We in the West like to imagine that liberal democracy spread because others were attracted by its intrinsic merits. It didn’t. It spread through military victories – a fact that the rest of the world has not forgotten.

Only now, perhaps, are we learning how limited its appeal is. Several countries which we thought were in our camp turned out to be pro-Western only contingently and transactionally. The moment they saw our power waning, they began to look elsewhere.

We see the shift in the reluctance of states beyond Europe, the Anglosphere and a handful of East Asian democracies to join sanctions against Russia. We see it in the UN votes positing an implicit equivalence between democratic Israel and terrorist Hamas. When the world’s dominant power declines, violence and disorder rush to fill the vacuum.

It is against this background that Joe Biden and Xi Jinping held their meeting in San Francisco last week. Biden came across, as usual, as a dotard, fluffing his lines and horrifying his officials by referring to his guest as a dictator.

Xi, by contrast, looked comfortable and confident, convinced that time is on his side. Like Winnie-the-Pooh, to whom he has been compared so often that Chinese censors ban references to the portly bear, Xi radiated the Taoist virtues of patience and imperturbability.

The two sides had very different takes on the summit. For the Americans, it was all about encouraging China to take up its responsibilities as a member of the international community. They know that Xi wants to escape from the economic restrictions imposed by Donald Trump in 2018. The Chinese economy is faltering, partly because of exceptionally long lockdowns, and partly due to the rise in expropriations leaving people reluctant to invest.

Sensing that they have leverage, the Americans want to draw China into collaborative structures on climate change, artificial intelligence and drugs. To have secured understandings with Xi on these issues, as well as establishing military backchannels, is no small achievement.

From the Chinese perspective, though, all that was fluff. The real business of the summit, as they saw it, was to make plain that they intended to annex Taiwan. Sure, they would rather do so without a war. To win without fighting is, as Sun Tzu says, the ultimate achievement. But Xi left Biden in no doubt that reunification is not some vague aspiration, but the policy on which he has staked his leadership.

The Chinese autocrat is aware of American concerns about the economic impact. Taiwan produces most of the world’s semiconductors, especially the advanced models on which the global economy depends. How long, Xi asks, would it take the United States to build up a domestic manufacturing capacity? Five years? Fine, then use it. But understand that, after that, Taiwan will be reabsorbed.

Talk of semiconductors brings us to why the world has suddenly become so chaotic. The relative peace and prosperity that followed the Second World War rested, to a greater degree than most people realised, on globalisation.

International commerce reduces both the incentive to wage war (without trade barriers, it doesn’t matter where resources are) and the capacity to sustain it (a bellicose country can be deprived of critical materials).

This consideration, more than any other, motivated the original campaigners for liberalisation. “Do you suppose that I advocated Free Trade merely because it would give us a little more occupation in this or that pursuit?” asked Richard Cobden in 1850. “No; I believed Free Trade would have the tendency to unite mankind in the bonds of peace, and it was that, more than any pecuniary consideration, which sustained and actuated me.”

Cobden was right. While no one has found a way to eliminate war altogether, globalisation has a pacifying effect, because countries like to remain on good terms with their customers. In 1860, Cobden signed the modern world’s first trade agreement with his counterpart, Michel Chevalier, a rare French classical liberal. Since then our two nations, which had spent the previous six centuries in a state of semi-permanent war, have not fought.

Cobdenism began to run out of steam in the early twentieth century, as challenges to British power led to calls for retaliatory tariffs. The horrors that followed were to a degree products of the end of the Victorian economic order.

By 1945, there was a recognition that protectionism, autocracy and war were interconnected. The victorious powers grasped that the dictators had been products, as well as supporters, of autarky, and set up the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to ensure that the world did not slide back into beggar-my-neighbour mercantilism.

“The whole world is concentrating much of its thought and energy on attaining the objectives of peace and freedom,” declared President Truman in 1947, the year that the GATT was established. “These objectives are bound up completely with a third objective: reestablishment of world trade. In fact, the three – peace, freedom, and world trade – are inseparable.”

Truman, like Cobden, was right. As the barriers came down over the next 75 years, we saw not only a global enrichment beyond the dreams of previous generations, but an unprecedented decline in the number of wars. The relative stability of the Victorian age had rested on the Pax Britannica; that of the post-war boom rested on the Pax Americana. When American power surged after 1989, so did peace and prosperity.

Then came the banking crisis, a fall in world trade and, before long, a return to protectionism – a process accelerated by the pandemic.

“Trade wars are good and easy to win,” declared Donald Trump as he ordered tariffs on Chinese imports. Joe Biden accelerated America’s retreat into autarky, notably through the disastrous (and comically misnamed) Inflation Reduction Act, a classic piece of protectionism disguised as greenery. The EU is now pursuing a similar scheme.

China’s leaders are determinedly building their own versions of the global companies that withdrew from Russia in 2020. Xi has made clear that he does not want to depend on imports. “You should not rely on international markets,” he told his rubber-stamp parliament when Russia blockaded Ukrainian exports. “China must depend on itself.” His solution? To reserve 296 million acres of agricultural land for food production – precisely the kind of policy that caused the breakdown of the 1930s.

Protectionism always does the most damage to the country pursuing it. The US Tax Foundation calculates that tariffs on China are “equivalent to one of the largest tax increases in decades,” destroying 173,000 American jobs.

Similarly, had Xi not reversed his predecessors’ policy of liberalisation, China would not only be growing faster, but would be a trusted partner investing in our nuclear power stations and communications infrastructure.

Xi’s swerve to economic nationalism has also wrecked the prospect of peaceful reunification with Taiwan. Many Taiwanese had been prepared to countenance some form of political union as long as China was becoming more pluralist, but the authoritarianism of the current regime, and its crackdown in Hong Kong, killed such talk.

As during the early twentieth century, a unipolar world order is being succeeded, not just by great power rivalries, but by a return to the disastrous illusion of self-sufficiency, what the North Koreans call “juche”. We can already see the consequences in the cascade of conflicts around us. If the West, with all its collective strength, is unable to dislodge Russia from Ukraine, that cascade will become a torrent. The time of troubles is just beginning.

 

The Telegraph

We often hear corporate leaders talk about transforming their company culture. But this transformation needs to be more than a buzzword – it has to start with an honest analysis of an organisation’s current culture. This authenticity is vital because organisations have unspoken codes, and therein lies the hidden truth that unmasks their culture.

Corporate leaders need to be genuine seekers of what they need to hear and not what they want to hear from employees who are just there to butter them up. Those kinds of employees are sycophants – people who will tell you what you want to hear. If leaders cannot hear the truth, it will be difficult for them to separate fact from fiction.

How do you spot if your organisation suffers from a culture of sycophancy? Here are two pitfalls that corporate leaders need to be aware of:

1. Broken Psychological Contracts

Most employees get into organisations with ‘psychological’ contracts. They start with expectations, which may be met at variable scales. Or they may not be met at all. 

The danger of sycophancy in organisations is that corporate leaders will have employees around them who tend not to inform them of the realities on the ground. As much as these leaders try to show the world their corporate values, they should find value in assessing their employees’ emotional climate from time to time. 

Organisational sycophants prevent leaders from listening to their employees. They tell the leader all is well, even if most employees are going through hell. The downside is that these propagators of the old ‘yes-man’ bro philosophy often make corporate leaders appear unempathetic and narcissistic. Unguarded strength is actually a weakness.

Corporate leaders need to ask, are my employees’ psychological contracts broken? How is it that an A*-level employee two years ago is now performing at the C-level? Although this is no justification for poor performance, leaders might need to know what happened.

2. Org-wide Trust Deficit

Corporate leaders like to attract, retain and nourish good talent. They want to engage with employees aligned with their sustainable business objectives. However, they do not aim to have significant updates on employees’ perceptions of the organisation. This raises the question of what feedback gets to corporate leaders. 

Trust is one currency that every pragmatic and future-thinking organisation should have. Trust is not forced – it is earned. And the distortion of employees’ psychological contracts could lead to a lack of it. In Art Baxter’s recent book, Farmer Able, the author asserts, “Trust breakdown causes a rust build-up; everything moves slower and costs more.” 

A major predicament of organisational sycophancy is that ‘yes people’ do not pass the right information through the right funnel to the corporate leader. As a result, employees no longer trust the company they are working for. So when corporate leaders speak, they might think they are painting a beautiful vision, but what the employees are seeing is a smokescreen. 

Corporate leaders need to understand that an organisation is a people business inside before it becomes a business for the people outside. It’s one thing for corporate leaders to tell employees they see their value; it’s another for the employees to believe it. 

If corporate policies are only for the few, the corporate leader has created an organisation for the few. This is dangerous. You cannot sing the song of Ubuntu when the collective will not see themselves taking part in the collective, to begin with. 

Sycophants will make corporate leaders gloss over pertinent issues, and the organisation will be like a restaurant that redesigns a new menu cover (and increases its prices). What is forgotten is that customers are more interested in the quality of the food than a new cover. 

The way forward

Corporate leaders should be intentional about finding out the current realities of their organisation. They should avoid sycophants. They do not need gossip. They need solutions and people around them who brainstorm, not blamestorm. They should kick against a culture where employees are under pressure to momentarily perform rather than authentically aim for incremental progress toward excellence. 

Corporate leaders should aim to solve the real problems that define their organisation’s culture and not rub the surface. They should listen to Pied Piper’s tunes but to the people.

** Chim Okecha is an academic faculty, leadership expert and strategic HR professional with expert knowledge of people dynamics, organisational culture and leadership strategy.

 

Inc

Nigeria continued their stumbling start to the African 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign on Sunday when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Zimbabwe, but there were wins for Egypt and Algeria as the continent's top sides flexed their muscles.

Nigeria could only manage a point in neutral Butare, Rwanda after starting their bid to reach the global finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada with a desperately disappointing 1-1 draw at home to lowly Lesotho on Thursday.

The Super Eagles have therefore taken two points from their opening two games in the six-team Group C, with only the top side in each pool assured of one of Africa’s nine automatic qualification places.

South Africa could open up an early four-point lead in Group C when they visit Rwanda on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe took the lead midway through the first half via Walter Musona, but Nigeria salvaged a draw when Kelechi Iheanacho equalised in the second half.

Zimbabwe are among the 19 African countries forced to move their home qualifiers to neutral venues because of poor facilities or security concerns.

Trezeguet scored a brace of goals as Egypt cruised to a 2-0 win over nine-man Sierra Leone in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, making it a full haul of six points for The Pharaohs in their opening two qualifiers.

The Leone Stars lost Tyrese Fornah to a first-half red card and never looked able to challenge Egypt after that as Mohamed Salah, who scored four goals against Djibouti on Thursday, completed another 90 minutes and provided the assist for his side's second.

The hosts also had Abdul Kabia sent off for a second bookable offence, while before that there were ugly scenes as several local fans invaded the pitch and at least one was involved in a fracas with Salah before being forcefully removed.

Algeria made it two wins from two but had to wait until the 69th minute to get the opener in a 2-0 victory in Mozambique. Fares Chaibi handed them the lead and Ramiz Zerrouki made sure of the points in the final 10 minutes.

Gabon have also made a perfect start to their Group F campaign after claiming a 2-1 victory against Burundi in neutral Dar-es-Salaam.

Jim Allevinah and Denis Bouanga scored in either half, before Abedi Bigirimana set up a tense finish when he pulled a goal back for Burundi near the end.

An own goal from midfielder Charles Pickel 11 minutes from fulltime gave Sudan a 1-0 win over the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Libyan city of Benghazi.

 

Reuters

At least six security personnel attached to Mai Mala Buni, governor of Yobe, were injured in an ambush by suspected Boko Haram fighters while returning to the state from Borno.

According to Zagazola Makama, a counter insurgency publication focused on the Lake Chad region, the terrorists fired at the security operatives on the convoy of the governor on Saturday along the Jakana-Mainok expressway.

Earlier on Saturday, Buni was in Maiduguri, capital of Borno, where he joined other dignitaries to attend the 24th combined convocation ceremony of the University of Maiduguri.

Zagazola Makama  said the governor left for Abuja after the event through the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) base in Maiduguri while the convoy returned to Damaturu, Yobe state capital, and was ambushed by the Boko Haram fighters.

The publication quoted military sources as saying the governor’s security details with MRAP, a gun truck and another vehicle conveying the police operatives and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) was shot at by the insurgents.

The sources said the security details responded with “heavy fire”,  forcing the terrorists to retreat.

“However, two soldiers, a driver and four policemen were wounded. Terrorists casualties were unconfirmed,” Zagazola Makama said.

Zagazola Makama said the security operatives returned safely to Yobe while the wounded personnel were taken to the hospital for treatment.

 

The Cable

As part of continuing efforts to decongest custodial centers across the country and make them humane for proper reformation and rehabilitation, a total of 4,068 inmates on option of fines worth N585 million have been set free.

Minister of interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said that the inmates freed were those held on account of their inability to pay their fines as penalties for their crimes can now regained their freedom following payment of their fines by the minister and other corporate bodies.

He made this known at an event flagging off the payment of the fines and empowerment beneficiaries at the Kuje Medium Custodial Center, yesterday in Abuja.

He said “N585 million was raised by philanthropic individuals, groups and corporate bodies, as part of their corporate social responsibility, for this purpose.

“Today, we flag off the release of a total of 4,068 inmates who are serving different terms of imprisonment in lieu of fines and/or compensation. Most of the benefitting inmates at the verge of their freedom are indigents who cannot afford to pay their fines, and are languishing in custody.

“As at Friday, November 17, 2023, there were 80,804 inmates in 253 custodial facilities nationwide, the total installed capacity for the 253 Custodial Centres adds up to less than 50,000.

“This shows that our Custodial facilities are over-crowded; necessitating this initiative we are flagging off which is targeted at addressing overcrowding in our Custodial Centres and their reformatory function.

Tunji-Ojo adds that “Hence, all inmates in Custodial Centres who have fines and/or compensation not exceeding one million Naira are qualified, and would benefit from this gesture. In addition, we are also providing each of them a stipend to enable them return to their communities.

“Suffice it to mention at this point that we are not just releasing them to their fates; we have given them requisite training aimed at impacting their lives functionally and equipping them with the knowledge for their self-reliance upon discharge. The training also covers their civic duties and responsibilities as citizens, and strategies of refraining from reoffending.”

The minister urged the public not to stigmatize the ex-convicts in order to make their reintegration process easier and prevent cases of recidivism.

“We all have a stake in ensuring that offenders are properly reformed, rehabilitated and reintegrated back to their communities. By so doing, we will be promoting public safety and by extension, national security. It behoves on all of us therefore to ensure that we support offenders’ reformatory process.

“I also use this opportunity to call on the larger community to receive these returning citizens with open arms. They should refrain from stigmatizing against them as it can drive them back to offending the law, which will further endanger the society.

To the benefitting inmates, I implore you to see this as a second chance to make things right again. You are therefore advised to stay off crime and criminality.

One of 37 inmates at the Kuje Medium Custodial Center who benefited from the initiative, Mike Audi, a plumber, said they would remain ever grateful to government for helping pay their fines.

He said “We have never lost hope, we believe that one day we will be free.”

 

The Guardian

Nigerians In Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) in the United Kingdom has lamented that bad parenting pushed some Nigerian youths to prisons in the UK.

This was just as the Organisation revealed that Nigerians in the United Kingdom are more than 5 million in population.

The Chairman of the Group, Niyi Zaccheus made this known to Tribune Online via a telephone call yesterday. 

Zaccheus explained that most parents come to the country with a money-making mindset at the detriment of their children’s upbringing.

The Chairman urged them to disabuse that mindset because the children would find the alternative they are supposed to provide elsewhere.

He described the current situation in the country as reversed parenting where parents become children while the children become parents.

Zaccheus, therefore, revealed that the Organisation established a Special Duties Committee made up of professionals from different walks of life going into Prisons. “We have a lot of Nigerian Youths that have gone there because of mental illnesses, drugs and so on and so forth. We want to go in there and change their perspective for them”. 

“Unfortunately, why are they in prison? Mostly parenting. All because most parents that come to this country have the mindset of making money and forget the children.

“It does not work like that because if you don’t provide alternatives for the children they would look for one themselves.

“Some parents also need parenting. What we found out is that the parents have become the children while the children have become the parents. And it is so painful. 

“We have a Special Duties Committee. We have finetuned it with Immigration and UK Visa Department and Home Affairs so that we can unfettered access to the young ones in the prisons when we visit.

 

“Psychologists amongst us will be helping in that committee. The Membership now is over 300 and we are still getting more as we are looking at up to a thousand before the end of the year.

“As it is now, Nigerians in the United Kingdom should not be less than 5 million. We are everywhere just name it- NHS etc. We are very industrious people. We occupy juicy positions in the United Kingdom,” he said.

The Chairman advised Nigerians leaving Nigeria to rethink,  sounding warnings to parents who, according to him, think it is pension guaranteed when their child travels to the United Kingdom.

Mr Zaccheus admonished the Federal Government to renew the hope of Nigerians by providing the necessary infrastructural facilities for them to live like their counterparts abroad.

“We need to rethink this ‘Japa’ thing. Some parents think it is pension guaranteed when their child goes to the UK. No. It does not work that way. Your child coming in here does not mean your child will do well. There are some children who cannot thrive with no supervision in their life.  That is why some of them start selling drugs and getting themselves indulged in social vices.” He said 

“The Government has to give us hope. From what we can see now, there is no hope. In fact, many Nigerians are hopeless now. 

“So, the government has to wake up and give us people-friendly policies that would make us look at the future. Nigerians should at least have an idea of when this is going to end,” he said.

 

Nigerian Tribune

Tentative Gaza deal reached to free some hostages, pause fighting - report

Israel, the United States and Hamas have reached a tentative agreement to free dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting, the Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the deal.

However, both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. officials said no deal had been reached yet.

The hostage release could begin within the next several days, barring last-minute hitches, according to people familiar with the detailed, six-page agreement, the paper said on Saturday.

The report comes as Israel appears to be preparing to expand its offensive against Hamas militants to southern Gaza after air strikes killed dozens of Palestinians, including civilians reported to be sheltering at two schools.

Under the agreement, all parties would freeze combat operations for at least five days while 50 or more hostages are released in groups every 24 hours, the Post reported. Hamas took about 240 hostages during its Oct. 7 rampage inside Israel that killed 1,200 people.

The pause also is intended to allow a significant amount of humanitarian aid in, the newspaper said, adding the outline for the deal was put together during weeks of talks in Qatar.

But Netanyahu told a press conference on Saturday evening: "Concerning the hostages, there are many unsubstantiated rumours, many incorrect reports. I would like to make it clear: As of now, there has been no deal. But I want to promise: When there is something to say – we will report to you about it."

A White House spokesperson also said Israel and Hamas have not yet reached a deal on a temporary ceasefire, adding the U.S. is continuing to work to get a deal. A second U.S. official also said no deal had been reached.

HOSPITAL "A DEATH ZONE"

Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack. As the conflict entered its seventh week, authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip raised their death toll to 12,300, including 5,000 children.

After dropping leaflets earlier in the week, Israel on Saturday again warned civilians in parts of southern Gaza to relocate as it girds for an onslaught after subduing the north.

Raising international alarm, Israel made Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City a primary focus of its ground advance in northern Gaza.

A team led by the World Health Organization (WHO) which visited Al Shifa on Saturday described it as a "death zone" with signs of gunfire and shelling. WHO said it was developing plans for immediate evacuation of the remaining patients and staff.

Elsewhere in the north, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of UNRWA, the U.N. aid organization for Palestinian refugees, said on social media platform X that Israel bombarded two agency schools. More than 4,000 civilians were sheltered at one of them, he said.

"Dozens reported killed including children," he said. "Second time in less than 24 hours schools are not spared. ENOUGH, these horrors must stop."

A spokesperson for Gaza's Hamas authorities said 200 people had been killed or injured at the school. Israel's military did not comment.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose government controls parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Saturday said "hundreds of forcibly displaced people were killed" at the two schools in Gaza.

Abbas on Saturday appealed to U.S. President Joe Biden to intervene to stop the Israeli operation in Gaza.

The Israeli army killed two Palestinians in incursions in the West Bank early on Sunday, the Palestinian news agency WAFA said.

Israeli forces shot dead Issam Al-Fayed, a disabled 46-year-old, at the entrance of the Jenin refugee camp, the agency said. Another man, Omar Laham, 20, was killed by a gunshot to the head in clashes with soldiers in the Dheisheh refugee camp south of Bethlehem, it said.

Reuters could not independently verify the report.

AIR STRIKES

Biden, who opposes a ceasefire, was looking to the end of the conflict, saying in a Washington Post opinion article that the Palestinian Authority should ultimately govern both Gaza and the West Bank.

Asked about Biden's proposal, Netanyahu told reporters in Tel Aviv the Palestinian Authority in its current form was not capable of being responsible for Gaza. Israel has not disclosed a strategy for Gaza after the war.

An Israeli offensive in the south could compel hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled Gaza City in the north to uproot again, along with residents of Khan Younis, a city of more than 400,000, compounding a dire humanitarian crisis.

The conflict has already displaced around two-thirds of Gaza's population of 2.3 million.

An advance into southern Gaza may prove more complicated and deadlierthan in the north, however, with Hamas militants dug into the Khan Younis region, a senior Israeli source and two top ex-officials said.

Early Saturday, an air strike in a busy residential district of Khan Younis killed 26 Palestinians and wounded 23, health officials said.

Eyad Al-Zaeem told Reuters he lost his aunt, her children and her grandchildren in the attack. They all had evacuated from northern Gaza on Israeli army orders only to die where the army told them they could be safe, he said.

"All of them were martyred. They had nothing to do with the (Hamas) resistance," said Zaeem, standing outside the morgue at Nasser Hospital, where the 26 bodies were laid out before they were to be carried by loved ones to burials.

 

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia launches drone attack on Kyiv 2nd night in row -Ukraine

Russia launched several waves of drone attacks on Kyiv early on Sunday for the second night in row, stepping up its assaults on the Ukrainian capital after several weeks of pause, the city's military administration said.

"The enemy's UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) were launched in many groups and attacked Kyiv in waves, from different directions, at the same time constantly changing the vectors of movement along the route," Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv's military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.

"That is why the air raid alerts were announced several times in the capital."

Popko said that according to preliminary information Ukraine's air defence systems hit close to 10 Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones in Kyiv and its outskirts.

There have been no initial reports of "critical damage" or casualties, he said.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Russia started carrying out strikes on Ukraine's energy, military and transport infrastructure in October 2022, six months after Moscow's troops failed to take over the capital and withdrew to Ukraine's east and south.

Over last winter, Russia pounded Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones, leaving millions without electricity, heating and water during the coldest months of the year - before easing the assaults in the summer.

After a pause of 52 days, Moscow resumed air strikes on Kyiv earlier this month. On Saturday, Ukrainian officials said all drones heading towards Kyiv were destroyed, but some hit infrastructure facilities elsewhere in Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other officials have warned that Russia would resume its large-scale bombardments of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure during the winter months.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Western sanctions on Russian oil not working – Bloomberg

The price limit imposed by the G7 and EU on Russian seaborne oil sales is being ignored, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing calculations based on budget data from Moscow.

According to the Russian Finance Ministry, gross revenues from the three main tax sources of oil money nearly doubled between April and October, reaching more than $13 billion last month. That figure eclipsed sales for any single month in 2021.

The EU and G7 countries imposed a $60-per-barrel price ceiling on Russian seaborne crude last December. It prohibits Western firms from providing insurance and other services to shipments of Russian crude, unless the cargo is purchased at or below the set price. Similar restrictions were introduced in February for exports of Russian petroleum products. The measures were supposed to substantially reduce Russia’s energy revenues.

Citing a study of trade and shipping data by the KSE Institute, Bloomberg reported earlier this week that over 99% of Russian seaborne oil sold in October had been at $79.40 per barrel, well above the threshold set by the West.   

In another effort to reduce Russian energy revenues, the US Treasury Department is seeking to increase the costs Moscow has to pay to run an alleged shadow fleet of tankers that reportedly have unclear ownership and insurance status.

 

Reuters/RT

National Security Adviser, (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu, always wears a permanent visor of one who needs to be pitied. Last Monday, however, he advertised far more pity with his pithy speech. The venue was the Chief of Defence Intelligence 2023 Annual Conference in Abuja. His white babanriga fluffing angelically and struggling to cling to his lean frame, Ribadu suddenly skidded off the runway of his prepared speech and went ad-lib. At the juncture where he needed to talk about the “serious budgetary constraints” which he said the present government was facing, Ribadu could not contain what he had stomached before now. “Yes, we’re facing budgetary constraints,” he began, pity shrouding his face like a hail of smoke. “It is okay for me to tell you. Fine, it is important for you to know that we have inherited a very difficult situation, literally a bankrupt country, no money, to a point where we can say that all the money we’re getting now, we’re paying back what was taken. It is serious!”

Here, Ribadu reminded me of two aphorisms. One came out of folktales in pre-colonial Yoruba society and the other was a famous quip to remind those who left what ought to have been done to gather moss, belatedly running a race to fill in the gap. The first wise-saying is, “Igba yi laaro, t’arugbo nko’gba.” Literally translated, it scolds the old man who allowed his prime age to fallow without making use of his brawns and who now began to dig mounds and heaps at his senescence. At that old age, virulent damage had been done to his strength.

The second aphorism, as said earlier, came from the pre-colony. After eating their supper, sleeping time a couple of hours away, Yoruba of this period passed idle evenings by killing boredom with storytelling as a form of entertainment. The Osupa – moonlight – radiating brightness, enough to see nature’s hieroglyphics on the palm, the people filled this void by engaging in mental exercises of solving riddles called aalo and telling folktales. The most notorious subgenre in folktales they told were trickster tales. Animal tricksters were usually clothed in human form by the storytellers. The animals possessed strikingly human habits, weaknesses and dispositions. Most prominent among the tricksters was the tortoise – Ijapa. He share this trickery with his wife, Yannibo and on a few occasions, Okete, the big rat, also called the pouched rat. If you call it the bush rat, you are equally right. Yoruba believe that the Okete possesses supernatural powers and can transform into human (and vice versa) in the course of carrying out its trickster and nefarious activities at nocturne. In the book, Yoruba trickster tales (1997) written by Oyekan Owomoyela, the author said these trickster animals, as created by their folktale creators, were often “unburdened by scruples” and “often concoct vicious disasters for their would-be tormentors…reward their benefactors’ generosity with sometimes deadly betrayals” and “dupe friends, acquaintances and adversaries alike in pursuing their own selfish ends.”

As I intend to argue in this piece, NSA Ribadu’s cry is a lamentation over spilt milk. Before his belated revelations, Nigerians had already made up their minds about Muhammadu Buhari and his government. Ribadu’s cry can therefore be likened to a knock-kneed’s who belatedly realized that his limitation to speedy walk was a wonky foundation. The most fitting analogy that can describe the Ribadu Abuja cry is that of the Okete which, in one of those trickster folktales, was complicit in his own calamity. The story was that, while assailants were frenetically digging his hole, preparatory to arresting him for supper, Okete refused to raise alarm. He was subsequently arrested, defanged, entrails brought out and roasted on the wire-gauze of a hot furnace. It was at this time that Mr. Okete raised his hands up above the head in alarm. Disgusted by this belated activism, Yoruba mockingly berate the bush rat thus: “Okete gbagbe ibosi, o de’gba alate, o ka’wo le’ri.” It translates into, the bush rat, deaf to the noise of those stalking him as they dug his hole, only belatedly raised his hands in a Save Our Soul alarm when he had become a roasted venison advertised for sale.

There is no doubt that Ribadu was saying the gospel truth. As if in a choreographed encore, Ribadu again flew to Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State for the 2023 Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE) conference where he again doubled down on these destructive bequeathals of Buhari. “We will open up and to be honest and sincere… By 1st June after we took over the country, we inherited four active security challenges and each one of them has the potential to undermine Nigeria and the continuous management of the country. We have the Boko Haram and Islamic insurgency for about 15 years now, we have the Niger Delta militants for over 30 years. We have banditry and kidnapping in the areas of Northern Nigeria, North West and North Central and the IPOB problem in the south east; four massive problems, each one with the potential to get Nigeria to its knees, all of them very active,” he said.

In far away Mecca, Saudi Arabia last Monday, it was as if Ribadu and President Bola Tinubu had orchestrated this Okete SOS simultaneously. As he advanced negotiations for a multi-billion dollar infrastructure finance facility from the Islamic Development Bank for the purpose of funding a multi-sectoral portfolio of projects at the federal and sub-national levels, the president also became an Okete. While speaking, he said that, though he would not make excuses, his government inherited serious liabilities from his predecessors, serious deficits in port and power infrastructure, as well as agro-allied facilities.

As I said earlier, no one needed a diviner to tell them that the Tinubu government inherited bad times. The signs were ominous, even before the May 29 handover. Way back in June, a few days after the current government took over, human rights activist and lawyer, Femi Falana, had meticulously itemized the 20 ways in which the Buhari government pillaged the Nigerian economy. Among others, he listed them as diversion of N40 billion from the Federation Account, listing the companies involved and how much they sucked from the Nigerian nectar; an additional revenue of $1.5 billion payable to Federation Account; outstanding royalties of $62 billion; denial of FG’s revenue of $500 million by a group of corrupt public officers; $7 billion fixed in 14 banks; sale of Polaris Bank by Heritage Bank, Keystone Bank, Union Bank and Polaris Bank by CBN; heft of Crude oil, gold and other mineral resources; N5.4 trillion owed AMCON among many others. It was even said that the Buhari government had collected monies from crude oil months in advance and thus, why the Tinubu government is in a financial mess. No one said a thing. The current government was busy wrapped in a shawl of cover-up at the time, silently bellyaching on the dross that Buhari handed over to it, in the name of cultic partyism and perhaps, espirit de corps, a quid pro quo of mutual looting among the governmental elite. 

The Falana revelations are just a tip of the iceberg. Insider sources alleged that if Nigerians are ever privy to the details of the scandalous transactions under Buhari’s Godwin Emefiele and the people who benefitted millions of foreign currencies of Nigerian money, the ears of this country would tingle. Now, Nigeria is in a limbo and it is obvious that, as they say, the meal being cooked that led to the inferno which consumed the house will have to be laid bare. Yet, except for few details that fly into privileged individual ears, the government has generally kept quiet, like that senescent old man who left what ought to have been done undone and is now exhibiting brawns and grits of hyper-work at old age.

Since May, efforts being made by government to reflate the economy are noticeable but they have remained what they are – efforts – because the Buhari rats have filched every fish in the treasury. However, there is no doubting the fact that the burdens inherited by the government and the heavy yoke it is vicariously liable for putting on its own head, are militating against its progress. Since its inception, this government has proven to be one of hedonism, even when economic indices are overwhelmingly bleak. Its policies are rich-centric and very lean with regards to liberating the mass of the people from their economic and existential woes.

Now, let us get back to this government’s complicity in the current woes it, like the Okete, was fatally deaf to and is now floundering its arms up in an SOS. To the best of my knowledge, none of the current runners of this government was on exile when the Buhari debacle was getting to its fatal denouement. Newspaper columnists and other Nigerians shouted at the top of their voices. Economists who had the guts to dare the lion in its lair shouted themselves hoarse that Buhari’s cavalier attitude to governance, his apparent lack of understanding of how to run a modern state, would shipwreck Nigeria. We were called names and haters of the ruling APC. God bless his soul, some of us, like the great Obadiah Mailafia, lost their lives in the process. When Nigerians needed those who are now crying over spilt milk to talk about the damage being inflicted on Nigeria by Buhari, they suddenly went into somnolence like Baal, the effete god of the Sidonians (reference the biblical Prophet Elijah).

In their public talks and actions, they openly fraternized with and were in a competition of endorsements of Buhari’s innumerable financial, administrative and governmental missteps. On many occasions, their indulgence in complicit silence was deafening. They were either asking where the cows were – a euphemism for defence of Fulani banditry in the Southwest – or abetted Buhari to inflict more damage on our national psyche. Now, apologies to the indomitable Sam Mbakwe, “the come has come to become,” they are now in government and have begun to wail against Buhari like us, doing what they accused us of doing, for which we were called wailers as they clapped rhythmically. The online people who lamented this set of people’s complicity in the Buhari debacle, they labeled as children of anger. Now, they expected us to join them in these lyrical wails, in the autumn of their realization of the evil that was the Buhari government. As the Igbo man will say, Tufiakwa!

The question to ask is, was Ribadu on exile when we spoke about the security challenges Nigeria went through, many of which were self-inflicted by the Buhari government itself? Where was he when the southwest quaked under attacks of herdsmen? Where were Yoruba sons and daughters in this government when Buhari was deaf to the cries of the southwest on insecurity? Were they not complicitly and conspiratorially silent, all in the name of not rocking the APC boat? Ribadu himself was busy junketing from one party to another, from the PDP to the ACN where he ran, first as president and later, joining the ruling APC to contest the governorship of Adamawa state in 2019 and 2023. I imagine that while on the campaign podium, Ribadu must have beatified this same man he now wanted us to join in his orchestra of lamentation on his allegation of bankrupting Nigeria. Before now, as Buhari treated the whole of the country as dot in a circle, the veil was so thick in Ribadu’s eyes that he could not see the Buhari we saw and the rein on his mouth was so thick that he could not speak out about the colossal fraud and mis-governance the sole patent of which the government seemed to have.

Having identified the humongous looting that went on under the Buhari government, this government would be grossly and vicariously liable for all the ills in Nigeria today if it continually to paper over them. This is the time of disclosure and only disclosure can grant it armistice in the hearts of the people. For instance, we expected that by now, Ribadu must have audited the trillions of Naira allegedly spent on procuring armaments and fighting insurgencies and banditry in the eight years under Buhari. It was believed that fat-epaulettes military Generals, in cahoots with civilian accomplices, filched tremendous sums of money from those deals, becoming, in the words of Eddie Iroh, toads of those wars. Rather than lamenting what was, we expected Ribadu to put a wedge to such premeditated looting by revealing who and who creamed off the Nigerian patrimony in the guise of fighting wars.

It will appear that we are in a season of barren governmental recriminations and allegations which, at the end of the day, from national experience, amount to absolutely nothing. When Buhari came, his singsong was a 16-year looting of the Nigerian treasury by the PDP. After a few months of haranguing the then NSA, Ibrahim Dasuki and hoisting some political adversaries up for public ridicule, today, no one knows what happened thereafter. Now, it is being alleged that the looting and stealing under the Jonathan government, if Tinubu opens their lids, are a child’s play compared to the ones that happened under Muhammadu Buhari.

All these, added together, confirm Shakespearean Brutus’ famous quote about the greed for power and evil he claimed will be on the ascendancy once Caesar became the Emperor. Brutus had said, “It is the bright day that brings forth the adder and that craves wary walking.” The adder, in this scenario, the venomous snake that is being compared to Caesar, is the corruption roulette that has made the Nigerian federal government its place of domicile. The bright day represents the presidential office. In Shakespeare’s Caesar, Brutus feared that Caesar’s true self, evil and greed for power, would come out of its sheathe the moment he was crowned emperor. The “and that craves wary walking,” refers to the need to put a stop to this seasonal ballad of lamentations by successive government which has become Nigerian governments’ rhapsody. Like Brutus implored his other conspirators to be careful due to Caesar’s closeness to being made the emperor, we should be wary of the Okete who was fatally deaf to the noise of those stalking him and which is now belatedly raising his hands up in a Save Our Soul alarm.

To break this roulette of allegations of looting of the treasury at every beginning of a new administration, the Tinubu government has to make public those who Ribadu claimed had “taken” and bankrupted the country. He must be ready to step on the adder. Of course, moving against those who are behind the unmitigated plundering of Nigeria’s resources under Buhari would be akin to committing class suicide. This is because the culprits of this mindless clean-up of the treasury are both Tinubu’s capitalist class buddies and his presidential Hallelujah crew. Tinubu didn’t get this far by harbouring suicidal traits, did he? Otherwise, the felons who Ribadu has been laboring to demonize will be content with swallowing our national patrimony, suffering only the Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s “big fat stomach” and living happily ever after, while the people suffer the unmitigated disaster of their greed and governmental larceny. And the madness will linger till the next exchange of presidential baton.

 

Jolaoso: Dividends of responsible parenting

Whenever I sneak into the premises of the Ibadan Tennis Club in the capital of Oyo State, the life of one elderly man named Ebenezer Adewale Jolaoso (also known as Alani) fascinates me. As they say in Christendom, I use him as my prayer point and his life a piece of mentorship. I always use him as pulpit material to sermonize to parents on the dividends of being a responsible parent, the clan of which is becoming extinct in the Nigeria of today. Pa Jolaoso clocked 80 years in September, having being born in 1943.

I do not want to talk about his CV, his nativity of Orile Ilugun, Ogun State or that he met the boardroom czar, Ayoola Obafoluke Otudeko, as an Accounts Clerk in the then Cooperative Bank in 1962. Otudeko later taught Jolaoso rudiments of banking. Fate was to later twine them together as Jolaoso became Otudeko’s in-law, having married the latter’s sister.

After marrying Oluyemisi Yetunde Otudeko in 1973, she unfortunately passed on twenty years after, specifically on January 2, 1994. By this time, their last born was preparing to enter the Olashore College in Osun State. Not only did Jolaoso make up his mind not to remarry, he made the training of his children a career, to which he devoted the totality of his being. At his 80th celebration, one of the children thanked him for being their Daddy and Mommy simultaneously.

The morale of the life of Jolaoso which every parent must clone is that his children, who are now scattered all over the world, have made it a career to give him the best life can afford. He rejects automobiles from them at will on account of surplusage and there is a fierce competition among them on who dots most over their father. After escaping an inexplicable auto accident a few weeks before his 80th birthday and being examined by Nigerian medics, his children sent him air ticket to come for thorough medical examination in the United States. It is one of the dividends of responsible parenting.

Of course, it is not easy to be a responsible parent in an atmosphere of turgid finance and collapsing values as we have in Nigeria today. Parents must however struggle to be a Jolaoso to their children. If Providence is kind enough to give such parents long life and good health, the dividends of responsible parenting, at adulthood, is almost like money rituals.

I wish Pa Jolaoso belated 80th birthday celebrations.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life ~ John 3:14-15.

Introduction

When all things seem blurry, and the silver hair appears awry; when all ways seem closed, and life is not taking its expected shape, looking unto Jesus Christ is the best outlook! He is the only One that brings real life and authenticity to our existence.

When we genuinely look unto Him and stay our gaze on Him, we will supernaturally experience His life in all its fullness. He also will deliver us without fail, and help us to enjoy all the provisions of the covenant (Luke 18:1-8).

Unfortunately, it has for long been a universal practice, though a very big error, for many people to look in various directions to meet their diverse needs in life. Some look up to fellow mortals  for help. Albeit, innocent as this may sound, God considers it a grievous sin that typically attracts a divine curse (Jeremiah 17:5).

Worse still, some others dangerously seek help from the devil, like King Ahaziah and King Saul did (1Kings 1:1-4; 1Samuel 28:1-25). Certainly, the surest and safest help man can ever receive is in God (Psalm 46:1-5; 121:1-8). And, Jesus Christ is that Help who was sent to the entire world, for our complete and total salvation.

Gleaning from the history of God’s ways amongst His chosen people, we found that the Israelites at a time journeyed to their promised verdant and prosperous land, when they were liberated from the Egyptian enslavement.

However, the journey was not without some challenges. Thus, the people felt disenfranchised, and grew tired, impatient and rebellious (Numbers 21:1-9). They complained bitterly and  rebelled against God their ever-present, all-powerful and all-knowing Liberator, and against Moses their human leader.

Consequently, fiery venomous snakes mysteriously broke out and bit some of them, and many died there in the wilderness. They perceived this was divine punishment. They therefore acknowledged their errors, repented, and pleaded with Moses to intercede for them.

Thereafter, Moses prayed, and God instructed him to construct a bronze snake, set it on a pole, promising that whoever was bitten, when they looked at the bronze snake, would live. Miraculously, it came to pass as God promised.

Now, Jesus spoke of this act of God’s mercy in helping Nicodemus understand that anyone that would be saved today must repent and believe in Him, saying: “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14).

In effect, any life can be truly transformed by believing in Jesus Christ, no matter the odds. Looking unto Him supernaturally results in total salvation from sin, Satan, sicknesses, oppression, poverty, shame, fear, destruction and death (John 3:16). 

Jesus Christ is the Life, and the Life-Giver. He promised us life “more abundantly” (John 10:10). Without Him we are just like walking dead; contrariwise, when we look unto Him, we become alive with life eternal (John 3:15).

Indeed, our God is truly merciful! He didn’t give up on the rebellious Hebrews, but rather made a way for them to be healed and live. Similarly, Jesus Christ doesn’t abandon anyone, regardless of how bad he is, or has been. He gives everlasting life whenever we look unto Him.

Jesus was passing through Jericho, and a rich sinner named Zacchaeus exerted much efforts to see Him in spite of the pressing crowd and his own little stature. When Jesus beheld his persistent faith, He said unto him, “This day is salvation come to this house”. Immediately, Jesus mightily helped and saved him (Luke 19:1-10).

Again, as He walked through Capernaum, a great crowd of people flocked around Him, and a woman who had been afflicted with a serious medical condition, hemorrhage, for 12 years reached out and touched the border of His garment. Immediately she was also healed (Mark 5:21-42; Luke 8:40-55).

In fact, the Bible is replete with many instances of divine intervention wrought when people looked unto Jesus Christ (Matthew 8:5-11; Mark 1:21-28; Mark 2:1-12). And, even today, He still works in the lives of those who look up unto Him. Yes indeed, I am a living witness, to the glory of God.

In our ministry over the years, as we proclaimed the gospel in the name of Jesus Christ, we have seen chronic sinners saved, the paralyzed healed, the blind see, fibroids dropped off, the terminally sick restored to vibrant health, and the barren give birth, even to twins, many times.

We have also seen mad people healed, and have witnessed great deliverances wrought in the lives of those bound by devils and addicted to drugs and bad habits, all to the glory of God.

Undoubtedly, we serve the prayer-answering God (Psalms 65:2). He will attend to your own needs without fail as you keenly look unto Him, in the matchless name of Jesus Christ.

How To Practically Look Unto Jesus And Overcome Satan!

True to form, and despite Satan’s ardent wickedness, the genuine children of God can rest assured that every form of satanic aggression and cruelty can be stopped in their lives.

Meanwhile, please note that it was not the bronze snake that healed the Israelites when they were bitten by the fiery venomous serpents in the wilderness, but their faith in God. Healing came when they obeyed God’s instruction to look at the hoisted bronze snake, in faith.

The Bible confirms that the believers who are serious with God, sober, obedient, humble, vigilant, true, holy and prayerful, even the youngest among them who can exercise a steadfast, pure and firm faith in Christ, can overpower the devil (1 Peter 5:8-9).

Satan is a defeated foe. He knows this, and each time you resist him he assumes you know it as well. Therefore, he understandably flees from you, trembling, sighing, shrinking and shaking like a wounded lion with its tail between its legs every time you war against him in the prayers of faith (James 4:7).

Whatever you’re going through right now is not an accurate indicator of your final destination. Even if the devil had messed you up before, he cannot stall your destiny permanently once you enlist the divine help and engage in a sure fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:18).

Beloved friends and brethren in Christ, nothing in life can stop you from receiving your expected miracle. No devil, no problem, no pain or opposition has the ability to stop you. Only you can stop yourself through ignorance and personal unbelief.

Rely wholly upon the Word. Be fearless like Joshua. Be humble like Moses, and stay focused like Nehemiah. “Faith is saying it is so, even when it’s not yet so, because God said so, so that it might be so” (anonymous).

Meanwhile, the very best way to reposition yourselves for the help of God is to fully cooperate with the Holy Spirit for His touch of mercy! Jesus is the only valid Way out of any tribulation (John 14:6; 16:33). However, He abides with the believers today in the form of the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 14:18).

Be passionate evermore in your quest for destiny fulfillment. Stay your gaze firmly on Jesus Christ. Dwell in Him also as He is in you. Those who wait upon the Lord never waste their destinies (Isaiah 40:30-31). This is your day, you won’t lose your luminance, and you won’t miss it, in Jesus name. Amen. Happy Sunday!

____________________

Bishop Taiwo Akinola,

Rhema Christian Church,

Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

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