Nigerian universities come up in the news these days to announce either the inauguration of new dress codes or the revival of dormant rules. Fixating on appearance is not new in Nigeria, but the frequency—especially by academic institutions—in the past months is head-scratching. Hardly a month passes these days without some university or polytechnic issuing a sartorial decree.

One can trace this mania to several factors. First, we are a culture that insistently regulates every sphere of life, and we cannot but extend that attitude to other people’s virtues. The orientation stems from our political history when our consciousness was militarised to the point that we are now a country of few producers but many regulators. You can detect the dictatorial bent in the language of the university bulletins where they announce they are “banning” certain sartorial items “with immediate effect.” Second, the rise of faith-based universities, similarly preoccupied with squeezing out virtue from students by any means necessary, puts some pressure on public universities to join in and play a lead role in this unfolding morality play.

Third is the painful fact that our tertiary institutions are just not busy enough. Industrialisation potentials in Nigeria have whittled due to serial poor leadership, and universities do not have research and development goals set for them. When an academic institution thus cannot produce knowledge for society, its energies get recalibrated towards administration and not much else. Chasing after students over their appearance or, in some cases, inaugurating a task force to do so gives these schools a sense of motion and mission. Since they cannot impact their immediate world meaningfully through their research and maybe even teaching, they turn to the Hisbah. The result of their preoccupation is that hardly a month goes by without one or more of these schools, in the bid to outdo each other in this ostentatious expression of their moral bona fides, announce which adornment they would be banning.

Time and space will not allow me to catalogue all the examples, but I will share enough to demonstrate the ridiculous extent these schools have gone to prove their virtues. Niger Delta University Vice Chancellor, Samuel Edoumiekumo, announced that students would wear uniforms. For a sum ranging between N20,000 and N30,000, the school would, of course, supply the uniforms. Students protested the directive and the university backed down. The compromise was to “ban” indecent dressing and enforce dress codes. Rivers State University similarly “banned” students from “wearing miniskirts, ankle chains (anklets or ankle bracelets), false eyelashes, tattoos, and any item of clothing that might be considered indecent.” The Vice-chancellor of Godfrey Okoye University, Christian Anieke, similarly “banned” indecent dressing for staff and students. Anieke lamented that most students and staff wear t-shirts with “unauthorised” inscriptions and “ordered” male students to comb or shave their hair properly.

Lagos State University did not stop at proclaiming a ban on “indecent” clothing such as miniskirts, face caps, rolled sleeves, etc., the Vice Chancellor, Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, also asked lecturers to deny students that flout the rules access to lecture halls. So, as a LASU lecturer, you are not only to teach and research, but your range of skills must also include leering at female students wearing clothes “revealing sensitive parts of the body” to chase them out of class. Before teaching students, you must take some time to spot the ones with “lousy, unkempt, extremely bogus hair or coloured artificial hair, brightly tinted hair/eyelashes/brown, fixing of long eyelashes, nails and artificial dreadlock” to deny classroom access. If a male student wears jewellery, plaits his hair, they cannot possibly learn and must be chased out of class too. The LASU circular also noted a ban on “tattered,” “tight fighting clothes,” and “unkempt hair.” That makes you wonder if those who write these rules give a thought to their classism. What if some students wear tattered/tight clothes or unkempt hair simply because they are poor?

The University of Ilorin has a Dress Code Committee and Ahmadu Bello University’s dress codes even extend to the university staff and visitors. The Polytechnic Ibadan  did not stop at hounding “indecent” dressers, certain acts such as hugging a fellow student, wearing nose rings (or an additional earring) and wearing face caps “unconventionally” (?) are all major sins that will attract a semester suspension. I could keep going on relating the absurd obsession with regulating appearance by giving examples from schools such as Kwara State University; the University of Maiduguri; Federal Polytechnic, Anambra; University of Calabar; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University; University of Ibadan; Abia State University, and many others, but you already get the point by now.

This hyperfocus on the dress by Nigerian public universities trying too hard to reform moral decline is not limited to the administrative cadre. On Google scholar, there are several articles written by academics in these schools to support one “ban” or the other on appearance. These allegedly academic articles first pontificate about the “moral crisis” engendered in society through the loss of cultural values and now being heightened by dressing. Some of these pieces even round off their poorly conceived thoughts with clichés such as “the way you are dressed is the way you are addressed.” Addressing people merely based on their dress is an error of judgment. It means those who lack virtue but can afford to dress well deserve more reverence than their less privileged counterparts who might be truly virtuous. If what people wear determines their morality, does that mean that the pre-modern societies where people did not wear clothes lacked virtue? If clothes are truly a mark of one’s morality, does that mean that the virtues of the Nigerian political class—almost always resplendently dressed in massive agbadas—is given?

The thing is, when a society is going through a phase where there is such anxiety about values and emphasis on regulating conduct (especially of its younger generation) such as this, at least two things are likely to be ongoing: first is that the crisis of morality that people are sensing and reacting to by instituting codes of conduct must be real. Those people might not be able to put their finger on it, but their intuition is correct that something is very rotten in the state. You only need to look at our society to agree that their sense of moral crisis is accurate. So, yes, people are justifiably disgusted by the putrefying odour wafting through their nostrils and sincerely anxious to trace its source.

Second, it is also likely that those who try their hardest to find out where things are wrong embody that rottenness. Traditionally, institutions like universities are a moral force within society because they are spaces where ideas of its value systems are formed and reformed. Through the power of thought, the university informs and impresses a culture of conscience to advance society’s understanding of itself. Their responsibility of moral preparation goes in tandem with similar institutions such as the family, religious and social organisations, and even the media. Wherever the values these institutions jointly uphold are strong, the society gains commensurate ethical strength. When they are weak, the rot is palpable.

Students’ dressing “indecently” to school is therefore not the evidence of moral decline as those making and enforcing dress codes imagine. No, the rottenness is symbolised in a university that no longer represents a space of intellectual and moral learning. Rather than reckon with the ethical decline within society and the overall institutional degradation that stymies serious ideological responses to these issues, university administrators respond in the most superficial ways by banning the least of all culprits – dress.

Punch

When it comes to answering medical questions, can ChatGPT do a better job than human doctors?

It appears to be possible, according to the results of a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, led by researchers from the University of California San Diego.

The researchers compiled a random sample of nearly 200 medical questions that patients posted on Reddit, a popular social discussion website, for doctors to answer. Next, they entered the questions into ChatGPT (OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot) and recorded its response.

A panel of health care professionals then evaluated both sets of responses for quality and empathy.

For nearly 80% of the answers, the chatbots won out over the real doctors.

"Our panel of health care professionals preferred ChatGPT four to one over physicians," said lead researcher Dr. John W. Ayers, PhD, vice chief of innovation in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California San Diego.

AI language models could help relieve message burden, doctor says

One of the biggest problems facing today’s health care providers is that they're overburdened with messages from patients, Ayers said. 

"With the rise in online remote care, doctors now see their patients first via their inboxes — and the messages just keep piling up," he said in an interview with Fox News Digital. 

The influx of messages could lead to higher levels of provider burnout, Ayers believes. 

"Burnout is already at an all-time high — nearly two out of every three physicians report being burned out in their jobs, and we want to solve that problem," he said.

Yet there are millions of patients who are either getting no answers or unsatisfactory ones, he added.

Thinking of how artificial intelligence might help, Ayers and his team turned to Reddit to demonstrate how ChatGPT could present a possible solution to the backlog of providers’ questions.

Reddit has a "medical questions" community (a "subreddit" called f/AskDocs) with nearly 500,000 members. People post questions — and vetted health care professionals provide public responses.

The questions are wide-ranging, with people asking for opinions on cancer scans, dog bites, miscarriages, vaccines and many other medical topics.

One poster worried he might die after swallowing a toothpick. Another posted explicit photos and wondered if she’d contracted a sexually transmitted disease. Someone else sought help with feelings of impending doom and imminent death.

"These are real questions from real patients and real responses from real doctors," Ayers said. 

"We took those same questions and put them into ChatGPT — then put them head to head with the doctors’ answers."

Doctors rated responses on quality, empathy

After randomly selecting the questions and answers, the researchers presented them to real health care professionals — who are actively seeing patients.

They were not told which responses were provided by ChatGPT and which were provided by doctors.

First, the researchers asked them to judge the quality of the information in the message. 

When assessing quality, there are multiple attributes to consider, Ayers said. "It could be accuracy, readability, comprehensiveness or responsiveness," he told Fox News Digital.

Next, the researchers were asked to judge empathy.

"It's not just what you say, but how you say it," Ayers said. "Does the response have empathy and make patients feel that their voice is heard?"

ChatGPT was three times more likely to give a response that was very good or good compared to physicians, he told Fox News Digital. The chatbot was 10 times more likely to give a response that was either empathetic or very empathetic compared to physicians.

It’s not that the doctors don’t have empathy for their patients, Ayers said — it’s that they’re overburdened with messages and don’t always have the time to communicate it.

"An AI model has infinite processing power compared to a doctor," he explained. "Doctors have resource constraints, so even though they're empathetic toward their patient, they often zero in on the most probable response and move on."

ChatGPT, with its limitless time and resources, might offer a holistic response of all the considerations that doctors are sampling, Ayers said.

Vince Lynch, AI expert and CEO of IV.AI in Los Angeles, California, reviewed the study and was not surprised by the findings.

"The way AI answers questions is often curated so that it presents its answers in a highly positive and empathetic way," he told Fox News Digital. "The AI even goes beyond well-written, boilerplate answers, with sentiment analysis being run on the answer to ensure that the most positive answers are delivered."

An AI system also uses something called "reinforcement learning," Lynch explained, which is when it tests different ways of answering a question until it finds the best answer for its audience.

"So, when you compare an AI answering a question to a medical professional, the AI actually has far more experience than any given doctor in relation to appearing empathetic, when in reality it is just mimicking empathetic language in the scenario of medical advice," he said.

The length of the responses could have also played a part in the scores they received, pointed out Dr. Justin Norden, a digital health and AI expert and a professor at Stanford University in California, who was not involved in the study.

"Length in a response is important for people perceiving quality and empathy," Norden told Fox News Digital. "Overall, the AI responses were almost double in length compared with the physician responses. Further, when physicians did write longer responses, they were preferred at higher rates."

Simply requesting physicians to write longer responses in the future is not a sustainable option, Norden added.

"Patient messaging volumes are going up, and physicians simply do not have time," he said. "This paper showcases how we might be able to address this, and it potentially could be very effective."

AI answers could be ‘elevated’ by real doctors

Rather than replacing doctors’ guidance, Ayers is suggesting ChatGPT could act as a starting point for physicians, helping them field large volumes of messages more quickly.

"The AI could draft an initial response, then the medical team or physician would evaluate it, correct any misinformation, improve the response and [tailor it] to the patient," Ayers said.

It’s a strategy that he refers to as "precision messaging."

He said, "Doctors will spend less time writing and more time dealing with the heart of medicine and elevating that communication channel."

"This will be a game changer for the patients that we serve, helping to improve population health and potentially saving lives," Ayers predicted.

Based on the study’s findings, he believes physicians should start implementing AI language models in a way that presents minimal risk.

"People are going to use it with or without us," he said — noting that patients are already turning to ChatGPT on their own to get "canned messages." 

Some players in the space are already moving to implement ChatGPT-based models — Epic, the health care software company, recently announced it is teaming up with Microsoft to integrate ChatGPT-4 into its electronic health record software.

Potential benefits balanced by unknown risks

Ayers said he is aware people will be concerned about the lack of regulation in the AI space.

"We typically think about regulations in terms of stop signs and guard rails — typically, regulators step in after something bad has happened and try to prevent it from happening again, but that doesn't have to be the case here," he told Fox News Digital.

"I don't know what the stop signs and guard rails necessarily should be," he said. "But I do know that regulators could set what the goal line is, meaning the AI would have to be demonstrated to improve patient outcomes in order to be implemented."

One potential risk Norden flagged is whether patients’ perceptions would change if they knew the responses were written or aided by AI. 

He cited a previous study focused on mental health support, which found that AI messages were far preferred to human ones.

"Interestingly, once the messages were disclosed as being written by AI, the support felt by the receiver of these messages disappeared," he said. 

"A worry I have is that in the future, people will not feel any support through a message, as patients may assume it will be written by AI."

Tinglong Dai, professor of operations management and business analytics at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School in Baltimore, Maryland, expressed concern about the study’s ability to represent real scenarios.

"It is important to note that the setting of the study may not accurately reflect real-world medical practice," he told Fox News Digital. 

"In reality, physicians are paid to provide medical advice and have significant liabilities as a result of that advice. The claim that AI will replace doctors is premature and exaggerated."

Study highlights ‘new territory’ for AI in health care

While there are numerous unknowns, many experts seem to agree this is a first-of-its-kind study that could have far-reaching implications.

"Overall, this study highlights the new territory we are moving into for health care — AI being able to perform at the physician level for certain written tasks," said Norden. 

"When physicians are suffering from record levels of burnout, you see why Epic and partners are already planning to incorporate these tools into patient messaging."

Fox News

Jobs and work are going through a major transformation right now — with millions of roles potentially being eliminated or created in the coming years, according to non-governmental organization the World Economic Forum.

This relates to a wide range of reasons, from technological advancements to climate change. But one thing is certain: many workers will have to adapt.  

Having the skills to navigate this change — and maybe even new job requirements — is therefore crucial.

In its latest "Future of Jobs" report, WEF lays out which skills are key right now, and which will become vital in the coming years. The report is based in a survey of 803 companies in 27 industry clusters in 45 different economies.

Analytical and creative thinking skills take the top spots for what companies are expecting from workers right now. Self-efficacy skills, including being resilient, flexible and agile, being motivated and self-aware, and curious and committed to lifelong learning, round out the top five.

This is "in recognition of the importance of workers ability to adapt to disrupted workplaces," the report said.

Only one technology-related skill — technological literacy — makes it into the top 10 at sixth place. The ability to understand and work with AI and big data currently ranks 15th .

The newest ranking reflects some changes from the last iteration of this survey, which was published in 2020.

"Comparisons to previous surveys suggest that creative thinking is increasing in importance relative to analytical thinking as workplace tasks become increasingly automated," the report said.

"In 2018 and 2020, the number of surveyed companies that considered analytical thinking to be a core skill outnumbered those considering creative thinking to be a core skill by a margin of 35% and 38%, respectively. That gap has now decreased to 21% and may continue to close."

Emerging skills

Further shifts to which skills are expected to be most in demand are expected, according to WEF. "Employers estimate that 44% of workers' skills will be disrupted in the next five years," the report said.

Creative thinking is the skill that is expected to increase in importance the most, followed by analytical thinking and technological literacy. The latter is especially important as technological developments will be a key driver of new jobs emerging and existing ones being eliminated, which the WEF report also covers.

AI and big data knowledge comes in seventh place as the sector has been booming recently, raising concerns about how disruptive artificial intelligence will be to jobs. Soft skills like curiosity and lifelong learning, and resilience, flexibility and agility are also set to become increasingly vital for workers, coming in fourth and fifth place respectively.

On the other side of the scale, physical skills are among those that could be less important in the future.

"While respondents judged no skills to be in net decline, sizable minorities of companies judge reading, writing and mathematics; global citizenship; sensory-processing abilities; and manual dexterity, endurance and precision to be of declining importance for their workers," the report said.  

The top 10 most important skills

These are the 10 most important skills for workers this year, according to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs report.

1. Analytical thinking

2. Creative thinking

3. Resilience, flexibility, and agility

4. Motivation and self-awareness

5. Curiosity and lifelong learning

6. Technological literacy

7. Dependability and attention to detail

8. Empathy and active listening

9. Leadership and social influence

10. Quality control

CNBC

Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in a failed attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin.

A senior Ukrainian presidential official denied the accusation - the most serious that Moscow has levelled at Kyiv in more than 14 months of war - and said it indicated Moscow was preparing a major "terrorist provocation".

The Kremlin said Russia reserved the right to retaliate, and hardliners demanded swift retribution against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

"Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the devices were put out of action," the Kremlin said in a statement.

"We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the president's life, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned ...

"The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit."

Baza, a Telegram channel with links to Russia's law enforcement agencies, posted a video showing a flying object approaching the dome of the Kremlin Senate building overlooking Red Square - site of the Victory Day parade - and exploding in an intense burst of light just before reaching it. Reuters could not immediately verify the video's authenticity.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in comments sent to Reuters: "Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin. We do not attack the Kremlin because, first of all, it does not resolve any military tasks."

He added: "In my opinion, it is absolutely obvious that both 'reports about an attack on the Kremlin' and simultaneously the supposed detention of Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea ... clearly indicate the preparation of a large-scale terrorist provocation by Russia in the coming days."

The powerful speaker of the lower house of Russia's parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, issued a statement demanding the use of "weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime".

Margarita Simonyan, head of the state broadcaster RT, wrote on Telegram: "Maybe now things will get started for real?"

PUTIN WAS NOT IN KREMLIN - RIA

The statement from the presidential administration said fragments of the drones had been scattered on the territory of the Kremlin complex but there were no casualties or material damage.

RIA said Putin had not been in the Kremlin at the time, and was working on Wednesday at his Novo Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow.

Another video circulating on Russian social media appeared to show a plume of smoke over the Kremlin after the purported attack.

The video was posted in the early hours of Wednesday on a group for residents of a neighbourhood that faces the Kremlin across the Mosvka River. It was picked up by Russian media, including the Telegram channel of the military news outlet Zvezda.

Victory Day is a major public holiday commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, and a chance for Putin to rally Russians behind what he calls his "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Russia marks the occasion with a huge military parade on Red Square, for which seating has already been erected.

The state news agency TASS said the parade - for which the Kremlin last week announced tighter security - would still go ahead.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said earlier on Wednesday that the city had introduced an immediate ban on unauthorised drone flights.

Russia has accused Ukraine of numerous cross-border attacks since the start of the war, including strikes in December on an air base deep inside Russian territory that houses strategic bomber planes equipped to carry nuclear weapons. In February, a drone crashed in Kolomna, about 110 km (70 miles) from the centre of Moscow.

Ukraine typically declines to claim responsibility for attacks on Russia or Russian-annexed Crimea, though Kyiv officials have frequently celebrated such attacks with cryptic or mocking remarks.

In late March, however, the head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Aleksey Danilov, claimed on Twitter that Ukraine possesses “dozens of models” and “thousands of UAVs,” including those with a range of “more than 3,000 kilometers.”

Reuters/RT

Hudu Yunusa-Ari, suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of Adamawa State, has been arrested.

Muyiwa Adejobi, Force Public Relations Officer, confirmed Yunusa-Ari’s arrest on Tuesday.

He said some of the persons who played roles in the controversy surrounding the election were also being probed.

Yunusa-Ari had sparked a controversy after declaring Aisha Dahiru, aka Binani, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the election when collation of results had not ended.

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had overruled the REC and summoned him to Abuja.

But Festus Okoye, spokesman of the commission, later announced that his whereabouts were unknown as the REC neither honoured the summons nor communicated with the electoral body.

INEC had written to the Inspector-General of Police to seek the arrest and prosecution of Yunusa-Ari.

Adejobi confirmed the REC’s arrest but did not go into details.

“The Nigeria Police Force hereby confirms the arrest of Yunusa-Ari, the Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), who was alleged to have announced the candidate of the All Progressives Congress winner of the gubernatorial elections during the recently concluded supplementary elections following calls for his arrest and investigation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the basis of alleged impropriety in the course of supplementary gubernatorial polls in the State.”

“Ari, who was arrested by the Police Election Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Team in Abuja on Tuesday 2nd May, 2023, is currently in Police custody and is being grilled to ascertain the motives and motivations behind his alleged improper actions during the supplementary elections in Adamawa State. In addition, other officials and individuals culpable in the saga are being interrogated by the team.

“The Inspector-General of Police has given clear assurance that every individual involved/indicted in the matter will be apprehended and investigated in line with the provisions of the law for possible prosecution. The Inspector-General of Police has assured of the commitment of the Force to ensuring that justice is served in this case and that all guilty parties are brought to justice.”

Hours before his arrest, the suspended REC defended his action, saying he had no regret declaring Binani as winner of the election.

“I told you I have no regrets whatsoever, when you do something in accordance with law, there are no regrets. On the police invitation, I must honour it, l never hide,” he had said.

Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was eventually declared winner of the election.

Daily Trust

Unless a miracle happens, Team Nigeria may lose the battle to win the ongoing 2023 African U-18 and U-20 Athletics Championships in Ndola, Zambia, to South Africa.

Team Nigeria won eight more gold medals yesterday, but they may not be enough to beat the South Africans to the number one spot. Nigerian athletes were everywhere, yesterday, winning eight more gold medals to take their total medals haul, so far, to 12 gold medals. Two more finals were yet to be concluded as at press time yesterday.

Tima Godbless earned gold in the U-20 women’s 200m, while Grace Oshiokpu won the U-20 women long jump. Faith Okwose captured a gold medal in 200m U-18, just as Samuel Ogazi also won the 200m Boys U-18.

Inivi Precious also won gold in the triple jump Boys’ U-18, while Nigeria’s male and female medley team also captured gold medals. Nigeria’s silver medalists, yesterday, were Israel Okon (200m Boys U-18), Musbau Adebisi (200m Junior Boys U-20) and Adetutu Oladeloye (200m Junior Girls U-20). Tiana Justina won a bronze medal in the 200m Girls U18.  
Nigeria had jumped to the top of the medals table on Day 1 of the championship, with the duo of Joma Oghenefejiro Praise and Oshiokpu Grace grabbing two gold medals in the U-20 and U-18 triple jump event. Nigerian athletes also took five gold, three silver and four bronze medals on Day 2, to take their medals haul to seven gold, five silver and five bronze.

However, the South Africans, who are in Ndola with a large delegation of 120 people, including 105 athletes, have taken over the medals table, capturing more medals in track and field events.

Speaking with our correspondent from Ndola, yesterday, president of Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Tonobok Okowa, who has just been elected as one of the vice presidents of the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), said: “We are doing the best we can to win more medals in the championship, but sincerely speaking, the task of finishing on top of the medals table looks difficult because South Africa is dominating everywhere. They entered 105 athletes against the 42 from Nigeria. Even at that, I expected that our North African brothers will give South Africa a major challenge, but they are not.

“At the moment, Ethiopia is seriously challenging Kenya in long distance races and I expected the same opposition from North African athletes against South Africa. But we won’t relent in our push to finish among the top countries here in Zambia,” Okowa stated.

AFN’s Technical Director, Samuel Onikeku, also believes the battle for the top spot might be difficult, adding, however, that Nigerian athletes deserve commendation for their impressive outing so far.

“We have won five gold medals today, and we still have two more finals left. Hopefully, our athletes will triumph in those events,” Onikeku stated.

The Guardian

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Officials: US to send Ukraine $300 million in military aid

The U.S. is sending Ukraine about $300 million in additional military aid, including an enormous amount of artillery rounds, howitzers, air-to-ground rockets and ammunition as the launch of a spring offensive against Russian forces approaches, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The new package includes Hydra-70 rockets, which are unguided rockets that are fired from aircraft. It also includes an undisclosed number of rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, mortars, howitzer rounds, missiles and Carl Gustaf anti—tank rifles. The weapons will all be pulled from Pentagon stocks, so they can go quickly to the front lines. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been formally announced.

The latest shipment comes as Ukrainian officials say they are readying a counteroffensive — with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov declaring they are in the “home stretch, when we can say: ‘Yes everything is ready.’” Ukrainian officials have said they are stockpiling ammunition to stow it along potentially long supply lines.

Reznikov said Monday that the key things for the assault’s success would be “the availability of weapons; prepared, trained people; our defenders and defenders who know their plan at their level, as well as providing this offensive with all the necessary things — shells, ammunition, fuel, protection, etc.”

The U.S. in recent months has declined to say exactly how much material will be sent to Ukraine, but the latest package resembles other previous deliveries. Officials said there will also be trucks, trailers, spare parts, and other maintenance assistance.

This is the 37th package of Pentagon stocks to go to Ukraine since the war began in February 2022, and it brings the total U.S. military aid to about $36 billion.

Officials have said the weapons and other equipment will help as Ukraine prepares to shift from what has been a long and bloody winter stalemate, focused on heavy fighting in Ukraine’s east, particularly around the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk province.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russia was continuing to concentrate its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraine’s industrial east, focusing attacks around Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka.

** Blast causes another freight train to derail in Russia region near Ukraine

An explosion derailed a freight train for the second day in a row in a Russian region bordering Ukraine on Tuesday, sending both the locomotive and some cars off the tracks, authorities said.

The incident occurred in the western Bryansk region, which borders both Ukraine and Belarus. Russian officials say pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups have made multiple attacks there since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

"An unidentified explosive device went off near the Snezhetskaya railway station. There were no casualties," Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz wrote on Telegram.

"As a result of the incident, a locomotive and several wagons of a freight train derailed," he added, without saying who was responsible.

Tass news agency, citing law enforcement agencies, said fire fighters were working at the scene and two recovery trains had been dispatched to the area. Local prosecutors had begun an investigation into the derailment, it added.

Operator Russian Railways earlier said around 20 wagons had come off the tracks due to "unauthorised interference". Snezhetskaya is just to the southeast of Bryansk.

A freight train derailed around 150 km (90 miles) to the west of Bryansk on Monday after a blast. Pictures of that incident shared on social media showed several tank carriages lying on their side and dark grey smoke billowing into the air.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Three Ukrainian military jets downed in a day – Moscow

Russian forces have shot down three Ukrainian warplanes in a single day, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow said on Tuesday. 

The ministry claimed that air defense systems had destroyed two Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets over Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Kherson Region, where a Ukrainian Su-25 close-support aircraft was also brought down.

The Russian military also intercepted eight US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) missiles and disabled six Ukrainian drones, the ministry added.

Russian forces have, according to the ministry, destroyed a total of 416 warplanes, 230 helicopters, and almost 4,000 unmanned aerial vehicles since the start of the conflict with Kiev in February of last year. 

While sustaining losses, Ukraine has received a number of Soviet-era MiG-29 jets from its Western backers, most notably Slovakia and Poland. The two countries have pledged to support Kiev with around two dozen jets, with the first deliveries already beginning to arrive. 

Ukraine has on numerous occasions called for its allies to deliver modern warplanes such as F-16s, although its requests have thus far not been granted.  

Russia has repeatedly warned the West that arms deliveries to Ukraine will only prolong the conflict. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted in early February that Western deliberations about sending warplanes to Kiev not only highlight their “growing involvement” in the hostilities, but also lead to rising tensions.

** Blasts again reported in Ukraine’s capital Kiev, surrounding regions

Another series of blasts, the third one since midnight, was reported in Ukraine’s capital Kiev and the surrounding Kiev region in the early hours of Wednesday, the Klimenko Time news portal reported.

Explosions also resumed in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk.

Later on Wednesday, similar reports came from the central Ukrainian city of Kropivnitsky, the administrative center of the Kirovograd Region, the Zerkalo Nedeli media outlet said. An air raid alert was issued for the region.

Blasts were also reported in the central Ukrainian region of Cherkasy, the TSN news agency reported. According to preliminary reports, the explosions were caused by the work of missile defense systems.

Currently, civil defense sirens are wailing in Ukraine’s regions of Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Sumy, Chernigov, Kirovograd, Poltava and Cherkasy as well as in the capital Kiev and the surrounding Kiev Region.

AP/Reuters/RT/TASS

Sudan's warring generals extend theoretical truce but keep fighting

Sudan's warring military factions agreed to a new and longer seven-day ceasefire from Thursday, neighbour and mediator South Sudan said, even as more air strikes and shooting in the Khartoum capital region undercut their latest supposed truce.

Previous ceasefire pledges have ranged from 24 to 72 hours but there have been constant truce violations in the conflict that erupted in mid-April between the army and a paramilitary force.

South Sudan's foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that mediation championed by its president, Salva Kiir, had led both sides to agree a weeklong truce from Thursday to May 11 and to name envoys for peace talks. The current ceasefire was due to expire on Wednesday (today).

It was unclear, however, how army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary Rapid Support forces (RSF) leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo would proceed.

On Tuesday, witnesses reported more air strikes in the cities of Omdurman and in Bahri, both on the opposite bank of the Nile River from Khartoum.

Al Jazeera television said Sudanese army warplanes were targeting RSF positions, and anti-aircraft fire could be heard from Khartoum.

India's embassy in Khartoum was stormed and looted, Sudan's army said in a statement, citing a report from the ambassador. Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said early on Wednesday that the building in Khartoum that houses its cultural mission was similarly vandalised and looted by an armed group. No casualties were reported.

Army jets have been bombing RSF units dug into residential districts of the capital region. Conflict has also spread to Sudan's western Darfur region where the RSF emerged from tribal militias that fought alongside government forces to crush rebels in a brutal civil war dating back 20 years.

The commanders of the army and RSF, who had shared power as part of an internationally backed transition towards free elections and civilian government, have shown no sign of backing down, yet neither seems able to secure a quick victory.

REGION AT RISK

Prolonged conflict could draw in outside powers.

Fighting now in its third week has engulfed Khartoum - one of Africa's largest cities - and killed hundreds of people. Sudan's Health Ministry reported on Tuesday that 550 people have died and 4,926 injured.

Foreign governments were winding down evacuation operations that sent thousands of their citizens home. Britain said its last flight would depart Port Sudan on the Red Sea on Wednesday and urged any remaining Britons wanting to leave to make their way there.

The conflict has also created a humanitarian crisis, with around 100,000 people forced to flee with little food or water to neighbouring countries, the United Nations said.

Aid deliveries have been held up in a nation where about one-third of people already relied on humanitarian assistance. A broader disaster could be in the making as Sudan's impoverished neighbours grapple with a refugee influx.

"The entire region could be affected," Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said in a Japanese newspaper interview on Tuesday as a Burhan envoy met Egyptian officials in Cairo.

The U.N. World Food Programme said on Monday it was resuming work in the safer parts of Sudan after a pause earlier in the conflict, in which some of its staff were killed.

'THE SITUATION IS A CALAMITY'

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it had delivered some aid to the capital from Port Sudan, a road journey of about 800 km (500 miles).

Some 330,000 Sudanese have also been displaced inside Sudan's borders by the war, the U.N. migration agency said.

"The situation is a calamity," Hassan Mohamed Ali, a 55-year-old state employee, said during a stopover in Atbara, 350 km (220 miles) northeast of Khartoum, en route to the Egyptian frontier.

"We suffer from power and water cuts, our children have stopped school. What's happening in Khartoum is hell."

Displaced Sudanese families have also made their way, sometimes on foot under scorching desert sun, hundreds of kilometres (miles) to Chad and South Sudan.

About 800,000 people could eventually leave, according to the U.N.

More than 40,000 people have crossed the border into Egypt over the past two weeks but only after days of delays. Most migrants have had to pay hundreds of dollars to make the 1,000-km (620-mile) journey north from Khartoum.

It took Aisha Ibrahim Dawood and her relatives five days in a rented car to get from Khartoum to the northern town of Wadi Halfa, where the women and children crammed into a back of a truck that brought them to a queue at the Egyptian border.

"Our suffering is unprecedented," she said.

Reuters

A firm belonging to the son of Nigeria’s president-elect bought an $11 million London mansion that his predecessor’s government was seeking to confiscate as part of a probe into one of the biggest corruption scandals in the West African nation’s history, according to previously unreported UK company documents.

There’s no suggestion that President-elect Bola Tinubu was personally involved in the acquisition of the UK property in 2017. Current President Muhammadu Buhari visited him there in August 2021, nearly four years after the purchase took place. Tinubu, who will take over as head of state this month, has long been questioned about the source of his family’s wealth, including throughout the recent election campaign, when he and his representatives were pressed about it by local and international media. 

He and his campaign have said he made his fortune before going into politics by inheriting real estate, investing well and working as an accountant at Deloitte LLP and an executive at the Nigerian subsidiary of Mobil Oil in the 1980s and early 1990s. In an interview with the BBC in the run-up to the election, Tinubu cited Warren Buffett as an example he followed to become rich.

The corporate documents seen by Bloomberg show for the first time that Tinubu’s 37-year-old son Oluwaseyi is the main shareholder of Aranda Overseas Corp., an offshore company that paid £9 million ($10.8 million) to Deutsche Bank for the property in north London in late 2017. The private three-floor residence in St. John’s Wood — a district favored by American bankers — is equipped with an eight-car driveway, two gardens, electric gates and a gym.

Bola Tinubu’s spokesman and Oluwaseyi Tinubu did not respond to emails, phone calls and text messages seeking comment. A British lawyer listed as Aranda’s agent in the UK declined to comment citing confidentiality rules. 

At the time of the purchase, Nigeria’s government was seeking to arrest the house’s former owner, accusing him of going on the run while owing the country an oil-trading debt worth more than $1.5 billion. The state was also attempting to confiscate the upscale real estate and other assets it suspected had been acquired by the businessman — Kolawole Aluko — with the profits of crime. Aluko denies all allegations of wrongdoing and says a court judgment earlier this year acquitting a former business partner has cleared his name. That ruling is being challenged by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency.

Tinubu, 71, won an election in February as the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress and is scheduled to succeed his political ally Buhari on May 29. He was a key powerbroker in the merger of opposition parties that brought the current head of state to office in 2015.

While Buhari was elected on a pledge to tackle widespread graft, the country’s ranking in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index has deteriorated over the past eight years. 

Buhari Visit

A former governor of Lagos state, Tinubu has long been dogged by allegations of graft and rule-breaking, which he denies. In 1993, he forfeited $460,000 to resolve a lawsuit in Chicago after US federal authorities said that bank accounts in his name held the proceeds of heroin trafficking. Tinubu’s lawyers have said he was never charged over the matter.

While staying at the 7,000-square foot London home in August 2021, Tinubu received a visit from Buhari there, according to the Lagos-based Premium Times.

The online newspaper — using documents obtained from the Pandora Papers leak of offshore companies data — revealed that the shareholders and directors of Aranda from its formation 24 years ago until at least 2010 were Adegboyega Oyetola, the former governor of Osun state, and Elusanmi Eludoyin, head of a Nigerian property group. Oyetola’s spokesman and Eludoyin did not respond to requests for comment.

Documents filed this year in response to new anti-money laundering rules in the UK and seen by Bloomberg show that Tinubu’s son — an entrepreneur active in advertising who played a prominent role in his father’s presidential campaign — has been in control of British Virgin Islands-registered Aranda since June 2011. The company registered as an overseas entity in the UK on Jan. 20.

Aluko Allegations

Early in Buhari’s first term, his administration initiated legal cases against Diezani Alison-Madueke, who served as oil minister for five years until 2015, and two businessmen — Aluko and Olajide Omokore — who won lucrative contracts during her tenure. The US government said in a 2017 forfeiture lawsuit filed in Texas that the pair bribed the minister by funding her “lavish” lifestyle and failed to pay the state energy company for most of the crude they received.

Alison-Madueke, who is based in London, has denied the allegations. She is challenging multiple forfeiture orders issued by Nigerian courts and has accused the anti-corruption agency of blocking her efforts to defend herself in criminal proceedings.  

In June 2016, a federal judge in the capital, Abuja, granted a request by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to seize more than a dozen properties that Aluko had acquired in Nigeria and abroad, including the one in St. John’s Wood. That forfeiture order was still in force when Tinubu’s son bought the house out of receivership 16 months later. 

The ruling was made on an interim basis pending the conclusion of an investigation into Aluko that was still ongoing as of at least the end of 2018, according to court filings. Aluko can’t comment on the forfeiture case because it is still “sub-judice,” his lawyer Tokunbo Jaiye-Agoro said by email.

Deutsche Bank had foreclosed on the house and appointed receivers to sell it in late 2016, though there is no indication in court filings that the Nigerian government was aware the lender had taken over the house from Aluko as it proceeded with the seizure process. Aluko took out loans using other properties as collateral, according to the US Justice Department.

The EFCC said the buildings “were suspected to have been purchased with the proceeds of crime” and Aluko “fled the country” to avoid answering the fraud allegations against him, according to court filings.

Omokore was acquitted in February by a Nigerian court of charges related to the same allegations. The EFCC – which accuses him of defrauding the state energy firm of $1.6 billion – has said it will appeal. The judge removed Aluko and Alison-Madueke from the indictment because they were not in the country. Aluko’s location is unknown.

The acquittal of Omokore “puts to rest all the false allegations” about his and Aluko’s wealth, according to Jaiye-Agoro. Despite the appeal, “the current state of affairs” is that Aluko’s income was “legitimate and not from any corrupt practice,” Jaiye-Agoro said.

Omokore “objects to the continuous link of his name to any corrupt practices,” his lawyer, Rafiu Lawal-Rabana, said by text message. The court decision earlier this year discharged Omokore on all counts and any hitches in the implementation of the oil contracts were “purely technical not criminal,” he said.

Buhari’s spokesman and Alison-Madueke’s lawyer declined to comment. Spokespeople for Attorney General Abubakar Malami, the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd. and the EFCC did not respond to requests for comment. 

Yachts, Penthouses

In October 2017, as the government that Tinubu played an instrumental role in bringing to power was chasing Aluko and his assets, his son’s company bought one of the targeted properties. Aranda still owns the building and there is currently no mortgage registered to it, according to the UK land records.

The firm didn’t purchase the house directly from Aluko, but from a UK unit of Deutsche Bank AG that held a mortgage on the property and had appointed receivers to sell it a year earlier. Aluko acquired the mansion via a BVI company in 2013 and, according to Premium Times, paid £11.95 million. Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

Aluko has no knowledge of Aranda or the individuals behind the company and “was not privy to the sale” as the bank had foreclosed on the house, Jaiye-Agoro said. The UK’s National Crime Agency did not respond to questions about whether it had ever received a request from the Nigerian authorities to freeze the property. The UK Home Office declined to comment. 

The US Justice Department announced on March 27 that it has recovered more than $53 million by confiscating assets bought by Aluko for more than $160 million with what it considers to be the proceeds of corruption — including a 65-meter superyacht and luxury homes in California and New York.

Bloomberg

The federal government recently unveiled new Fiscal Policy Measures (FPM) outlining the rates of taxes and excise duties for the current year.

The new FPMs, which consist of Supplementary Protection Measures (SPM), revised excise duty rates, and green taxes; were recently approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to a recent circular signed by Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, the 2023 FPMs supersede the 2022 FPMs and will be published in the official federal government gazette.

Already, stakeholders are having a grouse with the policy.

For instance, Taiwo Oyedele, Africa tax leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), highlighted key issues that should be addressed in the recently introduced fiscal policy measures.

He said “there is no information to suggest that a proper impact assessment was carried out to determine the impact of the new taxes on affected stakeholders across the value chain”.

The tax expert also censured the government for its consistent inconsistency in its policies.

Here are some of the new policy measures.

SUPPLEMENTARY PROTECTION MEASURES

The SPMs relate to the implementation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Common External Tariff (CET) 2022-2026, which is the application of the same customs duties and import quotas by member states.

They (the SPMs) include an import adjustment tax (IAT) list with additional taxes (levy) on 189 tariff lines of the extant ECOWAS CET; an import prohibition list (trade), applicable only to certain goods originating from non-ECOWAS member states; and a national list consisting of items with reduced import duty rates.

According to the circular, the approved SPMs took effect on May 1, 2023.

However, a grace period of 90 days is applicable for importers who opened “form M” before the effective date (May 1) and those who must have entered into irrevocable trade agreements before the circular came into effect.

Some of the items included under the revised IAT list are rice, electric generating sets and rotary converters, motor vehicles, smartphones, wheat, and glazed ceramics.

The federal government tariff on new passenger motor vehicles — four-wheel drives with cylinder capacity greater than 1500 cubic capacity(cc) — remains unchanged from the 2022 FPM at a rate of 40 percent.

However, it exceeds the recommended rate of 5 percent of the ECOWAS CET for the years 2022-2026.

The tariff on passenger motor vehicles (including fully built units), four-wheel drive motor vehicles, and station wagons also remained at 40 percent, but still higher than the ECOWAS CET recommended 5 percent.

On containers for compressed or liquefied gas, the tariff remained unchanged from the 2022 FPM at 60 percent. This is also higher than the recommended 40 percent of the 2022-2026 ECOWAS CET.

A tax of 70 percent was placed on wheat or meslin flour (unchanged from 2022) as opposed to the ECOWAS CET’s recommended rate of 50 percent.

REVISED EXCISE DUTY RATES

The revised excise duty rates are additional taxes levied on alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and tobacco products. In accordance with the current implementation period, the new rates will take effect on June 1, 2023, and they will be revised upward by June 1, 2024.

Excise duty is a form of tax imposed on the production, licensing, and sale of goods.

In 2022, Ahmed announced that the federal government introduced an excise duty of N10/litre on all non-alcoholic, carbonated, and sweetened beverages.

In the latest the circular, the excise duty rate was upheld in the 2023 FPM.

Similarly, an excise duty of N10/litre was imposed on aerated water.

Meanwhile, beer, stout, and alcoholic wines will be subject to a N75/litre excise duty, while a N150/litre excise duty will be imposed on whisky, brandy, and vodka.

Tobacco, including cigarettes, will attract an excise duty of N8.20 per stick.

A N1,500 per kilogram or N3,500 per litre excise duty will also be applied to any additional products that contain tobacco substitutes in any proportion.

REINTRODUCTION OF 5% TELECOMS EXCISE DUTY

In July last year, the minister of finance had said the government would begin theimplementation of the 5 percent inclusive excise duty on telecommunications services, which was introduced in the 2020 finance act.

Isa Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, faulted the timing and process of implementation, saying he was not informed.

Ahmed’s statement also drew widespread criticism from Nigerians, including telecom operators.

But she insisted that the federal government would go on with the implementation of the 5 percent excise duty on telecommunications services.

Ahmed noted that all relevant agencies, including the communications ministry, were informed of the implementation of the tax as approved by Buhari.

In September 2022, Pantami announced that the excise duty on telecommunications services had been suspended.

Two months ago, he reiterated that Buhari had approved the exemption of the telecommunications sector from the proposed 5 percent excise duty.

However, the circular stated that the excise duty rate on telecommunication services  “remains as approved by the president and published in the official gazette no. 88, Vol. 109 of 11th May, 2022”.

The surcharge applies to mobile telephone services (GSM), fixed telephone, and internet services — postpaid and prepaid — at the rate of 5 percent.

GREEN TAX

Meanwhile, as part of Nigeria’s commitment to climate change adaptation and mitigation to environmental degradation, the federal government introduced a green tax made up of excise duty on single-use plastics (SUPs), including plastic containers, films, and bags, at a rate of 10 percent.

Also, an IAT levy of 2 percent on motor vehicles of 2,000cc to 3,999cc was introduced, while 4,000 cc and above will be taxed at 4 percent.

This excludes vehicles below 2000cc, mass transit buses, electric vehicles, and locally manufactured vehicles.

The excise duty on SUPs will take effect on June 1, 2023.

The Cable