Behold, the once-glowing beacon of governance in Abuja—the Presidential Villa—was plunged into darkness. Not metaphorically this time (although there’s an argument to be made), but literally. The theft of 40 meters of power cables supplying electricity to the nerve center of Nigeria’s political power left its occupants fumbling for flashlights and wondering what it felt like to live like the average Nigerian. Spoiler alert: it’s not fun.

How poetic that the very symbol of power became powerless, brought low not by international intrigue or high-level espionage, but by the humble efforts of vandals armed with wire cutters and a keen eye for scrap metal profits. The Presidential Villa shared a fate long familiar to Nigerians: a sudden, inexplicable blackout and a half-hearted assurance that someone, somewhere, was working to fix it.

But let us hope that the bandits roaming the nation, who have already turned highways and villages into theaters of terror, don’t see this successful act of vandalism as a sign of weakness. What happens if they, emboldened by this small victory, decide to extend their reach into the very corridors of power? One shudders to imagine the day when the Presidential Villa’s occupants might find themselves negotiating not with world leaders, but with bandits demanding ransom.

Yet this moment should be a sobering experience for our rulers. For years, they have been insulated from the sufferings of the masses—epileptic power supply, insecurity, hunger, and roads more cratered than the moon. But now, as they sat in candlelit rooms, sweating in the heat and straining to hear the hum of a distant generator, perhaps they would understand that the dysfunction they created and which they so expertly ignore is no longer confined to the lives of ordinary Nigerians. It has reached their doorstep.

Alas, this is not the first instance of irony visiting Aso Rock. This is the same government that claims to be waging war on insecurity but cannot protect its own power cables. The same leaders who boast about the nation’s development while sending engineers scurrying to patch up basic infrastructure. If they cannot keep the lights on in the most fortified building in the country, what hope do the rest of us have?

So here we are: a country where the “giants of Africa” find themselves brought to their knees by petty thieves. The Presidential Villa may have regained its power, but the question remains: will its rulers regain their credibility? Or shall we continue to live in a nation where the greatest threat to power isn’t an opposition party, but a determined vandal with a toolbox and a dream?

President-elect Donald Trump pledged an unprecedented start to his administration during a Victory Rally in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, outlining an ambitious plan for his first week in office. Trump vowed to issue a wave of executive orders and implement sweeping reforms, promising to make voters “extremely happy.”

“You’re going to see executive orders that will set our country on the right course,” Trump said. “By the time the sun sets tomorrow, the invasion of our borders will have stopped, and illegal border trespassers will be on their way home.”

Reports indicate Trump plans to sign more than 200 executive actions on his first day in office. These include repealing what he called “radical and foolish” executive orders from the Biden administration and making classified documents related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. publicly available.

Trump also announced plans to begin constructing the “Great Iron Dome missile defense shield” and launch the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, surpassing efforts under President Dwight Eisenhower. He pledged to tackle inflation by unleashing domestic energy resources and streamlining regulations for large-scale energy projects.

In his rally, Trump promised swift action to address natural disaster recovery in North Carolina and hinted at potential clemency for January 6 protesters, stating they would be “very, very happy.”

“This will be the biggest first week and most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency,” Trump declared, highlighting his “all-star cabinet” of leaders.

The rally featured notable supporters, including musicians Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood, UFC CEO Dana White, tech billionaire Elon Musk, and actor Jon Voight. Voight praised Trump as “the greatest of all time,” expressing confidence in his leadership to “make America great again.”

Trump criticized outgoing President Joe Biden for taking credit for a recent ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. According to Trump, his incoming administration played a pivotal role in negotiations, facilitated by his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As Trump wrapped up his speech, he reaffirmed his commitment to the “America First” agenda. “It all starts tomorrow,” he said. “We will be sworn in together, and together, we will make America great again.”

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has defended its decision to issue petroleum import licenses to multiple companies, citing insufficient production from the Dangote Refinery to meet national demand.

The regulatory body's position comes in response to a legal challenge by Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE, which sought to invalidate import licenses granted to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and several other oil companies. Dangote's lawsuit (FHC/ABJ/CS/1324/2024) alleged violations of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

In a December 2024 counter-affidavit, NMDPRA senior regulatory officer Idris Musa emphasized several key points:

Production Capacity:

- Current Dangote Refinery output remains insufficient for national petroleum requirements

- The authority cannot rely solely on Dangote's unverified claims about diesel and jet fuel production capacity

- Multiple supply sources are necessary to ensure energy security

Market Competition:

- Allowing Dangote exclusive market rights would create a monopoly

- NMDPRA aims to prevent market dominance and ensure healthy competition

- The authority anticipates improved competition once NNPCL's four refineries and additional modular refineries become operational

Regulatory Compliance:

- The disputed 0.5% levy complies with PIA requirements

- Dangote's free zone status doesn't exempt it from local regulations

- The refinery maintains the right to sell products globally, not just within Nigeria

NMDPRA dismissed Dangote's allegations of conspiracy, stating the company failed to provide supporting evidence. The authority maintains that issuing additional import licenses is necessary to prevent product shortages and protect consumer interests.

The case continues, with NNPC requesting dismissal of Dangote's suit as of November 2024.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

While very few Nigerian children are still able to have tea and bread under the warm roof of their parents, many are now sourcing for their daily bread (scavenging) from refuse dumps.

Beginning from the new year, many of these children, between the ages of nine and 14, can be seen carrying sacks filled with various kinds of dirt, ranging from used cartons, empty drink cans and used plastic bottles and bowls.

Economy&Lifestyle’s encounter with Jacob Olorunfemi, a 10-year-old, revealed that the economy is dealing blows of hunger and difficulty on his parents and making him unable to attend lessons.

“I don’t go to lessons anymore because my parents said there is no money, after the Christmas celebration.
“I usually attend a lesson like school, where I pay N500 per week.

“My mother usually sweeps and wash clothes for customers.
“My father works at a bus park.

“I have a friend called Sule. He is twelve years old. He used to pick used plastics and condemned items and sell them.

“His mother beg for alms for a living.

“He advised me to join him in this scavenging routine and I have been able to save N2,000 since I started.”

Another encounter with Yekini Salam, an eleven year old, revealed that his father was late and had left him with his step mother who also had three children to take care of. This has led him to a scavenging routine for survival.

“I have not been in school for years. I dropped out when I lost my father. I don’t know who my mother is but I have a step mother and three step brothers.

“I usually hawk wares for my step mother. But last year she asked me to stop.

“Sometimes I help people run errands and they give me tokens in the form of food or cash for appreciation.

“Recently, I had to join some of my friends who are a little above my age in the scavenging routine.
“I move around places sourcing for plastics, cans and bottles.

“There are people who I sell it to. The materials are scaled and I am paid.

“I want to save enough money to learn aluminium window and door-frame construction skills.”

Commenting on the development, Amos Magbagbeola, a human rights activist said: “This is a very painful and worrisome situation presently in the country.

“You see children labouring day and night like adults just to feed.

“Such is an aftermath of the country’s present economic situation, which has degraded parents to struggling a hundred times more than they did years back to achieve the same or little outcome.

“Children are all over the streets begging for alms. These children are supposed to be in school.

“Even the public schools no longer give full free education. Children now buy their textbooks, and writing materials and even pay fees for some services rendered.

“The government needs to act fast, as this is becoming a menace in the country and doesn’t position us in a good light internationally.”

On her part, Juliana Obuh, a civil servant, said: “The situation is getting serious daily.
“Everywhere you see underage children begging alms for survival, doing all sorts of menial jobs and I wonder where their parents are.

“Even parents are living from hand to mouth now.

“The rate of poverty is now higher than before and the children are unfortunate to find themselves stuck in this predicament.

“How won’t they be used for perpetrating fraud and other evil deeds? Doing all these menial jobs harden their hearts and, because of their easy nature, they easily fall prey and remain targets of fraudsters to easily achieve their aims.

“The government needs to act fast because these children are the nation tomorrow.”

Vanguard

Hamas frees hostages, Israel releases Palestinian prisoners on day one of ceasefire

Hamas released three Israeli hostages and Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, the first day of a ceasefire suspending a 15-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip and inflamed the Middle East.

The truce allowed Palestinians to return to bombed-out neighborhoods to begin rebuilding their lives, while relief trucks delivered much-needed aid. Elsewhere in Gaza, crowds cheered Hamas fighters who emerged from hiding.

Fireworks were launched in celebration as buses carrying the Palestinian prisoners arrived in Ramallah on the West Bank, where thousands of people waited to welcome them. Those freed from Israeli prisons included 69 women and 21 teenage boys from the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to Hamas.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis cheered and wept in a square outside the defense headquarters as a live broadcast from Gaza showed three female hostages getting into a Red Cross vehicle surrounded by Hamas fighters.

The Israeli military said Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari had been reunited with their mothers and released a video showing them in apparent good health. Damari, who lost two fingers when she was shot the day she was abducted, smiled and embraced her mother as she held up a bandaged hand.

"I would like you to tell them: Romi, Doron and Emily – an entire nation embraces you. Welcome home," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a commander by phone.

At Sheba Medical Center, the women were reunited with their families in long embraces that went from tears to laughter. A smiling Damari was draped in an Israeli flag. They were among more than 250 people abducted and 1,200 killed in a Hamas raid on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has said.

More than 47,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli attacks, according to medical officials in Gaza. Nearly the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza is homeless. Around 400 Israeli soldiers have also died.

The truce calls for fighting to stop, aid to be sent in to Gaza and 33 of the nearly 100 remaining Israeli and foreign hostages to go free over the six-week first phase in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Many of the hostages are believed to be dead.

In the north of the Gaza Strip, Palestinians picked their way through a devastated landscape of rubble and twisted metal that had been bombed into oblivion in the war's most intense fighting.

"I feel like at last I found some water to drink after being lost in the desert for 15 months," said Aya, who said she had been displaced from her Gaza City home for more than a year.

The first phase of the truce took effect following a three-hour delay during which Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded the Gaza Strip.

That last-minute blitz killed 13 people, Palestinian health authorities said. Israel blamed Hamas for being late to deliver the names of hostages it would free, and said it had struck terrorists. Hamas said the holdup in providing the list was technical.

"Today the guns in Gaza have gone silent," U.S. President Joe Biden said on his last full day in office, welcoming a truce that had eluded U.S. diplomacy for more than a year. "We've reached this point today because of the pressure Israel built on Hamas, backed by the United States."

For Hamas, the truce provided an opportunity to emerge from the shadows after 15 months in hiding. Hamas policemen dressed in blue police uniforms swiftly deployed in some areas, and armed fighters drove through the southern city of Khan Younis, where a crowd cheered, "Greetings to Al-Qassam Brigades," the group's armed wing.

"All the resistance factions are staying in spite of Netanyahu," one fighter told Reuters.

TRUMP AIDE: 'HAMAS WILL NEVER GOVERN GAZA'

There is no detailed plan in place to govern Gaza after the war, much less rebuild it. Any return of Hamas will test the patience of Israel, which has said it will resume fighting unless the militant group is fully dismantled.

Hardline National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir quit the cabinet over the ceasefire, though his party said it would not try to bring down Netanyahu's government. The other most prominent hardliner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, stayed in the government but said he would quit if the war ends without Hamas completely destroyed.

The truce took effect on the eve of Monday's inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Trump's national security adviser-designate, Mike Waltz, said that if Hamas reneges on the agreement, the United States would support Israel "in doing what it has to do."

"Hamas will never govern Gaza. That is completely unacceptable," he said.

The streets in shattered Gaza City were already busy with groups of people waving the Palestinian flag and filming the scenes on their mobile phones. Several carts loaded with household possessions travelled down a thoroughfare scattered with rubble and debris.

Ahmed Abu Ayham, 40, of Gaza City said that while the ceasefire may have spared lives, the losses and destruction made it no time for celebration.

"We are in pain, deep pain and it is time to hug one another and cry," he said.

Reuters

Colonial occupation and domination prospered by abducting and liquidating the most vocal Africans. Those whom it drove into exile were lucky. Evelyn Baring invented the manual on this form of predation as governor of colonial Kenya for seven years until 1959. Six decades after independence, the man who rode to power in Nairobi two years ago by promising to make Kenya great again is unapologetically reprising Evelyn’s manual, minus the internment camps.

In June 2021, Abubakar Malami, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Nigeria’s attorney-general, announced with some relish that Nnamdi Kanu – self-proclaimed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) – had been returned to Nigeria after being “intercepted” in an un-named location. Malami had initiated the prosecution of Kanu in 2015 for treason. In April 2017, the courts granted bail to Kanu. Five months later, he disappeared from public view after soldiers reportedly raided his country home in Abia State in South-East Nigeria, leading to scores of fatalities. The following month, he was reportedly sighted in Jerusalem.

The circumstances of Kanu’s return to Nigeria in 2021 degenerated quickly from mystery to controversy. The International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL), whom Nigeria initially credited with assistance in the “interception”, firmly denied any involvement in the operation.

When he announced the “interception” of Kanu, Attorney-General Malami claimed that it was accomplished by the “collaborative efforts of Nigerian intelligence and security services.” In October 2022, however, Nigeria’s Court of Appeal found as a fact that Kanu “was in Kenya, was abducted therefrom and there were no extradition proceedings undertaken prior to his forcible abduction.”

Kenya unconvincingly denied involvement in the abduction. Very importantly, however, the Government of Kenya (GOK) offered no protest against what was clearly a spectacular violation of its sovereignty. The conclusion had to be that the GOK authorised Kanu’s abduction from its territory. Prior and subsequent conduct by the GOK provided ample evidence to support this.

On 2 February 2018, operatives of Kenya’s security services used explosives to gain entrance into the premises of former student leader and lawyer, Miguna Miguna, from where they abducted him into detention incommunicado. After several days of keeping him out of circulation, they drove Miguna to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, where they declared him a “prohibited immigrant” and deported him to Canada.

As a prominent student leader during the regime of President Daniel Arap Moi in the 1980s, Miguna was exiled to Canada. From there, he sought several times without success to renew his Kenyan nationality documents. Canada eventually granted him refugee status and he traveled initially under documentation provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, before eventually being forced to acquire Canadian nationality.

Upon returning to Kenya in 2007, Miguna enrolled as a lawyer, served as senior adviser to the prime minister and subsequently ran for high public office. It was not in dispute that both of his parents were Kenyans or that he was Kenyan by birth and by descent. In a decision on 14 December 2018, the High Court of Kenya found that the government of Kenya abducted and deported Miguna “despite court orders directing that he be produced in court” and lamented the fact that “it is inconceivable that the state can deport its own citizen to a second country without due regard to the constitution and the law.”

William Ruto was Kenya’s vice president when Kanu and Miguna were abducted. In 2022, he became president.

On 16 November 2024, leading Ugandan opposition politician, Kiiza Besigye, who was in Nairobi to attend the launch of a book by former Kenyan Justice minister and senior lawyer, Martha Karua, disappeared. Five days later, he surfaced before a military tribunal in the custody of the Uganda Peoples Defence Force (UPDF) on the fanciful charges of illegal possession of firearms. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, expressed shock at “the abduction of Ugandan opposition politician Besigye on 16 November 2024 in Kenya and his forcible return to Uganda.”

Besigye’s experience was not the first abduction of a member of the Ugandan opposition in Kenya. In July 2024, Kenya’s security services similarly snatched 36 members of Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) who were in the country for a meeting and expelled them to Uganda into the arms of the UPDF, which promptly charged them with “terrorism” before a military tribunal. The United Nations later expressed concern that President Museveni’s practice in Uganda of charging civilians before military tribunals was “in contravention of the country’s obligations under international human rights law.”

In October 2024, Kenyan authorities similarly abducted seven Turkish refugees and refouled them back to Turkey into the arms of the government that had exiled them.

In the period since the anti-Finance Bill protests in the country between June to December 2024, Kenya’s National Human Rights Commission has reported the abduction and disappearance of at least 82 persons. Some of the abducted have turned up dead. When young people in Nigeria protested two months after their colleagues in Kenya, the Nigerian government decided to borrow a leaf from Ruto’s playbook.

Back in Nairobi, one of the victims of these abductions by the GOK was Leslie Muturi. His father, Justin Bedan Muturi, happens to be the Cabinet Secretary (Minister) for Public Service in the government of Ruto. Around 22 June, 2024, Leslie Muturi was disappeared. At the time, his father, Justin, was the attorney-general of Kenya and sat in the National Security Council with the Director of National Intelligence Service, Noordin Haji.

In the past week, Muturi has narrated how his effort to locate his son took him through the entrails of the high command of Kenya’s deep state to the presence of his boss, President Ruto, who ordered Noordin Haji to release Leslie. Less than an hour thereafter, Leslie returned to his family.

Muturi’s clinical account of what transpired in the disappearance of his son clearly establishes the culpability of Kenya’s president and security high command under him in resuscitating a culture of state-sponsored abductions redolent of the worst excesses of Baring’s colonial era abuses.

After denying culpability last November, Ruto promised on 28 December 2024 to end the abductions, in effect admitting state complicity. Two days later, the continental human rights body of the African Union expressed“profound alarm over reports of abductions and enforced disappearances in Kenya.”

Less than a fortnight into the New Year, Tanzania’s leading independent journalist, Maria Sarungi Tsehai, survived an abduction from a shopping mall in Nairobi. Ms Tsehai and her family have been exiled in Kenya for over four years. Maria was lucky. Two years earlier, Kenyan police officers murdered exiled Pakistani journalist, Arshad Sharif, in Nairobi. Despite a court order and appeals by the United Nations, his killers continue to escape accountability.

When they re-established the East African Community in 1999, the original partner states in East Africa – Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – desired to advance transactional life and spaces in the region. Under the current leadership, however, these states are now using regional integration to advance the expendability of African civic and transactional life. They are collaborating across inter-state borders to liquidate critics and perceived enemies and make their lives precarious.

It seems clear that these abductions in Kenya are taking place under the direct command of government or, even more frightening, have been outsourced to non-state actors acting under the authority and protection of the State. The latter may explain the intractable nature of the abductions and the inability of Ruto’s GOK to bring it under control, despite the assurances of the president and the escalating diplomatic costs and investment runs.

This was hardly what Kenyans or the rest of Africa hoped for when the people chose President Ruto’s vision of a “hustler” nation over the other options on offer in Kenya’s 2022 presidential election. The only hustle presently taking place under his watch is the hustling of innocent citizens and visitors into enforced disappearance and exile. From the comfort of his grave, Evelyn must feel exceedingly proud of William Ruto.

** Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a professor of law, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Art Markman

It’s easy to be in a leadership role during good times. You’re the equivalent of Oprah telling everyone in the audience that they just got a new car. But, when times are tough, that’s when you have to look in the mirror and say “that’s why they pay me the big bucks.”

To be prepared for these times, you should make sure that you have a plan for how to address a crisis, when one inevitably arises. Obviously, the details of that plan will have to be developed on the fly, because the specifics of most crises are hard to predict in advance. But, you should have the outlines of a crisis plan well in advance so that you’re not scrambling for how to get started. Here are the basic things you must have in order before a crisis hits:

COMMUNICATE EARLY AND OFTEN

It’s easy to get mired in the details of dealing with a crisis situation and to ignore the needs of employees and external stakeholders, including customers and clients. So it’s important to have a communication plan and a designated lead for communication.

Your communication plan must include the key audiences who will want information. Employees will want to know that key issues are being addressed, whether there is risk to their jobs, and any affect a crisis is likely to have on their daily work life. External stakeholders will want communications about any service disruptions or other influences a crisis may have on their experience.

In a crisis, it’s important to communicate quickly to assure key stakeholders that you are addressing the problem and then to communicate often enough to maintain people’s confidence in your leadership. Do not give an overly rosy summary of the situation or your prospects of addressing the crisis successfully. You will undermine trust in your leadership if you minimize significant problems or express overconfidence in your ability to fix a problem that you cannot ultimately address.

KNOW YOUR VULNERABILITIES

In crisis situations, it’s important to be aware of your most significant weaknesses, because those are the ones most likely to fail when there is a problem. It’s no fun to catalog weaknesses, but that awareness enables you to check immediately on the elements of your business that are most likely to suffer.

One of the most significant vulnerabilities you may identify involves single points of failure. In our drive to make organizations more efficient, we often eliminate redundancies. That strategy is often favored as a cost-cutting move. However, the fewer redundancies in an organization, the less resilient the team. In a crisis, the thinnest parts of the organization are most likely to suffer.

It’s valuable to develop plans to ensure that you minimize the cases in which a single individual or single channel of communication is responsible for an important function within the organization. When you cannot eliminate these vulnerabilities, you at least need to be aware of them to ensure that they do not cause problems in a crisis.

HAVE YOUR DECISION TEAM READY

When a crisis hits, decisions need to be made quickly. The best way to handle a crisis is to have a plan in place already to address the basics of the situation. Many organizations will engage in tabletop exercises in which they simulate likely problems that can occur to practice addressing the situation so that the actual crisis is not the first time that the team is trying to manage a problem.

A central part of these exercises is determining how decisions will be made. It’s important to know which people have responsibility for particular categories of decisions in a crisis. It is also crucial to ensure that several people aren’t making contradictory decisions. Otherwise, different parts of an organization may work at cross purposes wasting valuable time and resources.

Ultimately, the best way to handle a crisis is to prepare for likely emergencies before they happen rather than scrambling to address a significant problem without any forethought.

Fast Company