The defendant in a recent case from the Court of King’s Bench for Saskatchewan, Western Canada, may well be giving a “thumbs down” after the judge concluded that a thumbs-up (????) emoji constituted acceptance of a contract to sell 87 metric tonnes of flax.

On June 8, 2023, Justice T.J. Keene granted a summary judgment decisionin favour of grain buyer South West Terminal Ltd, writing, “There was a valid contract between the parties that the defendant breached by failing to deliver the flax.”

He ordered seller Achter Land & Cattle Ltd. to pay damages of more than $82,000, representing the costs borne by SWT, to go into the spot market at a higher price to make good on its own contracts with clients.

Emoji is an unconventional but valid way to sign a contract

“This court readily acknowledges that a ???? emoji is a non-traditional means to “sign” a document, but nevertheless, under these circumstances, this was a valid way to convey the two purposes of a “signature” – to identify the signator (with a unique cell phone number) and . . . to convey Achter’s acceptance of the flax contract.”

MLT Aikins LLP partner Josh Morrison, whose firm handled the case for the plaintiff, said, “From the day we were approached, we thought it was a really interesting case – a classic law school question.”

“It’s basic contract formation. And then layered over it is the Sale of Goods Act, 

the Electronic Information and Documents Act, and common law issues. It had some unique wrinkles.”

After discussing and agreeing to a flax contract over the phone, a representative for SWT, Kent Mickleborough, texted Chris Achter, the representative for flax seller Achter Land, a photo of the contract on March 26, 2021, along with the text message: “Please confirm flax contract.”

Mickleborough had phoned Chris Achter after Chris’s father, Bob, had expressed interest in a flax contact after seeing an email blast from SWT asking for possible suppliers looking to sell flax.

The contract was for 87 metric tonnes of flax at $669.17 per tonne, or $17 a bushel, to be delivered to SWT in November 2021.

The Achter representative texted back a thumbs-up emoji, which the buyer understood to be acceptance of the contract by the seller. However, Achter Land failed to deliver the flax in November.

In this case, one of the critical details was that before the dispute, the parties had a longstanding business relationship. They had previously similarly entered several contracts, with a photo of the contract texted to Achter and accepted via text message. Achter had always accepted those contracts by text message using short affirmative phrases such as: “Looks good,” “OK,” and “Yup.”

Mickleborough gave evidence that he would “primarily deal with Chris” when negotiating contracts with Achter. “We would typically have a conversation, either in person or over the telephone, and agree on a price and volume of grain, then Chris would ask me to write up the contract and send it out to him. I have done approximately fifteen to twenty contracts with Achter Ltd. during my time with SWT.”

While this procedure was used before the pandemic, Mickleborough noted that using phones and text became more common after Covid-19 arrived.

For instance, on July 14, 2020, Mickleborough said that after discussing and agreeing on a contract with Chris Achter, he prepared a contract for the sale of 185 metric [tonnes] of durum wheat from Achter to SWT for a price of $312.31 per tonne. “I signed the contract and then took a photo of it using my cell phone and sent it to Chris, with the message ‘Please confirm terms of durum contract.’ Chris texted me back: ‘Looks good.’”

Mickleborough said that at the time, he understood “this to be that Chris was agreeing to the contract, and this was his way of [signalling] that agreement.”

The judge wrote in his decision he found the flax contract to be very similar to this and other durum wheat contracts the two parties had, “the only difference being the use of the word flax instead of the word durum, and this time instead of words like ‘OK,’ ‘yup’ or ‘looks good’ being texted by Chris, a commonly used ???? emoji was texted by Chris.”

A different version of events

Chris Achter’s version of events differs, saying that most previous contracts with SWT involved selling grain already harvested and ready for delivery shortly. “In other words, we would agree to the sale of grain, and delivery would be completed within the next few weeks.”

However, he said that whenever grain still needs to be produced, he insists on an “Act of God” clause so he is not bound to deliver grain that he cannot produce due to circumstances outside his control.

In this case, Chris Achter said it was a busy time of year, so particulars of the flax contract were not discussed, but he expected that the contract would be a production contract with an Act of God clause to protect him if the crop was damaged by hail or drought.

Achter said the thumbs-up emoji simply confirmed he had received the Flax contract. “It was not a confirmation that I agreed with the terms of the flax contract. The full terms and conditions of the flax Contract were not sent to me, and I understood that the complete contract would follow by fax or email for me to review and sign.

He denied the thumbs up emoji as a digital signature of the incomplete contract."I did not have time to review the flax contract and merely wanted to indicate that I did receive his text message. I did not and would not have entered into the flax contract without first reviewing the terms and conditions with specific reference to the Act of God clause.”

What would an objective bystander conclude?

Justice Keene noted that to form a contract, there must be an offer by one party that is accepted by another party to create a legal relationship. However, he noted the test for agreeing to a contract for legal purposes is not whether the parties to the contract subjectively believed they were entering into a contract. Instead, it is whether an objective, reasonable bystander would conclude that the parties had entered into a contractual agreement.

The judge found that when the Achter replied with the thumbs-up emoji, a “reasonable bystander” knowing all the background would “come to the objective understanding the parties had reached . . . a meeting of the minds, just like they had done on numerous other occasions.”

Keene wrote: “In short, what we have is an uncontested pattern of entering into what both parties knew and accepted to be valid and binding deferred delivery purchase contracts. The parties clearly understood these curt words were meant to be confirmation of the contract and not a mere acknowledgement of the receipt of the contract by Chris.”

In determining damages, Keene noted the difference between the contract price of $17 a bushel ($669.26 a tonne) and the price of flax on November 30, 2021, the last day for delivery under the contract terms ($41 a bushel or $1,614.09 a tonne), for a difference of $24 a bushel or 944.83 a tonne. He said that multiplying the tonnes by the difference in price amounts to prima facie damages of $82,200.21, apart from interest and costs.

Keene also relied on The Electronic Information and Documents Act of 2000 (“EIDA”). Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, section 18 of the act provides that acceptance of an offer can be expressed by an action in electronic form. Keene ruled the thumbs-up emoji was an electronic form of action capable of expressing acceptance, as contemplated by the EIDA.

The court said the EIDA allows legally recognizing documents in electronic format when legislation requires a “signature” and when documents are “in writing.” Section 14 of the EIDA acknowledges an electronic signature as valid when a signature is required by law.

The court also found that the thumbs-up emoji from Achter’s cellphone number met the legal requirements for an enforceable contract under section 6 of the Sale of Goods Act.

“The legislation is clear. Agreement to contractual terms can be expressed by touching or clicking on an appropriately designated icon or place on a computer screen,” Keene wrote, despite the counsel for the defence’s argument that a simple ???? emoji to signify identity and acceptance would open up a flood of cases coming forward asking for interpretations as to what various emojis mean.

“This appears to be a sort of public policy argument. I agree that this case is novel (at least in Saskatchewan), but nevertheless, this court cannot (nor should it) attempt to stem the tide of technology and common usage – this appears to be the new reality in Canadian society and courts will have to be ready to meet the new challenges that may arise from the use of emojis and the like.”

Even absent specific legislation allowing for the acceptance of electronic signatures, Keene said, “Courts have considered an electronic signature as a valid signature simply under longstanding principles of common law.”

Clarity in communication is key in contracts

MLT Aikins’ Morrison says the decision emphasizes the importance of “recognizing that acceptance of contracts can be expressed electronically, even through seemingly casual means such as an emoji, depending on the context.

“It is a reminder that the subjective intentions of parties are irrelevant when determining a contract’s validity at law. A contract’s validity is determined by assessing the intentions of the parties from the perspective of a reasonable and objective bystander who is aware of all the relevant facts.

The solution, he says, is “clarity in written communication” to avoid disputes before they happen and ensure all parties have a clear understanding of the contractual obligations they are undertaking.”

Morrison also notes that buying and selling grain is speculative, so players may want to keep options open. However, the “serious message” behind these tactics is that keeping options open might still lead to binding legal obligations.

Canadian Lawyer

The Presidency has rejected the report of the European Union on the outcome of the 2023 general elections.

In its final report on the Nigerian elections, the globally acclaimed body said trust in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had been severely damaged, especially as a result of the failure to upload the result of the presidential election electronically.

But responding in a statement on Sunday, Dele Alake, Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, described the report as a product of a poorly done desk job that relied heavily on few instances of skirmishes in less than 1,000 polling units out of over 176,000 where Nigerians voted on election day. 

He said the report relied more on rumours, hearsay, cocktails of prejudiced and uninformed social media commentaries and opposition talking heads.

Alake said the 2023 general elections, most especially the presidential election, won by President Bola Tinubu/All Progressives Congress, were credible, peaceful, free, fair and the best organised general elections in Nigeria since 1999. 

The presidential spokesman said there was no substantial evidence provided by the European Union or any foreign and local organisation that was viable enough to impeach the integrity of the 2023 election outcomes. 

He said: “We strongly reject, in its entirety, any notion and idea from any organisation, group and individual remotely suggesting that the 2023 election was fraudulent. 

“Our earlier position that the technology-aided 2023 general elections were the most transparent and best organised elections since the return of civil rule in Nigeria has been validated by all non-partisan foreign and local observers such are the African Union, ECOWAS, Commonwealth Observer Mission and the Nigerian Bar Association.

“Unlike EU-EOM that deployed fewer than 50 observers, the Nigerian Bar Association that sent out over 1000 observers spread across the entire country for same election gave a more holistic and accurate assessment of the elections in their own report. 

“NBA, an organisation of eminent lawyers and an important voice within the civic space, reported that 91.8 per cent of Nigerians rated the conduct of the national and state elections as credible and satisfactory. Any election that over 90% of the citizens considered transparent should be celebrated anywhere in the world.

“It is heart-warming that INEC, through its National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, has come out to defend the integrity of the election it conducted by rejecting the false narratives in the EU report.

“It is also gratifying that the electoral umpire, as an institution that is open to learning and continuous improvements, has also committed to taking on board more ideas, innovation and reforms that will further enhance the integrity and credibility of our electoral process.

“As a country, we have put the elections behind us. Tinubu is facing the arduous task of nation-building, while those who have reasons to challenge the process continue to do so through the courts. In just one month in office, Nigerians appear satisfied with the decisive leadership of Tinubu and the manner he is redirecting the country to the path of fiscal sustainability and socio-economic reforms. We urge the EU and other foreign interests to be objective in all their assessments of the internal affairs of our country and allow Nigeria to breathe.

“Sometimes in May, we alerted the nation, through a press statement, to the plan by a continental multi-lateral institution to discredit the 2023 general elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission. The main target was the presidential election, clearly and fairly won by the then candidate of All Progressives Congress, Tinubu.

“While we did not mention the name of the organisation in the said statement, we made it abundantly clear to Nigerians how this foreign institution had been unrelenting in its assault on the credibility of the electoral process, the sovereignty of our country and on our ability as a people to organise ourselves. We find it preposterous and unconscionable that in this day and age, any foreign organisation of whatever hue can continue to insist on its own yardstick and assessment as the only way to determine the credibility and transparency of our elections.

“Now that the organisation has submitted what it claimed to be its final report on the elections, we can now categorically let Nigerians and the entire world know that we were not unaware of the machinations of the European Union to sustain its, largely, unfounded bias and claims on the election outcomes.

“It is worth restating that the limitation of EU final assessment and conclusions on our elections was made very bare in the text of the press conference addressed by the Head of its Electoral Observation Mission, Barry Andrews. While addressing journalists in Abuja on the so-called final report, Andrews noted that EU-EOM monitored the pre-election and post-election processes in Nigeria from January 11 to April 11, 2023 as an INEC accredited election monitoring group.

“Within this period, EU-EOM observed the elections through 11 Abuja-based analysts, and 40 election observers spread across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. With the level of personnel deployed, which was barely an average of one person per state, we wonder how EU-EOM independently monitored election in over 176,000 polling units across Nigeria.”

Daily Trust

After three weeks of legal fireworks sparked by the move by Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to invalidate the outcome of the 23 February election at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja, President Bola Tinubu and his party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), are set to open their defence on Monday.

Nigeria’s electoral commission, INEC, also a respondent in the cases pending at the court, will commence its defence of the outcome of the election before the five-member panel of the court headed by Haruna Tsammani on Monday (today).

Tinubu of the APC emerged as Nigeria’s 16th leader in a fiercely contested election on 25 February.

Five petitions were filed at the court to challenge the election outcome in the wake of the announcement of the results. But the number of petitions dropped to three after two were withdrawn by those who filed them.

So far, Atiku, Obi and the Allied Democratic Party (APM) have closed their cases by calling witnesses and tendering documents to support their allegations of widespread irregularities and manipulation of results during the poll.

Specifically, the petitioners accused INEC of rigging the entire process in favour of Tinubu and his APC party.

Proving electoral fraud in Nigeria is a herculean task, owing to the country’s vast electoral field, with 176,974 polling units as of the recent general election.

However, this year’s exercise was distinct owing to the level to which technology was deployed in the conduct of the election. Yet, the final collation and announcement of the presidential election results were delayed for almost one week.

The poll was held on 25 February across many states of the federation, but the exercise was rescheduled in other areas due to violence and logistical issues, leading to INEC’s eventual declaration of Tinubu winner of the poll on 1 March.

Atiku’s outing in court

With a legal team comprising dozens of lawyers, including a battery of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), Atiku called his first witness on 30 May, a day after Tinubu was sworn in as president at Eagle’s Square in Abuja.

Atiku’s legal team, headed by Chris Uche, tendered tons of electoral documents numbering 118 exhibits before the court.

The documents were certified true copies of the results of the presidential election from the 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

To substantiate his claims, Atiku’s team also presented records of the number of permanent voter cards (PVC) used for the election across the 36 and printouts of data obtained from the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines- a technology used in the conduct of the election.

The BVAS machines and the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal were innovations of the electoral commission to boost Nigeria’s electoral integrity and credibility.

But INEC’s failure to upload the photographic copies of polling station results forms one of the major grounds of the petition.

Key witnesses

In aid of his case, Atiku called subpoenaed, star and expert witnesses totalling 27 at the close of his case on 23 June.

As the subpoenaed witnesses, mostly INEC ad-hoc presiding officers, took the witness box, they alleged that the electoral umpire failed to electronically transmit polling units results of the presidential election in real-time to the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal on 25 February when the poll was held.

Two polling unit presiding officers – Friday Egwuma and Grace Timothy – were engaged by INEC to conduct the disputed poll.

But they were subpoenaed by the five-member court based on the request of Atikum

They recounted their experiences at different polling stations where they presided over the election.

According to them, the photographic copies of the results of the National Assembly election, held simultaneously with the presidential poll, were successfully uploaded to the INEC IReV portal.

But they said the attempts to do the same for the presidential election as stipulated in the electoral commission’s guidelines for the conduct of the polls failed.

Another contentious issue before the court is the integrity of data stored on Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BIVAS) machines from the presidential election.

Hitler Nwala, a digital forensic analyst subpoenaed to testify as Atiku’s expert witness, said he inspected and analysed 110 BVAS machines used for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) election.

Nwala said he found out that INEC deleted results on all BVAS machines he inspected but didn’t know when the deletion was done.

Equally critical at the defence stage of the suits will be Tinubu’s legal team’s capacity to counter allegations of forgery of academic records and impersonation against the president.

At the tail end of the presentation of his case, Atiku called Mike Enahoro-Ebah, a star witness, who narrated how he obtained several documents detailing Tinubu’s biodata.

Enahoro-Ebah, who identified himself as a public interest litigator, told the court that his lawyer in the US obtained Mr Tinubu’s academic records from Chicago State University.

Mr Enahoro-Ebah alleged that there were discrepancies in Tinubu’s academic records both at the Chicago State University and the South West College in the US.

He tendered Tinubu’s transcripts from the South West College in the US. He added that the transcripts, issued in 1977, identified Tinubu as “female.”

The court admitted the documents as exhibits.

In addition, the court admitted a “notarised judgement of criminal forfeiture” of Tinubu’s assets over alleged drug trafficking in the US.

Another star witness in Atiku’s case, Dino Melaye, who is a former senator and PDP candidate in the forthcoming 11 November Kogi State governorship election.

He alleged wrongful computation of the presidential election results while testifying before the court.

Obi’s case

At the court, Obi called 13 out of the 50 witnesses he had proposed to call to prove his case against Tinubu.

In the suit, Obi’s legal team led by Livy Uzoukwu, tendered several electoral documents comprising BVAS reports, IRev reports, video exhibits, polling stations results, Vice President Kashim Shettima’s nomination form, a copy of $460,000 forfeiture judgment, reports of polling stations where elections did not hold and record of PVCs collected.

Witnesses

Contrary to INEC’s claim, Obi’s expert witness, Mpeh Ogar, told the court that a report of the health status of Amazon Web Services, which hosts the INEC IReV portal, showed no technical glitches on 25 February 2023.

Ogar, a cloud engineer and architect at Amazon Web Services Incorporated, said the INEC’s IReV portal did not experience any glitches to justify the failure to upload real-time the polling unit results of the 25 February presidential election.

The commission had, in a statement issued a day after the polls by its Commissioner for Voter Education, Festus Okoye, blamed unexpected technical glitches for the commission’s inability to ensure real-time uploading of results to the IReV portal as provided in the guidelines for the election

Obi and his party had alleged that INEC’s inability to upload the photographic copies of result sheets from polling stations to the IReV portal in real-time during the election was one of the breaches that marred the polls.

Another witness, Lawrence Nwakaeti, a lawyer from Anambra State, told the court that Tinubu was fined in the US for allegedly trafficking in narcotics.

Obi’s lawyer, Jibrin Okutepa, tendered some court documents purporting to be the US court’s decision awarding $460,000 fine against Tinubu for illicit drugs trafficking imposed by the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

A thread that runs through the narratives of many of the witnesses that testified for Atiku and Obi was the failure of INEC to promptly upload photographic copies of polling units’ presidential election results.

APM’s case

Meanwhile, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) concluded its case after calling one witness to prove its petition against INEC, Tinubu and the APC.

Its case involved an alleged double nomination against Shettima as Mr Tinubu’s running mate in the presidential election.

Expectations

As proceedings are due to continue on Monday, the respondents – Tinubu and the APC have one week to prove their case, while INEC has five days to defend its case.

Based on the report of the prehearing sessions, Tinubu’s lead lawyer, Wole Olanipekun, had said he was prepared to defend his client’s victory with a total of 39 witnesses in all the pending cases.

The APC, represented by Lateef Fagbemi, disclosed that the party would present 25 witnesses to defend its victory.

While on its part, INEC informed the court that it would call two witnesses.

PT

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine reports Russian attacks in east, progress in south

Ukrainian forces are resisting a Russian onslaught in eastern areas of the front and face difficulties in the northeast, but are making progress near the shattered city of Bakhmut and in the south, the deputy defence minister said on Sunday.

Russian accounts of the front line said Moscow's forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks near villages ringing Bakhmut and in areas further south, particularly the strategic hilltop town of Vuhlear. They also reported success in containing Ukrainian troops in the northeast.

Reuters could not confirm any of the battlefield accounts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, meanwhile, presented awards to troops in the port of Odesa and vowed: "The enemy will in no way dictate its terms in the Black Sea!"

Ukraine's military have been engaged in a counter-offensive to recapture areas of the east and south seized in Russia's 16-month-old invasion. The initial Ukrainian advances have focused on securing clusters of villages in the south.

Deputy Ukrainian Defence Minister Hanna Maliar, writing on Telegram, said "everywhere things are hot" in the east, with Russian forces advancing near the beleaguered cities of Avdiivka and Maryinka in Donetsk region.

"In addition, the enemy has started an attack in the Svatove area," she said, referring to a region of northeastern Ukraine where Russian forces have been active. "Fierce fighting is taking place...The situation is quite complicated."

Maliar reported "partial success" south of Bakhmut, taken in late May by Russian forces after months of fierce fighting.

And on the southern front, where Ukrainian forces have recaptured several villages, Maliar said there had been "gradual advances" in two areas.

"Our troops are facing intense enemy resistance, remote mining and the redeployment of enemy reserves, but are tirelessly creating the conditions for the fastest possible advance," she wrote.

General Oleksander Tarnavskiy, responsible for the southern front, said Ukrainian forces were "systematically destroying the enemy" and reported the deaths of several hundred Russian forces over then last 24 hours.

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Zelenskiy and Ukraine's commander-in-chief, General Valery Zaluzhniy, have reported steady, if slow, advances in the campaign. The president acknowledges progress is limited, but says the drive is "not a Hollywood movie" with instant success.

Ukraine has also had to endure persistent Russian air attacks on Ukrainian cities, though the Kremlin denies attacking civilian targets.

Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv and the surrounding region on Sunday after a 12-day break, with air defence systems destroying all the weapons on their approach.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

CIA sees Ukraine crisis as unique ‘opportunity’

America’s top intelligence official has openly cheered the alleged internal discord that he claims is rising in Moscow because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, saying the CIA has been given an historic opportunity to recruit spies and undermine President Vladimir Putin’s government.

CIA director William Burns claimed on Saturday at a Ditchley Foundation lecture in the UK that “disaffection with the war will continue to gnaw away at the Russian leadership beneath the steady diet of state propaganda and practiced repression.”

“That disaffection creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us at CIA, at our core a human intelligence service. We’re not letting it go to waste,” he added.

Burns noted that the CIA launched a Telegram channel in May to recruit military officers, government officials and scientists who can provide intelligence on the Russian leadership and economy. “We had 2.5 million views in the first week, and we're very much open for business,” he said.

Moscow insisted at the time that the spy agency was simply “wasting American taxpayers’ dollars” as attempts to divide Russian society from abroad won’t work, according to Ambassador Anatoly Antonov.

Washington is betting that the Ukraine crisis will stir enough division to help turn potential Russian intelligence sources against President Putin. Burns made his speech one week after private military contractor Evgeny Prigozhin ended his brief rebellion against Russia’s top generals. The aborted mutiny was far less “bloody” than US officials had expected, according to CNN.

Burns has insisted that Washington played no part in the uprising, but argued that Prigozhin’s short-lived revolt was “a vivid reminder of the corrosive effect of Putin's war on his own society and his own regime.”

Putin said last week that the Russian people reacted to the crisis by showing unity, spoiling the hopes of foreign enemies that the nation would be “split asunder and drown in a bloody feud.”

Putin’s approval rating among Russians was little changed at 81% after the aborted insurrection, even according to the independent pollster Levada Center, which had been listed as a foreign agent in Russia since 2016.

** Ukrainian commander complains about French tanks – AFP

A Ukrainian military commander has reportedly raised concerns that light combat tanks supplied to the former Soviet republic by France aren’t suitable for attacks against Russian defensive lines because their thin armor can easily be pierced by artillery shells and other weapons.

Touted earlier this year by Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov as a “sniper rifle on fast wheels,” the French AMX-10 RC armored fighting vehicle has proven “impractical” during Kiev’s current counteroffensive against Russian forces, Agence-France Presse (AFP) reported on Sunday. One four-man crew has died because of the tank’s thin armor, which can easily be pierced by Russian weaponry, a Ukrainian battalion commander told the media outlet.

“Unfortunately, there was one case when the crew died in the vehicle,”said the 34-year-old Ukrainian major, whom AFP identified only by his call sign, Spartanets. “There was artillery shelling, and a shell exploded near the vehicle. The fragments pierced the armor, and the ammunition set detonated.”

Reznikov was filmed in April riding in an AMX-10 RC, which was among the Western weaponry rushed to Kiev this spring for a long-awaited counteroffensive that finally began in June. “These fast, modern machines with powerful guns will aid us in liberating our territory,” Reznikov said in a Twitter post thanking French President Emmanuel Macron and Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu. “This is what liberty, equality and brotherhood look like.”

However, Spartanets said the French tanks have proven to be ineffective in front-line assaults. “The guns are good, the observation devices are good, but unfortunately, there is thin armor, and it is impractical to use them in the front line,” he said.

Just sending out the vehicles so they get destroyed, I consider it is impractical and unnecessary because it’s primarily a risk for the crew.”

The Ukrainian commander added that the AMX-10 RCs also has been plagued by breakdowns in their gear boxes, possibly because of their use on dirt roads. Kiev’s troops received one month of training in France, which wasn’t adequate to master operating the vehicle, he said.

The 20-ton AMX-10 RC travels on wheels, rather than tracks. It was developed in the 1970s for armed reconnaissance and attacks on tanks. The French military is in the process of replacing its fleet of AMX-10 RCs with the more modern EBRC Jaguar.

Thousands of Ukrainian troops have been killed in the counteroffensive, which has failed to breach Russia’s defensive lines. Dozens of Western-supplied armored vehicles have been destroyed, including German-made Leopard tanks and AMX-10 RCs, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. The New York Times reported last week that 17 of the 113 Bradley fighting vehicles supplied to Kiev by the US have been damaged or destroyed.

Reuters/RT

Sudan clashes intensify with no mediation in sight

Clashes between Sudan's army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensified on Sunday, as the war in the country's capital and western regions entered its 12th week with no attempts in sight to bring a peaceful end to the conflict.

Air and artillery strikes as well as small arms fire could be heard, particularly in the city of Omdurman, as well as in the capital Khartoum, as the conflict deepens a humanitarian crisis and threatens to draw in other regional interests.

The RSF said it brought down an army warplane and a drone in Bahri, in statements to which the army did not immediately respond.

"We're terrified, every day the strikes are getting worse," 25-year-old Nahid Salah, living in northern Omdurman, said by phone to Reuters.

The RSF has dominated the capital on the ground and has been accused of looting and occupying houses, while the army has focused on air and artillery strikes.

Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan last week called on young men to join the fight against the RSF and on Sunday the army posted photos it said were of new recruits.

The Sudanese Doctors Union accused the RSF on Saturday of raiding the Shuhada hospital, one of the few still operating in the country, and killing a staff member. The RSF denied the accusation.

The war has also hit cities in the western Kordofan and Darfur regions, in particular the westernmost city of El Geneina, where the RSF and Arab militias have been accused of ethnic cleansing.

The Combating Violence Against Women Unit, a government agency, said on Saturday it had recorded 88 cases of sexual assault, which it said was a fraction of the likely real total, in Khartoum, El Geneina, and Nyala, capital of South Darfur, with victims in most cases accusing the RSF.

Talks hosted in Jeddah and sponsored by the United States and Saudi Arabia were suspended last month, while a mediation attempt by East African countries was criticised by the army as it accused Kenya of bias.

Last week, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy on the country's Sovereign Council Malik Agar expressed openness to any mediation attempts by Turkey or Russia, though no official efforts have been announced.

Reuters

Decree 33 of 1977 saw to the birth of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on April 1 of that year through the merger of the Nigerian National Oil Corporation and the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel. The main purpose was for it to add value to the nation’s hydrocarbon resources “for the benefit of the nation’s economy…”

NNPC’s Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt Refineries, among others, were built solely for the “benefit” of the Nigerian economy. Completed and commissioned in 1980, the Kaduna Refinery was meant to be a modern conversion refinery having two parts: 50,000 barrels of fuel plant and another 50,000 barrels lubes plant for the production of lubricating oil blendstocks and waxes and bitumen.

The Warri Refinery, commissioned in 1978, was built to process 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day. In 1987 it was upgraded to process 125,000 barrels per day. Mainly, it was supposed to add value to some refinery by-products such as propylene rich stock and decant oil.

There are two refineries in Port Harcourt. The old one was commissioned in 1965 with a capacity of 60,000 barrels per day while the new refinery commissioned in 1989 has an installed capacity of 150,000 barrels per day.

Unfortunately, this is just on paper as Nigeria imports fuel rather than produce for local consumption and for export.

At one point in this country, NNPC was Nigeria’s feeding bottle because it was in charge of Nigeria’s main source of livelihood, the one commodity that provides nearly all our foreign exchange inflows.

However, the audited annual reports and financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2018, for the NNPC and its 20 subsidiaries and business divisions, signed by the group managing director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, and the chief executives of the various subsidiaries showed that the three refineries recorded a combined loss of N154 billion while Kaduna refinery also recorded zero revenue for the group.

Details showed that Kaduna refinery spent N24 billion in direct costs to record zero revenue and an operating loss of N64 billion for 2018, as against N2 billion revenue and N112 billion loss the year before.

A breakdown of the direct costs and administrative expenses showed that it incurred N447.7 million in Training Expenses, Security expenses of N230 million, Communication expenses of N37.3 million, and Consultancy fees of N843 million.

For the Warri Refining Company, the audited financial statement showed that the company earned N1.98 billion as revenue while it incurred N12.74 billion as cost of sales, resulting in a gross loss of N10.57 billion and an operating loss of N45.39 billion.

The Port Harcourt Refining Company’s recorded revenue of N1.45 billion in 2018 is swallowed by expenses of N24.04 billion, a gross loss of N22.58 billion.

In simple words, these three refineries lost almost N160 billion and earned about N3.5 billion in 2018.

Interestingly, NNPC had a total staff strength of 6,621 as of April 20, 2020, whose salaries were in billions – they earn stupendous salaries and are among the best paid in the country. Its directors alone pocket billions in emoluments. A director in NNPC can earn more than N33 million a year. A breakdown of the payments made to directors at the Kaduna Refinery alone showed that total employee cost was put at N23 billion in 2018. This includes salaries and wages, death benefits, administrative expenses, etc.

NNPC’s salary structure is such that an entry-level worker can have four times the salary of another entry worker in other sectors. Therefore a barely passed degree holder who secured employment there can have four times the salary of a first-class graduate who is employed as a teacher elsewhere.

Apparently, instead of being there “for the benefit of the nation’s economy”, NNPC is just there for the benefit of less than 7,000 privileged Nigerians. No wonder, only the well connected get employed there. In truth, the NNPC is a burden Nigeria can ill afford to continue shouldering.

In the build-up to the last election, Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at a town hall meeting with Kaduna State ward, local government and state party leaders, said that the NNPC had failed to serve the purpose for which it was established in 1977 and promised to sell it if elected.

He lamented that Nigeria, one of the biggest producers of crude oil, still imports refined products for local consumption at exorbitant prices to the detriment of the common man. Atiku was of course vilified but an organisation filled with fat cats can cause a lot of propaganda damage to anyone who wants to wean it off its feeding pipe.

Nigeria and NNPC remind me of a donkey and salt story I read many years ago. There was a man who had a donkey and used it to transport some bags of salt to the market in another village half a day’s journey away or something like that.

Halfway to the market, there was a bridge over a small pond. One day, the donkey accidentally fell into the pond. When it came out of the pond, its load was lighter because almost half of the salt had dissolved in the water and so it happily moved on. If donkeys could whistle, that donkey must have whistled happily all the way to the market.

The next day, the now enlightened donkey ran towards the bridge and jumped into the pond and came out to continue the journey, its burden easier to bear. It repeated this the next day, which made the salt trader wisen up to his donkey’s game. He then came up with a solution. The next day he loaded his bags on the donkey as usual and they started on their journey. On getting to the spot, the donkey saw the pond and, as usual, it jumped in with relish. However, this time around it came out grunting, for the load on its back had tripled in weight. The salt trader had loaded cassava flour (garri) instead of salt on the donkey. Since that day, the donkey carefully avoided falling into the pond again.

Nigeria is trudging under the weight of the NNPC and it needs to shed this weight. But who will bell the cat?

Employment Slots

When did we descend this low as a nation? Since when have appointments and even admissions to government institutions become property to be shared?

This practice is well known, even if not accepted by helpless Nigerians. One cannot get a federal job except if a member of the National Assembly or head of a ministry, department or agency who gets slots, slots in one’s name. This practice is replicated at the state levels by state counterparts of the aforementioned. Traditional rulers, too, get their own share and, depending on their national status, even get at the federal level. Some of these “beneficiaries” even take theirs to the markets and sell to the highest bidders.

Unfortunately, this illegal practice, which has no respect for merit, serves more to dampen the spirit of the active youth and deprives them of hope in the future. Hope is what makes one work hard; without it, people lose the zeal to put in their best and they psychologically feel alienated from society.

Such a class of people ultimately become disenchanted with the system, feel betrayed by their leaders and never ask what they can do for their country. They become idle and indolent, and an idle mind is the devil’s playground. So they readily form the recruitment base for all types of crimes. Some may even take up arms against a country they see as having consigned them to the backwaters of society.

This breeds the discontent and restiveness we see all over the country and gives rise to the ‘them’ and ‘us’ schism that is dangerous to societal peace.

Members of the legislature and executive may fall on the excuse that their constituents inundate them with CVs. However, it is also true they started the whole untidy business while trying to compensate loyal ‘boys’.

We were recently regaled with the drama of Mr Festus Keyamo and lawmakers in the House of Reps over this “sharing” formula. The lawmakers were not satisfied with 15% slots in the federal government’s determination to give temporary jobs to 1000 people per local government. Nigerians ever in search of heroes hailed Keyamo. But the truth is that the executive, ever wily and always painting the legislature as the devil’s incarnate, wanted to hijack the remaining share.

A few days later, Keyamo, however, accompanied his senior minister back to the lawmakers to apologise for his behaviour. Didn’t anybody tell him that after such grandstanding, the honourable thing was to resign rather than go back to his vomit?

It is high time we build competitiveness and confidence in our youth by encouraging them to work hard and reap the reward of working hard irrespective of who they are or where they come from. It is the only way for a nation to develop and Nigeria can only develop when we begin to promote hard work and merit.

This was published July 13, 2020 but still relevant.

** Hassan Gimba is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Neptune Prime.

Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan claimed her first Diamond League win of the season in the women’s 100m hurdles on Sunday night.

Amusan won the hurdles — which took place at the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm — with an impressive time of 12.52 seconds.

The Nigerian athlete defeated Sarah Avalanche of Ireland, who finished second in 12.73 seconds, while Pia Skrzyszowska of Poland claimed the third spot in 12.78 seconds.

On Friday, Amusan came second behind Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn at the Lausanne Diamond League.

The reigning world champion and record holder finished the 100m hurdles with a season-best matching time of 12.47 seconds.

The 26-year-old Commonwealth Games champion will defend her title at the World Athletics Championship later this year in Budapest.

Amusan had a stellar 2022 where she delivered brilliant performances at the Diamond League, Commonwealth Games, and World Athletics Championships.

She became the first Nigerian world champion after she clocked a wind-aided 12.06 seconds — ineligible as a world record because of +2.5 meters per second strong wind.

The sprinter consolidated her feat with a gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games before retaining her Diamond League title to put a brilliant wrap on her season.

She was nominated for the 2023 Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year award in February.

The award recognises individuals and teams from the world of sports along with sporting achievements throughout the year under review.

The Cable

Not a day goes by without someone telling me that they have an idea for the next big thing. Now, it could very well be that those people are right. 

But, nine times out of ten, they haven't done any research to actually determine if their idea is doable. Here are five questions founders ask themselves when deciding whether to move forward with a startup idea.

1. Has anyone done it before?

I've spoken about this countless times, but before you write one line of code, do market research.

Figure out if someone has done it before you. Were they successful? Can your idea compete with theirs?

Many entrepreneurs like to skip competitive analysis, but without it, the chances of success are zero. Your million-dollar idea might be awesome enough that many people have already done it.

2. Who is your target audience?

Great, so you have an idea. Now, who needs this product? If you can't identify and define your target audience, you won't be able to decide on features or how to market the product later on.

An idea is just an idea until you build it and someone buys it. 

3. Is it a 'must-have' or a 'nice-to-have'? 

This one is crucial. If you're building something that's just nice to have, by definition, it'll be less successful than something that is a must-have.

That's not to say that people don't buy things for convenience. They do. But, perhaps consider slightly pivoting to add something to your product that people feel they can't live without.

4. How big is the market?

So, you've determined that the market is not too saturated and that there is a target audience for your product, great. Now ask yourself how big that audience is.

It's simple math. Think about the unit economics here. How many products do you need to sell to achieve profitability? Is that a number you can achieve? If not, perhaps consider going back to the drawing board.

If you find that the market is too small and not enough people will buy this thing, well, you know what to do.

5. How much capital will I need? 

This one is debatable. Think about your costs and your burn rate. How much money do you need in order to transform this idea into a business?

It's a chicken-and-egg situation here. You need money to build a product, but you need a product to raise money.

So ask yourself, can you build a minimal viable product with little capital? If not, you might find yourself struggling to keep your head above water with both time and money wasted. 

An idea is just an idea. If you think you can just run with it without preparation, you're in for a wake-up call.

Inc

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has empowered telecommunications companies (Telcos) to deactivate inactive subscribers on their networks after six months of inactivity.

This is one of the high points of the new guidelines approved for Telcos by the NCC that would take effect any moment from now.

According to the new guidelines, if the inactivity of a subscriber persists for another six months, the subscriber may lose the number, except for a network-related fault inhibiting an RGE.

“A subscriber’s line may be deactivated if it has not been used, within six months, for a Revenue Generating Event (RGE), and if the situation persists for another six months, the subscriber may lose their number, except for a network-related fault inhibiting an RGE,” the guidelines stipulated.

To recover their lines, the commission said subscribers must provide “proof of good reason for absence and are at liberty to request for line parking.”

The commission however said on credit alert while on call, telcos would be expected to send “a single short-beep to the call initiator, two minutes, and at 30 seconds to termination of the ongoing call.”

NCC added that low credit announcement to be played while the call is being originated in a situation where the call cannot last up to 30 seconds.

The commission said the new guidelines were in accordance with section 57 of the NCC Act to allow stakeholders to make contributions to the policy.

The new NCC guidelines, titled, ‘Draft Quality of Service Business Rules’, stipulate the minimum quality and standards of service, associated measurements, and key performance indicators for measuring the quality of service.

In the document, NCC directed telcos to attend to customers within 30 minutes upon arrival at any of their service centres across the country.

“For customer care centres, waiting time to be physically attended to by relevant staff at customer care centres is 30 minutes. The licensee shall provide means of measuring the waiting time, starting from the time of arrival at the premises,” according to the document.

The commission also said telcos must ensure that customers could speak to a customer care representative within five minutes when they call a telco’s helpline.“Lines should not be more than three times; maximum number of rings before a call is answered by either an IVR machine or a live agent should not be more than five; and where a customer decides to speak to a live agent, the maximum duration allowable on the queue/IVR should be five minutes before answer,” NCC said.

“In exceptional cases where a live agent may be unavailable within five minutes to answer the call, a customer should be given an option to hang up to be called back within a maximum time of 30 minutes. Customer care lines that can be accessible through 21 free access numbers and if one number, then it should accommodate multiple other network calls at the same time,” NCC further said.

Thisday

A new paper published in the European Journal of Risk Regulationconsiders the danger from existential terrorism, defined as acts that threaten the existence of humanity. The authors highlight what they term ‘spoiler attacks’ involving AI or other new technology, which might enable a group with limited resources to cause unprecedented destruction.

“I don't expect existential terrorism to be at the top of global agendas, nor do I believe it should be,” Zachary Kallenborn, one of the report’s, authors told me. “But global discourse is clearly changing around existential risk.”

Kallenborn is a Policy Fellow at the Schar School of Policy and Government, an officially proclaimed U.S. Army 'Mad Scientist', and a national security consultant. The paper is part of a special issue on long-term risks and special governance, with the unexpected effects of emerging technology being a key consideration.

“Technology is definitely bringing more power to the people,” says Kallenborn. “The open question is how much capability is really needed to generate existential harm.”

Kallenborn notes that unlike state actors, terrorist groups generally lack capacity to build effective weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear warheads. The best-known apocalyptic group, the Aum Shinrikyo cult, carried out several research projects including work on biological warfare. But they were forced to scale back their ambitions, and the cult's final effort was a nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995 which caused fourteen deaths and affected thousands more. This was an appalling total, but still far short of the group’s apocalyptic goal.

Rather than developing a superweapon themselves, a modern terrorist group could carry out a form of sabotage, a spoiler attack, to cause a cataclysm.

For example, terrorists could leverage the potential risks in advanced AI research, an area which which some warn carries “risk of extinction,” and leading to calls for strict safeguards on research. Rather than building their own super-intelligent AI, terrorists might carry out a spoiler attack to break through the safeguards preventing an AI from being developed beyond a certain stage or released. This might be carried out remotely via hacking, on the spot by recruiting or subverting researchers, or by an armed intrusion into a research facility.

Spoiler attacks might also target biological research or nanotechnology projects, both areas where high levels of safeguarding are required. The authors note that new tools such as CRISPR, rapid DNA sequencing and DNA/RNA synthesis mean that there are now far more groups working on potentially hazardous biological projects. The unproven lab leak theory that Covid-19 escaped from a Chinese research facility could be a blueprint for a spoiler attack.

A spoiler attack breaching safeguards will not necessarily bring about the end of the world, or even cause casualties. A super-AI might be entirely benevolent, and a virus might be relatively harmless, or easily brought under control. Escaping nanotechnology might not bring about the sort of world-ending gray goo nightmare that technologists fear and commentators, including now-King Charles have warned about. But a spoiler attack is a low-cost approach with a small but significant chance of triggering a global catastrophe. It is a risk that governments need to be aware of.

“To combat existential terrorism, governments should focus on incorporating terrorism-related risks into broader existential risk mitigation efforts,” says Kallenborn. “For example, when thinking about artificial super intelligence risks, governments should think about how terrorists might throw a wrench in their plans or simply ignore safeguards.”

This is not so very different to the requirement that nuclear power stations need to be robust enough to withstand terrorist attack, except that the threat is broader and the stakes even higher.

“Governments should dedicate resources to more effectively characterizing and assessing the threat and response options,” says Kallenborn. “That's not a big investment.”

It might be argued that the risk of existential terror attacks has receded as millennial cults have now declined. The 90s saw a slew of such groups obsessed with the end of the world. In some cases these groups were involved with loss of life on a large scale, including Aum Shinrikyo, Heaven’s Gate and the Branch Davidians. These days such groups much less visible, but that may be because they are now harder to recognize.

Gary Ackerman, an associate professor and associate dean at the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany and the report’s other co-author, told me that the many of the conspiracy-minded, internet-based movements of today are modern incarnations of the same philosophies.

“There are several ideologies that foresee doom, whether these are environmentally-based or technology-based,” says Ackerman. “A lot of the more modern movements are also more syncretic in that they tend to blend, often in a contradictory manner, a variety of strains of thought...Many of these groups are simply lumped in with all the other far-right extremist groups, when they actually have a much more apocalyptic outlook that encompasses many of the worldviews of previous cults.”

As the paper notes, world-ending terrorists might be motivated by something other than religion, such as extreme environmentalism. The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement seeks to phase out humans, and it is a small step from there to genocide to save to planet. The authors also mention Strong Negative Utilitarianism, the philosophical view that human suffering can best be ended by ending humans.

Existential terror may sound like the stuff of Hollywood thrillers rather than real life, something for people to worry about in the far future. But it would be a mistake to ignore it.

“There are lots of uncertainties exactly when the threat might grow to something that is significant,” says Ackerman. “But if we don’t start at least thinking about it and monitoring the threat fairly regularly, it might be too late to do anything about it whenever the inflection point is reached.”

Until recently, a global pandemic was also considered a theoretical risk, one which experts said was possible but only happened in the movies. Now we know how such threats can easily become reality, perhaps existential terrorism will get the attention it needs.

Forbes