WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian drone sparks fire at Russian refinery - governor

A Ukrainian drone sparked a fire at an oil refinery in southern Russia and shelling hit a Russian town close to the border for the third time in a week, damaging buildings and setting vehicles ablaze, Russian officials said on Wednesday.

A day after Russia accused Ukraine of sending drones to attack buildings in Moscow, the governor of Russia's Krasnodar region said a drone was the likely cause of a fire that broke out at the Afipsky oil refinery.

The fire was soon extinguished and there were no casualties, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on the Telegram messaging app. The Afipsky refinery is not far from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, near another refinery that has been attacked several times this month.

There was no immediate information on who launched the drone but Moscow has accused Kyiv of increased attacks inside Russia in recent weeks, while Russia has repeatedly pounded Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles.

The skies over Ukraine were relatively quiet on Tuesday night, with no major air raids reported. Russian drone attacks killed one person and wounded four in Kyiv on Tuesday, according to Ukrainian officials.

The attacks inside Russia come as Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive to drive Russian forces out of territory occupied since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A Ukrainian artillery strike wounded at least one person in the Russian town of Shebekino, about 7 km (4.5 miles) north of the border with Ukraine's Kharkiv region, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks in Russia or on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.

DRONE WAR

Ukrainian drones struck wealthy districts of Moscow on Tuesday, Russia said in what one politician called the most dangerous attack on the capital since World War Two, while Kyiv was also hit from the air for the third time in 24 hours.

Aerial strikes by both sides have intensified amid a stalemate on the ground with Russian forces entrenched along an extended line in Ukraine's east and south.

The Russian defence ministry said eight drones sent to Moscow by Ukraine and targeting civilians were shot down or diverted with electronic jammers, though Baza, a Telegram channel with links to the security services, said there were more than 25.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential aide, denied Kyiv was directly involved but said "we are pleased to watch events" and forecast more such strikes.

Two people were injured while some apartment blocks were briefly evacuated, according to Moscow's mayor. Residents said they heard loud bangs followed by the smell of petrol. Some filmed a drone being shot down and a plume of smoke.

The drones targeted some of Moscow's most prestigious districts including where Russian President Vladimir Putin and other members of the elite have homes.

Putin said Ukraine's biggest drone strike on Moscow was an attempt to frighten and provoke Russia, and that air defences around the capital would be strengthened.

Civilian targets in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities have since the earliest days of the war been struck repeatedly by Russian drones and missiles.

But Tuesday marked only the second time Moscow had come under direct fire.

In Washington, the White House said it was gathering information on the reports of drones striking in Moscow.

"We do not support attacks inside of Russia. That's it. Period," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing.

Washington is a major supplier of weaponry to Ukraine on the condition it uses it to defend itself and to retake Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces.

Russia's ambassador to the United States accused Washington of encouraging "terrorists" in Kyiv by publicly ignoring the drone attack.

NUCLEAR THREAT

One of the southern places Russian forces have controlled since just after the beginning of the invasion is the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and on Tuesday the chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog asked Ukraine and Russia to respect five principles to safeguard it. Neither Ukraine nor Russia have committed to respect the principles.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi has been trying for months to secure an agreement to reduce the risk of a nuclear accident from military activity like shelling at Zaporizhzhia, Europe's biggest nuclear power plant.

In a briefing to the U.N. Security Council, Grossi said the principles included that there should be no attack on or from the plant and that it not be used as a base for heavy weapons and other military equipment. He called for off-site power to the plant to remain available and secure.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

UK backs Ukrainian terror attack on Moscow

In the aftermath of a drone attack on residential buildings in Moscow, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said that Ukraine has a right to “project force”beyond its borders. Among Ukraine’s Western backers, Britain has led the charge to arm Kiev with long-range weaponry.

Speaking to reporters in Estonia on Tuesday, Cleverly said that Ukraine has a “legitimate right to defend itself,” and can “project force beyond its borders to undermine Russia's ability to project force into Ukraine itself.”

Striking “legitimate military targets” within Russia is a viable self-defense tactic for Kiev’s forces, Cleverly added.

None of the eight drones used in Tuesday morning’s attack on Moscow hit military targets. Three were suppressed by electronic warfare measures and deviated from their intended course before crashing, while five were shot down by Pantsir-S air defense systems outside the city, the Russian Ministry of Defense said, describing the drone raid as “a terrorist attack” by “the Kiev regime.”

Several residential buildings were damaged and two people suffered minor injuries.

In a separate incident on Tuesday morning, the Ukrainian military shelled a civilian shelter in Russia’s western Belgorod Region, leaving several people dead and many injured, the region’s governor said in a statement. 

The attacks came after Russia launched a heavy barrage of missiles and drones at Ukrainian airfields, ammunition dumps, and “decision-making centers”responsible for plotting similar terrorist actions, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Tuesday that the headquarters of the Ukrainian military’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) was among the decision-making centers hit.

In Washington, the White House issued a more cautious response to the drone attack. “As a general matter, we do not support attacks inside Russia,” a spokesperson said in a statement. 

While the US has given the Ukrainian military more money than all other donors combined, President Joe Biden and his officials have repeatedly shot down Kiev’s requests for long-range weapons capable of striking deep within Russian territory. However, Britain has filled this role, announcing this month that it would arm Kiev with Storm Shadow cruise missiles – which can hit targets more than 250km away.

There are signs, however, that US policy may shift soon. Asked on Monday whether he would send long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, Biden told reporters that the idea was “still in play.”

** Kiev's strikes on Russian residential buildings are sign of terrorist activity — Putin

Kiev has chosen the path of intimidating Russian citizens by attacking civilian facilities, which is a clear sign of terrorist activity, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

He pointed out that during the special military operation Russia hit Ukrainian territory, but only military facilities and infrastructure. "Russia was forced to respond to the war unleashed by the Ukrainian regime in Donbass. [We] were forced to respond by launching a special military operation. [The Russian military] are striking Ukrainian territory, but with long-range precision weapons and specifically military infrastructure or ammunition depots," the head of state explained, commenting on this morning's drone attack on Moscow.

Putin stressed that "in response, the Kiev regime has chosen a different path - [the path of] trying to intimidate Russia, intimidate Russian citizens and attack residential buildings." "This, of course, is a clear sign of terrorist activity," the president said.

Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow and the Moscow Region on Tuesday morning. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the attack involved eight unmanned aerial vehicles, five of which were shot down by the Pantsir-S missile system and the remaining three were suppressed by electronic warfare. Two people in Moscow sought medical attention for minor injuries. A number of buildings sustained minor damage.

 

Reuters/RT/Tass

Intense clashes in Sudan's capital after ceasefire extended

Intense clashes could be heard in Sudan's capital on Tuesday, residents said, after military factions battling for more than six weeks agreed to extend a ceasefire aimed at allowing aid to reach civilians.

The army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to extend a week-long ceasefire deal by five days just before it was due to expire late on Monday.

The truce was brokered and is being remotely monitored by Saudi Arabia and the United States, which say it has been violated by both sides but has still allowed for the delivery of aid to an estimated 2 million people.

"We hope this truce succeeds even if only to stop the war a little and that we can return to our normal lives. We have hope in the truce and we don't have other options," said Hind Saber, a 53-year-old resident of Khartoum.

Hours before the ceasefire extension was signed, residents reported intensive fighting in all three of the adjoining cities that make up Sudan's greater capital around the confluence of the Nile - Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri.

Clashes resumed late on Tuesday on the outskirts of the cities.

In a statement the RSF accused the army of violating the ceasefire, saying that it defended itself against an attack and took over an army base.

The war has caused nearly 1.4 million people to flee their homes, including more than 350,000 that have crossed into neighbouring countries.

Areas of the capital have been hit by widespread looting and frequent cuts to power and water supplies. Most hospitals have been put out of service.

The United Nations, some aid agencies, embassies and parts of Sudan's central government have moved operations to Port Sudan, in Sudan's Red Sea state, the main shipping hub which has seen little unrest.

PORT SUDAN CURFEW

On Tuesday, the state's security committee said it had caught several "rebellious" sleeper cells that it said had sneaked in from outside and warned that they were planning activities.

"We thank the citizens of Red Sea state for their total cooperation and for immediately reporting the presence of these rebellious elements and their agents within their neighbourhoods," it said, without specifying their identity.

The committee later extended a state of emergency and declared a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m in Port Sudan.

The conflict erupted on April 15 over internationally backed plans for a transition to elections under a civilian government.

Leaders of the army and the RSF had held the top positions on Sudan's ruling council since former leader Omar al-Bashir was toppled during a popular uprising in 2019.

They staged a coup in 2021 as they were due to hand leadership of the council to civilians, before falling out over the chain of command and restructuring of the RSF under the planned transition.

Army leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan appeared in a video on Tuesday greeting troops. He said that the army had agreed to the ceasefire extension to ease citizens' access to services.

"The army hasn't used its full deadly power, but it will be forced to do so if the enemy does not obey or listen to the voice of reason," he said in a statement.

U.N. children's agency UNICEF said more than 13.6 million children in Sudan, a country of 49 million people, were in urgent need of lifesaving humanitarian support.

The U.N. World Food Programme, which expects up to 2.5 million people in Sudan to slip into hunger in coming months, said that 17,000 metric tonnes of food had been looted since the conflict began.

WFP said on Monday that it had begun to distribute food in parts of the capital for the first time since the outbreak of fighting.

U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk warned on Tuesday that fighting in Khartoum, which has spread to the war-weary Darfur region, could take on an "inter-ethnic dimension which would be terrible".

 

Reuters

What country does French belong to? The answer seems obvious: France, as it says on the label. But there are roughly four times as many speakers of French outside France as there are within it. Who does Portuguese belong to? You might now hesitate to blurt out “Portugal”, remembering that Brazil’s population is about 20 times bigger than Portugal’s. Maybe Portuguese belongs jointly to them both. But then 70m people live in African countries in which Portuguese is an official language. Perhaps it belongs to them, too.

The English can be under no illusion that the language of the same name is exclusively theirs. The small matters of the other nations in the British Isles, and of the superpower across the Atlantic, make clear that it is joint property. But these countries—along with Canada, Australia and other Anglophone peoples—must at some point come to terms with the fact that, even collectively, their language no longer belongs to them. Of the estimated billion people who speak English, less than half live in those core English-speaking countries.

Every day, the proportion of English-speakers born outside the traditional Anglosphere grows. Perhaps 40% of people in the European Union speak English, or about 180m—vastly more than the combined population of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In India, calculations range from 60m to 200m. Most such estimates make it the second-biggest Anglophone country in the world.

English-speakers pride themselves on the spread of the language, and often attribute that to an open, liberal-minded attitude whereby it has happily soaked up words from around the world. In the coming century, though, English will do more than borrow words. In these non-Anglophone countries, it is becoming not just a useful second language, but a native one. Already it is easy to find children in northern Europe who speak as though they come from Kansas, the product of childhoods immersed in subtitled films and television in English, along with music, gaming and YouTube.

Today, many learners still aim for an American or British standard. Textbooks instruct Indian English-speakers to avoid Indianisms such as “What is your good name?” for “What is your first name?”, or “I am working here for years” instead of “I have been working here for years.” A guide to avoiding Europeanisms has long circulated in European Union institutions, to keep French- or German-speakers from (for example) using “actual” to mean “current”, as it does in their languages.

Yet as hundreds of millions of new speakers make English their own, they are going to be less keen to sound British or American. A generation of post-colonial novelists has been mixing native words and phrasings into their English prose, without translation, italics or explanation. Academic movements such as “English as a lingua franca” (ELF) have been developing the ideology that speakers—no longer referred to as “non-native” but rather “multilingual”—should feel free to ignore British or American norms. Karen Bennett of Nova University in Lisbon says the university website has been translated using words common in southern European English—like “scientific” for “academic”, or “rector” for “vice-chancellor”. The appropriate local dialect is not British or American but ELF.

Given enough time, new generations of native speakers contribute not just words but their own grammar to the language they learn—from older speakers’ point of view, distorting it in the process. “I am working here for years” is a mistake today, but it is not hard to imagine it becoming standard in the future in culturally confident Anglophone Indian circles.

If this disturbs you, remember that this column is written in a mangled version of Anglo-Saxon, learned badly by waves of Celts, Vikings, Normans and others until it became an unrecognisably different tongue. And take comfort in the fact that such changes usually happen too slowly to affect comprehension in a single lifetime. Written language is less volatile than the spoken kind and exerts a stabilising force.

But if language is always evolving (true to the point of cliché), the adaptations are even more profound when they come as a result of new speakers hailing from different linguistic worlds. No language has ever reached more speakers than English. It is hard to predict how they will change it, but easy to rule out the notion that they will not change it at all. In the end, it will be theirs too.

 

The Economist

When it comes to hiring new team members, there are a lot of things that you can do to help find the best candidate for the position. 

Having a solidly written job description, looking in the right places or enlisting the help of a recruiter and having well-thought-out interview questions that help capture the skills and weaknesses of the candidates will all make a huge difference in who you ultimately end up hiring for the position. 

But there is one often overlooked, but powerful secret weapon that can really make the difference when finding the right candidate for an open position in your company. And it all comes down to personality.

Personality Matters

I want to be clear here that when we talk about personality I don't mean a "personality hire." Not everyone on your team needs to be a people person, who can have everyone laughing over the water cooler. In fact, that is likely a horrible idea for productivity.  

If you are hiring for a computer programer or a bookkeeper, for instance, they don't need to have a bubbling, outgoing personality because they will likely never talk to any of your clients or customers. Everyone on your team doesn't need to be charismatic. 

What I mean here is that the personality of the new hire needs to mesh well with your team as a whole. Because finding the right fit for your group can make a big difference in the productivity and overall satisfaction of your team in the long run. 

But how do you go about knowing if they are a good fit? My secret weapon is to have someone sit in on the interview that knows the team dynamics well.

For my company, that's our COO. She has been with the company for over fifteen years and has seen the good and the bad when it comes to our team. 

She knows what type of personality fits in well and who would struggle to find their way. So, I have her sit in on interviews to get a feel for each candidate. She can usually tell within minutes if they would be a good personality fit or not. 

And by using this method, we usually do a really good job of hiring people that mesh well with the rest of the team. So, I want you to think about your own staff and look for someone that would be a good fit for this task.

If you are a small business, this could even be your spouse if you work together or someone else on your leadership team. 

The main thing is that the person needs to have a good handle on how you work. If you have teams, then you may need someone that fits this role in each team, so think about what this strategy would look like for your business. 

Hiring someone that possesses the hard and soft skills you need, along with a personality that meshes well with your team is a recipe for success. So don't overlook this critical element in the hiring process. 

 

Inc

Help your team think outside the box by putting these five tips to work for you.

How do you inspire people to open their minds in a way that unlocks the creativity within your organization and achieves the best results? Let me share a story about how a former colleague in the advertising industry attained legendary status for his ability to unlock creativity (and have a great time in the process).

His goal was to change the way products were marketed in his client’s business. He wanted his team to think in entirely fresh ways about their jobs and change the way their product was viewed. To that end, he took the whole creative and account team to Las Vegas.

He told them almost nothing about the trip. The team arrived in Vegas, and for three days, he told his team, there was nothing on the agenda other than having fun. So they went out eating, drinking, gambling, clubbing.

On day four, he gathered the group and told them, “We need to change the way products are marketed in this industry. We need to be creative, different, unique. We need to appeal to our client’s core young male audience -- and they play lots of video games.”

While he was speaking, video game systems were being installed in team members’ rooms. For the next three days, he instructed, their job was to play video games. They were supposed to think about the whole experience of playing a game, including the graphics, the sounds, and the characters that appealed to the target audience. He wanted them to consider how game designers presented content, how they manipulated the look and feel of the product for the customer. He asked them to pay attention to the scoreboards, sound effects, and every other little trick the game designers had devised. Most of all, he wanted his team to think about how his client could build upon video game innovations to make their real-life products win over a new generation of customers.

After three glorious days in the sun, his team wasted no time in unleashing their creativity and changing the way people used their client’s products. In short, they came up with a unique look that separated them from everyone else in the industry.

Could his team have accomplished the same results playing games back in their New York offices? I doubt it. By taking his team to Las Vegas, he shifted them from work mode to play mode. He put people together who normally did not have much time to interact in a social setting. The days of partying in Las Vegas brought them closer, building camaraderie and a sense of teamwork. Two guys in a hotel room playing a video game see their jobs differently than they would if seated in adjacent offices at their computers.

I’m not saying you need to take your team to Vegas (or anywhere else) for six days. But to foster creative teamwork, you need to find a way to get them out of the office mindset and break down their natural resistance. You need to tap the genius within each of them on a regular basis. Being creative applies to all aspects of your business, from building something cool to breaking down barriers when trying to sell your product.

You can tap your employees’ creativity by following these recommendations:

Get groups together.

When you’re launching a new business or product, team members are busy. All of them have their heads down, focused on what they’re responsible for. Most of their time is spent working with other people in their department. The creative and technical people don’t get much time to inter­act. There are ways to change that.

At Xoom, we had pizza and beer at 3 p.m. every Friday. People from different groups got to interact in a social environ­ment. As the company grew, those Friday afternoons offered an opportunity to meet new team members, and together we evolved a shared vision of the company. Even if people with different responsibilities looked at the company in different ways, over beer and pizza, we came up with some of our most creative -- and collaborative -- ideas.

Get out regularly.

Do something outside the office at least once a quarter. The activity doesn’t have to be expensive or extravagant. You might schedule a happy hour, miniature golf, or go-cart racing. Whatever it is, getting people to engage in a new setting can build relationships and inspire creativity. By getting your employees out of their comfort zones and getting them to interact with one another can open their eyes to new possibilities.

Encourage experimentation.

Declare that for a few hours every month, no one’s allowed to use their computer or smartphone. In place of screens, issue every employee a notebook and ask them to spend the time writing, sketching, and diagramming their thoughts and ideas on how to improve and innovate the business. The novelty of putting pen to paper will force them to think in a different way. After the exercise, encourage them to tear pages out of their notebooks and post them on a brainstorming wall.

Encourage risk.

You win some, you lose some. But people need to be encouraged to take risks and be creative. They need to know that even if something doesn’t work, these experiences are all a valuable part of growing a business. One way to do this is to encourage your team to experiment with side projects. Many of these will fail, but odds are one of them may turn into your next big idea. And if they try something that doesn’t work, there’s no concern that it will put the entire operation -- or the person’s job -- at risk.

If something doesn’t work, still celebrate that your team took a shot.

People who are the most successful and creative are the ones who take risks. They try, they fail, and they learn from their mistakes. Create a culture where taking a shot at something new is celebrated, as long as something is learned.

 

Entrepreneur

Bola Tinubu took over as Nigeria’s president and pledged to scrap a costly fuel subsidy, address widening insecurity and revive Africa’s largest economy.

The 71-year-old former state governor was sworn in at a ceremony in the capital, Abuja, on Monday. He succeeds Muhammadu Buhari, who stepped down after two terms, and inherits a daunting list of problems to tackle in the continent’s most-populous nation. 

“We have endured hardships that would have made other societies crumble,” Tinubu said after taking the oath of office.

The president said his administration will target an economic growth rate of at least 6% a year, as it seeks to end a system of multiple exchange rates and reduce interest rates to boost consumption. He also committed to doubling electricity generation and make it simpler for foreign investors to repatriate their profits.

Since Buhari, 80, came to power in 2015, Nigeria’s public debt has increased seven-fold to about 77 trillion naira ($166 billion), according to the country’s Debt Management Office. Servicing those obligations consumed 96% of government revenue in 2022 and the figure could top 100% this year. That’s left the government reliant on ever-greater borrowing and widening deficits to run the state.

Tinubu didn’t mention the ballooning debt burden in his speech.

Inflation that’s at an 18-year high is meanwhile raising the cost of living in a country where 40% of the population live in extreme poverty and one in three people are unemployed

Security Investment

And though Buhari’s administration made some progress containing jihadist groups in northeastern Nigeria, armed gangs that have been blamed for carrying out mass killings and kidnappings have proliferated in other parts of the country.

“We shall defend the nation from terror and all forms of criminality that threaten the peace and stability of our country,” Tinubu said, committing to invest in recruiting more security personnel and better military equipment.

The president welcomed Buhari’s decision to provide for only six months of gasoline subsidies in this year’s budget – an intervention that cost more than $10 billion last year and dwarfed spending on education and health.

“The fuel subsidy is gone,” he said, stating that it “can no longer justify its ever-increasing costs.”

It’s unclear what will happen to the pump price on June 1, as phasing out the payments will significantly increase transport costs and previous attempts to remove them have triggered social unrest.

While Tinubu takes the helm after receiving the lowest vote share of any winner in a presidential election since the restoration of democracy 24 years ago, he will have room for maneuver. The ruling All Progressives Congress kept its majorities in the Senate and among state governors, though it no longer commands one in the House of Representatives.

In his election manifesto, the incoming president promised to grow the nation’s tax take — which is among the weakest in the world — and cut Nigeria’s exposure to loans denominated in foreign currency. He also said his government will boost daily oil output in Africa’s largest crude producer by more than 60% over four years to 2.6 million barrels.

A federal court has yet to rule on petitions filed by the runners-up in February’s presidential election against Tinubu’s victory.

 

Bloomberg

Some labour leaders say there is a need for all stakeholders in the sector, including the government, to analyse the issue of fuel subsidy removal mentioned by the new President, Bola Tinubu, in his inaugural speech.

Tinubu, on taking office on Monday, said that the budget in place before his coming on board

made no provision for fuel subsidy, and so it was gone.

The President commended the decision of the Buhari administration in phasing out the petrol subsidy regime, saying it had increasingly favoured the rich more than the poor.

“Subsidy can no longer justify its ever-increasing costs in the wake of drying resources.

“We shall instead re-channel the funds into better investment in public infrastructure, education, health care and jobs that will materially improve the lives of millions,” he said.

Labour leaders told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos that the issue needed a holistic approach.

Nigeria Labour Congress on Monday said TInubu decision on fuel subsidy removal was not a well thought move.

National President, NLC, Joe Ajaero who spoke in an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja said the announcement would also draw the economy of the country backward by 50 percent.

“The comment on fuel subsidy removal is not well thought out, coming as an inaugural speech. It is going to draw the economy of the country backward by over 50 percent within the next 48 hours.  Nigerians will speak in one accord at the appropriate moment,” he said.

National Deputy President, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Tommy Okon, said that there had to be stakeholder engagements in which organised labour was one.

“So, we cannot just comment on it until we are engaged, but we have made our position known in our charter of demand to remove fuel subsidies.

“So, it will not be a one-off response because organised labour is partner in progress; they need to sit down and discuss and agree before that is done to avoid industrial unrest,“ Okon said.

Also, Lumumba Okugbawa, the Secretary-General, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, said stakeholders would sit to analyse the situation and proffer the way forward for the betterment of the country.

“We need to analyse the situation, sit with stakeholders including the government, and see the way forward.

“This is pending when our local refineries, which has been our major point, that once we produce locally, all these issues about subsidy removal will not be there.

“Once we produce locally, not that the price will not be there, but at least, it will be reduced,” Okugbawa said.

On his part, Secretary-General of TUC, Nuhu Toho, said the union would issue a statement in reaction to some of the issues raised in the president’s inaugural speech.

 

NAN/Punch

Former President Muhammadu Buhari has handed over the reins of power to fellow party man Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), leaving charge with a legacy very different to the one voters had hoped for when they elected him eight years ago.

His 2015 victory over Goodluck Jonathan, the first defeat of an incumbent president in Nigerian history, was his second time in power after an August 1985 palace coup ended his 18-month stint as military ruler.

Success at the polls came after three consecutive failed attempts by Buhari to return to the presidency as the electorate turned to a man from its past out of frustration with Jonathan, a meek leader who critics said was better suited to his previous life as a zoology lecturer than as president of Africa’s largest democracy.

Buhari’s winning campaign had emphasised three key promises: to tackle insecurity, stem corruption and fix economic troubles. But as he leaves office after two terms, not many rate his scorecard as being better than the man he succeeded despite embarking on a vast infrastructure drive.

Under Buhari, Nigeria became the world’s poverty capital – 133 million of his compatriots now live in abject poverty.

When his staunch ally, outgoing Kano Governor Umar Ganduje was seen stuffing dollar notes believed to be contract kickbacks into his robe in a viral video, Buhari defended him, claiming the videos were doctored.

This year, even Tinubu, credited as the strategist behind APC’s 2015 victory, criticised the government and distanced himself from Buhari’s achievements, or lack of them, on the campaign trail.

“It is only a person who is deaf and dumb that will say Nigeria is doing well … and it is disappointing that the president is not seeing it the way we are seeing it,” said Frank Kokori, an APC leader, in August 2022. “People were ready to die for Buhari in 2014 to 2015, but unfortunately, Buhari has squandered all his goodwill.”

‘Baba Go Slow’

The first indication that the Buhari presidency would be an exhaustive exercise in long-suffering was his failure to announce a cabinet until five months in office. That delay earned him the moniker “Baba Go Slow”, a cheeky reference to the signature traffic jams in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos.

The cabinet list was a roll call of has-beens and geriatric party stalwarts, including one minister who returned to office three decades after he was first appointed.

“Some of his appointments were not ideal, and he may have not appointed competent individuals for key roles in government,” Ayodeji Dawodu, a director at the London-based investment group BancTrust & Co, told Al Jazeera. “In addition to this, he may have been ill-advised in some of his own decision-making.”

In Buhari’s eight years in office, he also appointed at least six deceased people to boards of federal agencies. A series of similar missteps and inaction throttled the economy, leading to two recessions in five years, analysts said. As Buhari leaves office, the naira has lost 70 percent of its value to the dollar compared with 2015, and inflation is at an 18-year high.

According to data from Nigeria’s Debt Management Office, debt is at a record of about $150bn. This has forced Africa’s largest economy to use 96 percent of its revenue to service these ballooning obligations.

In October, the central bank announced a redesign of the 200, 500 and 1,000 naira notes to mop up excess cash in circulation and rein in inflation ahead of the election. The Buhari-backed move led to a cash shortage. Seven months later, the policy was suspended.

In 2019, he ordered the closure of land borders to restrict imports, end smuggling and boost local production. Instead, inflation spiked as food costs soared, and relations with neighbouring and dependent economies  – like Benin, Ghana and Niger – were strained.

The economy never recovered from that, according to Wilson Erumebor, senior economist at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and a doctoral researcher at SOAS University of London.

“Since the border closure, quarterly trade data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the value of non-oil exports has never attained its peak of 1.08 trillion naira ($2.34bn) in the third quarter of 2019 over three years after the border closure was introduced,” he said.

The move also undermined Nigeria’s commitment to the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, the continent-wide free trade area, and freedom of movement in the 15-nation Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS).

“It was not in tandem with Nigeria’s foreign policy … [so] ECOWAS were not too happy,” Remi Ajibewa, director of political affairs at the ECOWAS Commission at the time, told Al Jazeera. “Why would the big brother who calls himself the giant of Africa be closing its border against them, given the fact that there is a large market in Nigeria and they see Nigeria as one of the countries they could rely on?”

The administration seemed to lack a coherent foreign policy and failed to act swiftly on matters concerning Nigerians abroad. The government was slow to evacuate its nationals in South Africa during xenophobic attacks there in 2019 as well as when conflict broke out in Ukraine in 2022 and Sudan in April.

Over time, Nigeria’s international standing dwindled.

“I can see countries don’t respect us much given the fact that they see that we have not been able to be dynamic and strong enough,” Ajibewa said.

‘Uniquely selfish’

Local daily Punch estimated that the president spent 225 days on medical leave, including a three-and-half-month stretch in 2017. Another absence spurred a conspiracy theory that he had died in London and was replaced in Abuja by a body double from Sudan.

Even when he was healthy and in Abuja, Buhari was widely seen as uncaring because of the presidency’s slow response – or none at all – to nationwide tragedies. Some insiders in the presidency suggested he was “uniquely selfish” and showed an inability to keep up with the times.

“The president does not delegate responsibilities – he abdicates responsibilities,” the governor of a northern state and close ally to the president lamented to his advisers once, as one of them told Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity.

When Buhari’s chief of staff died of Covid-19 in April 2020, things fell apart even more for the presidency. Tensions between cabinet members and heads of government agencies routinely spilled into the public domain, sometimes including accusations of graft and misuse of office.

Buhari’s seeming aloofness to all the crises around him inspired viral memes. After his office posted a photo on social media showing him sitting barefoot in the presidential palace while using a toothpick, a meme replaced the palace background in the picture with the scene of a mass killing.

That perception of nonchalance extended to matters of security too.

Buhari came to power on the promise of reversing armed group Boko Haram’s gains in the northeast, relying on his experience as a civil war veteran and general in the Nigerian army, long respected for its strength in peacekeeping operations across Africa.

Soon after he was sworn in, he issued a deadline of December 31, 2015, for defeating the rebels. When the deadline expired, information minister Lai Mohammed infamously declared that the group had been “technically defeated” even though it was still carrying out attacks.

“There was a false sense of success [this] administration basked in instead of building on the success the previous administration had led,” Malik Samuel, an Abuja-based researcher at the Institute of Security Studies, told Al Jazeera, referring to the Jonathan government’s last-minute successes in recapturing some areas controlled by Boko Haram before leaving office.

Nigeria’s overburdened security agencies are now battling multiple armed groups across the country, including Boko Haram factions like the Islamic State West Africa Province.

There are also violent secessionist groups in the southeast and ransom-hungry armed bandits kidnapping and killing in parts of northern and central Nigeria.

According to the Nigeria Security Tracker, a project of the Council of Foreign Relations, 98,083 people have been killed in documented cases of violence by armed state and non-state actors in Nigeria since the count began in May 2011. Two-thirds of those fatalities happened during Buhari’s eight years as president.

“With the experiences people have had from when he came into office to date, I will say we have not progressed with regards to dealing with the threat, which was one of the reasons behind his success at the polls,” Samuel said.

Human rights

In his first stint in power in the 1980s, Buhari pushed through laws that introduced the death penalty for drug trafficking and empowered law enforcement agencies to clamp down on the media for reports considered detrimental to the government. They also applied retroactively.

Ahead of the 2015 vote, he was marketed as a democrat who had shed his past authoritarianism. Even Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka branded him as a ‘reformed dictator’.

But the administration went on to perpetuate a litany of human rights abuses, ignoring court orders as routinely as it targeted journalists and dissidents.

The National Broadcasting Commission frequently punished television and radio stations for any views deemed critical of the government with fines and suspensions of licenses. Twitter too was not spared. After the platform removed one of Buhari’s tweets, it was banned for seven months.

Security agencies carried out multiple extrajudicial killings, including the 2015 deaths of more than 300 Shia Muslims in the northwestern state of Kaduna. Three years later, the army opened fire on Shia protesters in Abuja, justifying it with a video of US President Donald Trump suggesting that American soldiers could respond with force to migrants at the country’s southern border who throw rocks at the military.

There were also multiple reports of murders of civilians in areas where the military was ordered to contain communal violence.

“His body language has given encouragement to security agents, which has resulted in massive human rights violations that we continue to see on a daily basis,” Samuel said. Had Buhari held officers in key positions responsible for their actions, he said, “I don’t think we will [be] talking too much about these issues.”

In October 2020, at least 10 people were killed, according to Amnesty International, during a week of peaceful protests by young people against police brutality. There was a “lack of adequate measures for accountability for security forces abuses,” Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera. “These are very emblematic cases that show how [the] Buhari administration rolled [back] some of the fundamental rights that we had been able to almost consolidate.”

Calling card infrastructure

Still, Buhari supporters say no other president has focused on infrastructure as much as he did – there was a construction spree of rail lines and crucial bridges and dozens of interstate highways.

They also point to social protection programmes targeting low-income households. One such programme, the conditional cash transfer programme, doled out a monthly stipend of 5,000 naira ($13.83) to more than 784,000 of the country’s most vulnerable people.

But even those achievements have drawn scrutiny for their poor implementation.

The Abuja metro, commissioned with fanfare in 2018 after construction with Chinese-funded loans, is barely used today. Other rail projects have dragged on for years.

Despite the launch of several power plants and signing of agreements for more, the national grid has crashed more than 100 times in eight years, repeatedly throwing the country into darkness.

For some Nigerians, a new era cannot come soon enough. For others, Buhari’s failures have only reinforced their scepticism.

“At this point,” 57-year-old bus driver Olusegun Badmus told Al Jazeera, ” I have my faith in God and not politicians.”

 

Al Jazeera

Raymond Dokpesi, the founder of DAAR Communications, died on Monday after a fall while using a treadmill machine, a statement by DAAR Communications has said.

The statement, issued on Monday and signed by the Group Managing Director of DAAR Communications, Tony Akiotu, stated that Dokpesi was recovering from an undisclosed illness and had to do routine exercises as part of recuperation.

Akiotu stated that the media mogul was ill for some weeks before the fall that claimed his life adding that Dokpesi was using the machine to exercise before the tragic event happened.

“The board and management of DAAR Communications PLC wishes to inform the general public of the death of our founder, Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi, of, which the sad event occurred today 29th May 2023.

“He had been ill in the last few weeks but was on his way to full recovery. He had a fall off his treadmill during a routine gym exercise.

“Further announcement as regards the burial arrangement will be made by the family,” the statement reads.

The deceased, 71, was a veteran media entrepreneur who owned television and radio stations.

 

PT

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian airfields hit by Russian strikes – Moscow

Russian forces launched multiple high-accuracy strikes on Ukrainian military airfields overnight from Sunday to Monday, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

The attacks hit Ukrainian command posts, radar stations, and aircraft, as well as weapons and ammunition storage depots, the ministry claimed. The exact targets or the extent of the damage was not disclosed.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Sunday evening that Russia had launched one of its largest drone attacks to date. Ukrainian media reported explosions across the country, although Kiev claimed that almost all of the drones had been shot down.

Officials in Ukraine’s western Khmelnitsky Region said on Monday that a military target had been hit in a Russian attack. The authorities described the site as a “facility” rather than an airfield, but said at least five aircraft had been “disabled,”adding that a runaway required repairs as a result of the strike. They also said other “objects” in the area had been hit.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that several major Ukrainian ammunition depots and military equipment storage sites had been struck close to the frontlines in the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, as well as Kherson Region.

Over the past 24 hours, Russian forces have also intercepted three ‘Storm Shadow’ cruise missiles supplied to Kiev by the UK and 13 HIMARS projectiles, the ministry said.

Russia increased its missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian military and energy infrastructure after the bombing of the Crimean Bridge in October 2022. The latest series of strikes followed a Ukrainian cross-border raid into Belgorod Region earlier this month, which resulted in at least one civilian death and left several people injured.

** Putin signs law governing elections in new Russia’s regions

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law amending existing legislation on the conduct of elections in the country’s new regions as well as election procedures, according to the document published on Monday.

The new regions of the Russian Federation, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Lugansk People’s Republics (LPR), Zaporozhye Region and Kherson Region, have now been delegated the right to independently determine certain provisions of the federal election law, starting from a single voting day this September. In particular, residents of the new regions are now eligible to cast votes at polling stations located outside of their home regions and may also use not only their Russian internal passports for personal identification purposes but also other documents with equivalent legal force.

Elections under martial law

The document also establishes the procedure for holding elections under martial law, stipulating that referendums and elections may be held on those territories where martial law has been declared following relevant consultations by Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) with the Russian Defense Ministry and the Federal Security Service (FSB). Under the bill, elections and referendums may be held, provided that all relevant bodies approve it, across the entire territory where martial law has been declared or in a specific part of such territory.

If holding an election or a referendum on the territory of one of the four regions would pose a threat to the lives or well-being of the citizenry, voting may be postponed by decision of the CEC, which must immediately inform the president of any such postponement. Once the relevant danger is eliminated, the CEC will determine when to resume the electoral process.

Electoral commissions for detainees

The law also provides for the possibility to form precinct election commissions in places of detention of suspected and accused persons, and defines the procedure for forming such commissions, their powers and the basis of their activities.

The document also contains provisions on the refusal of voting with absentee ballots and the prohibition of election campaigns on websites blocked by Russia's mass media and telecommunications watchdog (Roskomnadzor).

The law comes into force from the day of its official publication.

 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine air defences battle fresh wave of Russian attacks

Russia launched another wave of attacks on Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday and the city's air defence systems were shooting down incoming missiles, while air raid sirens blared in several other regions.

"A massive attack!" Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. "Do not leave shelters."

Falling debris hit several districts of the capital including the historic Podil and Pecherskyi neighbourhoods, and a 27-year-old woman was injured in southwestern Holosiivskyi district, officials said.

Russia has repeatedly attacked the Ukrainian capital in May using a combination of drones and missiles, mostly at night, in an apparent attempt to undermine Ukrainians' will to fight after more than 15 months of war.

Tuesday's strikes were Russia's 17th air assault on the capital this month and came after the city was attacked twice on Monday, including an unusual daytime strike.

In a rare acknowledgement of damage to a military "target", Ukraine said a runway was damaged and five aircraft were taken out of service on Monday in western Khmelnitskiy region.

Russian state-owned news agency RIA cited the defence ministry as saying more than one air base had been hit. There was no confirmation from Ukraine of damage to other air bases.

Ukrainian officials said most of the drones and missiles fired on Sunday and Monday had been shot down and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised U.S.-supplied Patriot anti-missile defences.

"When Patriots in the hands of Ukrainians ensure a 100% interception rate of any Russian missile, terror will be defeated," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Monday.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE

The air attacks come as Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive backed with Western weapons to try to drive Russian occupiers out of territory seized since Moscow launched what it calls its "special military operation" in February 2022.

"With these constant attacks, the enemy seeks to keep the civilian population in deep psychological tension," said Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv's military administration.

On the eastern frontlines, Russian paratroops and motorised units were replacing Wagner mercenary units in the eastern city of Bakhmut, according to Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern group of Ukrainian Forces.

Wagner began handing over positions to regular troops this week after declaring full control of Bakhmut following the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.

Moscow said it invaded Ukraine to "denazify" its neighbour and protect Russian speakers. Western opponents say the invasion is an imperialist land grab in which tens of thousands have been killed, millions uprooted and cities reduced to ruins.

Russia says it is open to resuming stalled peace talks with Kyiv and has welcomed mediation efforts from Brazil and China.

But a top aide to Zelenskiy said Kyiv's peace plan, envisaging the full withdrawal of Russian troops, was the only way to end the war.

"There cannot be a Brazilian peace plan, a Chinese peace plan, a South African peace plan when you are talking about the war in Ukraine," chief diplomatic adviser Ihor Zhovkva told Reuters in an interview late on Friday.

CALL FOR A DMZ

Another Zelenskiy aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, wrote on Twitter that any post-war settlement should include a demilitarised zone of 100-120 km (62-75 miles) inside Russia along the border.

The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said he believed Russia would not want to negotiate while it was still trying to win the war.

Ukraine's military said an attack on Odesa port had caused a fire and damaged infrastructure but did not specify whether the damage threatened grain exports.

Ukraine is an key global grain supplier and the port is vital for shipping. It is also one of three countries in a U.N.-brokered deal on the safe export of grain via the Black Sea.

Russia said on Monday the grain deal would no longer be operational unless a U.N. agreement with Moscow to overcome obstacles to Russian grain and fertiliser exports was fulfilled.

This month, Moscow reluctantly agreed to extend the grain deal until July 17.

 

RT/Tass/Reuters