Sudan grandmother's death shows struggle to help those stranded in war

As she tried to save her ailing grandparents stuck amid fighting in central Khartoum, Azhaar Sholgami put in calls from New York to Sudan's two warring factions, aid workers, and embassies near her grandparents' home, but her efforts were in vain.

Sholgami's grandmother died alone, her body still lying unburied at the family home. Her grandfather was shot three times while out seeking supplies and remains stranded with his wounds in Khartoum.

Her story echoes those of other desperate members of Sudan's diaspora and those outside the capital struggling to evacuate loved ones trapped under bombardment with little access to food or water as the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) battle in Khartoum.

"The process has been exhausting," said Sholgami, a student living in New York, as she detailed the family's increasingly frantic efforts to help the elderly couple, Alaweya Reshwan and Abdullah Sholgami, who were married for 60 years.

"My grandmother died alone and that breaks my heart because she'd always tell me that she's scared of being alone," she said.

Much of her anger and frustration is directed at the British embassy and what she sees as its reluctance to help her grandfather, a British citizen, because he also holds Sudanese nationality.

"The British embassy is four steps from my grandparents' house… My grandfather is also a British citizen. Every time we called or filled in a form, we would get asked if he had dual citizenship. How does that make him any less of a priority?" she said.

A British government spokesperson said Britain had carried out the longest and largest evacuation of any Western country from Sudan, and that its evacuation was open to British nationals and eligible family members.

A week into the conflict Britain and other Western countries began evacuatingdiplomats and other citizens. Sholgami's grandparents were not included. Living in a business district with no neighbours nearby and unable to charge their phones because the power was cut, they were alone.

RSF fighters took over their house - as Khartoum residents say they have done to homes across the city, though the group denies this.

After 10 days her grandfather drove out for supplies but was injured - shot in the hand, the chest and the lower back. An army soldier took him to hospital, leaving his wife alone at home.

The family did not learn he had been shot until days later and had to phone around Khartoum's few remaining hospitals to find out he was still alive. Sholgami intensified her efforts with the embassy.

"We wanted to see if they could just send them food or water. We tried at least 30 times to get them evacuated, but nothing worked," she said.

Eventually it was a Turkish diplomat that notified Azhaar of her grandmother's death, contacting her via Twitter and asking for her number.

"I thought he was going to tell me that they were about to evacuate my grandmother, but instead I found out she had passed away," she said.

Meanwhile the family are trying to arrange travel documents for her grandfather to come to Cairo as his passport remains in his office and impossible to reach.

"That she died of starvation, in the heat with no electricity... to this moment we are still unable to reach her body," she said.

"We're begging the RSF, begging anyone to just at least bury her in her own backyard."

Reuters

At the end of 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria launched new banknotes. At the same time, it also capped the withdrawal of the new banknotes. The rollout of the currency change was shambolic. But it also led people to turn to digital financial services such as the use of point of sale (PoS) machines for payments in their transactions. 

Digital financial services are financial services that rely on digital technologies for their delivery and use by consumers. The Conversation Africa’s Wale Fatade asks Iwa Salami, an expert in financial technology and financial regulation in emerging economies, to explain the increase and its implications.

How did the botched currency changeover affect how Nigerians used the banking system?

The Central Bank set a deadline of 31 January 2023 for all old notes to be deposited in banks in exchange for new ones. The country was plunged into a currency crisis when all old notes were out of circulation, and the new notes were hardly circulating. The ensuing scarcity of cash made life unbearably hard for Nigerians.

One outcome was that Nigerians sought alternative ways to pay for goods and services using digital alternatives, such as point-of-sale machines. Between 2017 and 2022, the number of point-of-sale terminals in Nigeria grew significantly.

In 2017, there were around 155,000 terminals, and this number has increased to roughly 1.1 million as of April 2022. Merchants and PoS operators handle the machines. Their operations are regulated by the Central Bank.

It also resulted in a surge in point-of-sale transactions in Nigeria. There was a 40.69% year-on-year increase from the N573.72 billion (US$1.24 billion) transactions that were done in January 2022 to N807.16 billion (US$1.75 billion) in January 2023. Total cashless transactions also rose by 45.41% year-on-year to N39.58 trillion (US$85.96 billion) in January 2023.

What are the most developed forms of electronic transacting in Nigeria?

Point-of-Sale (PoS): These devices are installed both by traditional banks as well as by payment service banks. They are now ubiquitous throughout Nigeria - in supermarkets, large retail outlets as well as in small-scale businesses set up for this purpose only.

Payment Service Banks: These are technology-driven companies licensed by the Central Bank to engage in banking activities. Examples are Hope and MoneyMaster.

FinTechs: This includes any app, software, or technology that allows people or businesses to digitally access, manage, or gain insights into their finances or make financial transactions. A number of companies offer these services in Nigeria. They include Flutterwave, PiggyVest, OPay, Interswitch, Kuda and Remita.

Online Banking Offered by Traditional Banks: All Nigerian banks offer online services. However, the services aren’t always reliable. During the currency crisis, for example, platforms collapsed and customers were unable to transact. Digital platforms couldn’t cope with the deluge of online transactions.

Mobile Money: Financial services offered by a mobile network operator can be independent of the traditional banking network. A bank account is not required to use mobile money services – the only prerequisite is a basic mobile phone.

Those offering this service include MTN and Airtel Africa. As with most other countries on the continent, mobile money uptake in Nigeria has been slow. The exception has been Kenya, where the launch of MPesa in 2007  led to a massive uptake in mobile financial services.

In 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria issued MTN the first license to operate mobile money services. It started operations in May. MTN is the largest mobile network operator in Nigeria.

Can you paint a picture of the banking landscape?

In 2021 Nigeria had 122.3 million active bank customers. According to February 2022 data, only 39% of Nigerians use the formal banking system.

As has been shown elsewhere, mobile money offerings, as well as other digital services, can extend banking to the unbanked.

In 2022 the volume of transactions performed electronically in Nigeria surged to the highest in five years. The total volume of the Inter-Bank Settlement Scheme Instant Payment Platform transactions rose by 613.1% to 5.2 billion in 2022 from 729.2 million in 2018. Its value also increased by 381.5% from N80.4 trillion (US$174.6 billion) in 2018 to N387.1 trillion (US$840.67 billion) in 2022.

In my view, the spike in the value of transactions carried out at point-of-sale devices in Nigeria in January 2023 – they went up by 40.7% higher compared to the same month in 2022 – shows a wider adoption of digital payments. It is also an indication of the huge opportunities that mobile money operators and other forms of digital payments have in Nigeria.

How does Nigeria’s digital currency eNaira fit into the picture?

The eNaira was launched by the Central Bank in October 2021. However, less than 0.5% of Nigerians were recorded as using it a year after its launch.

The Central Bank didn’t have an adoption strategy for the eNaira planned ahead of the currency changeover. This was clearly a missed opportunity.

Although the aim of the currency was to facilitate financial inclusion and shrink the size of the informal market, it’s fallen short of the mark. It is currently only accessible to those with bank accounts. So, despite a reported increase in the number of e-Naira wallets to 13 million since October 2022 and an increase in the value of transactions in 2023, a lot still needs to be done to drive widespread adoption by the financially excluded.

Rethinking its architecture and policies to drive its adoption could include:

• making it accessible to all with a mobile phone
• incentivising people to use it, such as granting significant discounts when used to pay taxes and for other public services, and
• embedding mobile network or payment apps into Central Bank Digital Currency wallets for the wallets to be interoperable with mobile network operators’ infrastructure.

A lesson of the currency crisis is that fintech offers a solution to the limitations of legacy financial institutions. At the same time, they can help address the financial exclusion challenge in Nigeria.

Had Nigeria appreciated the value of digital finance and particularly the key role to be played by mobile money operators, the impact of the crisis would not have been as painful.

** Iwa Salami is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Law, University of East London. This article was originally published in The Conversation. 

Inc

When Polly Arrowsmith needed to take time off from her IT company to care for her dying mother, she asked one of her workers to help out in her absence. She had one big task for him to take care of while she was gone: Let go an underperforming member of staff before a certain date, when redundancy payments would become mandatory.

He initially agreed, but failed to mention one thing: He was in a secret relationship with the employee.

When Arrowsmith returned to work a few months later, she was shocked to find that the firing hadn’t happened. Her employee couldn’t bring himself to fire the woman he loved — which meant that Arrowsmith needed to do it, and stump up thousands of pounds for a redundancy payout, too.

“It was a big betrayal of trust and I felt like an idiot because a lot of my staff knew and I didn’t,” said Arrowsmith. 

Why we love office romances

Despite the delicate and potentially difficult consequences of love at work, office romances became common in the 20th Century as women moved into the workplace, and as jobs became a more significant part of people’s lives and identities.

As many as one in four American workers had been in an office romance by the mid-1990s according to a poll quoted in a research paper by researchers then at the University of Northern Colorado. In 1995, the Los Angeles Times called office romances “a fact of company life,” noting that AT&T had more than 8,000 married couples among its 250,000 US employees.

And not all office romances were within marriages — offices became the “danger zone” for illicit affairs, according to one relationship counsellor in her 2004 book. She wrote that in the years leading up to 1990, 38% of the cheating wives she treated were seeing someone from work. That figure rose to 50% in the 1990s.

It’s not so different in the UK. A 2022 survey found that one in four admitted to having a “romantic encounter” with a colleague. “Collecting the stats made me realize it’s not something that’s isolated to a particular industry or sector, it happens everywhere,” said Tina Chander, head of employment law at Wright Hassall, a law firm based in Royal Leamington Spa that compiled the numbers.

When the relationships go well, there may even be reasons for businesses to encourage them — research shows that finding love at work can make people enjoy their jobs more, improve morale and boost productivity.

This happy prevalence of office romances is echoed by Emma Hollingsworth, 36, who met her husband Richard, 37, on the third day of their accountancy graduate scheme in the City of London 15 years ago. “We were sat next to each other in a training course and I thought he was really funny,” she said.

Working together over the next few years made her job far more pleasant, as the couple — who today have three children — could talk over their work instant message system and sync up their schedules. “We could get up, go to the gym together, have breakfast and then go into the office together,” she said. “It made the commute so nice and you could have lunch together.”

However, there are signs that the office romance might be fading in popularity. While 21% of Americans aged 50-64 met their partner at work, just 13% of people 18-29 did so, according to the Pew Research Center. Perhaps this is not a surprise, given today there are myriad ways to meet a date. Indeed, a fifth of the younger age group met their partner online, according to the study.

Cultural changes have shaken office relationships, as well. The MeToo movement challenged perceptions of what’s acceptable in the workplace, and even consensual relationships are now deemed inappropriate on many occasions. Cases in point: McDonald’s Corp. CEO Steve Easterbrook was fired in November 2019 over a consensual worker relationship as it violated company policy. In February 2022, CNN President Jeff Zucker quit after a years-long consensual relationship with a colleague was unveiled.

Think through the risks first

Horror stories about workplace romances are common enough that there are entire companies set up to help mitigate the business risk of trysts. Andy Coley runs Professional Boundaries, a training organization that does most of its business by mopping up after something has gone badly wrong in a relationship at work.

In one case, he was brought in by a charity to deal with the aftermath of an office love triangle: a woman married to one coworker — but pregnant with the baby of another.

“People can have affairs if [they] want, but when all three people work in the company, and one about to go off on maternity leave, then the two others left behind?” he said. “You could lose 20% of your workforce in one go from that love triangle.”

The biggest piece of advice in his sessions is encouraging staff to think through the potential pitfalls of acting on an office crush, and making sure the connection is strong enough to warrant pursuing it. He asks them to consider questions of themselves, including: “What is it about this person that I’m really attracted to? And would it be true if we weren’t working together?”

As long as they pass those tests, Coley isn’t against dating someone you encounter at work — after all, that’s how he met his wife. 

Can I stop my employees dating?

Coley said that relationships at work are basically inevitable, given the long periods of time you spend together, and the occasionally difficult situations.

“In organizations with lots of staff you just will get relationships,” he said. “I’m doing [a course] at a school in July with 120 staff and I guarantee you that some of the people in that room will be in relationships with each other.”

If you’re a boss concerned about the risks of workplace love, it might be tempting to wish that you could stamp them out entirely. But this is difficult to do legally in the UK, says Matt Gingell, an employment lawyer. “It’s important to be aware of the Human Rights Act,” he said. “People do have a right to privacy and family life, and employers need to be aware of that right.”

But it might be “proportionate” to have a disclosure policy, where employees are asked to tell their bosses about significant intimate relationships with colleagues, as long the situation is handled carefully and fairly. He gave an example: “If a senior male manager was having an affair with the junior female employee, they can’t be discriminatory in trying to force the woman to change [her job].”

Gingell added that any negative effects of office romances can be managed under existing policies. “If an employee’s performance is suffering and is maybe because of, for example, relationship issues, then an employer is entitled to go down performance procedures,” he said.

The difficulties of dating your employee — or your boss

Dating someone you manage, or someone who manages you, is very likely to cause problems, said Rachael Gunn, an operations consultant who works on conflict of interest policies, because it can lead to perceived unfairness. 

“There have been instances where we’ve had to sit down with them and say because of the nature of the relationship you have it’s not appropriate to continue in those roles, and we’d encourage them to come up with solutions,” she said.

However, simply forcing people out of roles because of a relationship would be very difficult unless you could prove the unfairness, she said. 

Arrowsmith’s experience with her errant worker showed how far those issues of unfairness can go when a boss and an employee get together. But that might not matter in the long run for that couple, she said.

“They ended up getting married and they’re still together as far as I’m aware,” she said. “It must have been worth it if you find your life partner that way.”

Bloomberg

The United States on Monday announced that it had taken steps to impose visa bans on persons who disrupted the recent general elections in Nigeria.

In a statement on the US State Department website, Secretary of State Antony Binken said “the United States is committed to supporting and advancing democracy in Nigeria and around the world. Today, I am announcing that we have taken steps to impose visa restrictions on specific individuals in Nigeria for undermining the democratic process during Nigeria’s 2023 elections cycle.”

He clarified that the visa ban is specific to certain individuals and is not directed at the Nigerian people or the Government of Nigeria as a whole.

According to the statement, these individuals, under US Immigration and Nationality Act, will be subject to restrictions on visas to the United States under a policy covering those believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining democracy.

“These individuals have been involved in intimidation of voters through threats and physical violence, the manipulation of vote results, and other activities that undermine Nigeria’s democratic process,” Blinken said.

The decision to take steps to impose visa restrictions, he said, reflects the continued commitment of the United States to support Nigerian aspirations to strengthen democracy and the rule of law.

However, the US did not name the Nigerians affected by the latest visa ban although some Nigerians including controversial Lagos bus transport chief, Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, were caught on video threatening potential voters.

Nigeria’s most recent elections were held on 25 February and 18 March for federal and state elections respectively. The process was fraught with a number of irregularities including pockets of violence in different parts of the country.

The presidential election, held on 25 February, produced Bola Tinubu as president-elect. He will be sworn in on 29 May, although his two main opponents are challenging his election in court.

PT

Barely 15 days before the inauguration of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, the DA-Democratic Alternative, a political party, has urged Nigerians to rise against the inauguration, alleging that the process that produced Tinubu was characterised by irregularities and fraud.

Presidential candidate of the DA, Victor Vishnay, who made the call in Abuja on Saturday during a press briefing, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to cancel the 2023 polls on grounds that it did not meet acceptable international standards.

“I enjoin Nigerians to call on the president to cancel the 2023 general election, especially the presidential election”, because of corrupt practices.

“We need change, real change, the fight for a better Nigeria starts with the cancellation of the election. It was not free and fair.”

According to him, Buhari by displaying his ballot paper shortly after casting his vote thereby showing that he voted for Tinubu, “single-handedly influenced the outcome of the February 25, presidential election”.

“So, the only way out is for the president to cancel the election; he should give reasons for the cancellation and step aside. The Vice President can take over or he will set up a committee to manage the country after his exit.”

Besides the cancellation of the election, the presidential candidate called for the investigation and subsequent prosecution of Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmoud Yakubu, for “sabotage”.

He noted that Yakubu had no excuse whatsoever to fail, stating that Nigerians must begin to be responsive and ensure that people are punished for their alleged failings or offences.

Earlier, National Chairman of the party, Frank Ukonga, threatened to drag the electoral umpire to court for excluding the party from the 2023 polls. He disclosed that DA was amongst the 74 political parties deregistered by INEC in 2020, which were later restored by the Court of Appeal, Abuja.

“Basking on this legal window in favour of DA to be relisted by INEC, DA applied to participate in the Enugu State Local Government Election of February 23, 2022, and ENSIEC, granted DA the opportunity to participate in the election by obeying the court judgment of suit FHC/ABJ/ CS/456/2021 in favour of DA and 2 others”, Ukonga said.

He, however, noted that INEC refused to include them in the 2023 polls despite “our letter of March 3, 2023, expressing our dissatisfaction in the exclusion of DA presidential candidate, Vishnay; vice presidential candidate, Hafsatu Abubakar and other candidates - and DA logo from the 2023 general election.”

Thisday

A former deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olabode George, has confirmed that a meeting did hold between him and some members of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

The APC delegation, led by a retired Judge, Isola Olorunmibe, also included the leader of the Governance Advisory Council in Lagos State, Tajudeen Olusi, among others.

According to George, an ardent critic of President-elect Bola Tinubu, he couldn’t turn down their request for a meeting because of his respect for Olorunmibe.

He told our correspondent, “They were led by Papa Olorunmibe, a 94-year-old man. In Yoruba land, such a man cannot say he wants to come to my house and I will say no. It’s not done in my culture. There were other elders from the PDP.”

On the purpose of the meeting, the PDP chieftain said the delegation came to apologise to him over past issues and seek his support for the President-elect.

George said he, however, turned down the request to visit Tinubu, saying he couldn’t do such because his party was in court challenging the President-elect’s victory at the February 18 presidential election.

He said, “First of all, they came to apologise for whatever they had done in the past, and I said I have moved on and have nothing against his person. We may disagree on policies but we must not be disagreeable. Secondly, they wanted me to pay him a courtesy call. I was like, what are you talking about? I am the man representing South-West in the national confines of our party and I’m a life BoT member. So, how do I add that together? We are still in court, how do I now say I want to go and greet him? Greet him for what? What will my party and my people think about me? Once we finish at the court, then we’ll know what to do. The PDP members and I present were very clear in our mind that going to him now will be a bit suicidal. I’m still an irridentist PDP man.”

Punch

No fewer than 38 persons, including children and women, have been reportedly killed by yet-to-be-identified gunmen in Takalafiya, Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

A local who recalled the horrors of the attack said trouble began two weeks ago when a farmer in Gwanja, a community close to Takalafiya, challenged a herder who allowed his cattle to eat the newly planted crops.

“As the farmer was talking to the herder to send his herds out of his farm, a fierce disagreement ensued.

“We heard that the herder brought out a cutlass but the farmer snatched the cutlass and fought him back and unfortunately the herder died instantly,” the local said.

Our correspondent learnt that the authority of Karu Local Government Area intervened and the matter was settled.

But on Thursday, gunmen launched an attack on Gwanja and killed four persons.

“When the gunmen discovered that some residents of Gwanja community fled to Takalafiya, they launched an attack on the community on Friday and killed people.

“In the early hours of Friday, at exactly 4am the people of the the community were panicking when they discovered a very strange dog roaming the streets of Takalafiya, with huge charms around its neck, they mobilised and killed the dog.

“After they succeeded in killing the dog, as they clustered around it wondering where it came from, the herdsmen started shooting guns sporadically into the air around the community and that was how many residents were killed,” another local told our correspondent.

Our correspondent gathered that on Friday seven bodies brought in from Takalafiya and other communities were deposited at the mortuary of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Keffi, with many locals still missing.

Our correspondent reports that on Saturday a mass burial was held for 38 persons, including women and children, killed by the gunmen in the two communities.

Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State, Emmanuel Akabe, who led a government delegation to the mass burial, condemned the wanton killings and destruction of property.

Akabe who expressed dismay over the killings, vowed that government would unravel the perpetrators and prosecute them to serve as a deterrent.

He assured that the state government would provide relief materials to those displaced, and urged the affected communities to give credible information to the relevant authorities.

Our correspondent further reports that the neighbouring communities, including Gwanja, Angwan Bege, Angwan Madaki and Gidan Allah, occupied predominantly by Gwandara, Mada and Yeskwa tribes, were also attacked by the gunmen.

Meanwhile, Nasarawa State Police Command said it has recovered no fewer than 14 bodies.

The PPRO, Rahman Nansel, disclosed this in a statement in Lafia.

Daily Trust

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Here are the Zelensky ‘treason’ quotes the Washington Post deleted

The Washington Post has deleted a large tract of an interview with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in which he lashed out at alleged “traitors” in his ranks. RT is publishing the entire section that the US newspaper would rather keep hidden.

The following section appeared in an interview with the Ukrainian president published on Saturday. By Sunday it had been removed with no explanation. After discussing a trove of recently leaked Pentagon documents, which revealed – among other things – that the US monitors Zelensky’s communications, the newspaper presented him with a fresh allegation that has not yet been reported in the US media.

Note that Evgeny Prigozhin is the founder and head of the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company currently fighting in the Donetsk People’s Republic.

WaPo: The documents indicate that GUR, your intelligence directorate, has back-channel contact with Evgeny Prigozhin that you were aware of, including meeting with Evgeny Prigozhin and GUR officers. Is that true?

Zelensky: This is a matter of [military] intelligence. Do you want me to be convicted of state treason? And so, it’s very interesting, if someone is saying that you have documents, or if someone from our government is speaking about the activities of our intelligence, I would also like to ask you a question: With which sources from Ukraine do you have contact? Who is talking about the activities of our intelligence? Because this is the most severe felony in our country. Which Ukrainians are you talking to?

WaPo: I talked to officials in government, but these documents are not from Ukraine, they are from…

Zelensky: It doesn’t matter where the documents are from. The question is with which Ukrainian official did you talk? Because if they say something about our intelligence, that’s treason. If they say something about a specific offensive plan of one general or another, this is also treason. That’s why I asked you, which Ukrainians are you talking to?

WaPo: About these specific documents? You are the first person I am talking to about them.

Zelensky: Okay.

WaPo: And I can read you what information exactly there is about Prigozhin and the GUR. On February 13, Kirill Budanov, chief of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, informed you about a Russian plan to destabilize Moldova with two former Wagner associates. Budanov informed you that he viewed the Russian scheme as a way to incriminate Prigozhin because “we have dealings” with him. You instructed Budanov to inform Moldovan President Maia Sandu, and Budanov told you that the GUR had informed Prigozhin that he would be labeled a traitor who has been working with Ukraine. The document also says that Budanov expected the Russians to use details of Prigozhin’s secret talks with the GUR and meetings with GUR officers in Africa…

Zelensky: Listen, to be honest, well, you just read something, you say something. I just don’t understand where you get it, whom you talk to and so on. You talk about how I met with Budanov. This suggests that you – how do you put it? It looks like you have people who have some records or you have some evidence or you have something, because that’s what it looks like. You are again doing, I apologize, what you were doing before. You are releasing some sort of information that does not help our state to attack and does not help us to defend our state. So, I don’t quite understand what you are talking about. I don’t quite understand your goal. Is your goal to help Russia? I mean, that means we have different goals. If I’m not sitting at the same table with them, I don’t quite understand what we’re talking about. Each of these inquiries simply demotivates Ukraine, demotivates certain partners to help Ukraine. Well, one way or another, I just don’t understand your goal.

WaPo: Our goal is not to help Russia.

Zelensky: Well, it looks different.

WaPo: No one gave us this information personally. These were in the leaked documents, which do indicate, as I said earlier, that the United States is listening in on you.

Zelensky: And if you have classified documents, it means someone gave them to you. If you have access to documents, someone gave them to you. Today, in the world of modern technology, when you have access, it’s not necessarily someone gave it to you. You have access. You are now quoting some documents as originals, without understanding the responsibility for this, you are just talking about some information. For me, this is incomprehensible information, but in this, in our dialogue, I want to understand why you are doing this. I told you at the beginning of our conversation that I believe that the TV show that was launched, launched in the information field, helps – I don’t know who, but it helps Russia, it definitely doesn’t help Ukraine. You are engaged in continuing this story. And so, I ask you if it’s your choice and if you think that the Russian Federation needs to be helped in a variety of spheres – that they were expecting a Ukrainian counteroffensive in whichever direction, so that they know when we are coming, so that they know our powerful forces and what we are planning, what our intelligence is doing? Well, if that’s the case, then...

WaPo: I would say that these documents were leaked, not by us, and they were on the internet in a chatroom for weeks.

Zelensky: They were not on the internet, they were a part of something. We, the normal society, couldn’t access all of this. We couldn’t. And then, I think, information began to come out that we would partially publish everything else. I think it’s yours – or your editorial board, or whoever. I don’t want to offend anyone, I don’t know. That’s why you are releasing this information one by one today. You publish information about a counteroffensive in Ukraine, about this or that. I told you that I believe that this is, how to put it? – someone heard something somewhere, someone published something somewhere, but the information is compiled, and it is different, and it definitely does not work in Ukraine’s favor. That’s all. And now you want to take the bull by the horns. You need to substantiate or not substantiate this information, and then there will be a certain weight to your information, because the president of Ukraine reacts to it. Do you understand? And this is what you do. You are right now playing with, I think, things that aren’t good for our people. This is not the first time I’ve told you this. I think it’s wrong, but nevertheless, you say, “Just a little bit more, it’s not over yet.” Well, yes, it is. There are still a few people left in Ukraine. I am not interested in seeing this number of people decrease. That’s why we are fighting. [In English] I am so sorry, I was not so quick, I was too long about these documents. I don’t know about this…

WaPo: We came to talk to you about this. It is clearly sensitive for you and your country.

Zelensky: [In English] It is not sensitive. If I answer you that it’s sensitive, it means that these are real documents. Please, stop playing games with me. I am the president of a war country, a country in war. I said about my reaction to these documents, I said that it’s not good for our people. You know, I am not playing Counter-Strike. We are preparing a counteroffensive. You know, these are different things – that’s why I said all of the details from me you will hear. And of course, we are thankful for your work, your help when you support Ukraine in this war. You did a big job. And now I am saying about these documents…I don’t recognize it as documents. I didn’t see that. That is the first thing. I don’t know how you’ve got it and my question was to you: “Why are you continue doing that?” Okay. You are free. I mean, you will do what you want, but I don’t want to speak about it with details. Because I don’t know about what I am speaking. It’s something with some information. And I said that I didn’t have any contact with the White House about these documents. Or not documents. About these papers. Or not papers. About this platform. Or a fake platform…I didn’t have before, now, and, I don’t know, maybe in the future. I just say the same message very publicly and very open. I said it to you, with some journalist and to a lot of leaders. When they asked me about this, I said it’s not good for us. What can I say? It’s not good. I don’t know if it was fake or what a percent – I don’t know what it is. And I don’t know who needs it and what is the game. I don’t know what for. That’s it. For me, it’s not serious. It sounds like somebody said, somebody heard something…

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

France to send armoured vehicles, light tanks to Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday Kyiv and its Western supporters could make a Russian defeat in the war in Ukraine "irreversible" as early as this year and thanked Germany for being a "true friend" during a visit to Berlin.

France said it will send dozens of armoured vehicles and light tanks, including the AMX-10RCs fighting vehicles, to Ukraine in the coming weeks. It made the announcement after a working dinner between French President Emmanuel Macron and Zelenskiy in Paris. On Saturday, Zelenskiy met Italian leaders, and Pope Francis, in Rome.

Leaders of the Group of Seven nations plan to tighten sanctions on Russia at their summit in Japan this week, with steps aimed at energy and exports aiding Moscow's war effort, said officials with direct knowledge of the discussions.

FIGHTING

* Russia's Defence Ministry said on Sunday that two of its military commanderswere killed in eastern Ukraine, as Kyiv's forces renewed efforts to break through Russian defences in the embattled city of Bakhmut.

* Ukrainian troops are advancing in two directions in Bakhmut, but the situation in the city centre is more complicated, deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar said on Saturday.

* Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.

DIPLOMACY, ECONOMY

* The Group of Seven (G7) industrial powers and the EU will ban Russian gas imports on routes where Moscow has cut supplies, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

* Germany announced 2.7 billion euro ($3.0 billion) of military aid to Ukraine on Saturday, its biggest such package since Russia's invasion, and pledged further support for Kyiv for as long as necessary.

* The EU must speed up the supply of ammunition to Ukraine as the country's forces need 1,000 artillery shells every day in the Bakhmut area alone, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Saturday.

This writing was first published on 6 July 2020. With changes of leadership soon at the federal and state levels, I see it as relevant. The first part in particular. However, do we forget the lessons in the second part?

The world is changed by your example not by your opinion – Paulo Coelho, Brazilian Lyricist and author of The Alchemist.

Allah (SWT) said in the Qur’an that He does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in their hearts. It is a verse widely quoted out of context by people wanting to give their idols in power excuses. There was never a time in any history when people just woke up and all of them at the same time said to themselves: “We must change”. Even revolutions and mass uprisings have guides. Someone had to mobilise them, sensitise them, and lead the way. And that person is called a leader. Therefore, those who are fond of quoting this verse as an excuse to shield their principals are either loose-brained or plain mischievous. Most likely, they won’t refer to the verse if the icon does not appeal to their sentiments.

Because God raises the living out of the dead and brings forth light out of the dark, He raises from among a people their type who leads them from deprivation to well-being. Out of the palace of the Pharaoh, He raised Moses (AS). Out of the family and society of idolaters, He brought forth Abraham (AS), and out of the heathendom of Arabia, He revealed Muhammad (SAW).

Chaka the Zulu founded the Zulu Empire and for twelve years before his assassination on September 22, 1828, he molded his people into a dominating fighting force never seen before in southern Africa. Mao Zedong, known as Chairman Mao, was the founding father of The People’s Republic of China and laid the foundation of what China now is. You can go on and count leaders who changed their people and their countries’ fortunes by leading by example. Cuba’s Fidel Castro was one; we also had Muammar Gaddafi from Libya, Martin Luther King who raised the consciousness of Blacks, Muhammad Mahathir of Malaysia and Mahatma Gandhi of India.

These leaders raised the consciousness level of their people and changed them to better human beings, by being what they wanted their people to be. They did not look at their people in the face condescendingly and patronisingly, point a finger at them, and sing “change” while they indulged in the vices of yore. Mao viewed such leaders as “swollen in head, weak in legs, sharp in tongue but empty in belly.”

In Nigeria, they promised us “change” and we fought to bring in its champions. Some lost their capital, others their health, while some paid the supreme price, but we all heaved a sigh of relief and proclaimed, “It has come!” We wanted change, and we thought fairness and justice would take the place of selfishness and impunity; that transparency and accountability would replace corruption but, above all, that our lives and property would be secure.

We have seen how our leaders of old discarded our homemade cars, foods, clothes, hospitals and schools and embraced those of foreigners for themselves and their families. We were witnesses to our leaders collecting stupendous salaries and allowances, while our most vulnerable slept on empty stomachs. We thought the change would bring leaders who would put everything for the wealth of the land to cascade to the least of us.

Usman Dan Fodio had two lamps, one bought by the state and the other from his salary. After finishing state work with a state lamp in the night, he blew it out and lit the personal one for his private work.

So, what has changed? Anyone who tells me I must first change before my nation changes is not fair to me. He is just mocking me. People are just a crowd. They need a leader to become a nation. I just need to be led out of the woods and that was why I voted. A crowd cannot change anything, except to cause chaos and anarchy, but a leader can.

We can attest to this even from simple clothing. Many of us wear our watches on the right because we grew up watching Yakubu Gowon do so. Before the coming of Shehu Shagari as president, many typical northerner’s gowns (Babbar Riga) had a “just there” embroidery, but Shagari came with the Shagari style – full embroidery covering the chest down to the stomach. Now, you may be called a clown if you wore a gown with small embroidery. Nigerian men, especially those from the north, used four yards for their jumpers and trousers. Then Sani Abacha, like a bolt from the sky, came with his tazarce and redefined how we dress. Wear a four-yard jumper now and risk being viewed as “half-naked”. President Muhammadu Buhari too has brought back a hitherto dead mode of dressing – wearing a collar-neck shirt under a caftan.

At the state level, a state I know very well is Yobe. When Bukar Abba Ibrahim was the governor, his followers took to wearing his type of red dara cap. This mimicking of leaders is seen in the way many admirers of the current governor, Mai Mala Buni, are adopting his idiosyncrasies and a certain cap he has popularized.

Did we not see how Olusegun Obasanjo’s Operation Feed the Nation turned civil servants into farmers? Our parents were, as civil servants, proud and happy to engage in farming. Muhammadu Buhari’s War Against Indiscipline, though not out of inspiration (perhaps why it did not outlive the regime) as out-of-state coercion, made people toe the path of discipline and decorum. The recent change in APC’s direction and possibly fortune is enough testimony that it takes a leader to change the course of events.

Honourable Minister, The School Kids Are Hungry

One grows weary sometimes of continuing to write when nothing seems to change, and there is the temptation to just give it up. But there are many things one cannot just ignore.

I want to write about Buratai relocating to Katsina until “banditry is crushed”. Yes, the same Buratai who went to Sambisa over two months ago with the promise to never return until he has finally strangled that dying horse so that we can rest from its last kicks.

I want to write about the hungry kids because they don’t get meals any more. I also want to write about the school children's “feeder” wanting to build 10,000 houses for Borno IDPs. I want to write and bring to her notice that if beneficiaries of N72 billion worth of palliatives refuse to be identified because they do not want to be regarded as poor, what makes her think the proud Borno people will accept houses as alms? Please, she should use the billions instead to continue feeding the kids, for they are hungry.

I want to write about N-Power. 500,000 beneficiaries who are still crying over their unpaid allowances are being sent out of jobs they have got experience in for 400,000 other fresh-eyed hopefuls. They said N-Power is an acronym for Need for Power. Well, they have been thrown into Need for Job now. I want to write about Nigeria’s alarming unemployment rate. When the N-Power portal opened, 100 applications were registered per second and by 7.38 pm that day, 1,001,045 applicants had registered.

I want to write about the prophecy of doom by the Presidential Task Force ( PTF) three weeks ago – that by this time next week, Nigerians will start dying in 100s because Nigeria will enter the “second wave of Covid-19”. I want to write and ask, then why are you asking our children to return to school?

I also want to write about their claim now that Nigerians did not die because the virus-infected only citizens that are between 20 and 30 years old and “being an active group”, the virus died in them – just like that!

I want to write about this 20 – 30-year-old group "attractive" to the virus. I want to write and ask, why didn’t they infect anyone? Are they living on an island in this country? Don’t some of them have siblings, spouses, children, parents, and grandparents? Don’t they mix with other “age groups” in the country?

I want to write and ask, despite these alarms, true or false, what are our governments doing to improve our health care system, especially as we are still not allowed to run to Europe?

I want to write and ask…

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