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A wave of criticism has trailed the recent naming of a newly constructed army barracks in Asokoro, Abuja, after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, bringing the number of institutions named after him to five since he assumed office in May 2023.

The Bola Ahmed Tinubu Barracks, inaugurated on January 23, 2025, comes shortly after the federal government approved the establishment of Bola Ahmed Tinubu Polytechnic, Gwarinpa, also in Abuja, to promote technological, vocational and entrepreneurial education.

The trend, according to findings, began 11 months ago when the Niger State Government in March 2024 renamed the Abubakar Imam International Airport in Minna as Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Airport, sparking outrage, particularly among residents of Rafi Local Government Area, the home of the late Abubakar Imam Kagara. The renaming was controversial as the airport had only been named after Abubakar Imam in June 2023 in recognition of his contributions to northern Nigeria’s literary, political and educational landscape.

Similarly, in May 2024, the National Assembly Library and Resource Centre was inaugurated and named the Bola Tinubu Building, while in December 2024, the Nigeria Immigration Service named its state-of-the-art technology complex after President Tinubu, citing his commitment to innovation.

Beyond these five institutions, there is also a proposed Bola Ahmed Tinubu Federal University of Nigerian Languages in Aba, Abia State. A bill for its establishment was introduced in the House of Representatives in October 2024, aimed at advancing higher education in Nigerian languages and cultures.

Weekend Trust reports that despite not breaching any known law, the trend of naming institutions after a sitting president has raised moral and ethical concerns. The controversy around these renaming exercises continues to intensify, particularly due to the perception that they are politically motivated.

Historical context of military barracks naming

Historically, the naming of military barracks has followed a pattern of honouring those who contributed significantly to the country, particularly in the context of wartime heroes or military leaders, or to recognise some significant historical locations, mostly relating to military events.

In an article titled Barracks: The History Behind Those Names, historian, Nowa Omoigui recalled how, in September 2002, the then Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. TY Danjuma (retd) set up a Military Installation Naming Committee to assess the propriety of naming military installations after individuals. The committee comprised Brig-Gen Mobolaji Johnson (retd); Lt-Gen M. I. Wushishi (retd), General D. Y. Bali (retd), Major-General M. C. Ali (ertd) and Brig-Gen Pius Obi (retd), with Brig-Gen A. N. Bamali as the secretary,

Omoigui recalled that among other things, the committee was tasked: “To determine the propriety or otherwise of naming military installations after individuals; to examine ways of reviving the names inherited from colonial era that have now been abandoned; to recommend appropriate additional names arising from the Nigerian Civil War, ECOMOG operations in Liberia and Sierra Leone and any other peacekeeping operation in which Nigerian troops suffered casualties.”

At the time, barracks were traditionally named after specific battles or locations in which Nigerian troops had been involved, particularly during the Nigerian Civil War and the peacekeeping operations in Liberia and Sierra Leone. For example, Arakan Barracks and Myohaung Barracks were named after campaigns during the World War II era, and Tamandu Barracks was named after a notable battle in the northern region.

Specifically, the minister was quoted as saying: “At no time was any barracks named after individuals, whether dead or alive. The first departure from this practice was recorded when the military cantonment in Kaduna was named after Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu, the first Minister of Defence.”

The naming conventions for military barracks was updated after the review committee’s work, which led to several barracks being renamed after prominent Nigerian military figures, including Yakubu Gowon, Sani Abacha, Aguiyi Ironsi, Ibrahim Babangida, and Olusegun Obasanjo. The change was seen as an effort to honour and solidify the legacy of the country’s military leadership and to further instill a sense of patriotism.

But during the administration of President Umar Musa Yar’adua, the policy was partly reversed. It was ordered that military barracks, formations and institutions previously named after individuals — particularly former heads of state and military officers —should revert to their original names or be renamed in line with military traditions. 

Accordingly, the Obasanjo Barracks in Abuja was renamed Mambilla Barracks; Mohammed Buhari Barracks reverted to its former name, Lungi Barracks; and Ibrahim Babangida Barracks changed back to Maimalari Barracks in Maiduguri.

The decision was seen as an effort to depersonalise national military assets and restore professionalism in the armed forces.

A moral issue, not legal

While it is not uncommon for governments around the world to name institutions after past leaders or significant figures, critics have raised concerns about the practice of naming critical institutions after sitting presidents. In particular, the growing trend of naming various public facilities after President Tinubu has been met with widespread disapproval. Many argue that this practice reflects a troubling pattern of self-promotion and is not in line with democratic principles.

Seun Onigbinde, the co-founder of BudgIT, a civil society organization dedicated to promoting transparency and accountability in Nigeria, took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his concerns. 

He wrote: “In less than a year, four public institutions have been named after President Bola Tinubu. This abuse of norms is rooted in the sycophantic culture that has grown in recent times. The president should put a stop to this as he is signaling a culture that is highly unacceptable.”

Onigbinde’s statement summed the criticism that this renaming trend represents a form of sycophantic excess, where institutions are manipulated for the benefit of those in power, rather than being named in recognition of true merit or service to the country. He contended that this practice diminished the significance of public institutions by associating them too closely with the personal image of the sitting president.

In support of Onigbinde’s criticism, another observer commented: “Nothing to worry about, once power changes hands, it will be returned to the initial name it was bearing,” even as another posited that “institutions and public infrastructures will begin to have name changes every 4/8 years with the cost burden on public purse.”

Another commentator, Okediran Adeyemi submitted that, “This act promotes sycophancy and undermines meritocracy. Such honours should be reserved for leaders’ post-tenure whose legacy of service or sacrifice is undeniable.”

Civil society groups respond

The practice has also been condemned by several prominent civil society groups who argue that it undermines democratic values and fosters an unhealthy culture of personality worship. 

Dr Moses Paul, the convener of the Free Nigeria Movement, a coalition of activist groups, expressed his dismay at the direction the administration is taking. He stated that naming significant public institutions after a sitting president compromised national integrity and undermines the democratic process.

He described the renaming of a military barracks in Asokoro after Tinubu as particularly egregious. 

“Military barracks are not mere structures; they are sanctuaries of sacrifice, discipline, and service to the nation. Naming one after a sitting president while countless soldiers have paid the ultimate price for our security dishonours their memory,” he said.

Paul argued that globally, public infrastructures are named after individuals whose contributions have stood the test of time. “Nigeria’s military has suffered immense losses in the fight against insurgency. Naming barracks after fallen soldiers would be a far more fitting tribute,” he said.

He warned that such actions erode public trust in governance, signalling a lack of accountability and a tendency toward self-glorification.

“We call on the federal government to review these decisions. Nigeria deserves a leadership that respects its history, honours its heroes and prioritises its people over self-aggrandisement. True leadership is measured not by names on buildings but by lasting impact on citizens’ lives,” he said.

Comrade Ibrahim Zikirullahi, the executive director of the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), also condemned the renaming of institutions, arguing that such actions are part of a broader strategy to consolidate political power rather than honouring individuals who have made lasting contributions to society.

“Naming government institutions after public figures is not alien to Nigeria, but the manner in which the current administration is naming almost every government institution after President Tinubu is disturbing. The standard practice is for successors to honour a leader after they leave office. Naming institutions after a sitting president not only undermines historical continuity but risks politicising public resources,” he said.

Comrade Zikirullahi’s remarks stressed the risk of undermining democratic norms by introducing a cult of personality, where every administration seeks to secure its place in history at the expense of public trust and transparency.

Efforts to get the reaction of the Presidency on the matter were unsuccessful as none of the spokesmen could be reached for comment.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare and Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga did not respond to calls put across to them.

Also the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communications, Daniel Bwala, could not be reached on phone. Messages sent to their mobile phones was yet to be replied as at the time of filing this report.

N’Assembly urged to make it legal issue

The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and Head of Transparency International Nigeria (TI-Nigeria), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, was equally critical of the trend, warning that the practice sets a dangerous precedent that could have far-reaching consequences for the country’s political culture. He cautioned that such actions might lead to the instrumentalisation of public institutions for partisan purposes, which undermines the democratic ethos of national development.

“The concentration of national symbols and institutions around a sitting president reflects an attempt to monopolise public spaces and institutional memory for personal glorification. This is not the kind of democratic politics we should encourage,” Rafsanjani said.

He went on to draw comparisons with other countries, highlighting the political implications of similar actions by other leaders around the world. He noted the cases of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Yoweri Museveni in Uganda and Vladimir Putin in Russia, where the naming of institutions after sitting leaders was part of a broader strategy of consolidating personal power and entrenching their legacies. In all of these cases, he argued it led to long-term political instability and a weakening of democratic institutions.

He noted that leaders world over who truly seek to build their legacies often do so by creating lasting change that benefits the entire country, not by altering public infrastructure for the sole purpose of reinforcing their personal image.

Rafsanjani urged the National Assembly to pass a legislation prohibiting the renaming of public institutions after sitting officials. He suggested that any renaming of public assets should only be carried out after broad consultations and with the input of the civil society to ensure that it reflects the interests of the people rather than the preferences of those in power.

“Any decision to rename public institutions should involve broad consultations with stakeholders, including civil society and the public,” he said.

He stressed that this process is crucial in ensuring that such renaming exercises do not become tools for political manipulation but rather serve to honour leaders whose actions have had a lasting, positive impact on the country.

Lagos and Tinubu’s political influence

Beyond the federal level, Lagos State, where Tinubu served as governor from 1999 to 2007, has been another focal point for his legacy-building efforts. Tinubu, often regarded as a political godfather in Lagos, enjoys widespread loyalty among the state’s political elite, which has resulted in numerous institutions named in his honour. 

Some of these facilities are the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Ultra Modern Market, Ijaiye Ojokoro; Bola Tinubu Memorial Hall, Ifako-Ijaiye; Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Block at Ojokoro LCDA; Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Ultra Modern Market, Ijaiye Ojokoro, Lagos; Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Legislative Building, Kosofe, Lagos; Bola Tinubu Memorial Hall inside Ifakojaiye LCDA, and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Civic Centre, Ifako Ijaiye LCDA.

Others are Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Health Centre, Aboru, Oke Odo; Bola Ahmed Tinubu Estate, Abule Egba;  Ahmed Tinubu Modern Market, Agbara;  Bola Tinubu Staff Quarters, Alausa Secretariat Bus Stop; Bola Tinubu Model Market Idimu; Bola Ahmed Tinubu Train Station.

Many argue that these re-naming serve to reinforce his dominance within the local political landscape

However, some critics have acknowledged that while Tinubu’s influence in Lagos is significant, these renaming might also be a signal of the growing trend of consolidating political power through symbolic gestures.

Speaking anonymously, a Lagos-based chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) defended the naming of institutions in Tinubu’s honour, arguing that his contributions to the state and the country in general warrant such recognitions.

“He touched lives across Nigeria. He raised people, made them senators, House of Representatives members and more,” he said.

Yet, even in Lagos, the timing of the renaming has sparked debate, with some observing that it may be premature to place the names of living leaders on public institutions. 

The chieftain of the ruling party acknowledged that while Tinubu’s legacy should eventually be honoured, the renaming of facilities during his presidency might be seen by some as politically motivated.

Prof Sylvester Odion, a Lagos-based political scientist, also criticised the renaming of institutions while a leader is still in power, asserting that it is inappropriate and undermines the democratic values that should guide such decisions. He also echoed the sentiments that leaders should be celebrated for their service only after they leave office, when their legacies can be more accurately assessed.

“Celebrating oneself while in power is improper. It is better for the society to acknowledge you after office based on merit,” he said.

 

Daily Trust

Former Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Idada Ikponmwen (retd.), Udom Ekpoudom, Deputy Inspector General of Police, (retd.), and other Niger Delta stakeholders have urged the Federal Government to stop chasing oil thieves with already compromised security officials.

The stakeholders who appraised information leakage by security agents to oil thieves said thieves in military uniforms would not deter thieves in civilian uniforms; rather, both would join hands together, which is currently the fad. They said some high-profile criminal gangs were conscripting their members into the nation’s security forces and urged the government to fish out the saboteurs and deal with them.

Controversial bombshell

The Chairman of the Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, in November, last year, accused some security officials of complicity in oil theft. He spoke when he received the national leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, led by its President, Afam Osigwe, at Oporoza, Delta State. Tompolo said Navy officials shot at operatives of Tantita, NSCDC and DSS who arrested a vessel in Rivers State and Ovwian in Delta State in recent encounters.

He said, “We want the NBA to support the President of this country and Tantita Security Services because while doing this work, we step on the toes of the big boys over there in Lagos, and Abuja. Most times, you see that Tantita Security now has confrontations with the Nigerian Navy and every well-meaning Nigerian knows the function of the Nigerian Navy and Tantita now, but nobody wants to come out to face the truth. If we happen to arrest anybody now, they will get a lawyer from Abuja, Lagos, or Ibadan to do your case very well.

“The GMD said production has increased to 1.8mbd. Some few days back, our people intercepted a vessel in Port Harcourt, where the Nigerian Navy was shooting at Tantita Security, with Police, DSS, and Civil Defence. We want to implore and beg that you have a role to play in this present situation because if we are not careful in this country we may not have money to do any reasonable thing. All of us here know that Nigeria is facing hardship. We are going to do our part locally but you are there at the top. If we make any arrest today, lawyers will stand on the other side and on this side. I appeal that you help us. Nobody can load a vessel of 500 metric tonnes in this area because they do not have the capacity. The person comes from either Lagos, Abuja or neighboring countries. So we have to step on a lot of toes.

“I cannot travel anywhere after my court cases because of the key people fighting this battle. If I want to travel to Abuja to visit you, I have to go with security. If I have two or three security personnel, none of them is happy with Tompolo and they are now even working with people that are top players of oil theft,” he added.

Inaugurate Marines to fight oil thieves —Ikponmwen, ex-Army Provost Marshal

Ikponmwen, a distinguished South-South leader, who spoke to Saturday Vanguard in Benin City, Edo State, attributed the ongoing charade to systemic failure, saying the Nigerian Navy, which is the country’s lead agency in the war against oil thieves, had no business pursuing oil thieves, which is poles apart from its primary role.

According to him,”there are so many reasons why oil theft has not been solved; I do not think anybody takes the question of tackling it seriously. We have been hearing that the military is involved; are you not aware that those who are supposed to keep the law are the ones breaking it? When the people who are supposed to fight the scourge are deeply involved in it, who do we blame? Is the military supposed to police the seas? The primary responsibility of the Navy, jointly with the Army and the Air Force, is to protect the territory of Nigeria and preserve it from external aggression. That is the primary role of the military. Take the Navy out of this. Look at the United States that we have copied, they have the Marines.

“The Marines are responsible for the security of the maritime and the high seas, why can’t we create the necessary organs that can fight these oil thieves? The system is ineffective, we are running a democracy, but we all know there is no democracy.”

Govt. should deal with security infiltrators — Ekpoudom, ex-DIG

Ex-DIG Udom Ekpoudom, speaking in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State, expressed concern about security officials passing information to criminals, saying the thievery would continue under such a situation if unchecked. He advised the government to ensure that security operatives who sabotage the fight against oil theft were dealt with, saying, “you cannot be fighting crime and be a criminal at the same time. But that is if the recent revelation by ex-militant leader Tompolo is true.”

Implement a see-through metering system — Brador, ex-oil bunkerer

A former oil bunkerer, Niyi Brador, stated, “As a way out of these endless accusations and counter-accusations, the federal government should adopt a transparent metering system in the oil industry to know the actual volume of crude oil leaving every flow station.

“The security agencies should not be blamed alone; the oil industry is also not immune to the large-scale corruption rocking the Nigerian society.”

Criminal gangs conscript members into our security forces — Akpan, activist

The Executive Director of the COMPPART Foundation for Justice and Peace building in Akwa Ibom State, Saviour Akpan, said, “Unfortunately, the problem is associated with the recruitment process into the nation’s security forces. High-profile criminal gangs sponsor their members into different law enforcement and security agencies in Nigeria.

“Secondly, 98 percent of those who joined the nation’s security and armed forces were not out of patriotism but because the security sector has openings that can absorb even the starkest illiterate, who become a menace to the nation’s security apparatus.

“Thirdly, our reward and sanction system does not encourage patriotism, especially now that the number of people waiting to loot or steal the nation’s commonwealth is even greater than those currently stealing. I am not surprised with the revelations of the different actors and victims of this third-degree security services provision because the system encourages it.”

Oil cabal bigger than Tompolo, Tantita, says Clarkson, ex-MOSIEND spokesperson

A lawyer and former Spokesman of the Movement for the Survival of Ijaw Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta, MOSIEND, Amaebi Clarkson, said Tompolo’s disclosure that some security officials were compromising the battle against oil theft by leaking information to the oil thieves was only re-echoing what was in the public domain.

According to him, “We, particularly in the Delta, know that our boys are not the major culprits in the illegal bunkering enterprises. The so-called Niger Delta youths branded as oil thieves are small fries. They neither have the resources to bring in vessels nor the reach and logistics to navigate deep seas where the oil businesses are done.

“I have said in several forums that the government knows the oil thieves and is possibly part of the racketeering. They only try to make a public show of this wolfish cry of oil thieves and parade our youths as fall guys for their thriving business. The Nigerian Navy should have the gadgets to know, see, and monitor any vessel that enters our territorial waters, so why are they unable to apprehend the thieves?

“Tompolo and his Tantita are a pawn in the chess game in the web of a well-oiled bunkering enterprise. He should get his cruise while it lasts because the players are far above his league. The Nigerian state cannot simply run institutions ranging from law enforcement agencies to economic regulation. It is worthless analyzing micro-aspects of a national metastasis.”

Slur campaign against Tompolo — Ekerefe, activist

National Leader of New Era Movement, a Niger Delta advocacy group, Ebilade Ekerefe, said: “Though Tantita Security Limited has played a pivotal role in the fight against crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region and significantly boosted daily crude oil production capacity of Nigeria, it is obvious that some bad eggs in the security agencies in collaboration with some big oil thieves are not comfortable with the operations of the company. They are doing everything, including sponsoring a smear campaign against Tompolo and Tantita Security Limited. While everyone is entitled to free speech, it is unacceptable for our people to be used to fighting a proxy war in favor of the oil cabals.

“We call on our brothers involved to desist from such acts and give room for dialogue and constructive engagement if they have genuine concern or grievances.”

Oil theft is an organized crime — Gbemre

Social justice advocate and Coordinator, Niger Delta Peace Coalition (NDPC), Zik Gbemre, who noted Nigeria’s military involvement in oil theft, however, said Tompolo had no moral justification to engage in the recent blame game he sparked on the fight against intractable oil theft in Nigeria.

“The Defense Headquarters can no longer live in denial of the military’s deep involvement in oil theft. They aid and abet or directly engage in the money-spinning economic sabotage. Oil theft in Nigeria is an organized crime that involves collusion by critical stakeholders, including the IOCs, militant leaders, security agencies, industry regulators, especially the NNPCL, host community players, power brokers in government, and contractors who fix vandalized assets.

“This is already an open secret. Tompolo is not the first person to raise these allegations. As governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike fearlessly mentioned names of security personnel and service commanders directly sponsoring oil theft in his domain at the time.”

 

Vanguard

The drop box visa processing option is no longer available for US visa applicants in Nigeria, marking a significant shift in the visa renewal process.

Nairametrics sources confirm that the service, which previously allowed eligible applicants to renew their visas without an in-person interview, has been quietly removed from the appointment booking system.

While the US Embassy in Nigeria has yet to issue an official statement on the change, applicants attempting to schedule visa renewals have reported that the drop box feature is no longer an option on the appointment booking platform.

Appointment backlogs 

Applicants who spoke to Nairametrics stated that they have not been able to access the platform suggesting that it may have been removed.

However, Nairametrics sources confirm the feature may have been removed as a slew of executive orders from Donald Trump started to impact the world.

This development is coming amid a backlog of visa applications, with many applicants waiting months to secure drop box appointments before this removal.

  • Some even reported waiting nearly a year to get a physical appointment, adding to the frustration of an already tedious process.
  • This change comes at a time when many applicants had already been struggling with long wait times—some as long as a year—to secure an in-person visa appointment.
  • As of January, dropbox appointment slots were unavailable in Lagos, pushing many applicants to seek alternatives in Abuja.

Now, with the complete removal of the drop box feature, all applicants will have to go through in-person interviews, returning to the process that was in place before 2020.

What you should know  

The drop box (Interview Waiver) program in Nigeria was initially introduced to ease the visa renewal process by allowing certain applicants to submit their documents without attending an in-person interview at the US Embassy or Consulate.

To qualify, applicants had to meet specific criteria, including:

  • Having a prior US visa that expired within the last 24 months.
  • The previous visa must have been issued in Nigeria as a full-validity, multiple-entry visa.
  • Applying for the same visa classification as the prior approved visa.
  • No record of overstaying, working without authorization, or having criminal convictions in the US.

In August 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic,the US Department of State expanded eligibility, allowing those whose visas expired within 48 months to apply through the drop box system.

This measure aimed to streamline visa renewals and reduce in-person interactions amid pandemic restrictions.

However, the drop box service in Nigeria has faced previous suspensions. In 2018, during Donald Trump’s first administration, the US government removed the option, citing concerns over visa overstays by Nigerian travellers.

At the time, the US mission mandated in-person interviews for all applicants, leading to longer processing times and delays in securing visa appointments.

With the recent removal of the drop box feature, Nigerians applying for US visas will now revert to full in-person interviews, adding to the already extended wait times for visa appointments. This policy shift may significantly impact business travelers, students, and frequent visitors who previously relied on the drop box system for faster renewals.

 

Nairametrics

It’s been an exciting week, as Elon Musk and the DOGE have exposed the United States Agency for International Development for wasting our tax dollars on the most far-leftist, anti-American, and just outright stupid causes.

While the American public at large is just now learning that USAID has been squandering our hard-earned money by the billions on dangerous and laughable causes alike, Glenn Beck has been sounding the alarm on USAID for years.

“USAID, as we have always told you, is an arm of the CIA. Anything that is too risky to do that you just don't want to do in the CIA because somebody's paying attention, you do it at USAID,” he says.

“All the color revolutions that happened all around the world, they were done by us. The Arab Spring was done by us. … It was USAID,” he adds.

While the mainstream media are working overtime to write off every shocking revelation as a conspiracy theory and spin a narrative of Trump cruelty, their claims are easily debunked with receipts, which, thanks to the DOGE, we now have in abundance.

Glenn reads some of the most shocking evidence of USAID’s prodigal spending.

  • “$7.9 million to teach Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid binary gendered language”
  • “$4.5 million to combat disinformation in Kazakhstan”
  • “$2 million for sex changes and LGBT activism in Guatemala”
  • “$2.1 million to help the BBC value the diversity of Libyan society”
  • “$10 million worth of USAID-funded meals went to an al-Qaeda linked terrorist group”
  • “$6 million for tourism in Egypt”
  • "$5 million to EcoHealth Alliance, one of the key NGOs funding bat virus research in the Wuhan lab”
  • “$1.1 million to an Armenian LGBT group”
  • “$1.5 million to promote LGBT advocacy in Jamaica”
  • “$2 million to promote LGBT equity through entrepreneurship in Latin America”
  • “$2.3 million for artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the Amazon”
  • “$5.5 million for LGBT activism in Uganda”

Glenn and guest co-host Pat Gray point out that the money going to some of these impoverished countries could be legitimately transformative if it were only used for the right reasons instead of advancing leftist political agendas.

“I don't care who you voted for; every American should be pissed off at this,” says Glenn.

The list above is just a fraction of the examples Glenn gives.

 

The Blaze

Hamas frees three hostages, Israel begins releasing Palestinians

Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday handed over three Israeli hostages whose gaunt appearance shocked Israelis, and Israel began freeing dozens of Palestinians in the latest stage of a ceasefire aimed at ending the war in Gaza.

Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, who were taken hostage from Kibbutz Be'eri during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and Or Levy, who was abducted that day from the Nova music festival, were led onto a Hamas podium by gunmen.

The three men appeared thin, weak and pale, in worse condition than the 18 other hostages already freed under the truce agreed in January after 15 months of war.

"He looked like a skeleton, it was awful to see," Ohad Ben Ami's mother-in-law, Michal Cohen, told Channel 13 News as she watched the Hamas-directed handover ceremony, which included the hostages answering questions posed by a masked man as militants armed with automatic rifles stood on each side.

In another show of force by Hamas, which has paraded fighters during previous releases, dozens of its militants deployed in central Gaza as it handed hostages over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The hostages were then driven in ICRC cars to Israeli forces and into Israel, where they had tearful reunions with family members, and flown to hospitals. "We missed you so much," the mother of Or Levy, Geula, said as she hugged her son.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the sight of the frail hostages was shocking and would be addressed.

Israel's President Isaac Herzog described the release ceremony as cynical and vicious. "This is what a crime against humanity looks like," he said.

The Hostage Families Forum said the images of the hostages evoked images of survivors of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. "We have to get ALL THE HOSTAGES out of hell," it said.

In exchange for the hostages' release, Israel was freeing 183 Palestinian prisoners, some convicted of involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people, as well as 111 detained in Gaza during the war.

Cheering crowds greeted the buses as they arrived in Gaza, embracing the freed detainees, some of them weeping with joy and tearing prison-issued bracelets off their wrists.

Among those freed in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was Eyad Abu Shkaidem, sentenced to 18 life terms in Israel for masterminding suicide attacks in revenge for Israel's 2004 assassinations of Hamas leaders.

"Today, I am reborn," Shkaidem told reporters as the crowd cheered.

The Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said six of the 42 released in the West Bank were in poor health and were taken to hospital. Some prisoners complained of ill-treatment. "The occupation humiliated us for over a year," said Shkaidem.

PAINFUL RETURN

Some hostages face a painful return. Sharabi's two teenage daughters and his British-born wife were slain in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be'eri, where one in 10 residents was killed.

Israel's Channel 12 said Sharabi had not been told about their deaths and asked where they were when he arrived.

Levy will be reunited with his three-year-old son. His wife was killed in the attack.

Hagar Mizrachi from Israel's Ichilov Hospital said the hostages exhibited severe weight loss and malnutrition.

Sixteen Israeli and five Thai hostages have been released so far and 583 Palestinian prisoners and detainees have been freed.

The first 42-day phase of the ceasefire, mediated by Washington, Cairo and Doha, has largely held since it took effect on January 19.

Netanyahu sent a delegation for talks in Doha on Saturday, Israel's Channel 12 reported, citing a political source.

Concern the deal might collapse before all remaining 76 hostages are free has grown since President Donald Trump's surprise call for Palestinians to be moved from Gaza and for the enclave to be handed to the United States and developed into the "Riviera of the Middle East".

Arab states and Palestinian groups have rejected Trump's proposal, which critics said would amount to ethnic cleansing. Hamas said on Saturday its armed display at the hostage handover showed it could not be excluded from post-war Gaza arrangements.

Netanyahu welcomed Trump's intervention and his defence minister has ordered the military to make plans to allow Palestinians who wish to leave Gaza to do so.

Under the ceasefire deal, 33 Israeli children, women and sick, wounded and older men are to be released during the first stage in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Negotiations on a second phase began this week aimed at returning the remaining hostages and agreeing on a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in preparation for a final end to the war.

Hamas-led gunmen killed some 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages in the October 7, 2023 attack, according to Israeli tallies.

The offensive Israel launched in response in Gaza has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated much of the enclave.

 

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says Russia launched 139 drones overnight

Ukraine's air force said on Saturday it shot down 67 of 139 Russian drones launched overnight, while another 71 disappeared from radar without reaching their targets.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian strike on Donbass city kills one and injures 10 – authorities

The Ukrainian military has launched a missile strike targeting the center of the city of Makeevka in the Russia's Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the region’s head Denis Pushilin said on Saturday. The attack hit a residential area, killing one person and injuring 10 more, he relayed.

Russian air defense systems were able to intercept the Ukrainian missile, but its fragments nevertheless fell in the central city district, Pushilin said in a statement published on his official Telegram channel. Several apartment blocks as well as 15 cars were damaged in the strike, he added. Makeevka is an eastern suburb of the region’s capital, Donetsk.

According to Pushilin, a child was among those injured in the attack. Everyone who was hurt in the strike is receiving all the necessary medical aid, he said.

A video from the scene obtained by the Ruptly video agency shows firefighters and emergency services assessing the damage dealt to one of the apartment blocks in Makeevka. The building is seen visibly affected by the attack, with most of its windows smashed and many balconies either destroyed or severely damaged. Burnt out pieces of car wreckage can be seen in the yard near the building.

Another clip which was also obtained by Ruptly showed apartments in one of the damaged buildings filled with broken furniture and littered with debris and shattered glass.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has sharply condemned the attack, blaming it both on Kiev and its Western backers. The strike demonstrates the “Nazi nature” of the Ukrainian government, the ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement, adding that the country’s military had deliberately targeted a densely populated area. “We resolutely condemn this criminal act of terrorism,” she said.

According to Zakharova, the Western governments that continue to “pump” Ukraine full of weapons are responsible for the attack alongside the country’s military. She also called on all the “responsible governments” and international bodies to condemn the attack.

Russia has consistently accused Ukraine of launching strikes on civilian targets amid the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev.

Earlier this week, Russian officials accused Ukraine of striking a school vehicle in Zaporozhye Region. According to its governor, Evgeny Balitsky, the attack seriously injured the bus driver and also wounded five children.

Earlier, DPR officials also stated that another Ukrainian strike in the area had injured 10 civilians in one day.

 

Reuters/RT

There is a lot of anguish in The Guardian family concerning a statement by publisher Maiden Ibru at the ThisDay 30th Anniversary Awards.  I write as a pioneer staff member of The Guardian.

I have said that it is unethical for a media organisation to establish and administer titles and awards.
This is even more dangerous if the awards involve people or organisations about whom it reports, with no clear standards about how “winners” are determined.

That is the precinct of show business—or politics—not journalism.  The dangers are limitless in the same sense that a man, once he pays the prostitute, forever averts his eyes from hers in public.

In a normal world, it is the friends and admirers of ThisDay who should have been giving it applause and awards, not the reverse.

That would have included “Lifetime” award recipient Mrs Ibru.

“It is definitely the number one paper in the country,” she said of ThisDay.  “It is a fact. I’m the publisher and chairman of the Guardian newspaper. ThisDay newspaper is the #1 newspaper in Nigeria.”

Mrs Ibru is no Katherine Graham, and her newspaper’s dwindling presence at the newsstand and among critics is evidence of her limitations.

On the contrary, ‘The Flagship of the Nigerian Press,” which she inherited, epitomised success.

For first place in the industry, it had no peer. As its Ombudsman, I testify to the paper’s relentless drive for excellence. Every edition sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and none of our staff members had a complex.

Mrs Ibru’s confession is a reminder of how The Guardian lost its way and how badly it cries for leadership: the flagship variety.

Speaking of leadership, one often hears in Nigeria that when you fight corruption, it fights back.

Is it possible that corruption fights “forward”?  Think about this: For nearly decades, Nigeria has fought insecurity, an ailment that, in the hands of the ruling APC, now has several mutations.

Despite huge annual investments in the military, particularly in air power, we are losing each of them.

Currently at the heart of this effort is Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser.

In November 2023, he lambasted the government of Muhammadu Buhari, declaring that it had left Nigeria bankrupt.

It was a strange claim, given that Ribadu’s boss, Bola Tinubu, has never said one word against that government. Even before the election which brought him to power, he affirmed that if he won, he would continue with Buhari’s legacies.

Neither at Tinubu’s inauguration nor in the months that followed did he criticise the Buhari years.  He described his predecessor as having served Nigeria with “dedication and uncommon zeal.”

Contrary to the whining of his NSA, Tinubu has not acknowledged any of the maladministration and malfeasance that brought Nigeria to its knees.

Only one or two of Buhari’s most compromised officials are in court, let alone in jail.

And so, in November 2024, Ribadu turned to the old art of praising the present instead, publicly listing and applauding something he called “Tinubu Gains.”

“There are so many things happening in our country today,” he declared. “There are things we want to call Tinubu’s gains, and reforms.”

He then added this rather curious line: “No one dares Tinubu and wins. No one fights Tinubu and wins.”

If you knew Ribadu, that was a strange thing for him to say, as it was almost without context.

Last week, it appeared to make sense when he claimed never to have called Tinubu corrupt.

It was stunning, but I decided that he was right if the reference was to the man who appointed him to his current life.

Maybe that is where Ribadu’s mind is. Maybe his calendar dates only from May 2023, when Tinubu took office, and does not scroll further back.

The problem is that Tinubu became prominent as Governor of Lagos State in 1999, the period in which the word “wealthy” began to appear before his name.

The relationship between both men broke into the open in September 2006 when Ribadu, as chairman of the EFCC, arrived in the Senate to fulfil his commission’s legal obligation of an annual report.

If ‘Ribadu Time’ goes back that far, he certainly did publicly identify Tinubu as corrupt, and to list him among the first set of corrupt governors in the Fourth Republic.

That singular performance is exactly when Ribadu morphed from political appointee to celebrity.

Reporting, he listed 15 governors and three former governors for corruption issues, identifying Tinubu’s as having an “international dimension.”

When he ran for president on the platform of Tinubu’s ACN party, he denied having labelled him corrupt.

Ribadu confirmed his Senate presentation a few months later at the Lagos Airport when he specifically identified three governors: Tinubu, Orji Kalu (Abia) and Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano) as awaiting prosecution for corruption once they lost their constitutional immunity in May 2007.

Unknown to Nigeria at the time, Ribadu had also in 2006 chaired an anti-corruption Joint Task Force (JTF), instituted by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The JTF report indicted 15 governors, including Bayelsa State Governor Goodluck Jonathan and Tinubu, for false declaration of assets and breaching the Code of Conduct for public officials.

They were to be prosecuted under the Code of Conduct Bureau Act.

Whether Ribadu ever called, indicted or denounced Tinubu as corrupt is therefore clearly untrue. Two issues should however be of public concern.  The first is the quality or fidelity of Ribadu’s memory, an issue I previously addressed in August 2014 in “Nuhu Ribadu, Then And Now.”

In that 2006 Senate appearance, Ribadu listed one woman who had attracted the serious attention of the EFCC.

In October 2007, I would describe her as “Nigeria’s Most Powerful Woman.”

Her name: is Patience Jonathan, who was at the time of Ribadu’s EFCC report the wife of the Governor of Bayelsa State. In just one month, the commission had seized from her first, N140m, and then $13.5m.

But in a NigeriaVillageSquare interview in 2010, Ribadu swore that he “never invited Mrs Jonathan for questioning or took her statement!”

That was strange: in August 2006, he filed lawsuit Number FHC/ABJ/M/340/06 against Mrs. Jonathan at the Federal High Court down the road.

And then in 2013, after he called Nigeria under President Jonathan a ‘sinking ship,’ that government denounced him as “shameless,” saying that he accepted “to become the political lackey of a man he once openly accused of corruption at various times between 2004 and 2007.”

The second and more important concern for Nigerians is the insecurity nationwide. Given NSA Ribadu’s memory—or character—lapses, is that office in good hands?

Better still, is the NSA in a good heart if Ribadu is forever juggling his relationship with Tinubu with Nigeria’s security needs?  Remember: civilians are routinely bombed in Nigeria, while the insurgents and kidnappers appear to enjoy the same cosy life as the Nigerian political elite in Abuja.

Ribadu appears to be the best investment that Tinubu ever made, defanging the hostile tiger and nurturing it into an affectionate, Siamese cat which meows, “No one dares Tinubu and wins.”

Does corruption fight back, or is it people who fall forward?

 

Punch

My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand. Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel ~ Job 29:20-21.

Introduction

Whatever is received as a precious gift from the Lord must be retained, and even maintained, if we’re to enjoy the ongoing blessings it brings. Whenever we access His glory, it must remain evidently fresh in our lives, not attenuated. Nonetheless, this calls for sound wisdom, firmness and discipline.

God’s glory is magnetic, pulling attention (Isaiah 60:3). It is progressive and declarative (Proverbs 4:18; Psalm 19:1). It also shouts majestically through the miraculous works of God and His natural wonders, so that no man can but acknowledge it (John 2:11; 11:4).

God’s glory shouts to us in the blue expanse of the clouds, the occasional rainbows on the horizon, the galaxies, the stars and the unreached exoplanets.Indeed, the entire creation amply reveals the glory of its Maker!

God is not withholding His glory; it’s especially found in Christ. When we duly behold it, we can fully enjoy it. However, there are certain divine values that must be well held before the glory can abide in our rising.

Maintaining the Freshness of God’s Glory

Maintaining the freshness of God’s glory in our lives demands that we live by faith(John 11:40). In life, challenges and trials are inevitable; notwithstanding, we must rise up and fearlessly maintain our position of trust in Christ.

It’s an invaluable part of our faith to maintain glory-provoking confessions. Every word we speak, and every confession we make, either moves us towards a higher level of glory or it pulls us away from it (Proverbs 18:21). We must learn to give life’s situations our own choice names of faith.

In Mark 4:35-41, there was an unusual “wind”; the disciples called it “storm” and they almost perished. However, Jesus Christ called it “peace”and the storm became still. “A man hath joy by the answer of His mouth” (Proverbs 15:23). No wonder that God told Moses: “I will be with thy mouth” (Exodus 4:12-15).

We must be strong in faith, and very courageous (Joshua 1:9). Only the courageous can conquer certain challenges of life. Albeit, it’s as we spend more time in prayers and with the Word that we acquire more strength in the Lord (Ephesians 6:10-11).

Moreover, a consistent covenant walk with God freshens the glory. Shining in God's kingdom is incident upon our covenant walk with Him; we must be intentional about it. Surely, God will keep His own side of the covenant. It’s in our interest to keep our own side (Proverbs 3:5-7).

Be positively different in this world (Romans 12:2). Fortify yourself with right associations, and be averse to evil communications, thoughts and deeds.Avoid people that wouldn’t encourage you to move forward with Christ. The Bible says, "a companion of fools shall be destroyed" (Proverbs 13:20b).

When you surround yourself with people of godly sincerity and radiant positivity, life feels better and brighter (Hebrews 6:12).When you associate with eagles, you’ll soar to great heights; but if you stay with wolves,you must learn to howl. Negative views and dishonorable outlooks can only drain you.

If you’re truly resolved to maintain freshglory, never be surprised if some of your associates, or even inner circle friends, occasionally develop cold feet and eventually jump ship. Those who wish to crawl perpetually will never help you to climb the ladder of glory; and they cannot but find your companionship intolerable.

Again, don't be stagnant in your offering. By covenant, increase it as God blesses you. Yes, worldly wealth is a poor substance; but, we are commanded to honor God with it (Proverbs 3:9-10). Be regular also in the assembly of saints; it provokes an ongoing blessing of glory and strength (Psalms 84:7).

Essentially, be wise in the sight of God by being a soul-winner (Proverbs 11:30). It practically provokes divine attention, and preserves the luster of God’s glory in your life, forever and ever (Daniel 12:3). Work very hard on this: it’s called purposeful living, and the glory of your life cannot be separated from it (John 4:34).

The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but failure to live purposefully while you’re alive. Let’s rise and be involved (1Chronicles 22:16). Sydney Smith admonished, saying: "Let every man be occupied, and occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness that he has done his best".

Let’s work hard and smart too, both on our secular assignments and in our kingdom services. “An idle hand”, people say, “is the devil’s workshop”.

Work at being the best you can be for God. Work at reaching the apogee of your career and calling, to the glory of God. Work at bringing solutions to the hurting, aching and needy world. Work at building up Zion, and the glory of God will be ever fresh in you (Psalms 102:16)!

Moreover, as we work, let’s be disciplined. After getting what you prayed and worked for, you still need discipline to keep it."Discipline is the foundation upon which all success is built. Lack of it inevitably leads to failure" (Jim Rohn).

The indolent man is usually full of excuses. Notwithstanding, it’s in the nature of things that he should not succeed in anything. Idleness is the curse of man, not labour.Work may appear to be a burden and a chastisement, but it’s also an honor and a glory.

In conclusion, maintaining the luster of God’s glory in our lives requires that we walk in it, continuously, by the power of the Holy Spirit! The glory of God always looks for dedicated dwelling places.

The dwelling place for God’s glory in the Old Testament was the tabernacle, but we are God’s Tabernacle today (1Corinthians 3:16). Thus, the tabernacle is no longer a fixed building; it’s you and I. It can walkaround, preach the gospel and live to the ultimate glory of God!

After experiencing the glory at Pentecost, the early disciples became separate from the world and they lived as light in the midst of darkness. They went out, preached, worked miracles, turned the world upside down for Jesus Christ, and the Lord added to the Church daily, those who were being saved (Acts 2:47). Brethren, that’s the glory we should be operating in, and that’s the grand plan of God for every believer in Christ today!

In all spiritual reality, when we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, the glory is automatically fitted to our feet to empower us to tread on Satan and all his minions (Isaiah 52:7; Luke 10:19-20).

We can then walk in power, carrying the divine presence, preaching the gospel everywhere and winning souls into God’s kingdom (Mark 16:15-20; Ephesians 6:15). Thereafter, the glory can only glow brighter and brighter in our lives! You won’t miss it, in Jesus name. Amen. Happy Sunday!

____________________

Archbishop Taiwo Akinola,

Rhema Christian Church,

Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Connect with Bishop Akinola via these channels:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bishopakinola

SMS/WhatsApp: +234 802 318 4987

If you have ever struggled to wrap your mind around the biblical doctrine of election (predestination), you are not alone. In fact, it is perhaps the most misunderstood and neglected doctrine in the entire Bible.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the saints in Ephesus, "In Christ we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will" (Ephesians 1:11).

And when addressing "all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints," (Romans 1:7) Paul wrote, "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son ... those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified" (Romans 8:28-30).

The key to accepting and appreciating the doctrine of election, or predestination, is to rely completely upon Scripture, rather than allowing our human reason to dictate the terms of this biblical doctrine.

It is natural to assume that predestination applies to believers and unbelievers alike, when it doesn't. After all, human reason suggests that if some people are predestined to go to Heaven, then everyone else is predestined to go to Hell, right? Wrong. Scripture makes it abundantly clear that if someone goes to Heaven, God deserves all the credit. But if someone goes to Hell, the individual is to blame. 

Thankfully, God does not predestine people to eternal punishment in Hell. You see, "God wants everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). The Apostle Peter wrote, "God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).

Christians often struggle to understand why so many people harden their hearts toward the Messiah and refuse to come to Jesus to be forgiven of their sins. It reminds me of what happened one time "when the Jews saw the crowds and were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: "We had to speak the Word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles" (Acts 13:45-46).

What about you, my friend? Do you consider yourself worthy of eternal life? Paul was not suggesting that any of us are actually worthy of everlasting life in Heaven, but He was trying to shake some sense into his fellow Jews who were rejecting the Messiah. Steeped in their religious traditions, they were seemingly unable to grasp the good news of the Gospel.

The Bible reveals that the doctrine of election applies only to believers. And it is a message of comfort and assurance. If a follower of Christ begins to have doubts about his salvation, the doctrine of election can assure him that he belongs to the Lord forever.

Meanwhile, Scripture offers no solace to unrepentant sinners, but only warnings of wrath and eternal punishment. The Law speaks not a word of consolation to anyone who refuses to bow his knee to his Creator in repentance and faith. Jesus preached, "But unless you repent, you too will all perish" (Luke 13:3), and "Repent and believe the good news" (Mark 1:15).

The doctrine of election teaches believers that we cannot take an ounce of credit for having been graciously welcomed into God's eternal family. Mark Webb wrote, "God intentionally designed salvation so that no man can boast of it. He didn't merely arrange it so that boasting would be discouraged or kept to a minimum. He planned it so that boasting would be absolutely excluded. Election does precisely that."

Jesus told His disciples: "You did not choose me, but I chose you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last" (John 15:16). And Peter addressed "God's elect, strangers in the world ... who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood" (1 Peter 1:1-2). Later in that same chapter, Peter declared that believers have been "redeemed ... with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect" (vv. 18-19). 

The only way to belong to God forever is to have your sins washed away by the blood that Jesus shed on the cross 2000 years ago. If you do not want to be forgiven and brought into the family of God through faith in Christ, then you have no one to blame but yourself. God loves you dearly, but He will not force you to receive Jesus as Savior (see John 1:12) if your heart is apathetic or hostile toward Christ and His Gospel. If, on the other hand, you recognize your sinfulness and long to be forgiven, then the Holy Spirit is working to bring you into the light. Those who want nothing to do with the Gospel are choosing to resist the Holy Spirit and remain on the highway to Hell.

The doctrine of election offers tremendous comfort and assurance to believers, but not a drop of consolation to unbelievers. Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) served as a pastor in London for 38 years and was known as the "Prince of Preachers." Spurgeon wrote, "Whatever may be said about the doctrine of election, it is written in the Word of God as with an iron pen, and there is no getting rid of it. To me, it is one of the sweetest and most blessed truths in the whole of revelation, and those who are afraid of it are so because they do not understand it. If they could but know that the Lord had chosen them it would make their hearts dance with joy."

So, has God chosen you to be in His family forever, or are you choosing to say "no" to Jesus, and thereby rejecting God's only plan of salvation?

** Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska, USA

 

Christian Post

Jeney Kleeman

Noland Arbaugh’s life changed in a fraction of a second in June 2016. He was a 22-year-old student, working at a kids’ summer camp in upstate New York, when he went swimming in a lake. He can’t tell me exactly what happened, but thinks one of his friends must have accidentally struck him very hard in the side of his head as they ran into the water and plunged beneath the surface.

When he woke up face down in the water, unable to move or breathe, Noland immediately knew he was paralysed. But he didn’t panic. He felt no fear at all, he says. “You never know what you’re going to do in those high-stress situations. I found out that day that it’s hard to shake me. I am very, very calm under pressure.”

Elon Musk would ultimately turn this quality to his advantage when, after nearly eight years of being quadriplegic, Noland agreed to allow the world’s richest man to implant an electronic chip into his brain. In January 2024, Noland became the first human recipient of a brain-computer interface (BCI) developed by Musk’s company, Neuralink. If it worked, it would allow him to control a computer using only the power of his mind.

Only four months after he first heard about Neuralink, Noland was on an operating table, with a purpose-built robot poised to insert the N1 chip into his motor cortex. The stakes could not have been higher for him: he was risking infection, haemorrhage and brain damage. “My brain is the last part of myself that I really feel I have control over,” he tells me from his wheelchair at his kitchen table in Yuma, Arizona. But the stakes for humankind, too, were very great: if Neuralink succeeds, the world’s most powerful billionaire will have fulfilled his science-fiction-fuelled dreams of melding minds with machines.

What kind of person chooses to be Elon Musk’s guinea pig? And, once the experiment is over, what happens next – for Noland, and for the rest of us?

Noland’s world is in a different universe to Musk’s. Now 30, he lives in the same simple, single-storey house in the dusty military town in the Sonoran desert where he grew up. He left for an international studies degree at Texas A&M University, only to move back after his accident so that his mother, Mia, stepfather and half-brother could take care of him. The words “Be grateful for small things, big things and everything in between” are stencilled on the kitchen wall. Goats, chickens and a plump turkey named Hope roam the back yard. Two golden retrievers and an enormous goldendoodle pad around the kitchen, occasionally pushing their noses into my lap.

Noland has an electric wheelchair that he can operate using a mouthpiece; his forearms lie still on the brightly upholstered armrests. Every so often, Mia reaches forward to uncurl his fingers, or offer him a sip of coffee from a straw in a Big Gulp cup, or swat away the flies that buzz around his face in the merciless Arizona heat. He asks her to roll up his shirt to show me a sleeve of tattoos on his arm. “I got it done after my accident because it didn’t hurt,” he grins. Two bracelets are inked on to his wrist; a permanent rendering of ones given to him by the girls who pulled him out of the water in 2016.

Before his accident, Noland was outdoorsy and athletic, playing football, American football, basketball, rugby and golf. He liked to go hunting and shooting deer with his family. He was musical, too, playing bass in a rock band, and he performed in high school theatre productions. He loved Xbox and PlayStation, but was never really into tech. A shelf next to us is still crammed with the board games he used to play: Settlers of Catan; The Game of Life.

Mia worked at their church, and Noland was a student leader there. His faith was a huge part of his life, growing up. “I always wanted to make it through college as a Christian,” he says. “That lasted about a week. I was sleeping around, I was doing drugs, I was drinking a lot.” He sees his accident as divine intervention. “It was God pulling me back. I really do think that it was the best thing that could have happened to me.”

The blow to Noland’s head didn’t break his neck – it dislocated it, and his vertebra went back into place immediately – but it left his spinal cord severely damaged. The higher up a serious spinal cord injury is, the more extensive the paralysis. Superman actor Christopher Reeve shattered his first and second vertebra, and could not hold up his head without assistance. Noland’s injury was around his fourth and fifth vertebrae, so he can move his head and shoulders, and express himself with nods and shrugs, which he often does. He uses the word “luck” a lot. “I was really lucky that I wasn’t ventilated for my entire life,” he says. “I was really lucky that I didn’t have a traumatic brain injury.”

At first, there were “a lot of promising signs” that his condition might improve, but he ultimately never recovered much movement. At the beginning of his adult life, he was facing a lifetime of dependency.

“I have to rely on my family for everything: to give me a shower, to help with bowel movements and urination.” Noland was a smoker, and if he wanted a cigarette he would have to ask someone to take him outside, put one in his mouth, light it and get rid of the ash for him. He liked to smoke weed, too (it’s legal in Arizona).

“I didn’t like him smoking, but he’s an adult. It was hard,” Mia tells me. She looks over to him. “I’m your mom. Of course, I’m going to give my two cents.”

“I’m a grown man,” Noland says. “To have to rely on other people to do it – it really, reallysucked.” He reluctantly gave up a couple of years ago, unable to bear the guilt of exposing his carers to secondhand smoke.

“Another thing people take for granted, just being able to text someone privately, is not easy as a quadriplegic. If I want to dictate something, it’s like yelling out to the world what I’m saying …”

“‘I love you!’” shouts Mia.

“… I just didn’t have a way to build my life privately.”

There was an iPad Noland could use. “I’d have a stick that I would hold in my mouth, with a little piece of conductive fabric on the end of it, and I would touch my iPad and use it in that way. I did that for years.” But it was frustrating. He had to be put into the right position by other people. Texting with the mouth stick was very slow, and if Noland wanted to use dictation he had to speak with the stick in his mouth. If it fell out, he’d have to call for help. “It’s not very easy. And then there wasn’t a whole lot I could do on it. I mean – it’s an iPad. You can’t do all the same things you can do on a computer.”

He asks Mia to open his laptop in front of him on the kitchen table. He turns towards the screen.

“Implant connect,” he says.

And he begins to play chess, moving pieces across the board with swift, deft cursor movements, while his hands remain motionless on the armrests of his wheelchair. He’s been playing against some of the Neuralink engineers for a few months, he tells me as he takes someone’s pawn. “None of them are very good, so it’s not too hard.”

Next, he’s browsing the internet, opening X, checking his DMs, composing a message by directing his cursor across a virtual keyboard. Now he’s slaying baddies, darting back and forth with a reaper’s scythe in a game called Vampire Survivors. “I love this game,” he says, looking over to me while keeping control of the cursor. He completes a level and digital confetti rains down the screen.

It’s extraordinary, but also totally unremarkable: Noland is using a computer like anyone else does; he’s just not moving his body at all. “Sometimes I forget how impressive it is, because it’s so natural to me,” he says, shrugging again.

In some respects, Noland is better at using a computer than the rest of us. When he first received the Neuralink implant, he tells me, all he wanted to do was play video games. He challenged his friends to a multiplayer version of Civilization VI, called Red Death. “It is absolutely a game of speed, a test of speed. Whoever’s quickest to the draw wins. And I was beating them.” His eyes are wide. “It blew my mind. Just that one little taste made me realise that this technology is going to change the world.”

There’s nothing new about BCIs. The first experiments involving chips and animal brains began in the late 1960s. The gold standard in human BCI design, the Utah Array – a square matrix of needles inserted 1.5mm into the brain – was developed in 1992. Two decades before Noland’s surgery, in 2004, a quadriplegic man called Matthew Nagle became the first person to have a chip implanted inside his skull. While no regulator has yet allowed BCIs to be used outside an experimental setting, enough people have them for an online forum, BCI Pioneers, to exist for the community.

But Noland is the first to try out the chip produced by an entrepreneur whose explicit aim is to find a way to feed information into the brain, as well as receiving from it – a man who has proved to be all too willing to tip the scales of social media to beam his thoughts into millions of people’s phones with real-world consequences, promoting far-right figures in the UK and Germany, and fuelling riots across England last summer.

The theory behind BCIs is relatively simple: they read the electrical signals produced by neurons and turn them into computer commands. (The brain cells of a quadriplegic person are still firing, after all, but the signals are prevented from travelling down the spinal cord.) BCIs can connect to the brain either through a wearable device, such as a cap, or by being surgically attached to brain tissue. The closer the device is to the brain cells, the more accurately it can translate the signals.

Neuralink’s N1 chip is wireless and aimed to be smaller and more powerful than any that had gone before. (It’s about the size of a 50p coin.) While the Utah Array had 100 electrodes reading signals from targeted neurons, the brochure used to recruit Noland – which resembles an ad for an Apple product – boasts of “1,024 electrodes distributed across 64 threads, each thinner than a human hair”. Those 64 threads are inserted “reliably and efficiently” 3.5mm into the cortex of the brain by Neuralink’s R1 surgical robot.

In his authorised biography of Musk, Walter Isaacson describes how the billionaire first began thinking about implanting chips in brains in 2016, when he was travelling in a car with his chief of staff, Sam Teller, and became frustrated by how long it took for him to type a message on his iPhone. “Imagine if you could think into the machine,” Musk said, “like a high-speed connection directly between your mind and your machine.” Musk immediately asked Teller to find him a neuroscientist who could help him understand BCIs.

Many of Musk’s ventures have been influenced by his love of science fiction, from reusable rocket ships (SpaceX), electric cars and humanoid robots (Tesla) to hyperloops for mass transit in autonomous pods (The Boring Company). Neuralink is inspired by the Culture series of novels by Iain M Banks, which Musk has singled out for praise. Banks describes a brain implant called a “neural lace” that is implanted in childhood, and can read and store every thought and sensation a person experiences. “When I first read Banks, it struck me that this idea had a chance of protecting us on the artificial intelligence front,” Musk told Isaacson.

“Everything that you’ve ever experienced in your whole life – smell, emotions – all of those are electrical signals,” he told podcaster Lex Fridman in August. “If you trigger the right neuron, you could trigger a particular scent. You could certainly make things glow. You can think of the brain as a biological computer.” As such, the brain could be harnessed – or hacked.

Musk hopes the enhanced human brain will be able to keep one step ahead of – or at least keep up with – computers. “If we can find good commercial uses to fund Neuralink, then in a few decades, we will get to our ultimate goal of protecting us against evil AI by tightly coupling the human world to our digital machinery,” he told Isaacson. His first commercial target was augmenting people with quadriplegia.

Of the eight-strong team of neuroscientists and engineers who co-founded Neuralink in 2016, only one remains. Former employees have complained of being under pressure to produce results within rushed timelines. But those who stayed with the company were able to create the kind of eye-catching stunts Musk was looking for.

In an event livestreamed on YouTube in August 2020, Musk unveiled Gertrude the pig, who had been living with a Neuralink chip nestled under her skull for two months. He showed how Gertrude’s movements were being read by the chip and wirelessly transmitted to a computer. “I could have a Neuralink right now and you wouldn’t know,” Musk said. “Maybe I do.” (In response to the demo, MIT Technology Review said Neuralink was simply “neuroscience theater”.) Eight months later, Neuralink released a video of a macaque named Pager playing the video game Pong using only the power of his mind. When he scored well, he was rewarded with a sip of banana smoothie.

The company was swiftly dogged with allegations of animal cruelty, with a Wired investigation detailing vet records containing “gruesome portrayals of suffering endured by as many as a dozen of Neuralink’s primate subjects”. (The US Department of Agriculture ultimately reported that it could not find any violations of animal research rules when it inspected the facilities in 2023.)

In September 2023, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave Neuralink an investigational device exemption that allowed them to recruit participants for the first ever human trials. Neuralink’s Prime study aimed to demonstrate that the NI implant was “safe and useful in daily life”. All they needed was the right human being.

In the years after his accident, Noland did whatever he could to increase his chances of regaining some of what he had lost. He added his name to the largest database for spinal cord injury studies in North America, but was never chosen to take part. He thinks it was because he was honest about being a smoker on the questionnaire. He was told that if he tried to move as much as possible – wiggling his fingers, rotating his wrists – his brain might create new neural pathways. Night after night, he’d lie in bed with his eyes closed, focusing on trying to move. “You think: ‘Oh, I’m finally moving – I can feel myself moving!’ You open your eyes and look, and nothing is happening. It’s really frustrating.”

Then, on 19 September 2023, a friend rang him. “He’s a big Elon Musk fan. He knew all about Neuralink. And when he saw that the human trials had opened up, the first thing he did was give me a call.”

At that time, Noland says he only knew “what the average person knows” about Musk: “Tesla owner, SpaceX, Starlink, richest man in the world sort of thing. Darling of the left for years, spoke out about a couple of things, the left basically turned against him, and then he started making his way towards the right.” He knew nothing about Neuralink, but his view on Musk was clear: “He is one of the most impressive men that have lived in my lifetime. People can not like him for a lot of different reasons, but what he’s doing – pushing the boundaries of space travel, the cars, the internet – it’s incredible.”

His friend helped him fill out the online application on the day the trial opened. His first interview was just three days later, on a Friday. The following Monday, he had his second interview.

Determined to stand out, Noland chose the first available slot for every interview, but he didn’t hold out much hope of being chosen. “Other quadriplegics go out and do things with their lives; I came home after my accident and lived with my parents. I thought they’d probably want someone more impressive.”

It’s obvious to me that he is the perfect candidate: a warm, likable, earnest person whose future was taken from him by a twist of fate at the start of his adult life. From a PR perspective, he’d clearly be a fantastic choice. But Noland really doesn’t see it.

There were several rounds of interviews and assessments. Noland was sent to the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, for eight hours of scans, blood tests, urine tests, memory tests and psychological evaluations. The Neuralink team spoke to Mia, too. “They asked if we had any concerns, questions, doubts or anything,” she says. “Noly used to send me stuff to read. I didn’t want to know every detail. I just wanted to be as supportive as I could.”

Noland agreed to be part of Neuralink’s Prime study for six years; he had to sign a 35-page consent form, which included what he describes as a “laundry list” of risks. In early January 2024, he got the call telling him he had officially been selected to be the first person to have a Neuralink chip. His surgery would be in two weeks.

Even though it all happened so fast, Noland said he was ready for anything. “I’m good at lying there and thinking through every possible scenario. I told my parents: ‘If I have any sort of brain injury, then I don’t want to live with you any more – I want you to put me in a home.’ I did everything I needed to do. I was so at peace.”

“I got a little bit worried and nervous, because he’s already been through so much,” Mia tells me, making a twisting motion with her fists over her stomach. “But you just look at Noland and you think: ‘He’s got this; he’s excited.’ That helped a lot.”

Musk was supposed to be at the Barrow Neurological Institute on the morning of Noland’s surgery, on 29 January 2024. “I guess something happened with his plane – a malfunction or something – so he couldn’t make it,” Noland says. They FaceTimed just before he went into theatre. “It lasted maybe a minute. ‘Hey, I’m really excited. Thank you. This is such a cool thing, what you’re doing, it’s awesome.’ That’s what I was saying to him,” he says, smiling. “He was like: ‘You’re gonna be making history,’ things like that.” Noland was unfazed to be speaking to the world’s richest man. “He’s a regular guy – just much more impressive and a little bit more eccentric.”

The surgery took less than two hours. He shows me a picture on his phone of the large L-shaped incision on his shaved head. There’s nothing to see now: shaggy dark hair covers the scar. “They took out a piece of my skull and then replaced my skull with the chip. My skin is over the top,” he says, letting me feel the spongy place on his scalp where there is no longer any bone.

Musk arrived with his entourage when Noland was still groggy from the anaesthetic. He thanked Noland, and told him the surgery had been a success. A little later, a 10-strong Neuralink team came in to wake up the implant. When they switched it on and could see it had connected with a tablet that was receiving real-time information from Noland’s brain cells, some of them burst into tears. “I was trying to move my finger, like I’d done a million times, and I saw a big yellow spike [on the screen].” The whole room erupted with applause.

Next, Noland and the chip had to learn how to work together: the human learning how to create the best signals with his mind, the computer how to correctly decode them. Noland still does four hours a day of what he calls “session” work for Neuralink, performing exercises such as clicking targets on a screen to fine-tune the cursor control.

But it quickly became second nature to him. At first, he used what he calls “attempted” movements: he would try to move his hand and the cursor would move where he was trying to get his hand to go. But then he became able to direct it with “imagined” movements: he was no longer trying to move anything apart from the cursor itself.

“You’re not thinking about doing it – you’re just willing the cursor to go wherever you want.” His eyes are wide. “When I first moved it with imagined movement, it blew my mind. It was crazy. That was two weeks in, and I was giddy all day. That was when it all became real to me.”

It sounds like telekinesis, I say. Noland shrugs. “I called it telekinesis – you’re moving something with your mind – but Elon Musk called it telepathy, because I’m communicating with a computer through my mind.”

Musk’s goal is not to allow quadriplegics to move things, after all – it’s for minds to have seamless interfaces with computers.

But it has been far from seamless for Noland. At first, he was frustrated that he had to stop using the implant every five or six hours so he could charge it. But the Neuralink team managed to find a fix, and now he can use the N1 continuously, wearing a baseball cap fitted with a coil that has been charged from the mains whenever the battery is low.

Then, a month after his surgery, the worst happened: the implant began to stop working. He started to lose control of the cursor. It came to a head when he travelled to Fremont to visit Neuralink’s California facility and demonstrate his new skills. Noland assumed the team must have tinkered with the software. “I was like: ‘You guys need to fix this. I’m here to play Mario Kart with Neuralink. I can’t have you guys messing around with things right before I do that.’”

Just before he arrived, the team informed him that when they’d performed the surgery they hadn’t factored in how much his brain moves, pulsing with each heartbeat. The threads had started retracting as soon as they had been implanted; now 85% of them were out of place, their electrodes picking up nothing at all.

“It was really bad. I was getting it all taken away from me. That was really, really hard,” says Noland.

“He cried,” says Mia. “We gave him time. He didn’t want us around him.”

Noland nods. “I cried in my van right before we went over to Neuralink.”

He asked the team to “do whatever they needed to do to fix it. Go in and do another surgery.” But the neurosurgeon was reluctant to operate on him again, he says. Instead, Neuralink engineers tweaked the software, so that the remaining 15% of the threads read groups of neuron signals, instead of signals from individual cells. So far, it works.

Noland’s main frustration now is how he types – by moving his cursor to click individual letters on a keyboard. It’s nowhere near the kind of mind-to-screen text output that Musk dreamed of when he founded Neuralink. “We have gotten up to almost 25 words a minute, but dictation is still better. We’ll see how that goes over time.”

He knows that his Neuralink chip will always be the worst. In August 2024, the company announced that a second trial participant – an anonymous quadriplegic man who has chosen not to meet or speak to Noland – had received an implant. With his superior chip, “Alex” is able to design three-dimensional objects using the power of his mind. None of his threads have retracted. Last month, Musk revealed that a third – also unnamed – person had now received a Neuralink chip.

Is Noland envious of those who will come after him? “A little bit,” he concedes. “I’m really excited for them though.”

Although relentlessly positive, Noland recognises the dark possibilities of the technology lodged in his brain. Neuralink says it doesn’t monitor his brain or track what he does online, but warned him that someone might be able to “reverse engineer” the data produced by his neurons to work out what he’s been looking at. “With that in mind, I keep it very PG,” he tells me.

On the day of the US presidential election, Noland tweeted a headline from the satirical website the Onion: “Neuralink Patient Unable To Stop Hand From Voting For Trump.” “So true,” he joked. (He voted for Trump of his own free will.) Five days later, he asked his followers what the “biggest moral and ethical concerns” of a Neuralink implant could be.

“Kids might use it to cheat in school,” one responded.

“Hacking them and taking over a user,” said another.

“The ability for others to read your mind … and interfere with it,” said a third.

Why ask the question? “It’s something I get asked constantly, and I don’t have good answers.” But he’s clearly thought about it. When I ask him what a bad use of a BCI might be, he reels off a list. “Mind control, body control. At this point, it’s only reading my signals, but it will be able to write at some point, and sending signals into the brain can be scary. You could make people see anything, experience different feelings, emotions, hallucinations …”

Musk is excited about a future where Neuralink sends signals to the brain. He explored the possibilities with Isaacson. “Want to see infrared, ultraviolet? How about radio waves or radar?” In a presentation in 2022, Musk described how the ability for Neuralink to write on the brain would allow someone born blind to see. He also said he was “confident that it is possible to restore full body functionality to somebody who has a severed spinal cord” using chips implanted below the site of injury.

The billionaire’s extraordinary ambitions have so far been able to go almost unchecked. Neuralink hasn’t registered its human trials at the publicly accessible database ClinicalTrials.gov, and has made very few details about its research public. This avoidance of external scrutiny has led medical ethicists to describe Neuralink as “science by press release”. Musk’s impatience for eye-catching results is likely to increase now that Neuralink has serious competition from other startups, both in the US and in China, where companies are focusing on non-therapeutic BCIs that could enhance cognition among the general population.

In August, Musk said that hundreds of millions of people will have a Neuralink implant within the next two decades. “If it’s extremely safe, and you can have superhuman abilities – let’s say you can upload your memories, so you wouldn’t lose memories – then I think probably a lot of people would choose to have it,” he added. This is either the ultimate in wearable tech or Black Mirror dystopia, depending on your point of view. “I might get it …” Joe Rogan, the US podcaster, remarked last year. “I don’t want to be the only person who can’t read minds.”

It might all be hype and bluster. But it’s possible to imagine a future where the sum total of all human knowledge is available to anyone with a brain implant. They could switch off their anxiety – or their empathy – as required. With total recall of every moment in their lives and every piece of information they ever encountered, every problem solved before the conscious mind could consider it, life for these people would be pretty much frictionless. In that world, wouldn’t there be incredible inequality between those who had BCIs and those who didn’t?

“If you think about all technology today, there are people who have the money to use things and people who don’t,” Noland says when I put this to him. “I know Elon wants to produce it to scale, and make it cheap and affordable.” He shrugs. “It’s not fair, but life isn’t fair.”

FDA rules mean Neuralink can’t pay Noland for his participation in the research, or contribute to the cost of his care. His house isn’t fully accessible; for the last eight years, he has been showering outside in his back yard. “There’s no privacy. But we didn’t have the money to build a shower for me. That’s something that we’ve always wanted.”

Since becoming the human face of Neuralink, Noland has amassed more than 128,000 followers on X. In November, he announced that he was going to do a 72-hour fundraising livestream: people could watch him using the brain implant in real time and donate so his family could build a new house that would meet his needs. He raised $750,000 over those three days, he tells me, but most of it came from the “crypto community” and will be subject to huge taxes when he tries to cash it out. He’s still trying to raise funds.

Noland dreams of being able to connect to a Tesla car and Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot. “It would give me the ability to have a 24-hour caregiver that I can control, to do anything for me, and I would be able to get around.”

You could start smoking again, I say.

“I could totally start smoking again. I could teach the Optimus robot how to roll cigarettes!”

“What the heck are you encouraging him to do? Jenny, you can leave now,” says Mia, laughing.

The reality of Noland’s future looks far more prosaic. When the study ends, Neuralink will either remove his implant or simply switch it off. Surely he will want an upgrade then?

“They can’t promise me anything,” he says. “Any sort of promises would incentivise me to stay in the study.” He’d like to go back to college to complete his degree, and then use his skills as a spokesperson to become an advocate for the growing BCI community. If anyone ever works out a way to restore movement to people with quadriplegia, Noland says it will probably be too late for him: his muscles have already atrophied so much.

“I’m content with my lot in life,” he says. “I was before Neuralink, and I will be again after. I’ll find a way.”

As I pack up my things, Noland tells me that he calls his chip Eve. He’s always liked that name. “Neuralink and I, we’re on the eve of something great, so that works out perfect, too. Also – Adam and Eve. God created Adam, and then gave Adam a helper, who is Eve. I’m Adam, in this scenario, and Eve is my helper. Together they cursed humanity. Maybe I will do the same, with Eve.”

He shoots me a bright grin. “I don’t think enough people enjoy that joke as much as I do.”

 

The Guardian, USA

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