The number of Nigeria’s Supreme Court justices is about to drop to 10, widely coming short of the court’s statutory full complement of 21 justices.

The number, currently 11, will drop to 10 as another justice of the court retires on 27 October.

Within the space of three years, the number of judges on the court’s bench plummeted from 20 to 14 in June 2022, when then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad, abruptly resigned.

Since then, the number has further spiralled down to 10, as Musa Dattijo Muhammad, who joined the bench of the Supreme Court over a decade ago, retires on 27 October.

He is the second most senior judge on the court’s bench.

The jurist’s retirement will bring the number of justices of the court to an all-time low of 10 in the Supreme Court’s recent history.

A statement by the Supreme Court’s Director of Press and Information, Festus Akande, on Sunday, said Muhammad clocks the mandatory retirement age of 70 on 27 October.

It also said a valedictory court session to mark Muhammad’s exit from the bench would be held on Friday, 27 October.

“With the retirement of Muhammad, the Supreme Court of Nigeria is now left with 10 Justices,” the statement read.

PT

Suspected Boko Haram insurgents have attacked a customs house in Geidam town, Geidam LGA, Yobe State, killing one officer, identified as Usman Gombe.

The insurgents stormed the customs house along Maine Soroa road in a Volkswagen Golf and a Land Rover around 10pm on Saturday and started shooting.

“They struck when they were sure the customs officers had retired home. Panicked by the rain of bullets, the officers scampered for safety, some escaped through the gate, while others scaled the fence.

“Unfortunately, one of the officers, Usman Gombe, was shot dead while attempting to climb the fence,” a security source told our correspondent.

He said the assailants also burnt down the customs patrol van, a generator, and part of the customs house building.

“This is the second time Boko Haram insurgents killed customs officers. Last month, an officer Babalola, and his junior officer, were abducted and later killed by the insurgents,” he said.

Residents of the town told our correspondent that the activities of Boko Haram insurgents on the outskirts of Geidam had increased in recent days.

“They collect taxes from farmers and herdsmen a few kilometers from the town and nobody is doing anything.

“Instead, the security operatives have relocated over 17 checkpoints into the town where they also taxed traders that brought goods through the same route. We are in difficult condition in this town,” one of the traders alleged.

Daily Trust

Israel strikes Gaza, Lebanon overnight; Netanyahu convenes meeting of generals

Israel bombarded Gaza with air strikes early on Monday and its aircraft struck southern Lebanon overnight, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of his top generals and his war cabinet to assess the escalating conflict.

Israel's attacks concentrated on the Gaza Strip's centre and north, Palestinian media reported. A strike on a house near the Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, killed several Palestinians and wounded others, according to media reports.

Health authorities in Gaza said at least 4,600 people were killed in Israel's two-week bombardment that began after a Hamas Oct. 7 rampage on southern Israeli communities in which 1,400 people were killed and 212 were taken into Gaza as hostages.

Palestinian Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian discussed in a call late on Sunday the means of stopping Israel's "brutal crimes" in Gaza, Hamas said in a statement.

Israel has amassed tanks and troops near the fenced border around Gaza for a planned ground invasion aiming to annihilate Hamas.

Fears that the Israel-Hamas war could mushroom into a wider Middle East conflict rose over the weekend with Washington warning of a significant risk to U.S. interests in the region and announcing a new deployment of advanced air defenses.

The Pentagon has already dispatched a significant amount of naval power to the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers, support ships and about 2,000 Marines, to help deter attacks by Iran-affiliated forces.

"What we're seeing ... is the prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told ABC's "This Week" program on Sunday.

China's Middle East special envoy Zhai Jun, who is visiting the region, warned that the risk of a large-scale ground conflict was rising and that spillover conflicts in the region were "worrisome", Chinese state media said on Monday.

Iranian security officials told Reuters Iran's strategy was for Middle East proxies like Hezbollah to pursue limited strikes on Israeli and U.S. targets but to avoid a major escalation that would draw in Tehran, a high-wire act for the Islamic Republic.

In neighbouring Syria, where Hamas' main regional backer Iran has a military presence, Israeli missiles hit Damascus and Aleppo international airports early on Sunday, putting both out of service and killing two workers, Syrian state media said.

Along Israel's northern border with Lebanon, the Iran-backed Hezbollah group has clashed with Israeli forces in support of Hamas in the deadliest escalation of frontier violence since an Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

Early on Monday, Israeli aircraft struck two Hezbollah cells in Lebanon that were planning to launch anti-tank missiles and rockets toward Israel, its military said. Israel's military also said it struck other Hezbollah targets, including a compound and an observation post.

Hezbollah said on Monday that one of its fighters was killed, without providing details.

With violence around its heavily guarded borders increasing, Israel on Sunday added 14 communities close to Lebanon and Syria to its evacuation contingency plan in the north of the country.

MORE AID ARRIVES IN GAZA

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the international community to create "a united front" to stop Israel's attacks in Gaza and allow desperately needed aid which has only begun to trickle in.

A second convoy of 14 aid trucks entered the Rafah crossing to the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday night, and U.S. President Joe Biden and Netanyahu affirmed in a call "there will now be continued flow of this critical assistance into Gaza," the White House said.

The U.N. humanitarian office said the volume of aid entering so far was just 4% of the daily average before the hostilities and a fraction of what was needed with food, water, medicines and fuel stocks running out.

Biden also ramped up his diplomacy, convening calls on Sunday with Netanyahu and Pope Francis and speaking with the leaders of Canada, France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Britain about getting aid into Gaza and preventing the conflict from spreading.

In a joint statement, the leaders voiced support for Israel's right to defend itself. They also called for adherence to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians.

Netanyahu also held a phone call with the leaders of France, Spain and the Netherlands late on Sunday, the Israeli leader's office said.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will visit Israel on Monday and French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Tuesday.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces intensify pressure on Ukraine's Avdiivka, Kherson

Russian forces aiming to contain a four-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive maintained unrelenting pressure on Sunday on the shattered town of Avdiivka in the east and intensified shelling in the southern area of Kherson.

Russia has focused on the industrial east since pulling back from a failed advance on Kyiv at the start of the February 2022 invasion and its forces have tried to maintain positions in Kherson since abandoning the region's main town late last year.

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, in its evening report, said Ukrainian forces repelled nearly 20 Russian attacks around Avdiivka, its buildings now largely reduced to shells. Russian air strikes hit nearby villages, it said.

Avdiivka has become a watchword for resistance, viewed as the gateway to recapturing the Russian-held city of Donetsk and the rest of Donbas -- made up of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

It was briefly seized in 2014 when Russian-backed separatists captured swathes of eastern Ukraine, but was later retaken by Ukrainian forces who, in the ensuing nine years, have built solid fortifications.

"It is true that Avdiivka has significance," Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for the Ukraine Defence Ministry's Intelligence Directorate, told the Espreso TV news outlet.

"This is not the first instance the occupying forces have boosted tension with declarations of taking over all of Donetsk and Luhansk...Their plans have failed, the deadlines pushed back. This is just another episode of tension."

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the situation in Avdiivka and the nearby town of Maryinka was "particularly tough. Numerous Russian attacks. But our positions are being held.

"Every day, we need results for Ukraine, to withstand Russian assaults, to eliminate occupiers, to move forward," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. "Whether it's a kilometre or 500 metres, but forward, every day."

Russian military accounts made no mention of Avdiivka, but described successful operations against Ukrainian positions to the east in Bakhmut, seized by Moscow in May after months of fighting.

In Kherson, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said several villages had been struck in shelling episodes, as had transport and food production sites in the city of Kherson.

Reuters could not independently verify the accounts from either side.

Russian forces routinely shell Kherson and villages on the western bank of the Dnipro from positions on the eastern bank, where they retreated late last year.

The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War has reported in the past week that Ukrainian forces have crossed the Dnipro to take up new positions of their own and pursue Russian forces.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainians using Russian chips for drones – media

The Ukrainian military is using electronic components salvaged from Russian Geran-2 loitering munitions to assemble their own suicide drones, the online outlet Mash reported on Saturday.

The outlet circulated imagery of a Ukrainian homebuilt suicide drone, apparently containing a navigation module from a Geran-2 (Geranium-2). The large crude-looking UAV, which features two prop motors, was intercepted by Russian forces. It was not immediately clear whether the drone was shot down or forced to land through electronic warfare means.

The re-purposed navigation component used in the Ukrainian drone was identified by the outlet as a Kometa (Comet) module that is utilized in Geran-2 drones. The module is said to be located in the wing section of the Russian loitering munition and usually survives impact. The Kometa is said to use the Russian satellite navigation system GLONASS for setting the course of the drone. 

Russia began widely using Geran-2 drones in Ukraine last fall, launching the long-range munitions at targets deep in the country’s territory. They widely became known as “mopeds” during the conflict, thanks to the noise emitted by the engine.

Kiev and its Western backers have repeatedly claimed the drones are actually of Iranian origin, pointing out the striking similarities between the Geran-2 and Shahed-136.

No solid evidence to back up such claims has ever emerged, while both Moscow and Tehran have repeatedly denied the drones had been supplied by Iran to Russia. However, Tehran admitted to sending a sample selection of drones to Russia months before the full-blown conflict between Moscow and Kiev broke out in February 2022.

Reuters/RT

Lea Ypi’s Free: Coming of Age at the End of History has met with a hostile reception in her home country of Albania, and it is easy to see why. Her self-description as a “Marxist Albanian professor of political theory at the London School of Economics” says it all.

Reading Ypi’s book, I was struck by the parallel between her life and that of Viktor Kravchenko, the Soviet official who defected while visiting New York in 1944. His famous bestselling memoir, I Chose Freedom, became the first substantial eyewitness account of the horrors of Stalinism, beginning with its detailed description of the Holodomor (famine) in Ukraine in the early 1930s. Still a true believer at the time, Kravchenko had participated in enforcing collectivization, and therefore knew of what he spoke.

Kravchenko’s publicly known story ends in 1949, when he triumphantly won a big libel suit against a French Communist newspaper. At the trial in Paris, the Soviets flew in his ex-wife to testify to his corruption, alcoholism, and domestic abuse. The court was not swayed, but people tend to forget what happened next. Immediately following the trial, when he was being hailed around the world as a Cold War hero, Kravchenko grew deeply worried about the anti-Communist witch hunts unfolding in the United States. To fight Stalinism with McCarthyism, he warned, was to stoop to the Stalinists’ level.

As he spent more time in the West, Kravchenko grew increasingly aware of its own injustices and became obsessed with reforming Western democratic societies from within. After writing a lesser-known sequel to I Chose Freedom, entitled I Chose Justice, he embarked on a crusade to discover a new, less exploitative mode of economic production. That quest led him to Bolivia, where he invested in an unsuccessful effort to organize poor farmers into new collectives.

Crushed by that failure, he withdrew into private life and ultimately shot himself at his home in New York. And no, his suicide was not due to some nefarious KGB blackmail operation. It was an expression of despair, and further proof that his original denunciation of the Soviet Union had always been a genuine protest against injustice.

Ypi’s Free does in one volume what Kravchenko did in two. When Albania descended into civil war in 1997, her whole world fell apart. Reduced to hiding in her apartment and writing a diary while Kalashnikov shots clattered outside, she made an extraordinary decision: She would study philosophy.

But what is even more extraordinary is that her engagement with philosophy brought her back to Marxism. Her story attests to the fact that the most penetrating critics of Communism have often been ex-Communists, for whom the critique of “actually existing socialism” was simply the only way to remain faithful to their political commitments.

Free grew out of an earlier treatise on how socialist and liberal notions of freedom are interrelated, and it is this perspective that structures the book. The first part, on how Albanians “chose freedom,” provides an eminently readable memoir of Ypi’s childhood in the last decade of communist rule in Albania. While it includes all the horrors of daily life – food shortages, political denunciations, control and suspicion, torture and harsh punishments – it is also punctuated by comical moments. Even under such harsh and desolate conditions, people found ways to preserve a modicum of dignity and honesty.

In the second part, which describes Albania’s post-communist turmoil after 1990, Ypi recounts how the freedom chosen by – or, rather, imposed on – Albanians failed to deliver justice. It culminates in a chapter about the 1997 civil war, at which point the narrative breaks off and is replaced by snippets from Ypi’s diary. The strength of Ypi’s writing is that, even here, she is tackling the big questions, exploring how ambitious ideological projects usually end not in triumph but in confusion and disorientation.

In the 1990s, one such project was replaced by another. With communism toppled, ordinary Albanians were subjected to “democratic transition” and “structural reforms” designed to make them more “like Europe” with its “free market.” Ypi’s bitter conclusion in the last paragraph of the book is worth quoting in full:

“My world is as far from freedom as the one my parents tried to escape. Both fall short of that ideal. But their failures took distinctive forms, and without being able to understand them, we will remain forever divided. I wrote my story to explain, to reconcile, and to continue the struggle.”

Here we have an ironic rebuttal to Marx’s 11th Thesis on Feuerbach, which famously observes that, “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” The counterpoint is that one cannot change the world for the better unless one first understands it. This is where the great initiators of both the Communist and liberal projects fell short.

The conclusion Ypi draws from this insight, however, is not the cynical stance that meaningful change is either impossible or inevitable. Rather, it is that the struggle (for freedom) goes on, and always will. Ypi thus feels that she owes a debt to “all the people of the past who sacrificed everything because they were not apathetic, they were not cynical, they did not believe that things fall into place if you just let them take their course.”

Therein resides our global predicament. If we believe that things will fall into place by just letting them take their course, we will end up with multiple catastrophes, from ecological breakdown and the rise of authoritarianism to social chaos and disintegration. Ypi channels what philosopher Giorgio Agamben called “the courage of hopelessness,” his recognition that passive optimism is a recipe for complacency, and thus a hurdle to meaningful thought and action.

At the end of Communism, there was a widespread, euphoric hope that freedom and democracy would bring a better life; eventually, though, many lost that hope. That is the point where the real work begins. In the end, Ypi does not offer any easy way out, and therein lies the strength of her book. Such abstinence is what makes it philosophical. The point is not to change the world blindly; it is, first and foremost, to see and understand it.

Project Syndicate

People often ask me, TOE, how do I learn leadership. Should I go on a course? Buy a book? Get a mentor? Are leaders born, or can you become a leader?

Just as I say about business success, leadership has many components – luck, being in the right place at the right time.

But I also believe that those talents and those disciplines that you bring, creating a vision and the resilience and focus that delivers that vision, can also forge your own personal leadership.

I was fortunate to work with Ebitimi Banigo, at the start of my career. My leadership philosophy was built working with him. It started with Banigo taking the time to read my application letter and giving me a chance to prove myself at Allstates Trust Bank in 1988.

When my colleagues tell me today, “TOE you respond too fast to our emails”, I laugh because I learnt from the master himself – Banigo. When I sent memos to him, he would respond within twenty-four hours; therefore, why should I not respond even faster in this age of technology?

These are some of the leadership values I learned from my time with Banigo, and I practise them all today.

Leaders must demand excellence: Only by going the extra mile and pushing ourselves, will we truly develop and stand out. Hard work and excellence made my bosses Toyin Akin-Johnson and Banigo notice, and subsequently, believe in me. At twenty-seven, I went from being a trainee to being a boss, when I was appointed a branch manager – the youngest bank branch manager at that time. All the things I learned earlier came into play, and I continued learning.

Good leaders find in people what people did not know they possess – Leaders recognise the talent in their team and then push to unlock the talent. When I work, I work to achieve my goals, but I also work to unlock my teams’ skills. I know everyone I work with has huge potential – for me my success is also about the success of others, growing and nurturing their talent, that is the foundation of our growth at Heirs Holdings Group.

This focus on talent, teams, personal transformation, is why I am so insistent on creating institutions, cultures, and pathways, where human capital can thrive. It is why I am an investor in businesses, but also entrepreneurs across Africa.

Leaders must walk their talk – A leader must be consistent. People want to trust a leader that they believe has integrity. Leadership is not just about telling people what to do, it’s also about setting an example. A good leader must lead by example and practice what they preach, this demonstrates integrity, it builds trust and respect.

Leaders must impart knowledge: I benefited from the mentorship of Banigo at Allstates Trust Bank. He helped me to develop my strategic thinking, my frames of reference and to channel my ideas into concrete actions, so that when the moment of opportunity arrived, at the age of thirty-four, I had the self-belief to gather a small group together to take over and revive a failing bank – take that enormous step, that is still shaping an industry and a continent today.

Today, when I am faced with an impossible situation, I ask myself, ‘What would Banigo do?’ I worked with Banigo from 1988 – 1995, till this day, he is the one I turn to, when I need advice.

PT

As the Supreme Court gets set to hear appeals seeking to remove President Bola Tinubu from office, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the February 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, has said that nothing ought to stop the apex court from accepting his fresh evidence.

Atiku stated this in a reply on the point of law he filed to counter objections that Tinubu, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, raised to query the admissibility of documents that were released to him by the Chicago State University, CSU, in the United States of America.

The former Vice President, who is challenging the outcome of the presidential election that was held on February 25, maintained that the documents he is seeking the permission of the apex court to tender would establish his allegation that Tinubu was not only ineligible to contest the election but was equally involved in certificate forgery.

The documents Atiku is seeking to tender before the apex court are Tinubu’s academic records that the CSU handed over to him on October 2, 2023.

The 32-page documents were released on the orders of Judge Nancy Maldonado of the District Court of Illinois, Eastern Division, Illinois, United States of America.

The US court had ordered the CSU to release the said documents to Atiku, despite Tinubu’s objection.

However, following Atiku’s request to tender the documents, Tinubu, INEC and the APC raised separate objections wherein they argued that the Supreme Court could not admit the evidence at this stage of the case.

They argued that the 180 days allowed by the law for hearing of petitions against the outcome of the presidential election, had since elapsed.

According to them, the apex court, at this stage, lacks the requisite jurisdiction to receive and decide on the fresh evidence since it was not presented within the prescribed 180 days.

In his response to the objections, Atiku, through his team of lawyers led by Chris Uche, argued that, contrary to the position of the respondents, “there is no such constitutional limit of 180 days on the lower court to hear and determine a presidential election petition, such that can rob this Honourable Court to exercise its power in any manner whatsoever”.

“The parties are agreed that the Constitution is the fons et origo and the grundnorm, and supersedes any other legislation,” he added.

Besides, Atiku maintained that while tribunals were established to deal with election matters from Houses of Assembly, National Assembly and Governorship elections, the Constitution gave the jurisdiction to entertain disputes from presidential elections only to the Court of Appeal.

“Thereafter, the Constitution was intentional and deliberate in setting the 180 days limit only for Election Tribunals, and not for the Court of Appeal. On the other hand, when it came to appeals, the Constitution clearly and expressly extended same to the Court of Appeal.

“The Constitution clearly excluded Court of Appeal in the preceding subsection,” he submitted.

Atiku further argued that a cursory look at Section 285 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, shows that the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, that heard and dismissed his petition, was not an election tribunal.

He contended that the framers of the Constitution limited the application of the 180 days specifically to election tribunals by virtue of section 285(6), excluding the Court of Appeal.

“On the other hand, when it came to the next subsection, namely Section 285(7), they intentionally included and mentioned Court of Appeal. The trite maxim, my Lords, is “expressio unius est exclusio alterius”, meaning that the express mention of one thing in a statutory provision automatically excludes any other which otherwise would have been included by implication.

“Furthermore, when granting jurisdiction to the Court of Appeal to entertain presidential election petitions, the Constitution did not pretend that it was conferring the jurisdiction on a “tribunal”; it clearly gave the jurisdiction to the Court of Appeal. Thus, section 239(1) of the Constitution specifically provides thus:-

“Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the Court of Appeal shall, to the exclusion of any other court of law in Nigeria, have original jurisdiction to hear and determine any question as to whether – (a) any person has been validity elected to the office of President or Vice President under this Constitution.”

Uche also noted that when conferring on the Supreme Court the jurisdiction to entertain appeals arising from decisions in presidential election petitions, the Constitution limited itself to “Court of Appeal” and made no mention of ‘tribunal’.

He cited Section 233 subsections (1) and (2)(e)(i) of the Constitution which provides that: “The Supreme Court shall have jurisdiction, to the exclusion of any other court of law in Nigeria, to hear and determine appeals from the Court of Appeal.

“An appeal shall lie from decisions of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court as of right in the following cases – (e) decisions on any question – (i) whether any person has been validly elected to the office of President or Vice President under this Constitution”.

He added that it was based on the above facts that the Presidential Election Petition Court itself administratively refused to be referred to as the “Presidential Election Petition Tribunal”, but the “Presidential Election Petition Court”.

“The case is not whether 2nd Respondent attended Chicago State University, but whether he presented a forged certificate to the INEC.

“That at the trial, a National Youth Service Corps certificate with serial number 173807 presented by the 2nd Respondent to the 1st Respondent was equally tendered by the Appellants/Applicants at the trial as “EXHIBIT PBD 1A” with the name Tinubu Bola Adekunle, which is annexed herewith as EXHIBIT-J,” Atiku added.

Vanguard

A former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, has called for an amendments to the Electoral Act, 2022.

He said though the country’s electoral law could be said to be the best in Nigeria’s history, it is not perfect; and there was the need for further amendments to remove ambiguities, clarify and strengthen some of its sections.

Jega spoke at a two-day retreat organised for senators by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State.

The amendments, he said, should make the electronic transmission of results mandatory from the next general elections in 2027.

He also said the president should be divested of power to appoint the chairman and National Commissioners of INEC to free the commission from partisanship.

He said the law should be reviewed to ensure that all cases arising from the conduct of elections are resolved and judgements made before the date of swearing-in.

Transmission of election results

Many stakeholders had expressed concern that section 64 of the Electoral Act, which states the process of transmission of election results, is susceptible to manipulation and misinterpretation.

But Jega said the section should be clarified by making election transmission of election results compulsory, including uploading of polling unit level results and result sheets used at different levels of result collation.

“INEC would have enough time to prepare for this, if the Act is amended early enough in the ensuing electoral cycle,” he said.

He also called for the introduction of either early voting for eligible voters on election duty, such as INEC staff, observers and their drivers, security personnel, and journalists or special arrangement to enable them vote on election day, especially for presidential elections.

The former INEC boss advocated for diaspora voting, at least for presidential elections, to enable citizens to vote, especially those on essential service abroad.

There is need to enhance inclusion of women, if necessary by up to 35% of elective positions in parliament, and in all political parties’ candidate lists, he added.

Other amendments

Cross-carpeting by elected officials, Jega said, should be proscribed not only for members of the National Assembly but also for elected executives, governors and chairmen of LGAs while INEC should be empowered to prepare for elections to fill the vacancy once it has evidence of the act of cross-carpeting.

He said, “There is need to place stringent conditions for candidate withdrawal and replacement to prevent abuse. Empower INEC to also screen and if necessary disqualify candidates whose credentials show that they are unqualified or in respect of whom it has evidence of forgery and other forms of criminality.

“There is need for the legislation to allow even candidates outside the political parties, as well as tax-paying citizens to file suits against candidates who provide false information to INEC regarding their candidature.

“Although Sections 132(8) & (9) have given timelines within which the Tribunals and courts of appellate jurisdiction should issue verdicts, there is need, particularly in respect of elected executive positions, to ensure that all cases are resolved and judgements made before the date of swearing-in.

“Review the process of appointments into INEC, specifically to divest/minimize the involvement of the President in appointment of Chairman and National Commissioners of INEC, in order to free the commission from the damaging negative perception of “he who pays the piper dictates the tune”.

“The Justice Uwais Committee recommended that the responsibility for advertising, screening, shortlisting and submission to Council of State for recommendation to Senate for confirmation hearings, for this category of officers, should be entrusted to the National Judicial Council (NJC).

“On second thought, and for obvious reasons, I will recommend a joint committee of the National Assembly be given this responsibility, with a criteria, for transparency, non-partisanship and stakeholder engagement for the process. The applicants/nominees for these appointments should be subjected to public scrutiny with regards to knowledge, skills, good character and non-partisanship. Guidelines should be provided for submitting petitions against any nominee during this process.”

Daily Trust

Nigeria is turning to a fleet of tiny river-going tankers to boost its oil production because one of its key oil pipelines has been broken for months.

Africa’s top producer, racing to lift output before OPEC decides new oil-production quotas, has started using the tiny vessels to get a new grade of oil, Nembe Creek, up the Niger river delta and onto an ocean-going ship that’s stationed off the nation’s coast.

The same oil previously went by the Nembe Creek trunk pipeline to the Bonny terminal, which is operated by Shell Plc.

That conduit, operated by Aiteo Group and previously running at about 150,000 barrels a day, hasn’t sent oil to Bonny since Feb. 2022, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Bonny is also fed by another pipeline and that flow continues.

While the rerouting reduces overall shipments from Bonny, it should have no effect on Shell’s share of Nigerian oil. Shell sold the pipeline to Aiteo in 2015.

The new logistics setup uses a floating storage offloading vessel called Galilean 7, which is anchored near the Brass terminal, according to a terminal information sheet seen by Bloomberg.

Shuttling Nembe Creek oil, which is owned by Nigeria and Aiteo, is a significantly more expensive method than by pipeline.

The river’s depth limits the size of the ships that can sail up it, meaning about 24 individual deliveries are needed in order to get enough oil to fill a standard ocean going ship.

A Shell spokesman declined to comment. Aiteo and NNPC didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

A 1-million barrel Suezmax tanker Maran Orpheus lifted the first cargo of the new grade from Nembe Creek terminal on Oct. 10, tanker tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Nigeria is scheduled to load approximately 65,000 barrels a day of the new Nembe Creek grade this month and next, according to export loading programs seen by Bloomberg. That would replace most, but not all, of the reduction in flows from Bonny.

Egypt's border crossing opens to let a trickle of desperately needed aid into besieged Gaza

The border crossing between Egypt and Gaza opened Saturday to let a trickle of desperately needed aid into the besieged Palestinian territory for the first time since Israel sealed it off and began pounding it with airstrikes following Hamas’ bloody rampage two weeks ago.

Just 20 trucks were allowed in, an amount aid workers said was insufficient to address the unprecedented humanitarian crisis. More than 200 trucks carrying 3,000 tons of aid have been waiting nearby for days.

Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, half of whom have fled their homes, are rationing food and drinking dirty water. Hospitals say they are running low on medical supplies and fuel for emergency generators amid a territory-wide power blackout. Five hospitals have stopped functioning because of fuel shortages and bombing damage, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said.

Doctors reported using sewing needles to stitch wounds, and using vinegar as a disinfectant until the shops ran out. With anesthesia running low, the screams of patients could be heard during surgery.

Doctors Without Borders said Gaza’s health care system is “facing collapse.”

Meantime, Gaza’s Hamas-run Interior Ministry reported heavy Israeli airstrikes across the territory overnight into Sunday, including southern areas where Israel had told Palestinians to seek refuge. The ministry said that among the sites hit were homes and a cafe in the evacuation zone where dozens of displaced residents had sought shelter.

Israel’s military has said it is striking Hamas members and installations, but does not target civilians.

In a statement posted early Sunday on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, the Israeli military said it had launched a strike on the Al-Ansar mosque at the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

There are growing expectations of a ground offensive that Israel says would be aimed at rooting out Hamas. Israel said Friday that it doesn’t plan to take long-term control over the small but densely populated Palestinian territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his Cabinet late Saturday to discuss the expected invasion, Israeli media reported.

Israel’s military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said the country planned to step up its airstrikes starting Saturday as preparation for the next stage of the war.

“We will deepen our attacks to minimize the dangers to our forces in the next stages of the war. We are going to increase the attacks, from today,” Hagari said, repeating his call for Gaza City residents to head south for their safety.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas but has given few details about what it envisions for Gaza if it succeeds.

Yifat Shasha-Biton, a Cabinet minister, said there was broad consensus in the government that there will have to be a “buffer zone” in Gaza to keep Palestinians away from the border.

“We need to create a distance between the border and our communities,” she told Channel 13 TV, adding that no decisions had been made on its size or other specifics.

Tensions have risen in the West Bank, where dozens of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops, arrest raids and attacks by Jewish settlers. Israeli forces have held the West Bank under a tight grip, closing crossings into the territory and checkpoints between cities, measures they say are aimed at preventing attacks.

The opening of Rafah came after more than a week of high-level diplomacy, including visits to the region by U.S. President Joe Biden and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Israel had insisted nothing would enter Gaza until Hamas released all the captives from its Oct. 7 attack on towns in southern Israel.

Late Friday, Hamas freed its first captives — an American woman and her teenage daughter. It was not immediately clear if there was a connection between the release and the aid deliveries. Israel says Hamas is still holding at least 210 hostages, though their conditions — and if they are even alive — remains unknown.

On Saturday morning, an Associated Press reporter saw the 20 trucks heading north from Rafah to Deir al-Balah, a quiet farming town where many evacuees from the north have sought shelter. Hundreds of foreign passport holders at Rafah hoping to escape the conflict were not allowed to leave.

American citizen Dina al- Khatib said she and her family were desperate to get out. “It’s not like previous wars,” she said. “There is no electricity, no water, no internet, nothing.”

The trucks carried 44,000 bottles of drinking water — enough for 22,000 people for a single day, according to UNICEF. “This first, limited water will save lives, but the needs are immediate and immense,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

The World Health Organization said four of the trucks were carrying medical supplies, including trauma medicine and portable trauma bags for first responders.

“We need many, many, many more trucks and a continual flow of aid,” said, the head of the U.N.’s World Food Program, Cindy McCain.

Gaza’s Hamas-run government called for a secure corridor operating around the clock.

Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, said “the humanitarian situation in Gaza is under control.” He said the aid would be delivered only to southern Gaza, where the army has ordered people to relocate, adding that no fuel would enter.

Biden said the United States “remains committed to ensuring that civilians in Gaza will continue to have access to food, water, medical care, and other assistance, without diversion by Hamas.”

The U.S. government would work to keep Rafah open and let U.S. citizens leave Gaza, he said in a statement.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said late Saturday he was sending additional air defense systems to the Middle East and putting more troops on “prepare to deploy” orders.

Guterres emphasized international concern over civilians in Gaza, telling a summit in Cairo that Hamas’ “reprehensible assault” on Israel “can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

Two Egyptian officials and a European diplomat said extensive negotiations with Israel and the U.N. to allow fuel deliveries for hospitals had yielded little progress. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information on the sensitive deliberations.

One Egyptian official said they were discussing the release of dual-national hostages in return for fuel, but that Israel was insisting on the release of all hostages.

The release of Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie, on Friday brought some hope to the families of others believed held hostage.

Rachel Goldberg, whose son is thought to have been badly wounded before he was taken hostage, said she was “very relieved” by the news but urged quick work to save others, including her son.

“I think he could be dying,” she said. “So we don’t have time.”

Hamas said it was working with Egypt, Qatar and other mediators “to close the case” of hostages if security circumstances permit.

Israel has also traded fire along its northern border with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants, raising concerns about a second front opening up. The Israeli military said Saturday it struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response to recent rocket launches and attacks with anti-tank missiles.

“Hezbollah has decided to participate in the fighting, and we are exacting a heavy price for this,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a visit to the border.

Hezbollah said six of its fighters were killed Saturday, and the group’s deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, warned that Israel would pay a high price if it starts a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Israel ordered its citizens to leave Egypt and Jordan — which made peace with it decades ago — and to avoid travel to a number of Arab and Muslim countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Bahrain, which forged diplomalarge demonstrationstic ties with Israel in 2020. Protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza have erupted across the region, and large demonstrations were held Saturday in several European and U.S. cities.

An Israeli ground assault would likely lead to a dramatic escalation in casualties on both sides in urban fighting. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed in the war — mostly civilians slain during the Hamas attack.

More than 4,300 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. That includes the disputed toll from a hospital explosion.

At the summit Saturday, Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi called for ensuring aid to Gaza, negotiating a cease-fire and resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which broke down more than a decade ago. He also said the conflict would never be resolved “at the expense of Egypt,” referring to fears Israel may try to push Gaza’s population into the Sinai Peninsula.

King Abdullah II of Jordan said Israel’s attacks on Gaza were “a war crime” and slammed the international community’s response.

“Anywhere else, attacking civilian infrastructure and deliberately starving an entire population of food, water, electricity, and basic necessities would be condemned,” he said.

Over a million people have been displaced in Gaza. Many heeded Israel’s orders to evacuate from north to south within the sealed-off coastal enclave. But Israel has continued to bomb areas in southern Gaza .

A senior Israeli military official said the air force will not hit the area where aid is being distributed unless rockets, which militants are relentlessly launching at Israel, are fired from there. “It’s a safe zone,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to reveal military information.

AP