WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

US sends seized Iranian ammunition to Ukraine

The U.S. has sent Ukraine more than 1 million rounds of Iranian ammunition that had been seized last year, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.

U.S. naval forces for years have been seizing weapons believed to be from Iran bound for Iran-backed fighters in Yemen, usually transported by fishing vessels.

U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for military operations in the Middle East, said about 1.1 million 7.62 mm rounds were sent to Ukraine.

They were originally seized by U.S. naval forces in December 2022 and being transferred from Iran's Revolutionary Guards to Houthi forces in Yemen.

"The U.S. is committed to working with our allies and partners to counter the flow of Iranian lethal aid in the region by all lawful means including U.S. and U.N. sanctions and through interdictions," the Central Command statement said.

The ammunition is unlikely to make a major difference on the battlefield at a time when long-range weapons and air defense systems are on top of Ukraine's wish list.

The seized ammunition being transferred are also unlikely to ease concerns about the continued flow of western weapons to Kyiv.

Congress included no new money for Ukraine in the stopgap U.S. spending bill it passed on Saturday to keep the federal government open, highlighting the increasing reluctance of some Republicans to provide funds for Kyiv.

Last year, Britain's Royal Navy said one of its warships had seized Iranian weapons, including surface-to-air-missiles and engines for cruise missiles, from smugglers in international waters south of Iran.

Yemen's Houthi movement has battled a Saudi-led coalition since 2015 in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and left 80% of the population dependent on aid.

The United States has put pressure on its ally Saudi Arabia to end the war and linked some U.S. military support to the kingdom to ending its involvement in Yemen.

** Ukraine says its forces make headway in south, hold gains in east

Ukrainian forces made some headway in their drive southward as part of a gruelling counteroffensive to recapture areas seized by Russia in its 19-month-old invasion of its neighbour, military officials said.

Ukrainian officials also said Kyiv's forces were resisting Russian attempts to reverse gains on the eastern front made by Kyiv since it launched the counteroffensive in June.

Russia's Defence Ministry reported a measure of success by its troops on the eastern front. Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.

Ukraine's southern group of forces outlined advances as Kyiv presses on with a drive towards the Sea of Azov to split Russian-occupied territory in the south and east.

"We have had partial success to the west of Robotyne," a spokesperson for the southern group, Oleksandr Shtupun, told national television, noting that Ukrainian troops are "continuing to reinforce the positions they hold".

"In certain areas, we are advancing from 100 to 600 metres."

The drive southward has been slower than lightning gains a year ago in the northeast. But Ukrainian troops have captured a string of villages and officials say they are readying themselves around Robotyne and other villages for new advances.

The General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces, in its evening report, said its forces had repelled Russian attacks near Robotyne and nearby Verbove.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismisses criticism that the counteroffensive is not producing expected results and rejects any notion that it is hampered by strategic errors.

The General Staff report also said Russian forces had been unsuccessful in attempts to recapture ground near Andriivka - a village in the east recaptured by Ukrainian forces last month.

Ukraine's campaign in the east has focused on taking villages to facilitate the recapture of the devastated city of Bakhmut, seized by Russian forces in May after months of battles.

Russia's defence ministry said Moscow's forces had struck Ukrainian positions close to Andriivka and a nearby village.

It also said it had downed 31 drones launched by Kyiv overnight over three southern Russian regions, but reported no casualties or damage.

A Ukrainian security source earlier said Kyiv's forces had carried out a drone attack on the western Russian region of Belgorod and hit an S-400 air defence complex and its radar.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine ‘very cheap way’ to fight Russia – NATO state minister

Arming Kiev is a cost-effective way of preventing Moscow from threatening NATO, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren argued on Wednesday at the Warsaw Security Forum.

Ollongren was asked whether the US and its allies can continue supporting Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” given the political in-fighting in Washington. 

“We cannot pretend that we’ll just wait and see how the American elections are going,” she said. “Because they have the same interest, in a way. Of course, supporting Ukraine is a very cheap way to make sure that Russia with this regime is not a threat to the NATO alliance. And it’s vital to continue that support.”

“It is very much in our interest to support Ukraine, because they are fighting this war, we are not fighting it,” Ollongren noted, while admitting that NATO had “skin in the game.”

Ollongren explained that she had recently visited the US and that political developments there are cause for concern, but that Western Europeans need to talk with their American colleagues and persuade them to stay the course.

“I think that we are capable of a lot, and we have proven that in the past year and a half, and the only thing we have to do is keep it up,” the minister said, adding that the scale of military assistance to Kiev has surprised Ukraine, Russia and even NATO itself.

The US and its allies have channeled a large amount of money, weapons, ammunition and supplies to Ukraine since the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell revealedearlier this week that the bloc has sent Ukraine €85 billion ($89.8 billion) so far, of which more than €25 billion ($26.4 billion) was military aid. The most recent estimates of US spending were from the end of July, and amounted to $46.6 billion in military aid, $3.9 billion in humanitarian aid, and about $26.4 billion in loans and cash payments to keep the government in Kiev going.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that the deliveries of heavy weapons and other aid are tantamount to direct involvement in the hostilities. Washington and Brussels, however, insist they were not actually a party to the conflict. Russia said foreign arms would not change the course of the fighting and would not deter Moscow from achieving its goals in Ukraine. 

Russian officials also repeatedly cited NATO’s expansion eastward as one of the root causes of its current conflict with Ukraine and the standoff with the West. 

** Russian forces wipe out Ukrainian missile/artillery depots in Kupyansk area in past day

Russian forces destroyed Ukrainian missile/artillery depots in the Kupyansk area over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

"Near the settlements of Kupyansk and Liptsy in the Kharkov Region, depots storing missile and artillery armament of the Ukrainian army’s 41st mechanized brigade and ammunition of the 113th territorial defense brigade were eliminated," the ministry said in a statement.

Russian forces destroy 30 Ukrainian troops in Kupyansk area over past day

Russian forces destroyed roughly 30 Ukrainian troops, a tank and a US-made radar station in the Kupyansk area over the past day, the ministry reported.

"In the Kupyansk direction, aircraft, artillery and heavy flamethrower systems of the Western Battlegroup struck manpower and military hardware of the Ukrainian army’s 25th air assault, 32nd and 115th mechanized brigades and 103rd territorial defense brigade in areas near the settlements of Sinkovka and Berestovoye in the Kharkov Region, Stelmakhovka and Artyomovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic," the ministry said.

Russian forces destroyed as many as 30 Ukrainian personnel, a tank and two motor vehicles in the Kupyansk area over the past day. Near the settlement of Shiykovka in the Kharkov Region, they eliminated a US-made AN/TPQ-37 counter-battery radar station, the ministry specified.

 

Reuters/RT/Tass

With the United States court mandating that Chicago State University release some of President Bola Tinubu’s records, Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate and Tinubu’s rival in the last general elections, won a moral victory bigly. While this might not translate to legal gains in the upcoming Supreme Court, many Nigerians seem thrilled by the turn of events. I understand that feeling. This is one of the rare instances where a court judgment repudiates the almighty power that the Nigerian presidency embodies. For a nation where it is near impossible to compel its leaders to answerability, watching a higher form of power shake their supposed invincibility is gratifying.

This certificate scandal has been long in coming. The inconsistencies in his claimed trajectory began to appear when he became Lagos governor. From his family background to educational path, the numbers did not line up.

The late lawyer and activist Gani Fawehinmi memorably fought at the courts to unravel the façade but never quite succeeded. The court case could not proceed then because he had political power on his side and constitutional immunity. Tokunbo Afikuyomi also took the fall (for a crime he likely never committed), a deflection that left a bitter taste in the mouth. Who seeks public office but would not take the time to fill out a personal form.

While the legal aspect got caught in a constitutional quandary, the questionable credentials stuck with his public profile. If Tinubu had remained where he was in Lagos, his certificate issues would have remained a niggly problem and might even have been wrapped up in his enigma. By aspiring towards and actively pursuing the presidency, the issue was recuperated to disqualify him. It did not help that his lawyers filed serial appeals to stop the impending judgment to the point their frenzied attempts raised some red flags. In one instance, his lawyer even argued that “severe and irreparable harm will be done to Bola Tinubu if the records are released.” What kind of harm could possibly come to a man already president?

Atiku’s role in all these is most interesting. He pursued the case of Tinubu’s certificates like a man who knew something could be found. You do not pay the expense of hiring lawyers and fighting serial appeals by the defendants without some certainty that something worthwhile would be revealed. TheCable publisher Simon Kolawole’s narration of his professional experience in the certificate scandal suggests how Atiku might have had foreknowledge. According to Kolawole, while he was the editor of a weekly news magazine owned by Atiku, TheWeek, they produced an edition on the allegations of certificate forgery against Tinubu where they raised some vital questions. The management had the printed copies redacted. It was 2002, and even though they were in different political parties, Atiku and Tinubu were close friends and associates.

Ironically, the same Atiku that shielded his friend from scrutiny is also the one who went all the way to wrest his academic records from his university. You can call him amoniseni—the people who use their intimate knowledge about you to harm you—but high-stakes politics can be that amoral when you want what your opponent has.

I also want to believe that as an African big man, Atiku is also aware our laws and institutions can hardly make our political elites accountable. A victory in the US courts might not mean much at home. That makes me wonder, what if his end goal is not merely to challenge Tinubu in court but simply to disgrace him? Unless something changes, Atiku still has 2027 presidential ambitions. His doggedness in pursuing Tinubu’s certificates could be to use his (ex-) friend’s perennial thorn in the flesh to cause a moral wound. An internet resident himself, Atiku knows how much the younger digital population—many of whom actively voted against Tinubu in February—are invested in this case. He might also be playing for them. His big victory here is not what the certificates reveal or how they will be received at the Supreme Court but to score a goal before observers with varying interests in how the case unfolds.

The triumphalism they exude is not a matter of certainty that this will go anywhere in a Nigerian court but that the man before whom every institution in the country has bowed met his match in political power. What Judge Nancy Maldonado ordered could not have happened in the Nigerian courts.

Another source of satisfaction is seeing that the saying, “the judiciary is the last hope of the common man” still has meaning elsewhere. Unlike Nigeria where judges will spend a whole day reading prefabricated judgment that sends everyone to sleep and ultimately contributes nil to the course of justice in the country, we saw a court where a judge understood what was at stake and mandated the release of contested records. No hiding behind technicalities, no endless adjournments, and no judge cosying up to political powers. The judge saw—and ruled—on what needed to be done.

In Nigeria, that same case would have crawled through the court for 20 years and barely moved an inch. In fact, for each court appearance, the defendant would have sent 120 SANs to court. All of them, wig and gown in tow, would have lined up there like small children waiting to see Father Christmas. To see a mere judge—a human of like passion, vested with the power of democratic institution—compel an African president to accountability before the people he purportedly serves, is a most rewarding spectacle.

For Nigeria where our leaders are bigger than the courts, seeing them brought down by oyinbo judicial systems is always a joy and the body counts cannot rack up fast enough. We remember former Delta governor, James Ibori, who was exonerated in Nigeria for corruption only for him to be tried and imprisoned in the United Kingdom. We also saw how Ike Ekweremadu was made to pay for his crimes in a London court without anyone giving a bleep about his big man status. Which court in the country would have sentenced a former Deputy Senate President? Big men do not go to prison in Nigeria, and that is not because they do not commit crimes. Our judicial system lacks the autonomy to make judgments against them, and it was never designed to hold powerful people accountable anyway.

Of course, Tinubu’s supporters will try to spin the turn of events in the standard way they frame his defeats. Yínmú! If he were such an astute strategist, the economy under his watch would not be in the doldrums. Anyway, his supporters are welcome to their monomania, but I am pretty sure that Tinubu himself would have preferred not to have the myth of his invincibility punctured. By proving he is not unshakeable, Atiku won this round.

 

Punch

Toxic bosses are far too common: They’re the reason 57% of employees have quit a job, according to one report.

But sometimes, you need the paycheck. Robyn L. Garrett, an author and CEO of leadership coaching firm Beamably, has a “secret trick” for figuring out whether it’s time to abandon ship.

“Defining your personal values can be tremendously powerful at navigating an issue like this. Not only which values are the most important to you, but [also] which ones you actively oppose,” Garrett told the Harvard Business Review’s “New Here” podcast earlier this month. “We don’t always know why we have negative feelings about the workplace, but if you’ve taken the time to define your values, it can make it much, much clearer.”

You should probably consider leaving your job if you are completely opposed to your boss’s approach on a moral level. If the problem isn’t quite as severe, like a communication issue, you might be able to find a way to deal with your frustrating manager, Garrett said.

Her first step: identifying the “variety of factors” that define your relationship with your boss, and using that information to form a plan of action.

“What are their needs? What are their motivations? What are your needs? What are your motivations? How do those things clash? But how can they also work together? And are there ways that the two of you can compromise,” said Garrett.

If your boss is flexible and rooting for your success — their toxicity emerges in other ways — they’ll be willing to come to an agreement, Garrett said. If they’re stuck in their ways, you’ll have to resort to changing your communication style to match theirs.

If you approach them about your feelings, for example, they might not be receptive. If you come equipped with research and data that supports your argument, you might be more successful.

“A lot of bosses are financially motivated. They’re all about their KPIs and their metrics,” Garrett said.

Garrett speaks from experience. Once, while working in an international position, her boss would conduct “2 a.m. conference calls that would go on for two and a half hours,” then pile on assignments for her to complete afterward, she said.

“I tried to communicate with this person, but they were very aggressive and they took advantage of me because I was young and I didn’t know better,” she added.

Indeed, direct confrontation may not be your best bet: 69% of workplace leaders already say they’re uncomfortable communicating with their employees, according to a 2016 survey from Harris Poll and communications firm Interact.

Whatever you decide to do, don’t forget to keep track of your physical and emotional wellbeing: Toxic workplaces can contribute to anxiety, mental fatigue and stress, experts say.

“It’s important to protect yourself at all times,” Garrett said. “Make sure you’re taking care of you because they’re not always going to, unfortunately.”

 

CNBC

After back and forth, the Chicago State University (CSU) released the academic records of President Bola Tinubu to his political opponent, Atiku Abubakar, on Monday.   

Atiku, the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 election, had requested the documents to back his allegation of forgery of CSU certificate against Tinubu.  

The allegation of forgery was one of those dismissed by the presidential election court in the suit Atiku filed to challenge the election of Tinubu. Despite the court’s ruling, Atiku continued his case at the US court, hoping to get official documents to back his claim and possibly include them in his appeal at the Supreme Court.  

Through his lawyers, Atiku sought these key things – an example of a CSU diploma issued in 1979; Tinubu’s diploma issued in 1979; example of a CSU diploma that “contains the same font, seal, signatures and wording” as Tinubu’s diploma issued in June 1979 and CSU documents certified and produced by Jamar Orr, an associate general counsel at CSU at the time.  

Tinubu had done all within his power not to have the records released, saying they would cause him severe harm because they were private to him but a United States District Court in Northern Illinois ordered CSU to release the academic records.  

No sooner had CSU released the records than the social media literally caught fire as supporters of the two top politicians took time to share materials that they considered favourable to them.  

However, a deeper analysis of the documents pointed out some issues.  

Authenticity of graduation  

The documents contained Tinubu’s admission records, and a letter dated 27 June, 2022 confirming that he attended the university from August 1977 to June 1979 majoring in accounting. The letter said Tinubu was awarded Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Honours on 22 June, 1979.  

Diploma issue  

A careful look at the documents showed that the certificate which Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is different from the certificates CSU issued in 1979. Tinubu, who had previously claimed to have lost his original certificates, presented a replacement of his CSU diploma to INEC.  

Gender error  

A copy of his Southwest College transcript with which he gained admission into CSU identified him as female, but CSU has attributed this to a clerical error. However, there were errors on the date and social security number. Also, the space for birthday was left blank in the Southwest College transcript Tinubu submitted to CSU.  

Gaps in College certificate  

Tinubu who applied to Southwest College for an associate degree in 1975 claimed to have attended Government College, Lagos, and presented a 1970 GCE A-level result. Whereas, Government College, Lagos, was established in 1974 by the military administration of Mobolaji Johnson.  

Birthday mismatch  

In his documents to INEC, Tinubu said he was born on March 29, 1952. This is his known date of birth, at least from the yearly colloquium he organised consistently until he got elected into the highest office in the land. However, in the record released by CSU, Tinubu was said to have been born on March 29, 1954, a clear gap of two years.  

Farooq Kperogi, a US-based professor, who analysed the documents said while some were authentic, he believed part of it was forged.  

In a piece entitled, ‘6 Major Findings about Tinubu from the CSU Documents’, Kperogi wrote, “Tinubu obviously identified as a man throughout the two years he studied at the school. A Nigerian CSU graduate and Tinubu’s classmate swore under oath that Tinubu ran for and won election as president of CSU’s accounting students’ association. His yearbook photo from 1979 also clearly showed a younger version of Tinubu.  

“The Bola A. Tinubu who applied to Southwest College for an associate degree in 1975 claimed to have attended Government College, Lagos, and presented a 1970 GCE A-level result with grades E in Chemistry and Biology and an F in Physics. The problem is that Government College, Lagos, was established in 1974. So, there’s a chronological conundrum there, which signposts forgery.  

“It is not clear at the moment if the GCE A-level result is fake or authentic—or if it belongs to the man we know today as Bola A. Tinubu. My hunch is that it does not belong to him. But this will become clear in the coming days.”  

Tweeting via @AreaFada1, musician Charly Boy wrote: “My people, Chicago University don release all Tinubu’s manuscripts to Atiku. Una don dey see as everywhere dey smell for dis we country now. Dem say, when the head of a fish is rotten, the rest of the body will be in a state of rottenness.”  

Another Twitter user, Oluwole Jagaban, said, “Master strategist wey no fit handle ordinary certificate forgery, haba! Wetin the CEO of APC cannot do no exist.” Ladies and gents, exposing the first transgender from Nigeria.

Yeye dey smell. My people make una make sure dis man vomit our mandate, from henceforth na vawulence pro max i dey.”  

But Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, who was Tinubu’s campaign spokesman, asked Atiku to apologise to Nigerians.  

“From the responses by Chicago State University, ATIKU’s journey to Chicago and back has been a journey to nowhere; a fruitless exercise and an odyssey in self-humiliation. President Tinubu and Nigerians deserve an unreserved apology from him,” he said.  

 

Daily Trust

All Progressives Congress on Tuesday chastised the Peoples Democratic Party presidential standard bearer, Atiku Abubakar, over his quest to obtain President Bola Tinubu’s academic records from the Chicago State University.

National Publicity Director of the APC, Bala Ibrahim, attributed Atiku and the PDP’s action to what he called ‘post-election defeat disorder.’

He claimed Nigerians had rejected the opposition party following years of mismanagement and admonished the former vice president to quit politics.

This is happening as the United States’ District Court for Northern Illinois received the former Lagos State governor’s certificates as ordered by Justice Nancy Maldonado.

The court was still taking the deposition of Tinubu’s certificates as of 8pm Nigerian time on Tuesday, following the release of the documents by CSU on Monday in compliance with the court ruling.

Chicago State University released the academic records of the President following requests by former vice president Atiku, who was the PDP candidate in the February 25, 2023 presidential election.

Magistrate Jeffrey Gilbert had on September 19 granted Atiku’s request for the release of Tinubu’s academic records but the President filed a review of the order.

Tinubu’s lawyers insisted that the documents would not be relevant in Atiku’s appeal against Tinubu at the Supreme Court and asked for a review of the ruling.

However, Justice Nancy Maldonado, a federal judge, overruled Tinubu’s objections and ordered the CSU to release the president’s academic records.

In the CSU documents, which went viral late Monday night, the institution responded to Atiku’s four requests.

In response to Atiku’s first request for “A true and correct copy of any diploma for a Bachelor of Science degree issued by CSU in 1979,” the US varsity said, “The documents responsive to this request which CSU, after diligent search, has been able to locate are produced herewith and Bates labelled CSU 0001 through CSU 0007. The students’ names on these diplomas have been redacted for privacy reasons.”

On the second request for “A true and correct copy of any diploma issued by CSU in 1979 to Tinubu”, the varsity said, “CSU does not, in the ordinary course, keep copies of student diplomas, and after the diligent search cannot locate a copy of the original diploma it prepared for Mr Tinubu in 1979, hence, has no documents responsive to this request.”

Responding to the third request seeking the release of true and correct copies of the diplomas issued by CSU other than (Tinubu) contained in the same font, seal, signatures and wording, the CSU said, “The documents responsive to this request which CSU, after diligent search, has been able to locate are produced herewith and Bates labelled CSU 0008 through CSU 0010.

‘’The students’ names on these diplomas have been redacted for privacy reasons. The CSU is also producing Bates labelled as CSU 0011 and CSU 0012, diplomas prepared for other CSU students (with their names redacted for privacy) which match the format of the Tinubu’s replacement diploma dated June 27, 1997.”

Also, while responding to Atiku’s fourth request for “true and correct copies of any CSU documents relating to Tinubu’s that were certified by Jamar C. Orr, including with limitation, the documents in Exhibit D to the Uwais Declaration, and all communications to or from CSU concerning the certification of such documents by Jamar C. Orr, during the period August 1, 2022 to August 1, 2023’’, the CSU said, “The respondents’ documents certified by Orr are produced herewith and Bates labelled CSU 0013 through CSU 0032, CSU’s prior objection to the communication aspect of this request was sustained by the Court (see Doc. 40 at pp, 28-29 and Doc. 54 at p, 32), hence no documents responsive to that subject are being produced.”

The Coordinator of the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team, Babatunde Ogala, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, but the APC publicity director berated Atiku for going to such a length in bitterness over his electoral loss.

He stated, “We have said it times without number that the PDP and Atiku are suffering from ‘defeat disorder syndrome.’ The next thing for them to do now is to file another application at the court asking for the number of times Tinubu attended lectures at the Chicago State University.

‘’There is just nothing they won’t question, including asking God why he created the man Tinubu. There is what they call post-trauma disorder syndrome. If they are not treated for it, they will continue to manifest stupidity until such a time when the proper psychiatric assessment of their situation is done.’’

Ibrahim further knocked the PDP for refusing to accept defeat, advising the party’s presidential candidate to retire from public life.

“Remember, Nigerians voted them out. They refused to accept it and went to court. The court threw them out. They refused and went abroad where they were voted out again.

‘’Now, they are still refusing to accept. To us, it is a foregone issue. The case has been rested. Atiku should just swallow his pride and bow out of public life,” he counselled.

PDP reacts

However, the PDP insisted that Tinubu’s academic record released by his alma mater had vindicated its position.

PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Abdullahi, claimed the CSU record indicated that the President presented conflicting documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Abdullahi hinted that the relevant documents would be presented before the Supreme Court to prove the PDP and Atiku’s case against Tinubu.

Atiku had filed 35 grounds of appeal at the apex court to nullify the Presidential Election Petitions Court’s judgment that affirmed Tinubu as the winner of the February presidential election.

Asked if they were satisfied with the documents released by the CSU, Abdullahi said, “Yes we are; that was exactly what we requested. We have suspected and proven that we have a conflicting record about Tinubu, the president of the country, and that is why we sought reliefs from the court to see what he was issued when he graduated from the Chicago State University as he claimed in 1979.”

Speaking further, he added, “He who alleges must prove. Now that we have the document, we will tender it before the Supreme Court. So it’s now for the revered justices of the Supreme Court to see if indeed what we have said against this person can be proven, and then the necessary thing be done per the extant provisions, laws and the Electoral Act.”

Declaring that ‘the game is up,’ Abdullahi stated, “If the judiciary has any modicum of honour left in it, this is the time to prove it and if Tinubu and his people, APC have anything good for Nigeria in their entire conception, this is the time to prove it. Tinubu and the APC should apologise to Nigerians, hand over and go.”

 

Punch

At least 37 people, including two pregnant women, were burned to death after a blast at an illegal oil refinery in Rivers State, a local security official and community leader said on Tuesday.

Illegal refining is common in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria as impoverished locals tap pipelines to make fuel to sell for a profit. The practice, which can be as basic as boiling crude oil in drums to extract fuel, is often deadly.

The latest incident happened in the early hours of Monday in the Ibaa community, in Rivers State, Rufus Welekem, the head of security in the community said.

A Reuters witness saw charred remains of 15 people at an open space surrounded by burnt palm trees and a motorbike.

"Thirty five people were caught in the fire. Two people who were lucky to escape also died this morning in hospital," said Welekem.

Relatives had identified some of the victims and taken them for burial, he said.

Nigeria has for years tried to clamp down on illegal crude refineries, with little success, in part because powerfully connected politicians and security officials are involved, local environmental groups say.

Crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism and legal battles over oil spills are pushing oil majors operating in Nigeria to sell their onshore and shallow water assets to concentrate on deep water operations.

 

Reuters

Niger has banned all exports of liquefied petroleum gas (otherwise known as cooking gas) until further notice, the government said in a statement on Tuesday.

National production should be used to supply the domestic market, and in case of surplus a special authorization can be requested to export it, the statement said.

Niger normally exports its surplus petroleum gas to neighbouring Nigeria where prices of cooking gas have been rising in the past couple of months.

 

Reuters/NewsScroll

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Zelenskiy visits troops in the northeast, holds security meetings

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday discussed the battlefield situation with commanders in Ukraine's northeast, where he visited troops on one of the hottest fronts of the war with Russia.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said he had been near Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, and heard from the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, on defence in the area and on offensive actions further south, near Bakhmut.

"It is extremely important that Kharkiv, despite everything, not only holds on, but helps to keep our entire east strong," Zelenskiy said.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the president also said he met brigades fighting near the northeastern towns of Kupiansk and Lyman, recaptured by Ukrainian forces late last year. The area has been subject to Russian attacks in recent months.

"We met with brigade and battalion commanders to discuss the battlefield situation, pressing issues, and needs," he said. Photos showed him meeting soldiers in a poorly lighted room.

The president discussed preparation for winter in Kharkiv as Ukraine expects an escalation of Russia's strikes on energy infrastructure. Kharkiv, a major industrial centre, has not fallen into Russian hands since the Kremlin invasion in February 2022.

Zelenskiy, who has regularly visited troops, also handed out awards and urged troops to keep their motivation high.

The president's office also posted video footage showing Zelenskiy shaking hands with troops, inspecting equipment supplied by Western countries, sitting at a long table with commanders and being briefed by an officer standing in front of a map.

Since Kyiv began a counteroffensive in the east and south four months ago, Ukrainian troops have made only gradual gains, but Zelenskiy has rejected foreign criticism that the advance has been marred by poor military strategy.

** Ukraine troops advance on southern front - general

One of Ukraine's top generals said on Tuesday that his forces were advancing in the south, one of two theatres of their counteroffensive to evict Russian occupation forces, but offered few details of their gains.

"In the Tavria sector, there has been an advance by the defence forces," General Oleksander Tarnavskyi said in a post on Telegram, using the military's name for the southern front.

Tarnavskyi, head of the southern group of forces, said troops had conducted 1,198 assignments in the past 24 hours, with Russian forces sustaining losses of 261 men and a further 10 being taken prisoner.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces, in its evening report, said offensive operations were proceeding in the east and south, with little elaboration.

It reported Russian air strikes in southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, the focus of the drive south to the Sea of Azov. The report also said Ukrainian forces had repelled Russian attacks in areas of Donetsk region already recaptured by Kyiv and around the long-contested town of Maryinka further west.

Military analysts have spoken in the past week of Ukrainian forces consolidating positions around the village of Verbove on their southward drive.

The drive in the east has focused on recovering land around the devastated town of Bakhmut, seized by Russian forces in May after months of heavy fighting.

The Institute for the Study of War, in an assessment issued on Monday, said Ukrainian forces had made marginal gains in the area straddling Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

No additional mobilization, Kadyrov's role in special op: what Shoigu's report was about

There are no plans for additional mobilization in Russia as the armed forces have enough personnel to carry out the special military operation, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said in a conference call.

He also pointed out that the Russian military had significantly weakened the combat strength of the Ukrainian troops, thanked the peacekeepers stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh and praised Chechnya and its head Ramzan Kadyrov for their contributions during the special operation.

TASS summarized the main points of the minister's speech.

On conscription and mobilization plans

Fall conscription will be carried out according to plan and within the timeframe established by law, with 130,000 people being drafted to the armed forces. "I once again draw attention to the fact that no conscripts, including those from new regions, will be sent to the combat zone."

"The General Staff has no plans for additional mobilization. The armed forces have the necessary number of servicemen to carry out the special military operation."

Since the beginning of the year, more than 335,000 people have signed up to serve in the military or in volunteer formations. "Just in September, more than 50,000 citizens signed contracts."

On special military operation

The Russian military repulsed all Ukrainian attacks in the Soledar-Bakhmut area, as well as attempts to break through the defense in the area of Verbovoye and Rabotino in the Zaporozhye area: "Through active actions, our troops have significantly weakened the combat potential of the enemy and inflicted serious damage on it."

"Our fighters are acting bravely and resolutely, showing true heroism." Since June 1 alone, 57 associations, formations and military units have received the honorary title of guard units, 20 have been awarded medals, and in the most prestigious units 50-90% of the servicemen have received state awards.

On Kadyrov

"I would like to make special mention of the Chechen Republic and its head Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov. <...> The units under the command of Hero of Russia Apty Alaudinov have proved worthy during the special military operation."

In total, three motorized rifle regiments and three battalions were formed in Chechnya, and after training at the Russian Special Forces University in Gudermes, more than 14,500 men were sent to the war zone.

On Nagorno-Karabakh

Russian peacekeepers continued to perform their duties when the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated, and through their mediation the sides managed to agree on a full ceasefire.

The military organized the evacuation of more than 98,000 civilians, including 32,000 children, to Armenia and ensured the delivery of almost 300 tons of humanitarian aid.

"I thank our guys - Russian peacekeepers - for their selfless and professional actions, which helped to avoid further casualties."

On military medicine

Medical support for the Russian military in the special military operation zone is "well organized," and first aid on the battlefield is provided "as a rule, in the first minutes after someone is wounded."

More than 98% of the wounded in the Russian armed forces recover. The mortality rate in hospitals is 0.43% and continues to decrease.

 

Reuters/Tass

Both pro- and anti-Tinubu news outlets and blogs are selectively reporting the documents that Chicago State University handed over to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday. Here are 6 non-partisan tidbits I discovered from poring over them:

1. Chicago State University’s Office of the Registrar affirmed that Bola A. Tinubu indeed attended the university “from August 1977 through June 1979” and was “awarded a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Honors on June 22, 1979.”

The registrar also swore to this under oath. The penalty for lying under oath in America can be steep. It is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

This information is consistent with my September 2, 2023, column titled, “Tinubu Definitely Graduated from Chicago State University.”

2. The certificate (we call it “diploma” in the US) that Tinubu submitted to INEC is inconsistent with the certificates CSU issued in 1979 and subsequently, indicating that Tinubu forged his. (In the US, diplomas are mere ceremonial documents that most employers don’t ask for. Transcripts directly from universities are the usual ways to verify attendance and graduation.)

Although he did legitimately graduate from Chicago State University in 1979, he obviously lost his certificate and, instead of applying for a replacement, decided to forge it.

That strikes me as mysterious self-harm. It costs only $26 to get a replacement diploma from CSU. But it takes between eight and 10 weeks to receive it after filling out the Diploma Replacement Order Form.

My guess is that, in the typical last-minute, fire-brigade approach to things among Nigerian elites, Tinubu didn’t plan ahead and didn't have enough time to apply for his replacement diploma from CSU to meet INEC's deadline and decided to visit Lagos’ infamous “Oluwole” for a counterfeit replacement.

3. The Southwest College transcript that Tinubu used to get admitted to Chicago State University belongs to a female. I had questioned the authenticity of the transcript because of the many errors in it, such as the date and social security number. We await what CSU has to say about this.

This reality, though, seems to validate uncorroborated but long-standing whispers from the grapevine that Tinubu, who was allegedly born Lamidi Amoda [Yoruba Muslim domestication of Abdulhamid Ahmed] Sangodele in Osun State’s Iragbiji, stole the identity of a female Bola Adekunle Tinubu to go to America.

4. Nonetheless, this whisper may be difficult to sustain in light of the fact that Tinubu’s Chicago State University admission letter dated August 23, 1977, was addressed to “Mr. Tinubu,” not Ms. or Miss Tinubu.

Was the “F” in the transcript from Southwest College a clerical error, especially because the social security number and the dates were also clerical errors? Or was there a cover-up somewhere?

Well, we saw from the documents released to Atiku that after accepting his transfer credits from Southwest College (which later became Daley College), CSU required Tinubu to take qualifying exams in English, math, and reading, which he passed. Why did CSU allow a man who presented a transcript that belonged to a woman to take qualifying exams as a man?

Tinubu obviously identified as a man throughout the two years he studied at the school. A Nigerian CSU graduate and classmate of Tinubu’s swore under oath that Tinubu ran for and won election as president of CSU's accounting students’ association. His yearbook photo from 1979 also clearly showed a younger version of Tinubu.

And Tinubu’s handwriting and signature in the June 27, 2022, Consent to Release Student Education Records form, which authorized CSU to release his academic records to one Oluwole Afolabi of 3 Roosevelt Avenue, West Orange, New Jersey, seems to me similar to his handwriting and signatures in his CSU records.

Finally, if he used a woman’s associate degree from Southwest College to gain admission to CSU without having any background in accounting or business administration, his performance at CSU was perplexing. Of the more than 30 courses he took there, he got C’s in only three courses. The rest were A’s and B’s, which earned him honors.

5. The Bola A. Tinubu who applied to Southwest College for an associate degree in 1975 claimed to have attended Government College, Lagos, and presented a 1970 GCE A-level result with grades E in Chemistry and Biology and an F in Physics. The problem is that Government College, Lagos, was established in 1974. So, there’s a chronological conundrum there, which signposts forgery.

The GCE A-level result also shows that “Bola A. Tinubu” took the exam as an HSC student, which used to be a two-year study after 5 years of secondary school education. In other words, the owner of the certificate must have graduated from secondary school at least in 1968.

It’s not clear at the moment if the GCE A-level result is fake or authentic—or if it belongs to the man we know today as President Bola A. Tinubu. My hunch is that it doesn’t belong to him. But this will become clear in the coming days.

6. Tinubu tells the world that he was born on March 29, 1952, but the birthday recorded in his CSU transcript says he was born on March 29, 1954. The space for birthday in the Southwest College transcript he submitted to CSU is blank. So is the record of his secondary school education. These facts added to my previous suspicion that the transcript was probably fake.

If he was born in 1954, it means he was 14 years old when he graduated from high school.

Bonus: Tinubu’s last name was misspelled in a few of the CSU documents. I thought the “THUBV” misspelling in his final graduation record was bad enough until I saw “Tinububu” in one of the documents. Bubu, remember, is Buhari’s nickname among a vast swath of Nigerians. Make of that what you will.

We should all thank VP Atiku Abubakar for his doggedness, which has helped us to get this much clarity about Tinubu’s past.

Richard Branson has developed an unconventional leadership style that has gained a devoted following. His teachings on entrepreneurship and success are numerous, but three in particular reveal his soul and the human aspect of Branson's leadership.

As the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, Branson recognizes that we all must accept the thing we fear the most – our failures – as the path to success and growth. He also believes we must meet our employees' basic needs to positively impact our businesses.

These principles have proven successful for Branson, and he shares them as his keys to success.

1. Reframe how you look at failure

Branson encourages and even celebrates failure at the Virgin Group. He believes that without trying something new and failing, it's virtually impossible to innovate and grow.

Branson has indeed failed spectacularly over the years, like his Virgin Brides experiment (with Branson donning a wedding gown for publicity) that tanked severely. But he's quick to point out that failure is every part of the entrepreneur's journey:

We've never been 100 percent sure that any of the businesses we've started at Virgin were going to be successful. But over 45 years, we've always stood by our motto: "Screw it, let's do it." Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again. Making mistakes and experiencing setbacks is part of the DNA of every successful entrepreneur, and I am no exception.

2. Communicate with your mouth and ears

Leaders often make the mistake of assuming that communication is about telling their people more information, giving them more directions and commands, and sharing more of their point of view, when all employees really want is to be heard.

For Branson, the best of leaders instinctively understand that communication is a two-way street. He said:

Being a good listener is absolutely critical to being a good leader; you have to listen to the people on the front line. That's a very Virgin trait. Listening enables us to learn from each other, from the marketplace, and from the mistake that must be made in order to get anywhere that is original and disruptive.

Most leaders with a good head on their shoulders understand that their front-line workers know when things are not going right or what needs to be improved. 

"If you listen to them," says Branson, "you can soon improve all those niggly things which turn an average company into an exceptional company."

3. Put your employees ahead of your customers

Branson is a people-first leader, which I admire, and for the right business reasons. He has said in the past that if you take care of your people, your people will take care of your customers, which makes everyone – especially shareholders – happy.

Branson has instilled across the Virgin culture the belief that a company's success starts and ends with having an employee-first mindset. 

If managers engage their employees, they'll become more loyal and produce better work, which leads to a better customer experience and, at the end of the road, more profits. In an interview with Inc. some years back, Branson shared:

If the person who works at your company is 100 percent proud of the job they're doing, if you give them the tools to do a good job, they're proud of the brand, if they were looked after, if they're treated well, then they're gonna be smiling, they're gonna be happy, and therefore the customer will have a nice experience. If the person who's working for your company is not given the right tools, is not looked after, is not appreciated, they're not gonna do things with a smile and therefore the customer will be treated in a way where often they won't want to come back for more. So, my philosophy has always been, if you can put staff first, your customer second, and shareholders third, effectively, in the end, the shareholders do well, the customers do better, and you yourself are happy.

This business practice is increasingly becoming the norm for more progressive and fast-growing companies that value their people, even ahead of their customers. The principle is predicated on a simple formula for success: Take care of the people first, and the business will take care of itself.

 

Inc