WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine kills Russian chemical weapons chief Igor Kirillov in Moscow

A top Russian general accused by Ukraine of being responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops was assassinated in Moscow by Ukraine's SBU intelligence service on Tuesday morning in the most high-profile killing of its kind.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside an apartment building along with his assistant when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter went off, Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said.

An SBU source confirmed to Reuters that the Ukrainian intelligence agency had been behind the hit. "The liquidation of the chief of the radiation and chemical protection troops of the Russian Federation is the work of the SBU," the source said.

The source said that a scooter containing explosives was detonated, killing both Kirillov and his aide, as they stepped out of a building on Ryazansky Prospekt in Moscow.

Unverified video footage of the attack circulating on social media showed two men exiting the building to get into a car followed by a large explosion as the two men remained on the pavement. Reuters could not independently verify the footage.

Kirillov, 54, is the most senior Russian military officer to be assassinated inside Russia by Ukraine and his murder is likely to prompt the Russian authorities to review security protocols for the army's top brass.

Former President Dmitry Medvedev, now a senior Russian security official, told a meeting shown on state TV that Moscow would avenge what he called an act of terrorism.

"Law enforcement agencies must find the killers in Russia," said Medvedev. "Everything must be done to destroy the masterminds (of the killing) who are in Kyiv. We know who these masterminds are. They are the military and political leadership of Ukraine," he said.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, speaking to Russian news agencies, dismissed a comment from the U.S. State Department that Washington had no connection to the killing or any prior knowledge of it.

The United States, she said, "created the Kyiv regime, sponsors it, provides money and sends weapons endlessly. The proof is clear: Washington has not once condemned a single terrorist act or planned murder committed by the Kyiv regime."

There was no immediate comment from President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow holds Ukraine responsible for a string of high-profile assassinations on its soil designed to weaken morale and punish those Kyiv regards guilty of war crimes. Ukraine, which says Russia's war against it poses an existential threat to the Ukrainian state, has made clear it regards such targeted killings as a legitimate tool.

Reuters photographs and video from the scene showed a shattered entrance to an apartment building with bomb-blackened bricks and the doors hanging off their hinges and what looked like two bodies lying beneath black plastic sheets on the snow.

KIRILLOV WORKED 'FEARLESSLY FOR THE MOTHERLAND'

Russia denies Ukrainian allegations it uses chemical weapons on the battlefield and Kirillov, who was married with two sons, was himself sometimes shown on state TV giving briefings at the Defence Ministry in which he accused Ukraine of violating nuclear safety protocols or the West of various alleged crimes.

Britain in October imposed sanctions on Kirillov and his nuclear defence forces for using riot control agents and over multiple reports of the use of the toxic choking agent chloropicrin on the battlefield.

Such agents, Ukraine has alleged, are used to disorient its troops, leaving them unable to defend themselves against Russian attacks.

Sergei Sitnikov, a regional Russian governor, said Kirillov was his friend and had told him he was aware of a threat against him.

"Some time ago, he told me that he had already been warned that the hunt for him had begun," Sitnikov said in a statement, saying he believed Kyiv wanted to kill Kirillov for various reasons, including his involvement in the development and use of a heavy flamethrower system.

Kirillov was murdered a day after Ukrainian state prosecutors charged him in absentia with the alleged use of banned chemical weapons, the Kyiv Independent cited the SBU as saying.

The lieutenant general was also listed in a sprawling unofficial Ukrainian database of people considered to be enemies of the country called Myrotvorets (Peacemaker). A photograph of Kirillov on the website was overwritten with the word "Liquidated" in red letters on Tuesday morning.

Russia says Ukraine has carried out a string of targeted assassinations since the start of Moscow's full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022.

The most high-profile cases include the 2022 killing of Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian nationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin, the murder of pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a 2023 cafe bombing, and the shooting last year of a Russian submarine commander accused of war crimes by Kyiv.

Russia's radioactive, chemical and biological defence troops, which Kirillov commanded, are special forces who operate under conditions of radioactive, chemical and biological contamination and who are tasked with protecting ground forces operating in extreme conditions.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

What we know about Russian general killed in Moscow blast

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces (RChBZ), has died in a blast together with his aide. According to investigators, an explosive device hidden in a scooter was detonated on Tuesday morning near the entrance of a residential building in Moscow’s south-east.

Here’s what is known about Kirillov:

• From September 2014 to April 2017, he served as the head of the Military Academy of the RChBZ named after Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Timoshenko.
  
• In April 2017, Kirillov became the chief of the RChBZ troops.
  
• Kirillov dealt with anti-terrorism both domestically and abroad. He exposed the provocations of the controversial White Helmets volunteer organization in Syria, and participated in mitigating the consequences of natural and man-made disasters.
  
• Since the beginning of the military operation against Ukraine in February 2022, Kirillov has spoken at briefings held by the Ministry of Defense, where he shared information about Ukrainian developments in the areas of radiological, chemical, and biological weapons. In March 2022, he announced that Ukrainian biolaboratories were studying the potential for transferring highly dangerous infections through migratory birds.
  
• The same month, Kirillov presented copies of documents that, according to him, confirmed the Pentagon’s funding of biological laboratories in Ukraine.
  
• In June 2024, Kirillov stated that spent nuclear fuel and hazardous chemical waste were being imported into Ukraine for a potential “dirty bomb” creation. He added that radiochemical substances were still being brought into Ukraine for disposal. According to him, these supplies were overseen by Andrey Yermak, Vladimir Zelensky’s right-hand man, with primary routes passing through Poland and Romania.
  
• In October 2024, the UK slapped Kirillov with sanctions after he accused Ukraine of preparing a false-flag chemical weapons attack with the aim of framing Russia and undermining its position at the OPCW. Kirillov noted that NATO had provided Ukraine with a much larger amount of chemical protective equipment than the country actually needs, calling it further evidence of an impending plot.
  
• In November 2024, Kirillov said that Ukraine planned to seize a nuclear power plant during its large-scale incursion into the Kursk Region.
  
• Kirillov was killed in the blast one day after Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) formally declared him a suspect in the alleged use of chemical weapons against Kiev’s military. The general rejected claims that Russia had been attacking Ukraine with riot control agents and chemical weapons, recalling that the OPCW had confirmed the complete destruction of all Russian chemical weapons stockpiles in 2017.

Reuters/RT

It was a bold idea, encapsulated in a snappy slogan: “From billions to trillions.” A decade ago, when private capital was sloshing into developing economies, governments and development institutions saw an opportunity to turbocharge progress on poverty reduction and other development goals. “The good news is that, globally, there are ample savings, amounting to $17 trillion, and liquidity is at historical highs,” read a key strategy document of the time.

The bad news is that it all turned out to be a fantasy. Instead, the financing landscape for development has been upended. Since 2022, foreign private creditors have extracted nearly $141 billion more in debt-service payments from public-sector borrowers in developing economies than they have disbursed in new financing.

But there is one striking exception: In 2022 and 2023, the World Bank and other multilateral institutions pumped in nearly $85 billion more than they collected in debt-service payments. Thus, multilateral institutions have been thrust into a role that they were never designed to play. They are now lenders of last resort, deploying scarce long-term development finance to compensate for the exit of other creditors.

Last year, multilateral institutions accounted for about 20% of developing economies’ long-term external debt stock, five points higher than in 2019. The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) now accounts for nearly half of the development aid going from multilateral institutions to the 26 poorest countries. And in 2023, the World Bank accounted for one-third of the overall net debt inflows going into IDA-eligible countries – $16.7 billion, more than three times the volume a decade ago.

These developments reflect a broken financing system. Since capital – both public and private – is essential for development, long-term progress will depend to a large degree on restarting the capital flows that benefited most developing countries in the first decade of this century. But the risk-reward balance cannot remain as lopsided as it is today, with multilateral institutions and government creditors bearing nearly all the risk while private creditors reap nearly all the rewards.

When global interest rates skyrocketed in 2022 and 2023, leading to increased debt distress in the poorest countries, the World Bank followed its usual practice. It shifted from providing low-interest loans to providing grants to countries at high risk of distress. It also increased its overall financing for these countries, typically with generous repayment terms ranging from 30 to 50 years. But private creditors headed for the exits, with high interest rates more than fully compensating them for the investment risks they had taken.

In the absence of a predictable global system for restructuring debt, most countries facing distress opted to tough it out rather than default and risk being cut off indefinitely from global capital markets. In some cases, new financing arriving from the World Bank promptly went back out the door to repay private creditors.

In 2023, developing countries spent a record $1.4 trillion – nearly 4% of their gross national income – just to service their debt. While principal repayments remained stable at about $951 billion, interest payments surged by more than one-third, to about $406 billion. The result, for many developing countries, has been a devastating diversion of resources away from areas critical for long-term growth and development, such as health and education.

The squeeze on the poorest and most vulnerable countries – those eligible to borrow from the IDA – has been especially fierce. Their interest payments on external debt have quadrupled since 2013, hitting an all-time high of $34.6 billion in 2023. On average, interest payments now amount to nearly 6% of IDA-eligible countries’ export earnings – a level not reached since 1999. For some countries, the burden ranges from 10% to as much as 38% of export earnings. It is no wonder that more than half of IDA-eligible countries are either in debt distress or at high risk of it, or that private creditors have been retreating.

These facts imply that the world’s poorest countries are suffering not from liquidity problems, but from a metastasizing solvency crisis. It might be easy to kick the can down the road by providing these countries with just enough financing to help them meet their immediate repayment obligations. But doing so will simply prolong their purgatory. These countries need faster growth if they are ever going to reduce their debt burdens, but faster growth requires higher investment. Given the size of their debt burdens, that is unlikely to materialize. On current trends, their ability to repay will never be restored.

We need to face reality: the poorest countries facing debt distress need debt relief if they are to have a shot at sustained economic growth and lasting prosperity. A twenty-first-century global system is needed to ensure fair play in lending to all developing economies. Sovereign borrowers deserve at least some of the protections that are routinely afforded to debt-strapped businesses and individuals under national bankruptcy laws. Private creditors that make risky, high-interest loans to poor countries ought to bear a fair share of the cost when the bet goes bad.

In an era of deepening international mistrust, it will be a struggle to establish these precepts. But without them, all major development goals will remain in peril, facing the same fate as the “billions to trillions” promise.

Project Syndicate

Nigeria's inflation rate climbed to 34.60% in November, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), marking a continued upward trajectory in the country's economic challenges.

The report reveals an increase of 0.72 percentage points from October's 33.88% inflation rate. Compared to November 2023, the current inflation rate is significantly higher, jumping 6.40 percentage points from the previous year's 28.20%.

Food inflation has been particularly stark, reaching 39.93% year-on-year, which is 7.08 percentage points higher than November 2023's 32.84%. The surge is attributed to price increases in key food categories, including:

- Tubers like yams and potatoes

- Grains such as guinea corn, maize, and rice

- Oils, including palm and vegetable oils

- Tobacco and beer products

On a month-to-month basis, food inflation increased by 2.98% in November, slightly up from 2.94% in October. The rise stems from price hikes in fish, cereals, eggs, milk, and meat products.

The average annual food inflation rate for the twelve months ending November 2024 reached 38.67%, a substantial 11.58 percentage points higher than the previous year's average of 27.09%.

These figures underscore the ongoing economic pressure facing Nigerian consumers, with food prices playing a significant role in the escalating inflation rate.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Ademola Lookman, the Super Eagles winger, was crowned the 2024 CAF Men’s Player of the Year at a star-studded ceremony in Marrakesh, Morocco, on Monday. The 27-year-old Atalanta forward triumphed over strong contenders, including Achraf Hakimi, Simon Adingra, Ronwen Williams, and Serhou Guirassy, to claim the prestigious individual honor.

This victory marks a significant milestone for Lookman, who followed in the footsteps of Victor Osimhen, the 2023 winner. It also represents the first time in over 27 years that Nigerian players have won the award in consecutive years, with Nwankwo Kanu winning in 1996 and Victor Ikpeba following in 1997.

Lookman’s stellar 2023/24 season saw him score 17 goals and provide 11 assists across all competitions for Atalanta, who maintained their place as one of Serie A’s top clubs. He also starred in the Europa League, scoring a hat-trick in the final against Bayer Leverkusen, leading Atalanta to their first-ever European title. On the international stage, Lookman was one of Nigeria’s standout performers at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Côte d’Ivoire, where he netted three goals and helped the Super Eagles secure a silver medal. His efforts earned him a place in the tournament’s Best XI alongside captain William Troost-Ekong.

During his acceptance speech, Lookman reflected on his journey, acknowledging his growth after a difficult moment in his career. He recalled his infamous penalty miss in 2020 while playing for Fulham against West Ham United, a moment that earned him widespread mockery. “Just over four years ago, I failed in front of the world. Fast forward four years, I’m the best player in Africa,” Lookman said. He urged young fans to not let failures define them, emphasizing the importance of turning pain into power.

“I want to say to the young children and people watching this: don’t let your failures weigh you down that they break your wings. Turn your pain into your power and continue to fight,” he added.

Lookman also expressed gratitude to his family, teammates, and the Almighty God for the support and blessings that have shaped his career. “This award today is a blessing to me, to my family, to my nation,” he said, beaming with pride.

The ceremony also saw other notable awards presented, with Zambia’s Barbra Banda winning the Women’s Player of the Year and Chiamaka Nnadozie of Nigeria claiming the Women’s Goalkeeper of the Year for the second consecutive year. The Super Falcons were named the Women’s National Team of the Year, while Côte d’Ivoire’s national team won the Men’s National Team of the Year.

Full List of Winners:

• Player of the Year (Men): Ademola Lookman

• Player of the Year (Women): Barbra Banda

• Goalkeeper of the Year (Women): Chiamaka Nnadozie

• Goalkeeper of the Year (Men): Ronwen Williams

• Interclub Player of the Year (Women): Sanaa Mssoudy

• Interclub Player of the Year (Men): Ronwen Williams

• Young Player of the Year (Women): Doha El Madani

• Young Player of the Year (Men): Lamine Camara

• Coach of the Year (Women): Lamia Bouhamedi

• Coach of the Year (Men): Emerse Fae

• Club of the Year (Women): TP Mazembe

• Club of the Year (Men): Al Ahly FC

• National Team of the Year (Women): Super Falcons of Nigeria

• National Team of the Year (Men): Elephants of Côte d’Ivoire

• Goal of the Year: Mabululu (Angola)

Israeli team in Doha talks on potential Gaza deal, official says

An Israeli technical team is in Doha for working-level talks with Qatari mediators on "remaining issues" in a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, an official with knowledge of the talks told Reuters on Monday.

The talks are currently focused on bridging gaps between Israel and Hamas on the deal U.S. President Joe Biden outlined on May 31, the official said.

Efforts by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States to reach a truce in Gaza and a release of hostages have gained momentum in recent weeks, though there has been no breakthrough.

The three countries have, for more than a year, led rounds of so-far fruitless talks to broker an end to the 14-month-long war in Gaza.

In previous rounds, disagreements over new demands that Israel introduced about its future military presence in Gaza obstructed a deal, even after Hamas accepted a version of the proposal Biden introduced in May.

A round of talks in mid-October failed to produce a deal, with Hamas rejecting a short-term ceasefire proposal.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

West pushing Russia beyond ‘red line’ – Putin

The West’s support for Ukraine is pushing Russia to the point where it cannot help but retaliate, President Vladimir Putin has said, while warning the US against deploying medium-range missiles.

Speaking at a meeting of top Russian Defense Ministry officials on Monday, Putin accused the US of seeking “to weaken our country and inflict a strategic defeat” on Moscow by continuing “to pump a de facto illegitimate ruling regime in Kiev with weapons and money, sending mercenaries and military advisers, thereby encouraging further escalation of the conflict.”

Washington is instilling fear in Americans by resorting to “simple tactics,”Putin stated. “They push us to the red line… we begin to respond, and then they frighten their population,” he added, suggesting that the US used the same approach during its rivalry with the Soviet Union.

The Russian president also slammed the West for what he described as attempts to impose its own rules on the rest of the world while waging “hybrid wars” against anyone who resists, including Russia.

In this vein, NATO is boosting its defense spending and forming “strike groups” near Russia’s borders, he added. “The number of American service members in Europe has already exceeded 100,000 troops,”he noted.

NATO is ramping up its presence not only in Europe but also in regions that have never seen this type of military footprint, particularly the Asia-Pacific, Putin said, voicing particular concerns over US plans to deploy missile systems with a range of up to 5,500km. 

Putin was referring to a type of weapon previously banned by the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The US unilaterally pulled out of the treaty in 2018, citing Russian non-compliance – an allegation Moscow has denied.

The Russian president stressed that despite Washington’s withdrawal from the INF Treaty, Moscow made a unilateral and voluntary commitment not to deploy medium- and short-range missiles unless the US deploys such weapons anywhere in the world.

However, “if the United States begins to deploy such systems, then all our voluntary restrictions will be lifted,” Putin warned.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine reports North Korean losses on Russia's Kursk front

Dec 16 (Reuters) - Ukraine's HUR military spy agency said on Monday that North Korean units fighting for Russia sustained losses of at least 30 soldiers killed or wounded around several villages on the front in Russia's Kursk region over the weekend.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at the weekend that Russia was using North Korean troops in significant numbers for the first time to conduct assaults in Kursk region in southern Russia.

On Monday, he posted a video which he said showed Russian soldiers attempting to conceal the identities of dead North Korean servicemen by burning their faces.

The HUR statement is the first time Kyiv has claimed North Korean losses on this scale and in some detail. It said the casualties occurred around the villages of Plekhovo, Vorozhba and Martynovka in the Kursk region. It provided no evidence.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesperson Major General Pat Ryder said the United States had "indications" that North Korean forces had suffered casualties both killed and wounded.

It was not possible to independently verify the figures.

The Kremlin declined to comment on the Ukrainian assertion, referring the question to the Russian Defence Ministry which has made no comment on the subject.

Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Koreans on its side. Pyongyang initially dismissed reports about the troop deployment as "fake news", but a North Korean official has said any such deployment would be lawful.

"Due to the losses, the assault groups are being replenished with fresh personnel, in particular from the 94th separate brigade of the DPRK army, to continue active combat operations in Kursk region," the Ukrainian agency wrote.

The video posted by Zelenskiy appeared to show the bodies of North Korean soldiers lying dead in positions where they had been killed. It then showed what appeared to be soldiers setting fire to parts of their bodies on snowy ground.

"Russia is not only involving North Korean soldiers in assaults against Ukrainian positions but is also trying to conceal the losses of these individuals," the president wrote.

"And now, after battles with our soldiers, the Russians are even attempting to ... literally burn the faces of the dead North Korean troops. This is a demonstration of the contempt that now prevails in Russia, a contempt for everything humane."

Reuters could not independently confirm the veracity of the video.

UKRAINIAN INCURSION

Ukrainian troops staged an incursion into Kursk region in August, but Russia's military says its forces have regained much of the territory Kyiv's troops initially captured.

Kyiv first said North Korean forces turned up in Kursk region in October and later reported unspecified clashes and casualties. It estimates there are 11,000 North Koreans in total, adding to a force of tens of thousands of Russians.

Ukraine, nearly a fifth of which is controlled by Moscow's forces, has carved out an enclave in the Kursk region which its troops have been battling to hold as a potential bargaining chip for any potential peace negotiations.

RT/Reuters

If you have ever witnessed the Ede masquerade, the Aladoko, or the Alamudu perform, you will instantly appreciate the poetry of Niyi Osundare, the world-renowned poet. Osundare hails from Ekiti, as do these mesmerizing masquerades. Had education not found him, Osundare might well have been a bearer of one of these magnificent masks—adorned with multicolored feathers and mirrors cascading from the nape to the feet—chanting profound verses with the captivating grace of tradition.

The Ede masquerades are revered for their boundless knowledge, weaving chants on any subject with a voice as sonorous as a nightingale’s. Their repertoire spans reflections on nature, the environment, the economy, the essence of power, and the tribulations of life. These living archives of wisdom mirror the poetic genius of Osundare, who embodies the spirit of his Ekiti heritage.

Yet, education found Osundare. Had it not, he might today be a celebrated Aladoko or Alamudu, thrilling audiences with the eloquence of the masquerades.

I first encountered Osundare in 1982. That year, word spread one evening that emerging poets and performers would gather in one of our lecture theatres. Joining the crowd of eager students, I witnessed a creative spectacle featuring Wole Soyinka,  Oyin Ogunba, Niyi Osundare, Kole Omotosho, Odia Ofeimun, Funso Aiyejina, and our American professor, Bob Fox, performing their works. Literary critics like Biodun Jeyifo, Ropo Sekoni, Bayo Williams, and Wole Ogundele were in attendance, while a young East African lecturer, Mutambuka, served as MC.

Osundare etched himself in my memory that evening with the refrain of one of his poems: “Jenje kiti, kiti jenje.” It immediately struck me that this poet must be Ekiti. My curiosity piqued, I became one of the first to purchase his debut poetry collection, Songs of the Marketplace, published in 1983. This book would later win the 1986 Association of Nigeria Authors prize and joint winner of the Commonwealth Prize.

The release was a sensation—not in the way of pop culture, but among us, young students of literature, who were grappling with the frustrations of a repressive regime. In that collection was a poem that became an anthem of our restlessness: “I Sing of Change.” Interestingly, this poem was reportedly the original title for the collection before it was changed to Songs of the Marketplace.

Change, as we yearned for, would come eventually, but Osundare has never ceased to long for a deeper transformation in our land. With awards upon awards and prizes upon prizes, he has dazzled the world with his creativity and prolificacy. And while we marvel at his accomplishments, we await the ultimate recognition. I promise you, it shall come—In Our Own Very Eyes. It shall be part 2 for our glorious land if you know what I mean.

There appears to be panic and deep pain in Afe Babalola’s actions since the publication and sales of the new international bestseller, Dele Farotimi’s book, Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System. It became a bestseller precisely because the all-powerful Babalola is determined to stop Nigerians and the international community from reading it. Apparently, no one has explained to him that the best way to get everybody to read a book is to tell them that they must not read it. Babalola has however persisted in his errors by getting a court to restrain Dele Farotimi Publishers, as well as bookshops, from circulating and selling the book. MA Adegbola, the presiding judge, restrained the defendants and their republishers, including Amazon Online Bookstore, Rovingheights Bookstore, Booksellers Bookstore, Jazzhole Lagos Bookstore, Glendora Bookshop, Quintessence Lagos Bookstore, and Patabah Books Limited, from further publishing and selling the book. Deep panic.

Penultimate week, the Ekiti police command, acting on behalf of Babalola, had arrested Farotimi over alleged defamation and cyberbullying. The activist was accused of spreading false information against Babalola. That was not enough, subsequently the inspector-general of Police filed a 12-count charge bordering on cybercrime against Farotimi. The ruling on the book followed an application by Kehinde Ogunwumiju, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and managing partner at Afe Babalola & Co. seeking N500 million in damages from Farotimi for allegedly defaming him in the book. The said book, Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System, is an unfiltered, freewheeling critical account of Farotimi about some top Nigerian legal firms and the Nigerian judiciary.

Many of my readers will wonder how some top lawyers can pursue routes to futility with such determination. The  book gained tremendous traction, reaching a top spot on Amazon’s bestseller list within days of cascading police actions against Farotimi, following Babalola’s petition last week. PDF copies of the book, which was launched in July, have circulated widely in the last one week due to the free publicity offered by Babalola. Now the entire Nigerian Police Force might be placed in streets all over the country on a “search and hide the book” mission. Goodluck Babalola.

Meanwhile, all that the 104-page book did was to research what led to the accusation that the law firm was guilty of “compromising the integrity of the Supreme Court,” scheming with “crooked lawyers and incompetent justices,” and “doctoring” a Supreme Court judgement. It also accused Babalola of corrupting the Supreme Court in the service of his clients. The problem is that most Nigerians would consider such accusations to be most likely TRUE.

The response of Babalola, the police, and the judiciary has been extreme punishment for Farotimi for daring to tell his story. It is for this reason that civil society organisations strongly condemn the arrest, detention, persecution and torture of Farotimi. The manner of his arrest was an aberration and Farotimi should never have been subjected to the criminal justice process in this case. In addition, the prohibitive terms of bail for what is supposed to be a misdemeanour raises the real possibility that Farotimi’s right to be tried – as required by Nigeria’s constitution – by a court “constituted in such a manner as to guarantee its independence and impartiality” has been compromised.

There are many troubling aspects of Farotimi’s encounter with Nigerian law enforcement, beginning with the unnecessarily aggressive and confrontational manner in which his arrest was affected. The CCTV footage released by his office after his arrest revealed the thoroughly unprofessional and violent nature of the police officers who travelled out of the state of their posting to arrest him. The officers were not dressed in uniform and could have passed as armed thugs. They also threatened Farotimi’s staff for no reason after unlawfully seizing their phones. The brutal manner of his arrest suggests the apprehension of a bandit on a most-wanted list, rather than a publicly accessible human rights lawyer.

Even more troubling than the manner of the arrest was the reason adduced for it. Before he was unlawfully “picked up” from his office on the 2nd of December, Farotimi had foretold the Nigerian public of his impending arrest. In a press release that went out from his office a day before, he stated that the police had invited him to answer certain claims he had made in his most recent book. Farotimi went on to state that his impending arrest was being orchestrated by two powerful individuals – Tony Elumelu and Babalola – who were apparently displeased with the unflattering depictions he had made of them in his book. Rather than challenging his claims by suing him for defamation in a civil court, they decided to wield their enormous influence to have him arrested, detained, and charged to court for a crime that does not exist in the jurisdiction of his arraignment.

Defamation is a civil matter and should be treated as such. Section 4 of the Police Act 2020 clearly forbids the police from wading into civil matters. In an orderly society built on the rule of law, those contending the veracity or otherwise of the claims Farotimi made in his book or who feel he has defamed them in any of his writings or speeches would seek justice in the civil court, where Farotimi would have had to defend his claims or provide redress, should he have been found to have maligned their character. In the process, the resources of the Nigerian state, our law enforcement agents, and our criminal justice system would not be trivialised and expended on pursuing personal vendettas. When a person feels that his or her reputation has been tarnished, the law creates opportunities for redress in a civil court. As Nigeria’s Supreme Court pointed out in 2021, criminal defamation was invented by the ‘Star Chamber” in late Mediaeval England. That is why it has been written out of the law in most states in Nigeria, as well as in many more Commonwealth countries.

Another troubling aspect of this saga is the fact that Farotimi was charged by the Police before a Magistrate Court in Ekiti State on 16 counts of criminal defamation. However, criminal defamation is unknown to the Ekiti State’s Criminal Law of 2021, which currently spells out the criminal law regime in Ekiti State. It also does not exist in the Criminal Code of Lagos where Farotimi resides, works, presumably wrote his book, and was abducted from. Our Constitution provides in Section 36(12) that “subject as otherwise provided by this Constitution, a person shall not be convicted of a criminal offence unless that offence is defined and the penalty therefore is prescribed in a written law”. The Nigerian Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed this canonical provision as the anchor of our criminal jurisprudence, so we are left to wonder under which powers the court in Ekiti presumed to order the remand of Farotimi. Moreover, the act of charging Farotimi before the Magistrate Court for a “crime” that the Court clearly did not have jurisdiction to entertain, is an abuse of legal processes.

The Police should drop the charges against Farotimi and he should be immediately released without preconditions. The Attorney General of Ekiti State should step in immediately to officially discontinue the case against Farotimi if the police do not act fast enough in doing so. All laws that support criminal defamation in Nigeria’s criminal jurisprudence should be immediately repealed and cases initiated under those laws should be struck out by the courts. We need to make the case that our law enforcement agencies need to uphold their constitutional mandate to serve and protect citizens, rather than act as tools for the powerful to silence dissent.  

In school, I never enjoyed group work. Being at the mercy of another person’s effort was frustrating to me — and still is. That’s probably why I picked a career where most of my day-to-day tasks can be done solo.

Still, it’s impossible for most people to go through life without any professional collaboration. And while it can be fun to work with someone who’s also a friend, it can make collaboration even more complicated. 

Recently, I listened to an episode of Simon Sinek’s podcast “A Bit of Optimism” where he asked restaurateur Will Guidara about advice for maintaining a friendship with someone while working with them. 

The key, they agreed, is communication, something every relationship needs to thrive. “The motivations have to be similar and very clear expectations set early on,” Sinek said. “Because we will make assumptions about the other person’s commitment.”

The same can be said of tackling team projects at work. If you assume someone will finish something by a certain deadline but they aren’t aware of that expectation, resentment can build.

Communication is even more important if you’re friends with your colleague, as you then need to interact on two different planes: personal and professional. 

“You can’t stop being friends,” Guidara told Sinek. “You don’t replace the friendship relationship with a colleague relationship. You now have two relationships.”

I’m not sure group projects will ever be my preferred way to work, but now at least I have some guidance that will make collaborating more pleasant and less likely to ruin a friendship.

CNBC

In a recent exchange between Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, and Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima, two prominent figures have engaged in a spectacle of misplaced pride and denial that only highlights their disconnect from the harsh realities facing Nigeria today. Badenoch, who has openly criticized the country of her birth, and Shettima, who represents the very political class responsible for Nigeria’s current state of disarray, have both displayed a level of delusion that must be condemned.

Badenoch’s remarks about Nigeria are sharp and uncompromising. She describes a country plagued by corruption, insecurity, and political dysfunction, a place she fled at the age of 16 to escape what she witnessed as systemic misgovernance. Her words echo the experiences of millions of Nigerians who, like her, have endured the ravages of poor leadership, social inequality, and violence. From her own harrowing memories of constant fear, poverty, and instability, Badenoch’s criticisms are rooted in personal experience — and they are undeniably valid. To be clear, her comments are not the reckless slander of a detached outsider; they are the anguished reflections of someone who has lived through the very conditions she now condemns.

Yet, it is her critics, particularly Vice-President Kashim Shettima, who must bear the greater responsibility for the current state of Nigeria. Shettima, an architect of the status quo, represents a ruling elite that has presided over a nation where more than 133 million Nigerians live in multidimensional poverty, where insecurity reigns supreme, and where basic human dignity has been eroded by the very political leaders tasked with safeguarding it. His criticisms of Badenoch ring hollow, for they come from a man who is part of a government responsible for the suffering of millions of citizens. Shettima, whose administration has overseen rampant corruption, a failing economy, and an out-of-control insurgency, has no moral ground to stand on when chastising anyone for speaking out against Nigeria’s ills.

To quote the seminal work of Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, both Badenoch and Shettima embody the psychological scars of colonialism and the profound effects it has on identity. Fanon’s exploration of how colonized individuals internalize racial inferiority and disassociate from their own culture resonates deeply in the case of these two figures. Badenoch’s comments reflect a complex, albeit painful, relationship with Nigeria — a country marked by colonial legacy and an inability to reconcile its past with its present. Shettima, on the other hand, represents the perpetuation of colonial structures within the Nigerian state, where the political elite remains disconnected from the suffering of the masses, clinging to power while the country disintegrates under its own weight.

Badenoch’s dismissal of Nigeria as a “socialist nation” is misinformed but not entirely unfounded, considering the pervasive corruption and mismanagement that define much of the political landscape. However, her view of Nigeria as a hopeless, irredeemable place is dangerously simplistic. As Fanon would argue, colonialism and its psychological aftermath are not an irreversible sentence; they are a system that can, and must, be dismantled. In this regard, Nigeria’s potential for transformation remains strong, and its people, despite the betrayal of their leaders, possess the resilience and capacity to reclaim their country.

The reality is that Nigeria’s greatest hope does not lie in figures like Shettima or Badenoch, who are too distant from the daily struggles of ordinary Nigerians to understand the depth of their pain. Rather, the hope lies in the Nigerian people themselves — those who continue to fight against overwhelming odds, who struggle to survive in the face of monumental challenges, and who dream of a better future. They are the ones who will eventually push back against the incompetence and corruption that have held the country hostage for so long.

In the words of Frantz Fanon, “each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.” The Nigerian people, despite being betrayed by their leaders time and again, will not give up on their mission of creating a just, prosperous, and secure Nigeria. The battle for Nigeria’s future will be long and hard, but with a new generation of committed, fearless Nigerians emerging from the social firmament, there is hope that a new dawn will emerge after the defeat of the current crop of disastrous leaders.

In conclusion, while Kemi Badenoch may find solace in her new identity and career in the UK, and while Shettima may continue to play the part of Nigeria’s status quo defender from the comfort of power, the real heroes of this story will be the Nigerians who, against all odds, continue to fight for a better tomorrow. The road to that better future will not be easy, but with unwavering resolve, Nigerians will take their country back and build a nation worthy of pride — a pride that is, and will always be, rooted in their struggle for justice, dignity, and freedom.