UN envoy says 'reasonable grounds' to believe Hamas committed sexual violence on Oct. 7

The U.N. envoy focusing on sexual violence in conflict said in a new report Monday that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Hamas committed rape, “sexualized torture,” and other cruel and inhumane treatment of women during its surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

There are also “reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing,” said Pramila Patten, who visited Israel and the West Bank from Jan. 29 to Feb. 14 with a nine-member technical team.

Based on first-hand accounts of released hostages, she said the team “found clear and convincing information” that some women and children during their captivity were subjected to the same conflict-related sexual violence including rape and “sexualized torture.”

The report comes nearly five months after the Oct. 7 attacks, which left about 1,200 people dead and some 250 others taken hostage. Israel’s war against Hamas has since laid waste to the Gaza Strip, killing more than 30,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The U.N. says a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people face starvation.

Hamas has rejected earlier allegations that its fighters committed sexual assault.

Patten stressed at a press conference launching the report that the team’s visit was not to investigate allegations of sexual violence but to gather, analyze and verify information for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ annual report on sexual violence in conflict and for the U.N. Security Council.

Her key recommendation is to encourage Israel to grant access to the U.N. human rights chief and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Palestinian territories and Israel “to carry out full-fledged investigations into the alleged violations” — and she expressed hope the Security Council would do this.

Patten said the team was not able to meet with any victims of sexual violence “despite concerted efforts to encourage them to come forward.” While the number of victims remains unknown, she said, “a small number of those who are undergoing treatment are reportedly experiencing severe mental distress and trauma.”

However, team members held 33 meetings with Israeli institutions and conducted interviews with 34 people including survivors and witnesses of the Oct. 7 attacks, released hostages, health providers and others.

Based on the information it gathered, Patten said, “there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attacks in multiple locations across Gaza periphery, including rape and gang rape, in at least three locations.”

Across various locations, she said, the team found “that several fully naked or partially naked bodies from the waist down were recovered – mostly women – with hands tied and shot multiple times, often in the head.”

While this is circumstantial, she said the pattern of undressing and restraining victims “may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence.”

At the Nova music festival and its surroundings, Patten said, “there are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple incidents of sexual violence took place with victims being subjected to rape and/or gang rape and then killed or killed while being raped.”

“There are further accounts of individuals who witnessed at least two incidents of rape of corpses of women,” Patten said. “Other credible sources at the Nova music festival site described seeing multiple murdered individuals, mostly women, whose bodies were found naked from the waist down, some totally naked,” some shot in the head, some tied to trees or poles with their hands bound.

On Road 232 — the road to leave the festival — “credible information based on witness accounts describe an incident of the rape of two women by armed elements,” Patten said. Other reported rapes and gang rapes couldn’t be verified and require investigation.

“Along this road, several bodies were found with genital injuries, along with injuries to other body parts,” she said. “Discernible patterns of genital mutilation could not be verified at this time but warrant future investigation.”

She said “the mission team also found a pattern of bound naked or partially naked bodies from the waist down, in some cases tied to structures including trees and poles, along Road 232.”

People fleeing the Nova music festival also attempted to escape south and sought shelter in and around kibbutz Reim where Patten said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe sexual violence occurred.

The mission team verified the rape of a woman outside a bomb shelter and heard of other allegations of rape that could not yet be verified.

At Kibbutz Be’eri, Patten said, her team “was able to determine that at least two allegations of sexual violence widely repeated in the media, were unfounded due to either new superseding information or inconsistency in the facts gathered.”

These included a highly publicized allegation that a pregnant woman’s womb was reportedly ripped open before being killed with her fetus stabbed inside her, Patten said.

Another was “the interpretation initially made of the body of a girl found separated from the rest of her family, naked from the waist down,” she said. “It was determined by the mission team that the crime scene had been altered by a bomb squad and the bodies moved, explaining the separation of the body of the girl from the rest of her family.”

Patten said further investigation is needed of allegations, including of bodies found naked and in one case gagged, at kibbutz Be’eri to determine if sexual violence occurred.

At Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Patten said, verification of sexual violence was not possible. But she said “available circumstantial information – notably the recurring pattern of female victims found undressed, bound, and shot – indicates that sexual violence, including potential sexualized torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, may have occurred.”

Patten stressed that “the true prevalence of sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attacks and their aftermath may take months or years to emerge and may never be fully known.”

Patten said the team, which also visited the West Bank, received information from institutional and civil society sources as well as through interviews “about some forms of sexual violence against Palestinian men and women in detention settings, during house raids and at checkpoints.”

The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees on Monday said hundreds of Palestinians detained by Israel after Oct. 7 attacks have reported a broad range of ill-treatment from having pictures taken of them naked to being threatened with electrocution.

Phillipe Lazzarini told a news conference his agency, known as UNRWA, had put together an unpublished internal report based on information from detainees returning to Gaza “completely traumatized by the ordeal.”

He said some had been detained for a couple of weeks, some for several months.

“We heard stories of people not only having been systematically humiliated,” the UNRWA commissioner general said. “People have been being obliged to be pictured naked.”

 

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Medvedev says 'Ukraine certainly is Russia'

Ukraine certainly is Russia, regardless of what Ukrainian politicians say, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said.

"One of the former Ukrainian leaders said once that Ukraine was not Russia. This concept must disappear forever. Ukraine certainly is Russia," he pointed out in a lecture at the Knowledge First educational marathon.

Medvedev noted that there must be no more attempts to ignore Russian public opinion. "It rightfully regards Ukraine and its population as part of our all-Russian civilization. Had Ukraine escaped the stupidest trap set by the United States and its allies in order to counter our country with Ukraine’s assistance and use this very ‘anti-Russia entity,’ things might have been different," he emphasized.

According to the Russian Security Council deputy chairman, had there been no "jeering thieves, political doormats and blushful neo-Nazis" in the Ukrainian leadership, history could have gone a different way. "Had the Kiev ringleaders fulfilled the realistic conditions of the Minsk Agreements at some point, then, perhaps, there would have been no need for the special military operation, as our president has rightly observed," Medvedev emphasized.

 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's military: Russian forces stopped near Avdiivka, but reinforcing elsewhere

Ukraine's military said on Monday its forces had contained a Russian advance outside the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka captured last month, but Moscow's troops were regrouping in an area further south.

The capture of Avdiivka last month provided Russia with a security cushion for the regional centre of Donetsk 20 km (12 miles) to the east and prompted Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to pledge that Moscow's forces would make further advances.

Russia's defence ministry last week said its forces had captured new villages outside Avdiivka.

Ukrainian military spokesperson Dmytro Lykhoviy, speaking on national television, acknowledged that Russian forces were in partial control of two more villages -- but their advance had been halted.

"At the same time, we are saying that in this hottest sector of the direct Russian assault, we are managing to stabilise the situation and the enemy's advance has been halted," he said.

Speaking to U.S.-funded Radio Liberty, Lykhoviy said Russian forces were focusing on an area further south, around the village of Novomykhailivka, where they were "transferring reinforcements from the depths of Russia".

The area had sustained 30 assaults on Sunday, compared to 20 near Avdiivka, the radio quoted him as saying.

"But our defence is holding," he said. "The enemy is expending tremendous efforts but making no headway at all."

An account of the fighting by the Russian defence ministry said Moscow's forces had "as a result of coordinated action continued to occupy more advantageous positions" near Avdiivka. It made no mention of the area near Novomykhailivka.

Reuters could not verify accounts from either side.

Russian forces have focused on securing control of eastern Ukraine in the two-year-old war after their initial attempt to advance on Kyiv failed.

The capture of Avdiivka after months of fighting was their biggest gain in nine months, though the front lines have undergone only limited movement in that time. A Ukrainian counteroffensive has made little headway.

Ukraine's Emergency Services reported that two firefighters had been killed near the eastern Ukrainian town of Kramatorsk -- north of Avdiivka -- when they came under Russian shelling while battling a blaze.

 

Tass/Reuters

 

 

Hiring the wrong person is costly on every front: money, time, energy, and the well-being of your employees. Even if you hire the right people 90% of the time, one in ten new hires being the right people can create a ton of disastrous misalignment--especially at the senior level.

Brad Jacobs is a CEO and serial entrepreneur who has founded and led seven billion-dollar companies. In his book, How To Make a Few Billion Dollars, Jacobs explains the characteristics he looks for when hiring into world-class organizations, and what all leaders should look for when building their own teams.

"When I hire key people, I'm trying to achieve a two-part goal: accomplish big things and have fun doing it," Jacobs says. "There's nothing contradictory about this when you have the right people in place--and if you can do it at scale, you'll have an organization that can pursue big goals."

Jacobs explains that CEOs tend to get credit for the accomplishments of the teams they lead, but in reality, the most important thing a CEO does is recruit superlative people who have a specific combination of impressive traits, in addition to mastery over the skills required for their role. The four qualities Jacobs requires of each new hire, no matter their role, include:

Intelligence

Intelligence is a must-have, especially in multidimensional, evolving industries. Intelligent people look at problems as opportunities for improvement and are likelier to possess the creativity required to solve complex problems. Additionally, truly smart people are humble and open to learning from others. Rigid thinkers, at any level of intelligence, are less valuable to the team because they're mired in their own points of view. You want people who can think dialectically, which means they can think from multiple perspectives and reconcile streams of information that seem to flow in different directions.

Hunger

Hungry people have tenacity and are motivated by big projects that require whatever it takes to succeed. They're resilient and don't give up when problems emerge. "My companies have always looked to hire people who actively enjoy an intense, results-oriented workplace culture, and aren't merely resigned to working hard," Jacobs says. "They want to work with us because we're giving them the chance to run hard at ambitious goals and reap significant rewards. One way I try to 'hire for hunger' is by assessing whether a potential employee has what it takes to thrive in a lean workplace. Slightly understaffed teams are generally more focused and spend less time doing redundant busywork. Those who have the right kind of hunger can do well in a high-performing environment."

Integrity

The success of any company depends on its people doing what they say they'll do. The whole machine works better when a company's culture is defined by teamwork, which takes trust. Hiring trustworthy people makes it easy for those around them to focus on their jobs instead of constantly looking over their shoulders. It only takes one integrity-impaired person to disrupt a workplace, so it's far more efficient to filter that person out in the hiring process. "Most reputations for integrity come from the cumulative effect of someone doing what they say they'll do, and being straightforward in how they speak," Jacobs says. "These are the kinds of cues we look for as someone moves through the hiring process."

Collegiality

For Jacobs, it's a big deal that the people on his teams like one another. Work becomes more fun and more productive when it's with people who "bring up the vibe." Jacobs says that requiring collegiality from his teams is partly good business and it's partly selfish. "I want to make sure that the people around me are healthy influences in every sense of the word," Jacobs says. 

When hiring is done right, the effect on individual employees is powerful-- everywhere they turn, there's a teammate who makes them feel better about who they are and what they're doing. Everyone is happier, more energized, and the entire organization is more productive.

 

Inc

Companies that breach the new Expatriate Employment Levy policy will pay N3m for each offence.

The offences are not submitting EEL, not registering an employee, a corporate entity not renewing EEL within 30 days, and providing false information on EEL.

The Expatriate Employment Levy is a financial contribution imposed on employers who hire foreign workers.

The levy, which is mostly on the offshore earnings of expatriates working in Nigeria, aims to balance economic growth and workforce development by ensuring equitable contributions from expatriate employment.

President Bola Tinubu launched the policy on February 28, 2024.

He stated that the EEL would close the wage gaps between expatriates and the Nigerian labour force while increasing employment opportunities for qualified Nigerians in foreign companies operating in the country.

However, the handbook sighted by our correspondent on Sunday said offences such as inaccurate or incomplete information could lead to penalties.

“Failure of a corporate entity to file EEL within 30 days is liable to a fine of N3,000,000.

“Failure to register an employee within 30 days will attract a fine of N3,000,000.

“Falsification of information on EEL is liable to a fine of N3,000,000.

“Failure of a corporate entity to renew EEL within 30 days attracts N3,000,000 fine.”

Also,  according to the handbook, companies are expected to pay $15,000 for expatriates employed as directors, and $10,000 for other categories.

“Employers of expatriates covered by the EEL are required to pay $15,000 for directors and $10,000 for other categories of expatriates,” it added.

The Ministry of Interior in a notice on its website stated that the EEL card is a mandatory document like a passport.

It added that it would be required for any expatriate to leave and enter the country.

The ministry, however,  fixed April 15 for compliance with the policy.

The notice partly read, “For further details and registration of your company and expatriates working with you, kindly go through the Handbook and User Manual available on the portal.

“The last date of compliance with EEL is Monday, April 15, 2024.

“An EEL card is a mandatory document like a passport, and will be required at the time of lawful exit and entry into the country.”

 

Punch

Oil prices rose on Monday after OPEC+ members agreed to extend voluntary oil output cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day into the second quarter, largely in line with market expectations.

Brent futures was 28 cents, or 0.3% higher, at $83.83 a barrel at 0134 GMT, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 20 cents, or 0.3%, to $80.17 a barrel.

The output cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) are expected to cushion the market amid global economic concerns and rising output outside the group, with Russia's announcement surprising some analysts.

Russia will cut its oil output and exports by an additional 471,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the second quarter, in coordination with some OPEC+ participating countries, its Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Sunday.

"Signs of tightness in the physical market continue to push crude oil higher. Output cuts by the OPEC+ alliance continue to reduce supply as the market worries about the renewed tensions in the Middle East," ANZ analysts said in a note on Monday.

Rising geopolitical tensions due to the Israel-Hamas conflict and Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping have supported oil prices in 2024, although concern about economic growth has weighed.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis vowed on Sunday to continue targeting British ships in the Gulf of Aden following the sinking of UK-owned vessel Rubymar.

In some of the strongest comments by a senior U.S. leader, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday demanded Palestinian militant group Hamas agree to an immediate six-week ceasefire while forcefully urging Israel to do more to boost aid deliveries into Gaza.

Washington has insisted the ceasefire deal is close and has been pushing to put in place a truce by the start of Ramadan, a week away. A U.S. official on Saturday said Israel has agreed on a framework deal.

 

Reuters

National Emergency Management Agency

(NEMA) has declared that the warehouse looted in Abuja on Sunday did not belong to it.

Residents broke into a storage facility in the Gwagwa area of Abuja on Sunday and looted stored food items.

Residents of the area said youths broke into the warehouse located around the Tasha area of the community in the early hours of Sunday and looted bags of maize and other grains.

“This is to clarify that the looted warehouse does not belong to NEMA.

“However, the agency sympathises with owners of the looted facility,’’ NEMA’s spokesperson, Manzo Ezekiel, stated on Sunday in Abuja.

“The Director-General, Mustapha Ahmed, has directed Zonal Directors and Heads of Operations, to strengthen security in and around NEMA offices and warehouses nationwide.

“The directive is to forestall any security breach at NEMA’s facilities across the country,’’ Ezekiel added.

 

NAN

VP Harris urges Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire, pushes Israel on aid to Gaza

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday demanded Palestinian militant group Hamas agree to an immediate six-week ceasefire while forcefully urging Israel to do more to boost aid deliveries into Gaza, where she said innocent people were suffering a "humanitarian catastrophe."

In some of the strongest comments by a senior leader of the U.S. government to date on the issue, Harris pressed the Israeli government and outlined specific ways on how more aid can flow into the densely-populated enclave where hundreds of thousands of people are facing famine, following five months of Israel's military campaign.

"Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire," Harris said at an event in Selma, Alabama. "There is a deal on the table, and as we have said, Hamas needs to agree to that deal. Let's get a ceasefire."

"People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane and our common humanity compels us to act...The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses," she said.

On Sunday, a Hamas delegation had arrived in Cairo for the latest round of ceasefire talks, billed by many as the final possible hurdle for a truce, but it was unclear if any progress was made. Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth's online version reported that Israel boycotted the talks after Hamas rejected its demand for a complete list naming hostages who are still alive.

Washington has insisted the ceasefire deal is close and has been pushing to put in place a truce by the start of Ramadan, a week away. A U.S. official on Saturday said Israel has agreed on a framework deal.

An agreement would bring the first extended truce of the war, which has raged for five months so far with just a week-long pause in November. Dozens of hostages held by Hamas militants would be freed in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees.

One source briefed on the talks had said on Saturday that Israel could stay away from Cairo unless Hamas first presented its full list of hostages who are still alive. A Palestinian source told Reuters that Hamas had so far rejected that demand.

After the Hamas delegation arrived, a Palestinian official told Reuters the deal was "not yet there". There was no official comment from Israel.

In past negotiations Hamas has sought to avoid discussing the wellbeing of individual hostages until after terms for their release are set.

In other diplomatic moves, Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz will meet Harris at the White House on Monday and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington on Tuesday. U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein will visit Beirut on Monday to pursue efforts to de-escalate the conflict across the Lebanese-Israeli border.

"GUNFIRE AND CHAOS"

The death last week of more than 100 Palestinians approaching an aid truck in Gaza has captured the severe humanitarian crisis in the densely-populated enclave, an incident Harris recalled during her speech.

"We saw hungry, desperate people approach aid trucks simply trying to secure food their family after weeks of barely no aid reaching northern Gaza and they were met with gunfire and chaos," Harris said.

Israel said on Sunday its initial review of the incident had found that most of those killed or wounded had died in a stampede. Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli troops at the scene initially fired only warning shots, though they later shot at some "looters" who "approached our forces and posed an immediate threat".

Muatasem Salah, a member of the Emergency Committee at the Ministry of Health in Gaza, told Reuters the Israeli account was contradicted by machine gun wounds.

In her comments, Harris laid out specific ways on how the Israeli government can allow more aid into Gaza. "They must open new border crossings. They must not impose any unnecessary restrictions on the delivery of aid. They must ensure humanitarian personnel, sites and convoys are not targeted, and they must work to restore basic services and promote order in Gaza, so more food, water and fuel can reach those in need."

Under pressure at home and abroad, the Biden administration on Saturday carried out its first airdrop of aid into the coastal enclave, with a U.S. military transport plane dropping 38,000 meals along Gaza's Mediterranean coastline.

Critics of airdrops say they have only a limited impact on the suffering, and that it is nearly impossible to ensure supplies do not end up in the hands of militants.

The United States will continue these airdrops, Harris said and added that Washington was working on a new route by sea to also send aid.

The war was unleashed in October after Hamas fighters stormed through Israeli towns killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Swathes of the Gaza Strip have been laid to waste, nearly the entire population has been made homeless, and the United Nations estimates a quarter of Gazans are on the verge of famine.

At a morgue outside a Rafah hospital on Sunday morning, women wept and wailed beside rows of bodies of the Abu Anza family, 14 of whom Gaza health authorities say were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah overnight.

The youngest of the family who were killed were infant twins Wesam and Naaem, the first children of their mother after 11 years of marriage. They were born a few weeks into the Gaza war.

"My heart is gone," wailed Rania Abu Anza, who also lost her husband in the attack. "I haven't had enough time with them."

 

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian soldier thanks Biden for sending Abrams tanks to Ukraine

The Russian troops have seemingly recorded a video, where one of them mockingly thanked US President Joe Biden for supplying Kiev with Abrams tanks and giving Moscow’s forces an opportunity to earn some extra money by destroying them. Footage came amid reports about several such US-made heavy armor pieces being destroyed in less than a week.

A short clip that surfaced on social media featured an apparent Russian serviceman wearing full military gear, a helmet and a mask. “We, Russian warriors express our sincere gratitude to you for the Abrams tanks that the US is supplying to Ukraine," the soldier can be heard saying on the video, addressing the American president in English.

The man then goes on to explain that Russian troops are offered bonuses for each destroyed piece of Western equipment and asks Biden “to send more” Abrams tanks, as those that did arrive in Ukraine “are very few” and the Russian forces have to spend a lot of time just hunting down for them.

The US initially announced the delivery of 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in January 2023, the shipment did not arrive until the autumn, and the vehicles were absent from the front line until February.

The soldier also said that there were certainly not enough American tanks in Ukraine for every Russian serviceman to get their well-deserved bonus and offered Biden a 10% commission from every payment a Russian soldier gets by destroying the US-made heavy armor. He also suggested Biden get himself a Russian ‘MIR’ debit card to make it easier for the soldiers to send him money.

The video ends with the serviceman mockingly praising Biden as “a true patriot and the best US president as well as expressing his hope for “a mutually beneficial partnership.” “Together, we will win!” he adds.

Earlier on Sunday, the Russian journalists reported that an Abrams tank and a US-made mine-clearance vehicle based on an Abrams chassis were destroyed in Donbass. Last week, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the destruction of the first US-made heavy armor in the Ukraine conflict.

 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian rescuers complete search after Odesa drone attack kills 12

Rescue workers completed operations on Sunday after a drone strike on an apartment building in the southern city of Odesa, finding four more bodies and bringing the death toll to 12.

Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper, writing on Telegram, said rescue teams working into Sunday evening had found the bodies of an eight-year-old girl, near the body of her older brother, uncovered earlier.

Rescuers earlier in the day recovered the bodies of a mother and baby.

Kiper said five of the dead in the Odesa apartment building were children, the youngest being four months old.

The drone crashed into a residential building in Odesa on Saturday. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said casualties could have been avoided if Ukraine had not faced delays in arms deliveries.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, posting on Telegram, said Russian forces had wounded 16 people in an aerial bomb attack on an apartment building in the eastern town of Kurakhove, west of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk.

Two of the injured were children. Dozens of apartment buildings sustained damage.

Klymenko said on Saturday an infant was found dead alongside his mother in the rubble of the Odesa building. He posted a photograph of a rescue worker next to a bloodied blanket, a baby's arm visible on one side and an adult arm extending out the other.

Sunday was declared a day of mourning in Odesa.

 

RT/Reuters

The Buhari government did great damage to Nigeria’s economy for the excessive money it created and threw carelessly into the economy. We’re facing the extremely negative impact of that excessive monetary expansion through its devastating contribution to galloping inflation and pernicious pressure on our exchange rate. Unfortunately, we can’t point to much positive that the money the Buhari government borrowed and created was spent upon.

The Tinubu government has taken the very wrong step by attempting to take out the excess liquidity by an unprecedented overreliance on monetary policies. Raising CRR from 32.5% to 45% and interest rates by 4% (to 22.75%) at once will produce a crowding out effect of chasing the productive sectors of the economy out of the loans market while the coast would be made clear for the government to keep borrowing massively through the high interest rates it has announced. This amounts to less money to the productive sectors of the economy and more money to the government which created the liquidity crisis in the first place. And government officials would still be taking the money to the FX market to buy more dollars and pile even more pressure on the exchange rate. There is absolutely no deterrent to their continuation of this destructive behavior. It’s a free for all.

The government will therefore not likely achieve the desired objective, yet would have been killing the economy by pushing it towards recession or low growth. That is what Emeka was saying, and which some of us have been saying. They’re driving up interest rates to unprecedented/crazy levels (22.75%) and crowding out the productive sectors from access to credit. Only the government will be borrowing while the productive sectors will be comatose. They desperately want to tame inflation but don’t mind pulling down the economy in the process. It’s like desperately trying to bring down a child’s fever and giving him double the adult dosage of malaria drugs. You may so bring down the fever but kill the child in the process. The interest rate hikes will kill the economy at the rate they’re going.

The fiscal/executive measures that are needed to control the excess liquidity and attendant inflation and speculative FX demand (proving deadly to the economy), Tinubu lacks the political will to tackle. We saw how single individuals (women) took huge billions in just one ministry, and the baby-cockroach concept tells me that is just a symptom to a much larger malaise. If the government probes the spending of the huge debts and money created by the last government, and probes NNPC on our massively stolen oil and Subsidy frauds, it would discover and confiscate huge sums (at least $10bn to $15bn) which will curtail the excess liquidity and bring much needed ‘revenue’ and FX to the government without doing damage to the productive sectors of the economy.

We all saw an Accountant General (Ahmed Idris) allegedly stealing N109bn, NSIPA woman (Halima Shehu) accused of stealing N44bn, Humanitarian Minister (Sadiya Umar-Farouq) N37bn, Betta Edu paid out N585m and gave N438m contract to Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Interior Minister, etc, etc. These are the monies we should be going after and recovering and bringing back to the treasury and spending more judiciously in fueling the economy. But does Tinubu have the political will to do the above? Why is NNPC not being probed? Why is Mele Kyari still running NNPC despite all that happened there? Only the President can answer these questions.

Sometimes, the ride to school for Ritu Narayan’s children arrived on time. Sometimes it didn’t.

Whenever her kids’ transportation plans fell through, the longtime tech product manager at companies like eBay and Oracle had to enter crisis mode and drop everything at work. She thought of her own mother, a former teacher in India who faced the same problem decades ago — and ultimately put her career aside to raise four children.

Narayan’s solution: She left her job to create Zum, an AI-backed electric school bus service that launched in 2015. It started as something of a self-funded Uber, chauffeuring kids to school with a fleet of vetted private drivers. Parents arranged rides ahead of time and tracked their child’s location through Zum’s app.

It caught on quickly with Bay Area parents. “The demand was super clear,” Narayan, 50, tells CNBC Make It.

Then, in 2019, she asked some local schools to promote Zum to parents. Instead, the schools offered to enlist Zum as a privatized school bus fleet, with electric vehicles and tracking abilities.

Narayan faced a turning point: Stick with her original vision, inspired by her mother, with its clear market and high demand? Or completely revamp Zum’s services and infrastructure, while jumping straight into competition with larger established bus companies?

The customer base would be larger — more than 25 million U.S. studentsrely on school buses. But chasing them could collapse her company.

She took the risk. Five years later, Zum is valued at $1.3 billion, and Narayan was named to the inaugural CNBC Changemakers list on Wednesday. The startup has more than $1.5 billion worth of contracts in place with over 4,000 private and public schools across California, Washington, Texas, Illinois, Tennessee and Maryland, Narayan says.

Here, Narayan discusses her thought process behind that difficult decision, why her choice paid off and her advice for anyone facing a dilemma that seems to pit emotion against logic.

CNBC Make It: Why was the decision to change Zum’s focus so difficult? How long did you deliberate?

Narayan: It took me a while — eight months, or so — because there was a personal story attached to the founding story. [My mother] faced this problem in India and I was here, sitting in the center of Silicon Valley, the center of innovation, facing the exact same problem.

I knew [Zum’s original model] was changing the lives of working parents. Working women would write to us how they went back to the job, started to advance more — because they didn’t have to run at 4 p.m. to pick up their children — and got promoted.

It was a success. So it felt like, in a way, you were letting them down by not having that service anymore. What helped me make a decision was when I could internalize this: In the end, I’m still serving children and I’m still serving parents.

Did it feel like a big risk to abandon a business model that was experiencing some success?

Yes, absolutely. We didn’t have specialization in running buses, so it meant a new set of capabilities that we would have to build. We had to reorganize the team, convince our board and investors.

We got momentum [from winning a five-year, $53 million contract with the Oakland Unified School District, which began in 2020]. There was a large customer, and their launch was a success for us. So everybody got aligned around something immediate and large to solve.

Then, the pandemic happened and all rides to school stopped for around five [or] six months. That gave us a “when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade” type of situation. Since we weren’t in day-to-day operations, and we didn’t have to really serve existing customers, we used that time to very quickly enhance our product.

What’s your best advice about recognizing windows of opportunity— and knowing when they’re worth the risk?

One of my investors calls it a crucible moment — where you could die, or you’re just surviving, or you could fly.

I have to give this analogy: A parent is always seeing, when a child is around, what could go wrong. It’s by default. [You need to be] always thinking about how the market is evolving, how the business is evolving, how the competition’s evolving, how the customers’ needs are evolving.

Many times, the needs change in the market. Many times, you land upon something unexpected, which happened in our case, which is even bigger than what you initially thought.

In those cases, [you] have to evolve, because it’s that crucible moment. If you don’t make the right decision, you wouldn’t be as successful as you could be.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

 

CNBC