 journalists arrested, detained or harassed over the eight years of the Buhari administration. At the current pace, the Tinubu regime of NADECO graduates will by the end of its second year easily eclipse the record of the entire Buhari administration in press freedom violations over its eight years of existence.

At the end of August 2024, Tinubu’s Nigeria comfortably topped the league table of attacks on journalists in Africa with over 76 recorded incidents of attacks against journalists, beating Somalia (with 18 attacks) into second place, with Congo DRC a distant third with five incidents.

These numbers only provide a peek into a more troubling pattern. Last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported “at least 56 journalists who were assaulted or harassed by security forces or unidentified citizens while covering the #EndBadGovernance demonstrations in Nigeria.” The “unidentified citizens” who were involved in some of these attacks mostly conducted themselves in ways which suggests that they were agents or emissaries of the ruling party or government.

The #EndBadGovernance protest and its aftermath have been a squalid advertisement of the illiberal credentials of the Tinubu Government. After failing in intimidating citizens out of the protest, the administration resorted to third-degree methods to squash it. It arrested thousands of citizens whose only crime was peaceful expression of dissent, instructed the freezing of the accounts of persons and groups whom it claimed to be organisers of the protests, and procured suspicious court orders to unsafely kettle and intimidate the protesters. Security forces killed at least 13 protesters although the real casualty count is thought to be well north of this number.

Not content with these, the government arranged in Abuja to charge many of the protesters with treason or conspiracy to commit treason. Campaigners at Human Rights Watch have rightly pointed out that this signals the extent of the regime’s “intolerance for dissent.” The significance of these charges go well beyond this, however. The charges of treason for the #EndBadGovernance protesters are designed to intimidate any wannabe protesters. They are also a dog whistle for the judges before whom these protesters are charged to treat them as beyond the pale and beneath the law.

The judges are listening. At the trial before the Federal High Court in Abuja, the court has eventually granted the protesters bail on rather stringent conditions. Citizen groups are now working hard to socialize the costs of meeting these conditions. Lawyers for the government meanwhile go around intimidating the courts with specious reasons as to why protest has become treason under the government of a serial protester.

Nearly 40 years ago, when the son of a former Chief Justice of Nigeria told judges to blow muted trumpets on questions of civil liberties, there was an assumption that the judges were capable of doing different. Now and again many of them indeed served the soldiers with a judicial bloody nose. Today, that capacity no longer exists. Nigerian courts no longer want to be associated with any trumpets, not even muted ones, lest they inadvertently let out some judicial sound.

Instead, many courts, under the thumb of their Chiefs or administrative judges have become enablers of the authoritarian instincts of the government of NADECO veterans. When the security services invade the offices of advocacy organisation, SERAP; or interdict the passport of Omoyele Sowore at the airport, they don’t even contemplate the existence of judges capable of playing Pontius Pilate. For them, the courts no longer exist. That is some progress!

** Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a professor of law, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

I believe great leaders are made in the moments that matter—the little moments in time that form and influence what a person stands for and who they are personally and professionally. 

When it comes to leadership, there’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach or handbook, nor is there necessarily even a specific moment in time when you become a true leader. We are all molded by our own experiences and driven by our own strengths.

My father was one of my first inspirations for leadership. When I was 10 years old, he showed me what true leadership looks like, exposing me to moments that would shape my leadership mentality for the rest of my life. He was a volunteer director at the Pan American Games in Puerto Rico. Every weekend for more than two years, we drove 70 miles together to help organize, prepare, and host the competition. 

This meant that, at a young age, I was given a crash course in how to run an international event, helping with everything from meals to transportation logistics. And when someone needed an answer, and my dad wasn’t readily available, I became the “go-to guy.” Little by little, I built my skills and ability to shoulder responsibility. I learned how to make the big picture happen effectively and successfully—without shortcuts.

That was more than a few years ago. Since then, I’m proud to say that I have learned a great deal more from many mentors in my career. They have taught me this key lesson: Great leaders grow in the little moments, the big moments, and everything in between. However, growth as a leader also requires intentionality. To build yourself as a leader, you need to take certain steps. 

DEFINE YOUR LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY 

First, it’s important to define your leadership philosophy. Your leadership philosophy should be your voice of reason, constantly present in the back of your mind throughout everything you do. By getting clear on your leadership philosophy, you can better guide your team. When your employees know how you approach leadership, they’ll know what you expect from them. 

It takes effort to zero in on what your leadership philosophy is because there’s no singular leadership philosophy. A person’s leadership philosophy is rooted in their values. If you’re a leader, I encourage you to do the work. Sit down and reflect on your values, write them down, and then commit to walking the talk. One of my all-time favorite quotes, which one of my early mentors told me, is: “Keep your promises. Have a high do-to-say ratio.” I think that applies here.

GET COMFORTABLE WITH THE UNCOMFORTABLE 

Another reason why having a leadership philosophy is imperative is that it will help you get comfortable with the uncomfortable—and as a leader, you’ve probably experienced firsthand that there are many uncomfortable moments in leadership. I learned this lesson in high school. 

When I was a freshman in high school, one of my best friends suggested that I should run for treasurer of the student council. I thought she was crazy, but with her urging, I ran and, to my surprise, got elected and took on more responsibility than I ever had in my life. I loved being an active part of our school’s leadership, and in the following years, I became vice president and then president of the student council. Those moments mattered—they helped me build a foundation for who I am as a leader today. Had I not gone outside of my comfort zone, I might not have made it to my current leadership position. 

Give yourself a nudge, and be okay with going outside your comfort zone. Give others that nudge and encouragement as well. We all need mentors and advocates in our careers, people who believe in us and see us as bigger than we see ourselves. When mentors and advocates inspire and empower us to do more and try new things, that’s when we can begin to envision and realize our full potential as leaders. Sometimes, to move forward, you just have to be able to put yourself out there in an uncomfortable situation to make it happen. 

STAY CURIOUS

Throughout your leadership journey, it’s incredibly important to continually ask questions—and acknowledge when you do not necessarily have all the answers. 

I once read an article in Fortune Magazine about how business professionals stop growing when they hit the age of 40. The main reason they “die” is because they stop learning. A few years after I read that article, I was at another event where leaders shared an internal study about major career derailers. In the top three, once again, was that people stop learning. I promised myself to remain curious.  

In my opinion, one of the most important qualities a leader can have is the constant drive for more knowledge. Whether at work, home, or school, whether parenting, running, exercising, cooking, driving, or reading a book, seizing opportunities that challenge your thinking is always a winning formula. 

I’m inspired by this quote from Bernard Baruch, an American financier and statesman: “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.”

In other words, curiosity fuels innovation, which drives meaningful change for everyone. We must focus on the “why” and ask questions when we are confronted with complex issues and old habits, so we can seek out a new truth or way of thinking. Questions such as “Why is this important?” and “Why does this support our overall goals and vision?” are vital. 

Behind innovative ideas and organizations are, oftentimes, innovative leaders who are courageously challenging traditional thinking to make the world a better place. By building your leadership philosophy, getting comfortable with the uncomfortable, and staying curious, you can continue to seize the moments that matter—and foster the best leadership practices possible.

Fast Company

Mixed reactions have continued to trail the donation of N500 million by Seyi Tinubu, son of President Bola Tinubu, to flood victims in Maiduguri, Borno state.

Seyi made the donation during a visit to Babagana Zulum, the governor of Borno, alongside his brother and friends at the government house, Maiduguri, on Friday.

He said the visit was the “first step” towards ameliorating the plight of over 400,000 persons displaced by the flood.

While some X users appreciated him for the donation, others questioned the source of the money.

Mister Jonah

@MisterJonahh

I saw a report earlier today stating that Seyi Tinubu donated over 500 million to the Borno State government following the flood incident. My concern is: what does he do for a living? We should be asking these questions because 500 million is a huge amount of money.

Starton

@Debishops1

Seyi Tinubu visits Maiduguri and donates over N500 million to flood victims and I ask as who?

Wale Gbeminiyi

@WaleSupo

The gesture from Seyi is good but the amount donated is outrageous. The highest a whole State has donated is 100m. Atiku - 100m; Peter Obi - 50m. But Seyi and Remi Tinubu coming to donate N500m each says a lot about how the family has been exposed to public funds over the years

heisadebayo

@lunguboiii

But where dem see such huge amount of money?

Imagine tinubu son's donating 500m naira for just flood victims how much do you think their dad have?

Hmmm

INTERCONTINENTAL SPORTS TV

@oneistvv

Though the news says

That is so kind of him, but I see all these things as playing to the gallery maybe he want to contest for an election in tye future .

He could easily use that money to empower 500 Yoruba youths in business cos I think enough money has been donated already

Even his father has donated

John Jones

@adetiloye_john

Seyi donation feels more like a PR move than genuine help. Let’s be real-where did he even get that kind of money? Meanwhile, the government’s neglect and corruption are the real reasons we’re facing these floods in the first place.

A fat check doesn’t solve the issue. If they had invested in infrastructure and planning, we wouldn’t need these flashy handouts. Nigerians deserve real solutions, not band-aid fixes from questionable sources.

Uncle Choice

@unclechoice

How did he made the N500 million to donate. Which job or business is he doing to Donate half a billion Naira?

Instablog9ja

·

16h

@instablog9ja

President Tinubu’s sons, Seyi and Yinka storm Maiduguri to donate N500 million to flood victims

North Star

@echoeofself

The other time I asked I was attacked.

Who is bankrolling these people?

Whose funds are they donating?

Do you all know what 500M means?

Ike-ume

@ume_nwokedi

That's the problem with Nigeria clueless politicians & their litters. The money that should be given to experts in a particular field in a timely manner for research, mitigation, & pro-activity solutions are thrown around for gaslighting, especially when it's already late.

The Cable

In an astonishing upset, Daniel Dubois delivered a career-defining performance, defeating former two-time world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in five rounds at Wembley Stadium. Retaining his IBF heavyweight world title, Dubois left the boxing world stunned as he dismantled one of the sport’s most iconic figures in a high-stakes bout.

The fight’s explosive start saw Dubois land a monstrous right hand to Joshua’s chin, dropping the former champion heavily in the first round. Joshua, known for his resilience, was immediately on the back foot as Dubois pressed forward with a relentless assault.

The second round was no different, with Dubois continuing to apply immense pressure. Joshua absorbed severe shots, barely making it to the end of the third round, saved only by the bell. A powerful left hook from Dubois sent Joshua into the ropes, further stunning him, and an aggressive barrage of punches followed, knocking him down for a second time.

Although Joshua managed to rise to his feet as the third round came to a close, the fourth round saw more punishment. A left hook from Dubois tipped Joshua off balance, though it was not ruled a knockdown. However, the former champion was clearly in deep trouble, struggling to fend off the younger, stronger Dubois.

In a brief moment of resurgence during the fifth round, Joshua attempted to rally, firing back at Dubois with a flurry of punches. Yet, his comeback was short-lived. A precise countering right hook from Dubois floored Joshua for the final time, sealing a shocking knockout victory.

The Guardian

Israeli forces raid Al Jazeera bureau in West Bank with closure order

Qatari Al Jazeera TV said on Sunday morning that Israeli forces stormed its bureau in the West Bank's Ramallah city with a military order to close it for 45 days.

The Qatar-based channel aired live footage of the Israeli troops storming the channel's office and handing over a military closure order to one of the Al Jazeera TV staff before the broadcast was disrupted.

In a statement, the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate condemned the Israeli move, saying "this arbitrary military decision is considered a new violation against journalistic and media works, which has been exposing the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinian people."

In May, Israeli authorities raided a Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera as its office after the government decided to shut down the AL Jazeera TVstation's local operations, saying it threatened national security.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says it hit two Russian munitions depots overnight

Ukraine said on Saturday it had hit two Russian munition depots overnight, in attacks that illustrated its growing capability to strike targets deep inside Russia.

Russian officials acknowledged the Ukrainian attack on one of the depots in southern Krasnodar region, saying it was carried out with drones. They introduced local emergency measures to mitigate the effects of the assault.

A statement by Ukraine's military general staff said the munitions depots were at Tikhoretsk in Krasnodar region and Oktyabrsky in the western region of Tver.

"The (Tikhoretsk) facility is in the top three largest munitions storages of the occupiers, and is one of the key points in the Russian military logistical system," the general staff wrote in a statement on Telegram.

It said Ukraine had information that a train carrying 2,000 tonnes of munitions, including from North Korea, had been on the territory of the depot at the time of the strike.

Reuters was unable to verify the report independently.

A Ukrainian security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said drones were used in the attacks.

The source said Ukraine's domestic SBU intelligence service hit the depot in Tikhoretsk in a joint operation with the Ukrainian military, while the SBU hit the target in Oktyabrsky on its own.

The SBU has conducted regular drone attacks deep inside Russia over the past year of the war.

Krasnodar region governor Venyamin Kondratyev, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said officials had evacuated some residents while tackling the effects of the attack.

"What is important is that there is no longer any threat to residents," he wrote. "But time is needed to carry out fully all the necessary checks of the territory."

More than 100 residents of Tikhoretsk district and nearby Vyselkovsky district had been housed in hotels, while others had gone to stay with relatives.

Ukraine has used long-range drones as a means of closing the armament gap with Russia, which has a vast arsenal of long-range missiles. Kyiv is also seeking permission from its Western allies to use long-range missiles they have provided Ukraine with to strike deep inside Russia.

The source added that SBU drones had also hit unspecified infrastructure at the Shaikovka military airfield in Russia.

An overnight Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed a 12-year-old boy and two elderly women, the regional governor said. Russia said it had struck Ukrainian energy facilities overnight using high-precision weapons and drones, Russian news agencies reported.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia reports strike on ship carrying Western weapons to Ukraine

The Russian military has hit a ship that was transporting Western-made munitions to Ukraine, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said. It added that it has conducted another series of strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

In a statement on Saturday, the ministry claimed that Russian warplanes, drones, missiles, and artillery forces destroyed two Ukrainian ammo depots and “struck a dry-cargo carrier with missiles and ammunition, provided to the Kiev regime by Western countries.”

Officials did not say how badly the ship was damaged or where the attack took place, though Ukraine relies mainly on the Black Sea and Danube routes to receive sea shipments.

The ministry also said Russian forces conducted strikes using high-precision weapons and drones on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure linked to Kiev’s defense industrial complex as well as UAV workshops, and military deployment areas. “The objectives of the strike have been achieved. All designated targets have been hit,” it added.

While Ukrainian officials have not commented on Moscow’s claim that it hit a dry cargo ship, local media overnight reported explosions in Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Sumy, Krivoy Rog, and several other cities.

Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since Kiev’s attack on the Crimean Bridge in autumn 2022, with officials in Kiev and the West saying the strikes have destroyed around half of the country’s electricity capacity. Moscow has maintained that it never targets civilians.

Reuters/RT

One by one, three Nigerian former military rulers, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, arrived at Babangida’s Hilltop Mansion in Minna, Niger State, last Sunday. So did former National Security Adviser (NSA), Aliyu Gusau. The Minna meeting had every trapping of African witches assembling at the coven. Like owls, a pervasive symbol of African witchcraft, did they fly to and perch on their Minna assembly nest at nocturne? Yoruba attribute the kind of powers this trio had/have to witches. They eat the head from the arm and masticate the heart from the liver. In any case, age and interminable presence in the theatre of Nigerian governance should qualify the trio as witches. Yoruba, for instance, approximates age to witchcraft. T’óbìnrin bá pé ńlé, àjé níí dà they say.

When the Minna ‘witches’ were done, like witches who leave their covens lips-sealed, the meeting was without communiqué. In the 1970s, Yoruba Adawa music exponent, Dele Abiodun, gave insight into the post-meeting relapse into dumbness by witches. In a very arresting and velvety voice, Abiodun sang that even if midnight raindrops pelted a witch on their way from the coven, at home, they kept sealed lips. His lyrics: “òjò t’ó pà’jé l’óru, b’ó bá dé’lé, kò ní lè so…” So, several interpretations began to emerge from the meeting of the Minna ‘witches.’ To spittle can carriers of present Nigerian government, the ‘witches,’ to clone lawyers’ lingo, had no moral locus standi to discuss Nigeria. In the words of the phlegm eaters, everyone else could complain about the visibly rudderless economic policies of this government but certainly not the trio. To some others, the Minna meeting forebodes evil for the polity. In their estimation, in the meeting of these Owners of Nigeria, the raspy, grisly and hissing sounds of vultures must have roused them from their sleeps.

The pacifists who feel that the ‘witches’ lack the moral right to discuss the Nigerian crisis remind me of bed-wetting and bed-wetters. Known as enuresis, in Africa, bed-wetting brings with it a lot of scorn. It signifies dirt and shame. In folklores, proverbs and wise-sayings, bed-wetting was ridiculed. It is even worse if the bed-wetter was of the male gender. While female bed-wetting was equally disdained, male bed-wetting was the limit. He was demasculinized by the fact of his bed-wetting. Traditional laundry operators, known in ancient Yoruba society as Alágbàfò, suffered urinary incontinence of the bed-wetter. They had to put up with the acrid ammonia smell of urine that caked and drew maps round their clothes. After dry-cleaning them, especially if they were white-coloured, the Alágbàfò added “aró"- to the clothes for effect. Apart from smelling nice on clothes and dissolving the ammonia smell, it prevented the clothes from losing form. So, when Alagbafo come to pack clothes from customers for laundry, they looked out for ones that smelled of urine. Due to the inconveniences these smelly clothes put the drycleaner through, Yoruba had unpleasant words for bed-wetting customers who had the temerity to haggle over prices of laundering or the aro. To them, it was double shame. So they couch an apt saying that demonstrates their disdain: Everyone else could haggle over an Alágbàfò’s laundry charges but certainly not a bed-wetter, they say (Ó ye eni gbogbo k’ó yo’wó aró, sùgbón kìì se atòólé).

Two days after meeting at the Minna coven of IBB, Abubakar met the leadership of the Campaign for Democracy (CD). The former Head of State said hardship in Nigeria had hit the firmament. On same day, former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, an ultra-rich member of the ex-military top-brass coven, at an event in Abuja, wondered why it was taking the military an eternity to stop the Nigerian insecurity.

Speaking frankly, what could have scurried Army Generals and ex-Nigerian Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces out of their holes like rats escaping a harmattan field set on fire? Did Abdulsalami, in a way, leak the communiqué? Could it be that, like witches who see beyond their noses, the Owners of Nigeria saw beyond the now into the turmoil to come? Are they afraid of a revolution that can consume them and the ragtag ring leaders of the present mess? Nigeria had become a feisty state of a hen perched on a rope; both rope and hen are thrown into listless restiveness. Government’s economic plan, crafted to please global neo-liberal economic police, lacks human face and the people are hurting. Nigerians die in droves from hunger, distressing hardship and diseases. Yet, rather than own up that solution was beyond its ken, Aso Rock gallivants about with magisterial self-assuredness.

However, those who hold that the ‘witches’ possess no moral right to lament the excruciating time Nigeria found itself, from facts of history, will seem to be justified. The rain didn’t start pelting Nigeria today. According to a January 30, 1970 edition of The New York Times, even after a ruinous, brutal and destructive civil war, Nigeria’s economic structure and promise remained almost unscathed. The country’s spending on prosecuting the needless civil war, put at $1billion, made it one of the few countries in the world which fought an intra-national war for three years without any known record of indebtedness. Times reported that Nigeria adopted the “cash and carry” method for her arms and ammunition procurement. More astoundingly, she didn’t have to draw down on her foreign currency reserves which, pre-war, were $400 million. Oil, discovered just before the war and comfortably padded by a fairly widely spread export portfolio of cocoa, groundnuts, tin, rubber, timber and a “$30 million or so”, which was in the hands of the marketing boards and private firms, kept the economy bubbling, even while the armaments of war ricocheted in the air. With an oil production capacity which, as Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared at secession in May, 1967, was soaring at 570,000 barrels a day, Nigeria literally didn’t touch her oil during the war, so much that by 1968, production had plummeted to 50 barrels a day. This rose to a record 550,000 barrels a day immediately after the war, with royalties and taxes netting an annual $100 million and which, in 1975, rose to $1 billion from oil companies.

Armed with a humongous oil wealth, a vast population and the mantra of one out of every black person in the world being a Nigerian, these soon “entered Nigeria’s head”, as the street lingo went, and the thought that the country could be an African superpower became a near-national ideological obsession. Between 1967 and 1977, Federal Government revenue was said to have soared by 2,200 per cent. Nigeria’s economy was so strong that, on January 1, 1973, the country abandoned its pound sterling currency, a colonial relic, and created a new currency – the naira. Nigeria was then managed by an exuberant crop of unaccountable military leaders who had scant leadership and economic training. The height of it was Yakubu Gowon’s infamous statement abroad in 1973 that Nigeria’s problem was not money but how to spend it. The huge oil wealth was soon squandered on the altar of naivety, arrogance and knavery.

It became so bad that in 1975, the Gowon government placed accumulated orders for 20 million tonnes of cement, paid for by Nigeria’s buoyant petro-dollars. The cost of the mind-boggling cement orders was put at about $2 billion, an amount which was a quarter of Nigeria’s oil revenue in 1975. This order was, at the time, more than the cement capacities of a combination of Western Europe and the USSR. Apapa was thoroughly overwhelmed and shipping lines all over the world scurried to Nigeria for a bite of the raw, mindless orgy of profligacy. Most of the shipments entered demurrage, in what was infamously dubbed the Cement Armada. When Murtala Muhammed took over from Gowon in a sudden coup and set up a panel to investigate the 12 governors under him, only two of them and two other ministers were found blameless. It was easy for the exuberant military leaders, many of them in their 20s and 30s, some of whom were bachelors like General Jack, the Head of State himself, to extend the spatial control mentality of military psychology into governance.

Thus, in 1972, Nigeria signed a pact with Niger Republic to supply her 30,000 kilowatts of electricity from the Kanji Dam hydropower state, even when local electricity needs were not met. Again in 1974, Nigeria donated millions of naira worth of relief materials to the same Niger Republic when it was ravaged by drought. Earlier, in early 1975, Gowon was in the impoverished island of Grenada with 90,000 inhabitants. Off the cuff, he paid the salaries of all Grenada’s civil servants, sent a contingent of Nigerian police to train Grenadian police, as well as giving a soft loan of $5,000,000 to Eric Gairy, its PM. After the widespread Soweto massacre riots of 1976, Nigeria brought into the country hundreds of “Soweto kids” and several other South African black youths and offered them scholarships to study in Nigerian universities. This continued till the end of Apartheid. In 1972, Gowon sent Nigeria’s troupe to Niger to forestall an imminent coup against his friend, Hamani Diori, with huge financial implications to Nigeria. Throughout his headship of Nigeria, Nigeria paid millions of dollars financing a third of ECOWAS’ budget, even though it was headquartered in another friend, Gnasingbe Eyadema’s Togo. During the Nigerian civil war, Eyadema intercepted a Biafran plane loaded with seven million Nigerian pounds but rather than return it to us, chose to negotiate with it. At negotiations, he demanded two million pounds. Gowon paid him two million British pounds. As at this time, Nigeria’s foreign reserves stood at #32million. Indeed, this squandering of Nigeria’s wealth was one of the reasons provided for removing him as Head of State.

To understand the psychology of the recipients of Nigeria’s deranged spending, we must go back to the year 1972 or so, to the reply of the late President of Niger Republic, Ahmadu Diori, when asked why Niger supported Nigeria as against the secessionist Biafra during the Nigerian civil war. According to Diori, as quoted by Temitope Ola in “Nigeria’s assistance to African states: What are the benefits?” in the International Journal of Development and Sustainability, Niger depended on Nigeria for economic survival. In his direct words, made in French, Diori had said, “quand le Nigeria etermue, le Niger fact plus qu’attraper la grippe, il se trouvedeja a l’hopital” “when Nigeria sneezes, Niger not only catches cold, it is already on admission in the hospital”.

Under Obasanjo, Nigeria established a South Africa Relief Fund (SARF) in 1978, where Nigerians poured about $20 million of their hard-earned money into. In June 1976, Obasanjo presented a cheque of $250,000 to the liberation forces of Rhodesia through the Mozambican Foreign Minister, Joaquim Chissano. He then handed over to President Samora Machel of the newly independent state of Mozambique $1.6 million as development assistance.

The Big Father Christmas also constructed an expressway from Lagos to the outskirts of Cotonou with several millions of dollars, while spearheading the integration project of a regional gas pipeline for sub-regional economic development. Nigeria equally established the Technical Aid Programme and created a Trust Fund at the African Development Bank (AfDB) for Africans, with a soft loan of $100 million to be lent to least developing African countries.

In 1989, upon the paralysis of the Beninoise government by a bludgeoning workers’ strike occasioned by its inability to pay salaries, Nigeria, under Babangida, offset the salaries, while also donating 12,000 tonnes of petroleum products to the government. The year before, Babangida’s Nigeria funded the Ibrahim Babangida School of International Studies in Liberia and donated seven Nigerian academics to the institution, while Nigeria constructed the Trans-African Highway and bought over Liberia’s debt valued at $30 million. There must have been a-thousand-and-one other frittering off of the Nigerian wealth which took place under cover, which are not open to the rest of the world, all in the name of foreign policy. For instance, as at 2009, Nigeria had sent about 3000 troops to Darfur for the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force. Obasanjo, as civilian president, also sent 5,000 Nigerian soldiers on peacekeeping operations.

In mid-1970s under Mohammed, Nigeria sunk what today will amount to trillions of Naira in Angola. In fact, in his book, Diplomatic Soldiering (1987) Joe Garba wrote: “There was a general feeling among the member-States that the Nigerian treasury was an inexhaustible source of funds.” Ghana and Togo owed the country over $30m from concessionary sales of crude oil. Masquerading under diplomatic recognition to MPLA, in 1975, Nigeria granted outright $20m to Angola, bought military hardware, from rifles to MiGs and more for Angola. Nigeria opened its doors to MPLA delegations and spent on them lavishly. Nigeria’s national airplanes shuttled Luanda and Lagos, fully paid for by us, with its delegates decked in latest designer’s suit of Pierre Cardin. Angola demanded a new F28 aircraft from Nigeria, two used F28 and a new presidential-type F28 aircraft. They were to be delivered with their spare parts. Nigeria, which was importing chilled meat from Argentina, was also asked by President Neto, in whose memory the new airport was named, to send meat to it! The Obasanjo military government also ordered Nigeria Airways to fly Lagos – Luanda daily, at huge loss to the Nigerian government. However, when Nigeria struck a deal with Angola to import, then Angola’s greatest fish resource, it balked and sold exclusive fishing rights to Russia. With all Nigeria did for Angola, when Murtala Muhammed was assassinated in 1976, Angola sent neither delegation, nor any condolences to Nigeria for three weeks.

Recently, TotalEnergies chose to invest a whooping sum of $6billion in energy projects in Angola, over Nigeria. It cited tardy policies. According to its CEO, though Nigeria’s Niger Delta is the most productive field in West Africa, an erratic policy investment climate made the decision inevitable and its investment in Nigeria untenable. Angola also recently constructed a new airport named Antonio Agostinho Neto International Airport (AIAAN) worth $3billion. Fully funded by the Angolan government as a public investment, the project is certain to make Angola the hub of economic activity in African airport transportation. Today, that country is the eighth-largest economy on the African continent and one of Africa’s most resource-rich countries. It is also ranked 16th among world largest oil producers in 2023 and fourth-largest rough diamond producer by value in 2022.

Muhammadu Buhari, in continuation of this profligate indiscretion and misplaced priority, and a time when Nigeria’s economy had begun to contract, also purchased N1.14 billion ($2.7 million) worth of 10 luxury vehicles for neighbouring Niger Republic.

So when, at a meeting with the forum of former presiding officers of the National Assembly last week, President Bola Tinubu said, “Yes, there is hardship, but how did we get here? What did we do when we had very high crude production?” he was obviously referring to the ‘witches’ parading themselves as Messiahs.

Today, Nigeria, which frittered trillions of Naira like a possessed spendthrift, is faced with a gasping economy. Its clueless government sends bags of rice to its people as if they are in IDP camps. That same government is struggling to pay $43 as monthly salary to workers. In the same statement where Tinubu spoke brilliantly about the rain that began pelting Nigeria a long time ago and how past Nigerian leadership was on a national bazaar, in an oxymoron-like twist, he said, “People say ‘we’re hungry’; yes, I understand… there is no free beer parlour anymore.” It was as if the spirit of arrogance just clambered the president, leading him to deploy a figure of speech in which what is amiss with his spirit – liquour – could bedirectly interpreted from the words he used.

Tinubu should, as a matter of urgency, acknowledge that his economic policies of the last 16 months have hit the wrong chord and people are dying. He needs to backtrack. His government’s predilection for living large, at the expense of the comatose economy and his inhuman distancing of self from suffering Nigerian people’s plight put him in the same heartless frame with the ‘witches’ of Nigeria.