The federal executive council (FEC) has approved the concessioning of the Nnamdi Azikiwe international Airport, Abuja, and the Mallam Aminu Kano international airport in Kano.

The council gave the approval on Wednesday at a meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Speaking to journalists at the end of the meeting, Hadi Sirika, minister of aviation, said the Abuja airport will be concessioned for 20 years while the international airport in Kano will be concessioned for 30 years.

Sirika also said the council approved the ministry’s change of name.

According to the minister, the name was changed from the ‘federal ministry of aviation’ to the ‘ministry of aviation and aerospace of Nigeria’.

“The council also approved the draft national civil aviation policy which is geared towards the strengthening of the civil aviation,” Sirika added. 

Last week, FEC approved N449.9 million for the engagement of consultants for the development of a master plan for 17 airports in Nigeria.

APPROVALS FOR PROCUREMENTS IN THE POWER SECTOR

Also speaking, Jerry Agba, minister of state for power, said the council approved two memos for the ministry. 

Agba said the first one being an approval for the award of contract for the procurement of 25 numbers of 33 KV circuit breakers and 120 numbers of surge arrestors for systems use for Transition Company of Nigeria (TCN). 

He said the contract value is in “the neighborhood of N140 million as argumentation for that”. 

“The contract has been awarded before they are ongoing, but we asked for approval for revaluation due to price escalation and additional works. We’re building new sub stations in one of the places,” he said. 

Agba added that the council also approved the variation due to price escalation on the construction of the Dukanbo Shonga 132 KV double circuit transmission line. 

“Shonga is in Kwara state and that line has been down for several years. So, with this procurement, we should be able to revemp the station and you know is an agro based area that’s the area which service the Bacita farm. 

“The shunga farms limited and the whole of that area has been in darkness for a long time. With this procurement we hope that in two months, we should have full power supply to those areas and  restore farming and processing activities in that area. The cost is N1.5 billion.”

The Cable

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has told the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja of his predicament in accessing electoral documents from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Obi, who came third in the February presidential election, is challenging the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Bola Tinubu.

He alleged that INEC manipulated the presidential election in favour of Tinubu.

At the resumed hearing of Mr Obi’s petition on Wednesday, his lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu, informed the five-member panel of the court led by Haruna Tsammani that INEC “stubbornly refused to produce 70 per cent of the electoral documents that were requested (by the LP).”

Specifically, Uzoukwu said electoral documents concerning the polls in Rivers and Sokoto States have been inaccessible from INEC.

For Sokoto State, Uzoukwu said INEC officials demanded N1.5 million fee to process the documents.

“A typical example is that of Rivers State, where (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner boldly told us they do not have any form EC8 to give us,” Uzoukwu said.

The lawyer recalled two previous rulings of the court, directing the electoral umpire to grant access to Labour Party for the inspection of electoral documents like the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines that were deployed for the conduct of the presidential poll.

The Court of Appeal had on March 3 and 8 directed INEC to make available certified true copies of result sheets and other data obtained from the BVAS machines to tender same to aid the petitioner’s case.

Uzoukwu further recalled that five separate letters were written to INEC chairman, Yakubu Mahmood, requesting that access be granted to inspect and obtain relevant electoral documents to strengthen the petitioner’s suit at the court.

INEC denies allegation

Abubakar Mahmoud, INEC’s lawyer, expressed the electoral umpire’s readiness to cooperate with all parties in the petitions and the court.

Mahmoud said Obi’s legal team declined to attend a meeting that was called to streamline issues around documents to be tendered before the court.

“We agreed to meet on Monday and Tuesday (15 and 16 May). But on Monday, 15 May, I received a call that the Labour Party legal team had not turned up at the venue for the inspection of the documents,” Mahmoud told the court.

He clarified that LP was given some electoral documents in Rivers, “but they insisted on collecting all the documents that were required.

“The commission has not refused to produce any document,” Mahmoud said.

But Uzoukwu said his team did not stage a walkout from the meeting.

Speaking in the same vein, APC’s lead lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi, aligned with INEC’s position concerning access to electoral documents.

Fagbemi said he would not object to official documents tendered from INEC during the hearing of the substantive petition.

“All public documents coming from INEC and duly certified will not be objected to, but other documents may be objected to with reasons given and arguments presented at the end of the day before judgement.

“We are ready and willing to cooperate with the court,” Fagbemi assured.

Similarly, Tinubu’s lawyer, Wole Olanipekun, said he had no issues accessing documents from the electoral umpire.

“We will reserve our objection to documents until the end of the trial,” Olanipekun said.

After listening to all parties in the petition, the court adjourned proceedings until 19 May.

The panel’s chairman, Tsammani, asked lawyers in the suit to respond to all pending applications before the next adjourned date.

Tsammani said the pre-hearing session would last 14 days from the day of its commencement.

The court began its pre-hearing session on 8 May.

PT

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has asked the presidential election petition court (PEPC) to dismiss an application filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, seeking to have the proceeding televised.

Speaking with journalists after the tribunal pre-hearing session on Wednesday, Levy Ozoukwu, counsel to Obi and LP, said INEC opposed their application for a live broadcast.

“Surprisingly, INEC is objecting,” the senior lawyer said.

“A public institution that is being funded by the government and representing the people is saying they don’t want the people to enjoy live streaming. What are they hiding?

“INEC sees itself as a candidate in an election that it conducted. I say with every degree of emphasis going by the conduct of INEC.

“In court, no other party is complaining about not getting documents. Why is it so?”

“Only the petitioners who have not been provided with the required documents and I keep on asking, what is INEC hiding?”

Obi and the LP filed a petition challenging the victory of Bola Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the election.

In the petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023, LP and Obi, said Tinubu “was not duly elected by the majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election”.

Amongst other allegations, they claimed that Kashim Shettima, vice-president-elect, had a double nomination in contravention of the electoral act.

The petitioners are asking the tribunal to declare Obi as the winner of the presidential poll or alternatively, order INEC to conduct a fresh election.

The tribunal has adjourned the matter to May 19 for continuation.

The Cable

Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party on Wednesday expressed anger over the telephone conversation between the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken and the President-elect, Bola Tinubu.

Blinken pledged stronger ties between the US and Nigeria during a 20-minute telephone call to Tinubu, who is in France.

The US Department of State spokesperson, Matthew Miller, in a statement said Blinken spoke with the president-elect on Tuesday.

The development came 24 hours after the Joe Biden administration announced the imposition of visa restrictions on Nigerians who allegedly disrupted the recently concluded elections.

The US said the affected persons were involved in voter threats, results manipulation, physical violence, and other activities that undermined democracy. The identities of the culprits were, however, not made public.

But dismayed by Blinken’s communication with Tinubu, PDP standard bearer, Atiku Abubakar, who is challenging the ex-Lagos State governor’s victory in court, said the Secretary of State’s assurances of bilateral cooperation contradicted the position of the US on the general election in Nigeria.

The former vice president was referring to a statement issued by the US government on March 2 in which it acknowledged the complaints and frustrations expressed by some Nigerians about the manner in which the presidential election was conducted and the shortcomings of the technical elements used in the poll.

Also, Chief Spokesman for Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, said it was worrisome for Blinken to be discussing bilateral relations with Tinubu.

During the phone conversation, Blinken said he was committed to further strengthening the US-Nigeria partnership with the incoming administration of the president-elect.

Miller said the two leaders “discussed the importance of inclusive leadership that represents all Nigerians, continued comprehensive security cooperation, and reforms to support economic growth.”

The statement read, “Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke this morning with Nigerian President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu to emphasise his continued commitment to further strengthening the U.S.-Nigeria relationship with the incoming administration.

“The Secretary noted that the U.S.-Nigeria partnership is built on shared interests and strong people-to-people ties and that those links should continue to strengthen under President-elect Tinubu’s tenure.

‘’Secretary Blinken and President-elect Tinubu discussed the importance of inclusive leadership that represents all Nigerians, continued comprehensive security cooperation, and reforms to support economic growth.”

Also, a statement from the Office of the President-elect, signed by Tunde Rahman, said Tinubu told Blinken that he would hit the ground running and unify the country on his assumption of office on May 29.

He further pledged to work to ensure continued positive relations with the US, adding that his immediate priorities would be to deliver institutional reforms and development programmes to deepen our democratic institutions and bring help to poor and vulnerable Nigerians.

But reacting to the US engagement with Tinubu on his verified Twitter handle @atiku, on Wednesday, the ex-vice president said he was in disbelief that the US top diplomat could give legitimacy to what he described as the sham election of February 25.

He tweeted, “I am in disbelief that Secretary Antony Blinken called Tinubu, a contradiction to the publicly stated position of the US on Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election.

‘’This is inconceivable considering that America, as the bastion of democracy, is well briefed on the sham election of February 25. To give legitimacy to the widely acknowledged fraudulent election in Nigeria can be demoralising to citizens who have hedged their bet on democracy and the sanctity of the ballot.’’

‘Call worrisome’

Faulting Blinken, Tanko said, “It is worrisome at this point to hear them discuss bilateral discussion at the point in which the issue of election is being challenged in the court of law.”

The spokesperson, however, stated that the discussion on the bilateral relationship should not be taken as an endorsement.

He said, “As we are concerned, we are aware that a statement was issued by those who have been part of the rigging machine in Nigeria’s electoral system. We don’t want to take issue with regard to any call being made to a government that is already seen to be illegal.

“We cannot gratify such statement as a kind of endorsement. We will rather call it a caution to see whether the judiciary will make do with what is already on their desk.”

But the All Progressives Congress saw the interaction between both Tinubu and Blinken as a welcome development.

Speaking with our correspondent, the Director of Publicity for the APC, Bala Ibrahim, said the majority of those criticising the US for its action needed some form of enlightenment on what ‘democracy’ and ‘bilateral relationship’ connote.

“I think these people (opposition) misunderstand the meaning of democracy. They should also learn the meaning of bilateral relationships. Once an election is conducted and there is a body that is charged with the responsibility of deciding or playing umpire in the election. If that body has made a pronouncement, it stands valid until it is vitiated by a court of competent jurisdiction.

“Nobody is saying people should not go to court to challenge an election outcome. But nobody should say the announcement by the electoral umpire is void simply because there are those who are challenging the outcome. The position of the law is that you are innocent until proven otherwise. And who alleged is burdened by proof. It is for him to prove the wrongdoing or the invalidity of the result.

“Now, while that is ongoing, it doesn’t mean countries should not have a bilateral relationship. Every country is a sovereign entity that cannot be challenged by individuals who have contested and lost elections. They should go and continue licking their wounds and allow the legal process to continue. Diplomacy and diplomatic relationship cannot be dictated by their own wishes. No, it doesn’t work like that.

“There is nothing wrong with Blinken calling the president-elect. It is actually in line. America is the bastion of democracy, the biggest democracy in the world and one country that has practised democracy longer than any country in the world knows the meaning of that better than any other democrat in the world. For Blinken to call and discuss with the president-elect, they know the implication and meaning. There is nothing undemocratic or bad about it.”

Punch

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia fields new artillery system

Russia’s first-ever wheeled self-propelled howitzer, the 2S43 Malva, has successfully completed trials and will enter service, Director of Uralvagonzavod Aleksandr Potapov said on Wednesday.

The weapon has been described by the media as Moscow’s answer to French-made Caesar howitzers, some of which were delivered to Ukraine last year.

“Yes, the Malva should soon join [the troops]. Everything is fine with it,” Potapov told TASS news agency on the sidelines of the MILEX-2023 arms expo in Minsk, Belarus. 

Equipped with a 152-mm gun, the Malva (Mallow) is designed to fire at a wide range of targets, including enemy artillery batteries and armored convoys. It is more mobile and less expensive to produce than tracked systems.

The Russian authorities have ordered an increase in defense production in the wake of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, launched more than a year ago. Last month, Russia’s newest heavy tank T-14 Armata was first deployed to the frontline.

Kiev is currently gearing up for a much-touted counteroffensive that Ukrainian officials say will start in the nearest future. Ukraine has stressed many times that the operation’s success will heavily depend on the deliveries of weapons from the West.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Falling debris causes fires at two Kyiv sites, officials say

Falling debris during an air raid early on Thursday triggered two fires in the eastern districts of Kyiv, officials said.

Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, writing on Telegram, said one fire had broken out in a garage facility in the Darnitsya region of the capital. Debris also fell in the Dnipro region of Kyiv. He said there were no casualties from either of the incidents.

The head of Kyiv's military administration, Serhiy Popko, said on Telegram that a fire had broken out in non-residential premises in the Desnyansky district, just east of the capital. He provided no information on casualties.

Popko said Kyiv has been attacked by cruise missiles and that all of them were downed by air defences.

** Air raid alerts across Ukraine, military warns of strikes in Kyiv, other regions

Air raid alerts were declared throughout the territory of Ukraine early on Thursday and the military warned of possible Russian missile strikes in a wide arc extending from Kyiv to central regions and the south.

An hour after the warnings were issued, the Ukrainian Armed Forces Telegram channel told residents of the capital to remain in shelters. Warnings were issued for a range of other regions, including Zhytomyr west of the capital and Kirovohrad, Cherkassy and Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine.

The warnings also extended north of Kyiv and to the south and west to Vinnystia, Khmelnitskyi and Chernivtsi regions.

Other Telegram channels warned of possible strikes in the central region of Poltava and further south in Mykolaiv region.

A Reuters witness in Kyiv heard anti-aircraft units in action. There were also reports of explosions in other major cities, but it was uncertain whether these were from missile impacts or anti-aircraft activity.

RT/Reuters

UN seeks $3 billion for Sudan as fighting rages in Khartoum

The United Nations said on Wednesday more than half Sudan's population now needed aid and protection, as civilians sought shelter from air strikes and sporadic clashes between rival military factions in the Khartoum area.

Residents said power had been cut, food was in short supply, and drinking water scarce due to the violent power struggle, now in its second month despite international mediation efforts.

Launching an appeal for some $3 billion in aid, the United Nations said 25 million people needed help - the highest number ever recorded in Sudan, where around 15 million needed aid before the conflict.

Signalling no let-up in the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), anti-aircraft guns and drones could be heard on Wednesday in the capital, residents reported.

"We have been moving from one place to the other in past days," said 27-year-old Abbas al-Sayyed, speaking to Reuters by phone from Bahri, a city adjoining the capital Khartoum, epicentre of a conflict that has killed hundreds of people.

"There is no electricity, no water at all, and even the bread we used to get in the first days of the war, we can’t get now. We can't move out," he said.

Clashes continued around Al-Jaili in Bahri, home to the country's largest oil refinery, residents said, and more violence was reported in El-Obeid in North Kordofan State, southwest of Khartoum.

The army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been using air strikes and shelling in a bid to root out RSF fighters under the command of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who are entrenched in residential areas of Khartoum.

On Tuesday the army released a video showing Burhan dressed in army fatigues with a rifle slung over his back, greeting troops at what appeared to be the army headquarters in Khartoum. Reuters could not immediately verify the video.

Across Sudan, the fighting has uprooted around 1 million people, 220,000 of whom have fled into neighbouring states.

Talks mediated by the United States and Saudi Arabia in Jeddah have so far failed to secure a ceasefire.

The sides agreed last week to a statement of principles on protecting civilians and allowing aid supplies, but arrangements for humanitarian corridors and agreeing a truce are still being discussed. Several previous ceasefires have failed to stop the fighting.

The conflict is likely to feature on the agenda of an Arab Summit hosted by Saudi Arabia on Friday. Sudan is expected to be represented by special envoy Dafallah Alhaj while Burhan, the de facto head of state, will remain in Sudan.

"We don't feel safe, we're in a state of fear," said Saad Eldin Youssef, a 45-year-old resident of Omdurman, a city across the Nile from Khartoum.

"The Rapid Support Forces are spread out on the ground around us and planes are carrying out strikes in neighbourhoods continuously."

'EVERYTHING IS RUNNING OUT'

Ramesh Rajasingham, head of OCHA in Geneva, said the appeal for nearly $2.6 billion for operations from May until October was the highest ever for Sudan. The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said it was seeking $472 million to assist more than 1 million people over the next six months.

With aid agencies unable to access the capital, the distribution of medical aid, food and fuel in the Khartoum area has fallen to local groups known as resistance committees.

"We did not receive any humanitarian aid from NGOs locally or internationally," said Mohammed Elobaid, an organiser in Omdurman, speaking in a recorded statement screened during the U.N aid appeal.

"What we can see here is that the situation is even going to get worse because medical supplies and food supply - everything is running out."

Burhan and Hemedti took the top positions on Sudan's ruling council following the 2019 overthrow of strongman Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising. They staged a coup two years later as a deadline to hand power to civilians approached and began to mobilise their respective forces.

The conflict erupted after disputes over plans for the RSF to join the army and the future chain of command under an internationally backed deal for a political transition towards civilian rule.

Reuters

Fela Kuti’s 1976 album, Ikoyi Blindness, featured a track documenting an encounter within Nigerian social context where violence is trite. The song, Gba mi leti ki n dolowo (slap me make I get money), is an encounter between an “Oga,” the quintessential big man who personifies the impunity of power, and an unnamed person who represents the disempowered masses. In the song, Oga reaches out to slap the Unnamed’s face. Rather than quake before Oga’s almighty power, Unnamed stands up to him. He taunts Oga to hit him saying the “systems of government in Africa” would arise on his behalf and he would ultimately become rich. Oga, stumped by the unusual rebuff, freezes in mid-action.

Fela being the activist that he was, of course, spoke from the angle of the disempowered Nigerian. Yet, the exchange he described gave enough insight into the predicament of Oga petrified by the defiance of the Unnamed. For Oga who must have been used to dehumanising the poor with such gratuitous violence, this unexpected boldness denies him the assertion of his status of power he sought through the slap. Pulling back from landing that slap would diminish his might as an Oga who can do and undo. Yet, going ahead would be imprudent if the enactment of that violence on Unnamed truly has the potential to change his fortunes. Oga’s hand suspended in mid-air as he is forced to listen to Unnamed’s taunt of “gba mi leti ki n dolowo” captures an intriguing moment of power reconfiguration. What happens if the violence the powerful enacts on the powerless is miscalculated and does not dehumanise? What if it instead elevates the Unnamed to be social equals with the powerful?

If you have followed the news on Seun Kuti’s ongoing travails for assaulting a policeman, you would have understood why I am using his father’s wisdom to divine the oracle. Who could have imagined that nearly 50 years after Ikoyi Blindness, the “Oga” in the tale would be Fela’s own son while the voice of the powerless lustily challenging the powerful power abuser would be the Police—an institution that has relentlessly abused Nigerians? It is a strange inversion, but here we are, parsing the layers of irony woven into the unfortunate encounter of Seun and an unnamed policeman.

By now, virtually everyone who has seen the video of Seun accosting an officer, unaware he was being recorded. There might have been a legitimate provocation somewhere, but the recording only showed Seun confronting the police officer and eventually slapping his face very hard before being restrained by passersby. The slapped officer—wisely, or maybe out of sheer intimidation—never fought him back. The first time I saw that video I wondered what kind of èèdì spell they cast on Seun. In a world where anyone can use their mobile phone to capture other people’s most mundane expressions without sparing a thought for their privacy, why get into a public fight? There is no winning for the person who wears the known face in such a dirty exchange. So far, nobody knows the name of the officer; his photo or any identifying details have not even been shared. It is Seun, the famous face in that encounter, that has now become a reference point for assault on the police.

That slap was ugly, even for a society like Nigeria where virtually everyone is prone to casual violence in everyday life. Whatever that officer did, whatever trauma a uniformed police officer represented to Seun, the man was—and will always be—a living breathing human deserving of dignity. There is no justification for assaulting him. Fela’s Gba mi leti ki n dolowo wisely intoned a lesson for the powerful. When you are higher on the social elevation, restraining yourself from engagement with those on the lower rungs of the social ladder is not cowardice. No, you preserve yourself because you do not want your virtue to be so cheaply transferred from your body to a moral or social unequal.

Like “Oga” found out, engaging the one you thought was powerless and could be driven over can end up with you being sapped of your worth. In that moment when Oga’s hand was suspended mid-action, debating whether to slap or not, he was diminished either way. The person he proposed to slap to assert your “Oga-ism” has become richer for the experience. They might not get cash out of it, but they could get morally richer because Oga let down his social worth to get into roforofo with them.

Seun must have imagined that since many police officers are routinely abused by the very system that employed them, by the coterie of Nigerian big men that use them like slaves, they can be treated like animals. Well, given his present tribulations, he sure thought wrong. They will fight for their own, not because they believe in justice or are trying to assert the dignity of their officer—whom the police institution dehumanises in other ways—but because they have been handed a golden chance to extract value from the encounter at the expense of Seun (and other civilians).

You only need to consider how the Ogas at the Police headquarters have been spitting into the air and using their own faces to collect it to know that they have become richer at Seun’s expense. A whole Inspector General of the Police had to order his arrest! A case of assault that should be treated at the local police precinct has now become an opportunity for the police headquarters to extract some moral coins from Seun. Even the Police Service Commission waded into the matter as if such violence is not routine in Nigeria. Delta Police PRO Edafe Bright even swore Seun would “regret his actions.”

The way they are going about his prosecution makes you wonder when they became so efficient at addressing an assault. Even though Seun turned himself in at the police station, they still had to handcuff him and parade him to the public. Then they asked the court for a remand order to detain him for 21 days claiming that the assaulted policeman was in a coma at an undisclosed hospital. For the prosecutor to spin such cheap and unimaginative yarn, you know that this case has become an opportunity to make money from a slap. As if all that was not bad enough, they raided Seun’s house and seized his wife’s phone!

Make no mistake, the assaulted officer is the least of their concerns. They do not abhor violence against their officers; they just want to be the ones to do it. If the Police institution truly cared about its officers, they would have the least proven it by improving their material conditions. Seun handed them his derrière on a silver platter, unfortunately. He not only slapped an officer but had also previously made a video where he boasted that he had slapped police officers many times before because he was Fela’s son. That is a slight the police would not take lightly. With his own mouth, he nailed himself to their cross.

The top officers might not even bother with him, but you see the lowly ones who regularly endure ridicule in the hands of the Ogas they are regularly deployed to serve? They will humble him. His humiliation will validate their self-worth. They will not stop there. In the future, they will still use him to deflect accusations of police brutality. Slapping a police officer in Nigeria is a fantastic example of overreaching yourself and making your victim richer at your expense. Seun is a very good musician who plays his father’s music very well. Honestly, he should have listened to the songs too.

Punch

If you have an iPhone or iPad, you'll soon be able to hear it speak in your own voice, Apple announced Tuesday.

The upcoming feature,"Personal Voice," will give users randomized text prompts to generate 15 minutes of audio.

There'll be another new tool called "Live Speech" which lets users type in a phrase, and save commonly-used ones, for the device to speak during phone and FaceTime calls or in-person conversations.

Apple says it'll use machine learning, a type of AI, to create the voice on the device itself rather than externally so the data can be more secure and private.

It might sound like a quirky feature at first, but it's actually part of the company's latest drive for accessibility. Apple pointed to conditions like ALS where people are at risk of losing their ability to speak. 

"At Apple, we've always believed that the best technology is technology built for everyone," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO.

And Philip Green, a board member at the Team Gleason nonprofit whose voice has changed significantly since being diagnosed with ALS, said in the press release: "At the end of the day, the most important thing is being able to communicate with friends and family."

"If you can tell them you love them, in a voice that sounds like you, it makes all the difference in the world," he added.

It's not the first time Apple has ventured into the AI voice market, as iPhone users will be familiar with Siri. It uses machine learning to understand what people are saying.

And back in 1984, Steve Jobs was passionate about getting the Apple Macintosh 128K to say "Hello" in a voice demo at its unveiling. That was pretty advanced tech for the time, and was dramatized in a key plot point in the 2011 biopic about the late Apple cofounder.

It's not clear exactly when Personal Voice will be available, but Apple says it'll be before the end of the year.

Business Insider

It can take months or even years to recover from losing a key team member.

Employee turnover is always a stressful situation. For many businesses it can take months or even years to recover from losing a key team member, especially if you struggle with hiring and onboarding employees. So the best way to protect your business is to take steps now to increase employee retention and avoid having tofind a replacement in the first place. Here are my four tips to increasing employee retention for your small to medium sized business.

Acknowledge The Talent That You Have on Your Team

Finding good talent is a lot of work, and if you have someone who is really good at what they do, and you have invested time and attention in coaching them and helping them grow in their position, don't fool yourself into thinking that you are the only one that knows what you have. Recruiters, competitors and other businesses have been watching from the sidelines ready to swoop in when the timing is right. Their LinkedIn inbox is just a click away, and chances are they are getting emails daily asking them to change teams. So, the first step to keeping your team together is to recognize the star players within your ranks.

Encourage Them To Celebrate Their Progress

Once you have identified the start players on your team, it's time to get serious about celebrating and recognizing their victories and talents. If you have this already embedded into your company culture, you are already light years ahead of your peers, but if you find yourself chasing the next sale or goal and not acknowledging the hard work that went into getting there - you may want to re-think your approach. Taking the time to really feel our successes, goes a long way to helping someone feel fulfilled and appreciated in their role. So celebrate often!

Praise Them In Front Of Their Peers

Did your sales manager crush this quarter's sales goal? Did your operations manager find a way to cut your operating budget and save your company a lot of money? Did a customer service representative resolve an irate customer's issue, and sell them an upgrade? Celebrate! And tell the rest of the team about their victory. Take time each week to publicly praise your team in front of their peers for a job well done. This will help not only motivate the rest of the team to do their best work, but will also help the team feel valued and appreciated.

Say "No" to the Qualifiers

The last tip that I have to help increase employee retention has to do with the use of qualifiers. "Our sales were up by 25% this quarter.....but our competitor did go out of business and we took a lot of their existing customers." or "We were able to overhaul our website this quarter and keep things under budget but...." As a leader, it is your job to put a stop to the use of qualifiers when celebrating victories. It is just a small thing that most people do out of habit, but can really undermine the success of your team as a whole and leave them wanting more. So, be proud of your growth and your success and say no to the qualifiers.

Inc