RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

France helped Zelensky write apology letter to Trump – Politico

French diplomats reportedly helped Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky write a conciliatory letter to US President Donald Trump in a bid to help the two leaders mend ties, Politico reported on Wednesday, citing an anonymous official.

Relations between Trump and Zelensky soured following the Ukrainian leader’s visit to Washington in late February. During a meeting at the White House, which included US Vice President J.D. Vance, Zelensky pushed back against Trump’s attempts to get Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table.

In response, Trump and Vance accused Zelensky of being ungrateful for US support and “gambling with World War III” by refusing to engage in peace talks with Moscow. The meeting was cut short and Zelensky was told to leave and come back only when he is ready for peace. Trump also temporarily halted all US military assistance to Ukraine after the heated exchange, but later resumed support after Kiev agreed to a 30-day ceasefire proposal.

Despite resumed contacts, relations between Zelensky and Trump have remained strained, Politico noted. In the weeks after the row, diplomats in France, Germany and the UK “sweated over how to try and repair the badly damaged relationship between Trump and Zelensky,” the outlet claimed.

While British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was holding calls with both leaders and sent advisors to both Washington and Kiev, French diplomats were helping Zelensky write a letter seeking reconciliation with Trump, Politico wrote, citing a French official.

While the content of the letter has not been made public, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has stated that it contained an apology from the Ukrainian leader for the Oval Office scandal. The US president also confirmed receiving an “important” letter from Zelensky in which the latter had expressed his readiness to “come to the negotiating table as soon as possible.” 

Russia and Ukraine subsequently agreed to a 30-day partial ceasefire under which the two sides were to refrain from targeting each other’s energy infrastructure. However, Moscow has since accused Kiev of breaching the truce on an almost daily basis.

Meanwhile, following a five-hour-long meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, Witkoff stated on Monday that the Ukraine peace process was on “the verge” of a breakthrough. He also acknowledged that the Russian leader is pursuing a permanent resolution of the conflict, a position that Moscow has consistently articulated from the beginning.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Mass drone attack kills two, injures at least 16 in Ukraine's Dnipro, governor says

A Russian mass drone attack killed two people and injured at least 16 on Wednesday evening in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional governor said.

Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that a young woman and an elderly woman had been killed.

Lysak said 16 people had been injured, including three children, aged 11, six years old, and nine months. Five people were being treated in hospital.

Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov, also writing on Telegram, put the number of injured at 28.

The attack triggered several fires.

Filatov said one strike came within 100 metres (110 yards) of the municipal offices. He also said at least 15 dwellings had been damaged, as well as a student residence, an educational institution and a food processing plant.

Pictures posted online showed a large blaze and firefighters working at the scene well into the night, as well as gutted vehicles and buildings with smashed windows and damaged facades.

In northeastern Kharkiv region, governor Oleh Syniehubov said a Russian missile attack injured two people in the town of Izium. The town was captured by Russian troops in the early days of the February 2022 invasion, but was retaken by Ukrainian forces later in the year.

RT/Reuters

Perhaps the most telling moment in the National Broadcasting Commission’s ban of rapper Eedris Abdulkareem’s track, “Tell Your Papa” is its acknowledgement that the song was already trending on social media. If they knew that many of us had already listened to the song, and we have almost endless means to access the track anytime we wanted, why did they impose a ban on it? Of what use is such a ban in a country where the reach of social media surpasses that of broadcast media houses? How many people get their news from the traditional media compared to those who rely on ubiquitous social media apps where materials like “Tell Your Papa” freely circulate?

As much as I agree with observers who have challenged NBC on free speech, there is also more than a violation of democratic rights at work here. The NBC’s banning of a protest song they consider “objectionable” (to whom, anyway?) is telling of the analogue intelligence that runs this country, a realisation as frightening as the loss of fundamental human rights. This lack of organisational reflexivity and stimulation towards continuous self-reinvention explains why the Nigerian society always seems to be stuck in the same spot.

This is, of course, not to dismiss the aspect of fundamental rights. The ban is one of the countless instances of the assault on free speech under the present administration, a government ironically peopled by men who boast about their record of once “fighting for democracy”. Yet, nobody has done more to diminish democratic freedoms in Nigeria than these so-called activists. One of the instruments of their insidious warfare is, of course, the police. Currently, the police have made it their job to subvert free speech by elevating what should otherwise be inconsequential social exchanges to the level of “threat to public peace” and proceeding to act on it with unwarranted violence. This has become so recurrent that we are as good as inured to their excesses.

The other weapon through which free speech is being corrupted is the activities of public administrations like the NBC. Several times in this column, I have raised issues with the NBC and its obsequious tendency to court the favour of the government in power by punishing media houses that give a voice to a dissenting part of the populace. There was a time the NBC would release a bulletin listing the names of electronic broadcast stations that said one or two things they found “objectionable” and fine them heavily. Once, Bayo Onanuga cried wolf because a broadcast on one of the television stations had gotten his feelings hurt and the next thing the NBC did was slam a fine on the media house. They are that openly partisan. Even basing its objection to “Tell Your Papa” on its supposed objectionable contents would have been entirely hilarious if this were a satire. How is a song composed to protest an oppressive government expected to be inoffensive? Funny, but only in the way a tragedy makes you laugh to keep from crying.

What is really infuriating is that NBC is run by civil servants who probably have no serious idea what it takes to maintain a business in an economically hostile society like Nigeria. If they manage a backyard poultry, you can bet they will run it down. Those lacking an idea of what it takes to build an enterprise are more inclined to pursue aggressive tactics that threaten the survival of businesses. The NBC slams heavy fines on media houses that refuse to grovel before the powers that be, while conveniently forgetting that broadcast media are economic enterprises that must not only cater to an audience but must also make enough money to keep afloat. The civil servants in NBC have no such insights. Its job is to listen to the radio and television day and night, nitpick a few sentences they deem anti-government, and chase down the business with a fine. Thankfully, the court reined in its excesses by ruling on its fine as an administrative overstep. Now they are back in the public eye, seeking relevance by banning a song that gives voice to the many dissensions roiling contemporary Nigeria.

Yet, one cannot help but wonder what relevance organisations like the NBC have in the digital age. Why does it still exist? First, we live in a world where communication can be said to be out of control. Global media systems have empowered us to act outside the limits of the nation-state, and those of us in underdeveloped countries under repressive governments have been prime beneficiaries of this technological advancement. There are no borders on the internet, thankfully. The capitalist forces that control the algorithms (the technology that determines the range of what we see on our social media pages) have no use for our petty Nigerian issues; they will not shut down social media because a Tinubu does not like a song.

When I say the NBC ban on “Tell Your Papa” goes beyond the very vital matter of free speech, it is because I am sincerely perplexed by the failure of the NBC—and by extension, the Federal Government that funds it—to reinvent itself for a digital age. It is stubbornly stuck to the analogue means of managing the parameters of public discourse. While the world has changed significantly, it holds on to the illusions of a glorious past where it controlled the electronic media and, consequently, the range of public speech. NBC’s ineffective bans also reflect other larger systemic issues: the people running this country demonstrably lack the dynamism and flexibility to continuously reinvent and (re-) organise their administrative mandate to match social reality. This is a story of underdevelopment sponsored by the leaden-footedness of a leadership class that cannot cultivate its instincts to adjust to a world where the ground beneath its feet has long shifted.

This failure to reposition themselves to confront the dictates of the new world speaks to the broader issues of leadership and management, a crisis of imagination that haunts us at many levels. Its effects are reflected in the recrudescence of our national crises, to which we respond by marshalling the same old arguments as we did the last time. Hardly anything ever changes, and when all we do is relive the former moments, we appear to be stuck in history. Things have gotten so repetitive that you know the best even the Presidency will do to address the recurring spate of killing orgies under his watch is to “condemn” the violence and then deflect the responsibility just like he did the last time and as his predecessor also did. There are no solutions, not because our problems are irresolvable, but because our rulers are bored and can no longer stimulate themselves to fresh, vivacious thinking. When the leadership fails to reinvent itself and falls back on the same old methods that once worked, they also lose the opportunity to infuse vitality into the polity. Everything will appear to be dead still.

Finally, I do not know the extent to which Seyi Tinubu— the President’s son at whom the song was directed—influenced the media ban, but the NBC did him no favour. Even if the ogas at the top had pressured it to ban the song as a gesture of loyalty to Tinubu, there are more than enough contemporary experiences to which they could have referred to their paymasters to warn them that banning a song in the age of Twitter was a bad idea. What exactly did the song say that we do not say every day? Seyi, too, is not exactly a private citizen. He has been all over the place, ostentatiously lapping up the privileges that come with being the President’s son. So, why is someone like that beyond criticism? Does he have two heads, or why exactly does he deserve a pass? Even if this ban was a self-directed organisational decision by the NBC, the ban is still an imprudent one. Someone at NBC must really hate Seyi to have done this.

Punch

Feelings around money tend to drive a good deal of financial decision making, experts say. “Money is 90% emotion, 10% logic,” says certified financial therapist Khara Croswaite Brindle, owner of Croswaite Consultingin Lafayette, Colorado.

It pays to know your “attachment style” when it comes to your funds, she says. Once you understand how managing finances makes you feel, you can develop a healthy relationship with money. Here are two of the most common mindsets that can cause problems:

Anxious money attachment. People with this mindset tend to relate to finances the way they would to a person they’re afraid of losing, says Croswaite Brindle. The clinginess often stems from a fear that money will disappear without warning and never come back.

So they may be quick to pull funds out of the stock market during a temporary dip, or to underspend on things that would improve their lives — like therapy, vacations or professional development.

What to do about it: Challenging yourself to check your bank account balance twice this week instead of three times a day would be a great place to start, Croswaite Brindle says. 

The goal is to “rework what money feels like, somatically,” she says. That can mean helping yourself feel safer in the presence of money, say, by playing soothing music or wearing comfy clothes during check-ins.

Avoidant money attachment. “For avoidant folks, money is just out of sight, out of mind,” says Croswaite Brindle. “Like an ostrich with its head in the sand.”

Ignoring money decisions doesn’t make them disappear, though. Over time, this habit can result in late fees, unmanageable debt or missed opportunities to build wealth.

What to do about it: Start small. “Just getting regular, healthy exposure to money is important,” Croswaite Brindle says. Sit down with a timer set for five minutes and log into your bank account, she suggests — even if all you do is look at your balance.

Another tool Croswaite Brindle recommends is body doubling, or reviewing your finances sitting next to someone you trust. That presence can both ease emotional resistance and offer accountability.

CNBC

A devastating new report reveals that 50.1 percent of Nigerians now spend virtually their entire monthly income just to put food on the table, highlighting the crushing economic hardship facing ordinary citizens under President Bola Tinubu's administration. The Nigerian Consumer Outlook Report, which surveyed over 7,000 Nigerians across all six geo-political zones, paints a grim picture of a population struggling to survive amid soaring inflation and punishing economic reforms.

The report, conducted by Lagos-based SEID, exposes the harsh reality that more than half of Nigerians earn less than N100,000 monthly, revealing the severe income inequality and financial strain that has intensified since Tinubu's government implemented a series of controversial economic policies, including the removal of fuel subsidies and the floating of the naira.

The economic downturn has forced a significant shift in survival strategies, with nearly one-third (31.7%) of Nigerians now depending on self-employment as their primary income source. Meanwhile, skyrocketing electricity costs under the current administration have pushed 18.5% of households to invest in solar energy solutions as they seek alternatives to the increasingly unaffordable national grid.

Education no longer guarantees financial security in today's Nigeria, with the report highlighting that even educated workers struggle with underemployment. Those with advanced degrees earn more but face severely limited access to well-paying jobs in an economy battered by policy-induced inflation and instability.

Survival mode has become the new normal for most Nigerians, with families drastically cutting spending on non-essentials. Luxury and lifestyle categories such as fashion, travel, dining out, premium gadgets, and high-end beauty products have seen sales plummet as middle-income earners adjust to the harsh economic realities created by the administration's policies.

Managing Partner at SEID, Tubosun Akeju, noted that the average Nigerian consumer today faces a fundamentally different landscape than just a decade ago, with recent government policy changes dramatically altering how citizens navigate their economic realities.

Partner at Dentons ACAS-LAW, Afolabi Caxton-Martins, described the report as capturing "the lived realities of Nigerians" as they struggle to adapt to the country's rapidly deteriorating economic environment under the current administration.

As the economic crisis deepens, the report serves as a stark reminder of the growing hardship faced by ordinary Nigerians who continue to bear the brunt of the Tinubu government's harsh economic policies with little relief in sight.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Nigeria's annual inflation rate rose to 24.23 percent in March from 23.18 percent in February 2025, according to data released Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The March headline inflation rate showed a concerning increase of 1.05 percentage points compared to February figures.

On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation in March reached 3.90 percent, a significant jump from February's 2.04 percent. This indicates that the rate at which average prices are increasing accelerated substantially in March compared to the previous month.

The NBS report highlighted that food inflation—a critical indicator affecting most Nigerian households—stood at 21.79 percent year-on-year in March. The monthly food inflation rate increased to 2.18 percent, up by 0.50 percentage points compared to February's 1.67 percent.

This persistent inflation surge continues a troubling trend that began in 2023 when President Bola Tinubu implemented controversial economic reforms, including the removal of petrol subsidies and adoption of a floating exchange rate for the naira. These policy shifts have triggered steep increases in the cost of staple foods, pushing millions of Nigerians deeper into poverty and worsening food insecurity across the country.

The ongoing price surges have devastated Nigeria's agricultural sector, with many farms and businesses closing operations. Agricultural producers have been forced to scale back production due to mounting insecurity and unpredictable weather conditions affecting rural areas.

Despite Tinubu declaring a state of emergency on food insecurity in July 2023 and implementing several measures—including the suspension of duties, tariffs, and taxes on imported essential food items like beans, wheat, and husked brown rice—food inflation has continued unabated.

Inflation in Africa's most populous nation had previously soared to repeated 28-year peaks in 2024. A rebasing exercise conducted by the statistics bureau, which reweighted items in its reference basket and updated the comparison period from 2009 to 2024, resulted in the annual inflation rate dropping from 34.80 percent in December 2024 to 24.48 percent in January 2025.

However, the latest March figures confirm that inflation is once again on an upward trajectory, with rising prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages being the biggest contributors to the overall inflation rate.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Fitch, a global rating agency, has projected that Nigeria’s external debt service bill will increase to $5.2 billion this year.

According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria’s external debt service was $1.07 billion as at December 2024.

In its rating commentary on Nigeria, published on April 11, the credit rating firm said the service bill would rise further in 2025.

“Government external debt service is moderate but expected to rise to USD5.2 billion in 2025 (with USD4.5 billion of amortisations, including a USD1.1 billion Eurobond repayment due in November 2025), from USD4.7 billion in 2024, and fall to USD3.5 billion in 2026,” Fitch said.

According to the firm, there was a minor delay in paying a coupon due on March 28 on Nigeria’s sovereign $4 billion eurobond, highlighting public finance management challenges.

Fitch also predicted that general government debt would remain at about 51 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025 and 2026.

“We expect GG debt/GDP to decline marginally in 2025-2026, to 51%, in line with our ‘B’ median due to strong nominal GDP growth,” Fitch said.

“Nigeria’s public debt has a fairly long average maturity of 10.9 years, and over half is local-currency denominated (‘B’ median of 37%).”

The agency also projected that government revenue/GDP will rise, but remain structurally low — averaging 13.3 percent in 2025-2026.

Fitch said the upswing will largely account for a high government “interest/revenue ratio, above 30% (‘B’ median 13.2%), with Federal government (FG) interest/FG revenue ratio, nearly 50%”.

“Banks’ ample liquidity and strong demand for government securities should support domestic financing capacity,” the agency said.

Fitch had upgraded Nigeria’s credit rating from negative to stable.

The Cable

The Federal Government has announced Friday, April 18, and Monday, April 21, as public holidays in observance of Good Friday and Easter Monday.

The declaration was made by the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, in a statement issued on Wednesday by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Magdalene Ajani.

Tunji-Ojo extended his felicitations to Christians nationwide, urging them to reflect on the significance of Easter, which embodies the virtues of love, sacrifice, and redemption exemplified by Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

He called on Nigerians to use the occasion to pray for the nation’s peace, unity, and sustained progress. Additionally, the minister encouraged citizens to demonstrate compassion and goodwill by supporting one another through acts of kindness and generosity.

Tunji-Ojo wished Christians a joyous Easter celebration and conveyed warm holiday wishes to all Nigerians.

Gunmen reportedly stormed a prayer session  at a remote mountain site in the Egbola area, along Agbaja Road in Lokoja Local Government Area of Kogi State and abducted an unspecified number of the worshipers.

The incident is said to have occurred on Friday during  a night vigil on the mountain.

A woman identified as Mary Adams Gure was said to have been rescued  by men of the state vigilante services who got wind of the incident and mobilized to the scene and confronted the gunmen in a gun duel.

According to the source, their  attackers stormed the prayer ground, firing sporadically to instil fear before forcefully whisking the worshippers into the  bush.

The rescued woman was said to have escaped amidst chaos.

“The vigilantes were  mobilized quickly in response to the attack; and in the process, Gure was rescued . A search-and-rescue operation is ongoing to locate the remaining abducted faithful.

“Gure managed to escape and later found safety, thanks to the swift intervention of local vigilante members who were alerted and got to the scene of the incident on time,” the vigilante source said.

The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), William Aya, did not respond to calls and messages sent to him on the incident.

Daily Trust

Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang has called for communal self-defense following a wave of deadly attacks by suspected armed herders, which have left over 100 people dead in Bassa Local Government Area in recent weeks.

The latest assault occurred early Monday in Zike and Kimakpa communities of Kwall District, Irigwe Chiefdom, where gunmen killed at least 50 people and razed homes. Governor Mutfwang, who visited the affected areas on Tuesday, lamented that insecurity has stifled development in the state.

"We invested heavily in security technology upon assuming office, yet terrorism and insurgency continue to slow our progress," Mutfwang said. "Our people can’t farm or pursue livelihoods in fear. We must break this cycle of violence."

While pledging support for security agencies, the governor emphasized that communities must take an active role in their own protection. "Security agencies alone cannot solve this. We’ve reached a point where every community must defend itself—but within the law," he stated, urging youths to organize responsibly.

His remarks align with recent calls by the Director-General of the Department of State Security (DSS), Tosin Ajayi, who stressed that communities must establish a "first line of defense" against rising insecurity.

The governor’s stance echoes past appeals, including those by former Army Chief Theophilus Danjuma, but remains contentious. Critics warn that arming civilians could escalate violence, particularly in conflict-prone states like Niger, Benue, Taraba, and Kaduna, where clashes over land, grazing rights, and ethno-religious tensions persist.

Mutfwang vowed to prosecute the attackers and thanked President Bola Tinubu for federal support, even as survivors pleaded for stronger intervention to end the bloodshed.

Hamas armed wing says it lost contact with group holding Israeli-US hostage Alexander

The armed wing of Hamas said on Tuesday it had lost contact with a group of militants holding Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander in the Gaza Strip.

Abu Ubaida, the armed wing's spokesperson, said on the Telegram that it lost contact after the Israeli army attacked the place where the militants were holding Alexander, who is a New Jersey native and a 21-year-old soldier in the Israeli army.

Abu Ubaida did not say where in Gaza Alexander was purportedly held. The armed wing later released a video warning hostages families that their "children will return in black coffins with their bodies torn apart from shrapnel from your army".

Hamas has previously blamed Israel for the deaths of hostages held in Gaza, including as a direct result of military operations, while also acknowledging on at least one occasion that a hostage was killed by a guard. It said the guard had acted against instructions.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli military to a request for comment on the Hamas statement about Alexander.

President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff told reporters at the White House in March that gaining the release of Alexander, believed to be the last living American hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, was a "top priority for us".

The Tikva Forum, a group representing some family members of those held in Gaza, had said earlier on Tuesday that Alexander was among up to 10 hostages who could be released by Hamas if a new ceasefire was reached, citing a conversation a day earlier between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the mother of another hostage. There was no immediate comment on that from Netanyahu's office.

On Saturday Hamas released a video purportedly showing Alexander, who has been held in Gaza since he was captured by Palestinian militants on October 7, 2023.

The release of Alexander was at the centre of earlier talks held between Hamas leaders and U.S. hostage negotiator Adam Boehler last month.

Hamas released 38 hostages under a ceasefire that began on January 19. In March, Israel's military resumed its ground and aerial offensive on Gaza, abandoning the ceasefire after Hamas rejected proposals to extend the truce without ending the war.

Israeli officials say that offensive will continue until the remaining 59 hostages are freed and Gaza is demilitarized. Hamas insists it will free hostages only as part of a deal to end the war and has rejected demands to lay down its arms.

Reuters