At a recent public event where he represented his principal, Chief of Staff to the president, Femi Gbajabiamila, used the opportunity to retrieve the hackneyed topic of social media regulations. While he noted the bid failed while he was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, he did not indicate that any new development had since emerged since Nigerians spiritedly resisted the Bill, which had given him a better perspective. So why bring up the topic again? He must have lacked useful things to say. In sensationally describing social media as a “social menace,” Gbajabiamila gave himself away as the real menace to society that must be regulated by the force of public vigilance.

Common to Gbajabiamila and those who echo his line of thought is how they somehow overlook all the serious issues that imperil our society and zero on social media as the ultimate destructive force. It does not matter what economic tensions Nigerians grapple with and the potential for such agony to fuel social restlessness, these head-in-the-sand observers still maintain their monomania. They routinely scapegoat social media, apprehending the “hate speech” on social media while the entirety of their administrative procedures boils down to “hate acts” against Nigerians. If Gbajabiamila is not tired of this con game, we are bored. It is high time he found us a more engaging ruse.

Various kinds of people despise social media in Nigeria. Some, like David Oyedepo who thinks social media is a destiny stealer, are those of the older generation who generally look down on almost anything involving young people. But then the political/elite class are also stuck on social media regulations. Those are the ones who ascribe all the evils that can possibly happen within an ill-governed society to what social media can precipitate. Their real fear is that what constitutes their once unquestioned and even unquestionable constituted authority now faces regular bringdown from social media users.

Gbajabiamila should tell us why we even need new rules when there are already repercussions for what people say online. Apart from extant laws on defamation and slander, social media commentary is one aspect where the repressiveness of our government serially is exemplified. Recall the example of the random young man who made fun of ex-first lady Aisha Buhari’s weight on Twitter? The police laid in wait for about six months just to ensnare and incarcerate him.

Then there was the case of the woman who reviewed a brand of tomato paste on social media. The police did not only harass that poor woman, they still returned to her home months later to lay a siege. When has it ever happened in this country that the police would spend such extended hours battling criminals? But they could deploy that much force over a woman who expressed her opinion. No reasonable person will consider such a propensity for abuse and still support social media regulations.

Those advocating social media regulations have never quite demonstrated that they have thought through the incredible complexity of the terminologies. For instance, they scream about “fake news” but what would it mean under those laws? Would “fake news” laws have jailed presidential aide Ajuri Ngelale, who announced that the United Arab Emirates had lifted its visa ban on Nigerians due to the president’s intervention? Ngelale did not resign when the story turned out to be fake and the sky did not fall either.

Apart from the complexity of language is also the intricacy of technology and the expertise that will be necessary to enforce regulations across the vast global communication network reductively called “social media.” This deficiency was plainly demonstrated when the Buhari administration banned Twitter and it turned out that people could easily bypass the ban with VPN. Shamefaced, they reversed their ban. To save face, they cooked up stories of tax remittance negotiations with Twitter, Inc. when elections loomed and they needed their attack hounds to return to social media.

Again, calling for social media regulations overlooks the ongoing efforts of various Nigerian media organisations that fight falsehoods circulated online. Take the online newspaper, The Cable, for instance. Their team not only challenge some fake stories, but they even do so in several non-English Nigerian languages. Instead of trying to make new laws, why not boost such initiatives?

This is not to downplay the tendency for social media exchange to overwhelm or even turn into bullying. To an extent, social media—like any other media form—can truly be used to cause havoc. Its democratic structure that features multiple gateways without barely any gatekeepers provides nodal points from which mischief can be sprung. But all that fixation with what could go wrong overlooks the multitude of things that go right. Where would Nigerian popular culture be today without the driving force of social media? Can we extricate the popularity that Nigerian music stars have achieved from the activities of Nigerian youth on social media?

Some of the advocates for social media regulations say it is necessary to curtail the excessiveness of those who get carried away by the freedom of that space and slip the borders of what should be ideally permissible. But it is through the same excessiveness that some people routinely condemn as the evils of social media that Nigerians promoted Hilda Baci into an international star, passionately supported their football team at AFCON, and regularly advocated for their fellow Nigerians even if it took wrestling other foreign nationals to the ground in the process. Why take away all the spontaneity and vivacity of social interactions within that space all because you are obsessed with fixing what is not broken? Besides, what is this Nigerian tendency to want to punish, punish, and just punish?!

Perhaps Gbajabiamila would even have been worth taking seriously if he had spoken on these issues during some key points in our national history. For a man who was the Speaker during the administration of one of the most incompetent and corrupt government in Nigerian history, it amounts to a lack of introspection to describe contemporary reality as living in a “post-truth” world? Really? For Nigerians, the ideological manipulation of “post-truth” is largely a fallout of the lack of integrity in governance.

Our version of “post-truth” is instantiated when the government stages a rice pyramid for photo-ops to deceive the world that its agricultural policies have worked while the market prices of those food items spiral out of control. “Post-truth” is when the government borrows an aircraft to launch an airline. Gbajabiamila forgets that it was the denizens of social media who busted the official lies within mere hours of that “fake” launch. He was the Speaker while the Muhammadu Buhari regime deployed these deception strategies straight out of the North Korean regime playbook, but where was he?

This time last year, Nigeria faced another divisive election. People on social media, egged on by certain political associates now working for the same administration as Gbajabiamila and other social media influencers, slung vicious mud at one other. I do not recall Gbajabiamila intervening to douse the tension. But today, after their elections have been safely won, he mounts the pulpit to perorate on the dangers of a world where emotions rule over reason. So is it just now that he just noticed that “our politics is fuelled by emotive arguments” or that “objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion that appeal to identity and personal belief”? Where would he even be today without that kind of politics?

If he truly believes in what he is saying, then I challenge him to repeat that speech in 2026 when his political associates will expectedly be stirring the ethnic and religious pots again just so they can win a second term.

Punch

The smallest tasks on our to-do lists can often be the most draining.

Even just looking at the mountain of unread emails in your inbox or files that need to be decluttered on your desktop can trigger feelings of stress or anxiety.

Cecily Motley, the co-founder of Harriet, an AI-powered workplace assistant, calls these repetitive, tedious activities “vampire tasks” — and warns that getting bogged down by admin work is the number one thing that kills people’s productivity.

“It’s those dull, time-sucking tasks like scheduling meetings and responding to emails that drain your energy and take time away from deep-focus work or higher-value projects,” she explains. “That constant influx of administrative tasks can hurt productivity the most.”

The average person spends at least 21 hours per week doing admin in their jobs, according to a 2021 report from software start-up Brightpearl. Its researchers polled 2,000 adults and found that nearly 40% of people are “overwhelmed” by the amount of admin responsibilities they have to tackle at work.

Motley recommends three strategies to simplify “vampire tasks” and boost productivity: 

Try timeboxing — but be realistic

Motley swears by timeboxing, or scheduling blocks of time on your calendar to focus on specific items on your to-do list and blocking out any distractions for the time limit you’ve assigned to that activity.  

That includes scheduling “admin sessions” to create more distraction-free periods for important projects — Motley recommends saving these for a time when you’re normally less productive, whether it’s when you first log on or at the end of your workday.

Setting clear guidelines for how you spend your time and energy is the easiest and most effective way to boost productivity, recent research from Salesforce subsidiary Slack and research firm Qualtrics has found.

But timeboxing is only effective if you’re honest about the time required to complete each assignment, says Motley. You can time yourself completing different tasks to figure out the duration of each one and build a confident framework for your timeboxing schedule from there. 

If your boss is skeptical or unfamiliar with timeboxing, Motley recommends labeling the boxes on your calendar so they know when you might be heads-down on a project or slow to respond to emails. 

Silence notifications 

Notifications can make some administrative duties like responding to emails and calendar invites feel urgent and in need of immediate attention even if such tasks “rarely are,” says Motley.

Responding to every notification as it comes in can make it harder to refocus on the work you were previously engaged in. Instead, Motley suggests turning off your notifications at work and checking incoming messages/alerts all at once during your admin period.

You can tell your manager and direct colleagues when those admin periods are, so they know when to expect a response or keep one line of communication open (Slack, phone) for any time-sensitive conversations. 

Set stricter boundaries 

It might seem counterintuitive, but saying “no” to unnecessary tasks or taking on more work doesn’t just prevent burnout — it can also help you build trust in the workplace.

“You’re showing your boss and co-workers that you’re organized enough to understand your workload and prioritize existing commitments,” says Motley. 

Of course, there will be times when you can’t say no, even if you want to — like working late to meet an important deadline or helping your boss with an urgent request — but Motley says you can minimize the number of vampire tasks on your plate by leaving irrelevant email threads and declining unnecessary calendar invites. 

“Your admin workload will never be manageable if you say ‘yes’ to everything,” she says. “You just have to be polite, but firm about when and how you address those requests.” 

Motley also suggests checking out AI tools including Harriet, Otter.ai and Grammarly to schedule meetings, transcribe and summarize meeting notes or draft emails, among other repetitive tasks, to ease the administrative burden.

“No one goes into a role saying, ‘My dream is to do admin work all day,’” she says. “But it’s an essential, unavoidable part of our jobs, so figuring out how to be more efficient with it can make it less time-consuming or painful than it needs to be.” 

CNBC

Mohammed Idris, minister of information and national orientation, has knocked governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for comparing Nigeria’s economic situation to that of Venezuela. 

Speaking after a meeting held in Abuja on Monday, Bala Mohammed, governor of Bauchi and chairman of the PDP governors’ forum, lamented that the cost of living in the country is skyrocketing while the naira is on a free fall.

The governor of Bauchi said Nigeria is “almost on the road to Venezuela” due to the current economic hardship in the country.

As of January, Venezuela was reported to have a 234 percent inflation rate, one of the highest in the world.

However, in a statement on Tuesday, the minister said Nigeria is nowhere close to Venezuela.

“It is far-fetched when PDP governors, who are supposed to be major players in driving economic growth and prosperity for our citizens in their respective states, mischievously and falsely compare our current economic challenges to Venezuela,” the statement reads.

“We want to state categorically that though our country is going through some rough patches, which are being addressed by the administration of President Bola Tinubu, our situation is nowhere near what is happening in Venezuela.

“The Nigerian economy is still very strong and is expected to record a 3% GDP growth this year. The economy is meeting financial obligations to lenders at home and abroad.

“The Nigerian government is running effectively, and our government can pay all its bills while maintaining a healthy trade balance with trading partners worldwide.”

The minister said while it is expected for the PDP governors to play politics, it should be done with facts.

“Nigerians should ask PDP Governors how far and how well they have utilised the increased revenue to better the lives of Nigerians in their respective states,” he said.

“It is on record that most States controlled by PDP owe workers and pensioners months of unpaid salary and pension arrears. The PDP Governors have defaulted in paying gratuities to their retired workers.

“It is also a fact that many of the PDP Governors have not paid N30,000 minimum wage to their workers since it took effect more than four years ago. All of these anomalies in their states contribute significantly to the economic pressure their citizens face.”

Idris said the PDP governors should support the federal government to revamp the economy.

The Cable

Residents of Sokoto on Monday protested the high cost of living in Nigeria.

The protesters marched from Tudun Wada area of the state capital to the front of Government House.

Some of the protesters held placards, chanting “Beans is expensive”, “Maize is expensive” “Fuel is expensive” among others.

Nigerians are grappling with inflation and economic hardship that were exacerbated by the removal of fuel subsidies in May last year.

Prices of foodstuffs and other commodities have been soaring, which has led to the worsening of the already fragile economy of the country.

The country’s currency, the naira, has been witnessing a free fall with $1 exchanging for N1,500 as of Monday.

There were protests in Niger and Kano states last week while the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have given a two-week ultimatum to the federal government to begin implementing policies that will assuage the suffering of Nigerians.

Sokoto protest

Addressing journalists, Abdullahi Muhammad, who led the protest, said the situation is pushing the people to the wall.

“It’s surprising how nobody is trying to bring the prices of commodities down. We elected these people hoping that things would be better but things are getting worse. We need price control to ensure stability in prices of goods,” he said.

He also accused traders of hoarding goods and unnecessarily increasing prices of commodities, calling on the government to put more effort in supervising businesses.

“A mudu of garri is N1,250 while a mudu of maize flour is N1,700. Traders are part of the problem because they are in the habit of increasing prices at will,” he said.

Another protester, Jabir Usman, called on the government at various levels and business people to fear God in their dealings.

A woman, who didn’t give her name, said the situation has compounded life for several households in the state.

“People want to get married but everything is expensive. Furniture is expensive for parents to buy for their children. A small bed is more than N500,000. A bag of cement is always increasing in price. Things are difficult for people, we want the government to help us find a solution,” she said in Hausa language.

PT

A meeting between the Federal Government and organised Labour to stave off the planned strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress deadlocked on Monday night.

Minister of State Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, who hosted the parley in Abuja, could not convince the unions to suspend the strike slated for February 23.

NLC and TUC on February 8 issued a 14-day nationwide strike notice to the Federal Government over the failure of the Bola Tinubu-led government to implement the agreements reached on October 2, 2023, following the removal of the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit known as petrol.

In a statement signed by leaders of the two labour unions, Joe Ajaero and Festus Usifo, the organised Labour expressed sadness that despite the passage of time, “The majority of these crucial agreements remain unmet or negligibly addressed, indicating a blatant disregard for the principles of good faith, welfare and rights of Nigerian workers and Nigerians.”

The unions said despite their efforts to ensure industrial peace, the government seemed unperturbed by the mass suffering and hardship across the country.

After the removal of the fuel subsidy by the President on May 29, 2023, the labour unions reached a 16-point agreement with the Federal Government on measures to cushion the pains of the subsidy removal on workers.

N35,000 wage award

Among other things, the government agreed to pay N35,000 to all federal workers beginning from last September pending when a new national minimum wage would be signed into law.

The resolution provided that the wage award would be paid to the federal workers for six months while states were encouraged to extend the same benefit to their workers.

The Federal Government also pledged to make cash transfers to vulnerable Nigerians and provide 100 CNG (compressed natural gas) buses nationwide to ease the high transportation costs.

Speaking in an interview with our correspondent on Tuesday, NLC Vice President, Hakeem Ambali, insisted that the strike would go on unless the Federal Government addressed “the untold hardship meted on Nigerians by the famous pronunciation that ‘subsidy is gone’ on 29 May.”

He lamented that the Federal Government had yet to fulfil its part of the agreement with the labour movement.

“The two-week ultimatum stands except the government does the needful and addresses the untold hardship meted on Nigerians by the famous pronunciation that ‘subsidy is gone’ on 29 May.

“We can see pockets of protests across the country. These are very dangerous. So, Labour must rise and offer leadership; Our ultimatum is patriotic,” he declared.

Shedding light on what transpired at the meeting with the minister, Ambali, who is also the National President of the National Union of Local Government Employees, in an interview with one of our correspondents, disclosed that the session was called to review the level of implementation of the October agreement.

He stated, “The meeting realised that major parts of the agreement have not been implemented and Labour minister expressed her disappointment that the government had not kept faith with the spirit of the agreements.

“The meeting resolved subsequently that the agreements have not been well implemented and that they (government) still have windows of opportunities to meet to address all these to avert the impending strikes.”

Speaking further, the vice-president noted that the agreement with the Federal Government was time-bound.

He added, “We signed an agreement in October last year that the buses would be ready to ply Nigeria’s road in December last year. We are already in February. I do not think we have seen any bus on the road.

14-day ultimatum

“On the wage award which is N35,000, we also realised that the government has not kept faith with that. They were only able to pay one until we issued an ultimatum for 14 days. We realised that even state governments did not negotiate with their labour unions.

“What they only did was that they started paying N10,000 before the agreement was signed. Some of the governors were part of the meeting back then in October. They would have called the labour unions and negotiated new wages which were not done.”

On the minimum wage negotiation, Ambali noted the NLC declined to meet with the committee as the government was supposed to address the issue.

“For emphasis is the issue of the minimum wage committee. By law, in September 2023, the minimum wage committee should have come into operation, six months after the expiration of the old Minimum Wage Act which was not done.

“The committee was inaugurated about two weeks ago and with the negotiation statute barred because it is expected to have matured by March 31, 2024, when the existing law becomes obsolete.

“Even now, they said the committee was to brief us yesterday (Monday), we said we are not looking for a technical session. That it is a joint committee between Labour and government who is supposed to have briefed us and the committee never met,’’ he explained.

Also speaking with The PUNCH, a top NLC official said the unions scheduled a second meeting with the labour minister.

“The Ministry of Labour of Labour and Employment is just an intervention platform. What the ministry is doing is to come in and say they would arrange the meeting, but it is not in any position to make an offer,” the labor leader clarified.

Addressing the Second National Labour Adjudication and Arbitration Forum organised by the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association in Abuja on Tuesday, NLC President, Ajaero, pointed out that government’s failure to implement agreements was the primary reason for the lack of positive outcomes in social dialogues.

This was as he advocated a yearly review of workers’ minimum wages to survive the biting economic hardship occasioned by the policy stance of the government.

The event themed, ‘Strengthening Tripartism and Social Dialogue (including Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms) for a sustainable industrial relation system in Nigeria,’ serves as a platform for social partners and stakeholders to promote fair and just resolution of labour disputes, foster harmonious employer-employee relations.

Ajaero bemoaned the ‘promise and fail’ tactics employed by government officials to inflict pain on Nigerians.

He lamented that eight months after the fuel subsidy removal, the government had yet to fulfil any of the 16-point agreement signed with the labour unions in October last year.

He said, “I have heard a lot about the minimum wage coming on board and it is crucial. We have been paying lip service to the issue of tripartism. Yesterday, we had a meeting and part of the agreement was talking about social dialogue.”

Responding to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, who urged the NLC to embrace tripartism, and social dialogue, Ajaero said, “If tripartism produces an agreement and that agreement is not implemented, what is the essence of having such dialogue?

“Last October, we had a 16-point agreement with the government but up till today, none has been implemented. So, if you call me for social dialogue again, do you think I would answer you?

“It is a problem and becoming a mantra but we must internalise it so that Nigerians will know that you are serious.”

Continuing, Ajaero called for an amendment to the minimum wage law that stipulates a once-in-five-year negotiation.

Minimum wage

He added, “The essence of having a minimum wage with a reopened clause of five years is no longer acceptable because, before five years, you have just nothing due to the surging inflation.

“No matter what you negotiate with, the present Nigerian economy will not buy anything meaningful in the next five years. So, we have to look at all these issues. I think we should have a system that every year we look at the level of inflation and devaluation and adjust accordingly.

“People have been coming up to say if the government increases salaries, it would affect inflation and then you keep salaries constant while other variables continue to go up. The wage award for N35,000 has not been paid and workers are being owed salaries.”

“It took the government 24 hours to say that the subsidy is gone but it is taking eight months to decide what to do with it and then you are saying we should give more time.

‘’No CNG buses on the road and then labour unions are termed as trouble-makers. Even states are not paying the wage award,” he complained.

Earlier in his address, Akume assured the participants that the president was passionate about rebuilding the economy and improving workers’ welfare.

He stressed that open dialogue, constructive engagement, and exploration of innovative solutions are the delicate process of determining a minimum wage that is fair, sustainable, and beneficial for all stakeholders.

Akume, represented by the Cabinet Affairs Official, Richard Pheelangwah, said, “I urge the NLC to embrace tripartism and social dialogue by recognizing the fact that collaboration and mutual understanding between government and labour unions.

“Each party must actively listen to the concerns and perspectives of the others, fostering a spirit of compromise and cooperation. While striving for a living wage for Nigerian workers, we must acknowledge the nation’s economic challenges.”

The SGF warned that “Finding a sustainable equilibrium that protects workers’ well-being without jeopardizing business viability and overall economic health is crucial.”

He also asked the labour unions to recognise the fact that collaboration and mutual understanding between government, employers, and labour unions are paramount.

“Each party must actively listen to the concerns and perspectives of the others, fostering a spirit of compromise and cooperation,’’ he further advised.

He admonished the labour leaders to embrace alternative mechanisms like mediation and arbitration to expedite resolutions, minimize disruptions, and foster trust among stakeholders, noting that the traditional methods may not always yield the desired outcomes.

In actualising their demands, Akume asked the unions to consider “wider public service obligations discharged by the government to cushion economic hardships, beyond the minimum wage.’’

These, he said, included increased investment in infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, and power plants which according to him, had helped to create jobs and boost economic activity; investment in gas-powered public transportation systems, railways and waterways; and expansion and strengthening of social safety nets, such as the Conditional Cash Transfer programme.

Punch

Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria yesterday said it would embark on nationwide strike from February 27, should the Federal government fail to implement the agreement it entered into with the association in 2020.

A statement by the National President of AMBCON, Mansur Umar, read on his behalf by the Kogi State Chairman of the association, Gabriel Adeniyi, yesterday, explained that the decision to go on strike was reached after due consideration of the “multifarious increase in the prices of baking materials such as flour, sugar, yeast, vegetable oil, petrol, diesel all occasioned by subsidy removal and forex deregulation.”

The association called for the immediate implementation of financial support palliatives for bakers as promised by the Federal Government as post Covid-19 support programmes for Small and Medium Enterprises for bakers who have lost over 40 per cent of their membership and still counting.

It also called for the suspension of all forms of taxation on the bakery industry for now at the federal, state and local government levels.  It said: “Multiple taxations from several federal, state, local government agencies fees and levies, hike in business activities in Nigeria are also some of the reasons for the impending strike action.”

The statement partly read, “The Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria have critically accessed the state of our business operation, consequently demand the liberalisation of flour and sugar importation, reduction or total removal of import duties on major baking materials such as flour, sugar, butter, yeast etc as applicable to other commodities as have recently been done by the federal government and Provision of concessionary forex exchange to flour millers and other stakeholders as well as reduction of tariff on imported wheat and sugar.”

Other demands outlined by the association include the development of cultivation and processing of wheat and sugar cane in Nigeria, and the removal of multiple taxations at all government levels. The association also called for the setting up of a price control and monitoring committee as allowed by the constitution as amended and other conditions that will enhance the ease of doing business in the country.

Sun

Nigerian Breweries (NB) Plc has announced an upward review in the prices of some products in its stock-keeping units (SKUs) to mitigate the impact of rising cost of input.

The company, in a leaked memo to customers, said the price adjustments would take effect from February 19, 2024.

SKU is a unique identifier used to track inventory within a business.

Nigerian Breweries is the producer of major alcoholic products like Star Lager, Gulder, Legend Extra Stout, Heineken, Goldberg, Life, and Star Radler amongst others.

Non-alcoholic drinks produced by the company include Maltina, Amstel Malta, Fayrouz, Climax Energy drink, and Malta Gold.

In the memo, the brewer did not state which of its brands will be affected by the price increase.

“Please accept our best compliments! This is to inform you that we are constraind to review the prices of some of our SKUs with effect from Monday 19th February, 2024,” Nigerian Breweries said.

“This review has become necessary because of continued rising input cost and the need to mitigate the impact.

“In appreciation of our great partnership and your commitment, we will deliver at current prices all open orders that are fully funded and created in our system before 00.00hrs on Monday 19th February, 2024.

“The exact quantity of orders that will be allowed will be communicated to you by your Regional Business Manager (RBM). Any order in excess of this quantity will be re-invoiced at the new price on the 19th of February, 2024.

“While thanking you for your comittment to our valued partnership, be rest assured that we will continue to support your sales/distribution efforts as always.”

An insider in the company said it is an internal memo that is not meant for the public.

This is the second time the company has reviewed its price in less than eight months.

On August 3, 2023, the company issued a similar statement saying it would be reviewing products’ prices, due to continued rise in input cost.

Since the removal of the subsidy on petrol by President Bola Tinubu on May 29, 2023, there has been a steady increase in the prices of basic items and staples.

Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 28.9 percent in December 2023 — up from 28.20 percent in the previous month.

The Cable

Armed men killed four people, including two policemen, and kidnapped at least 40 others in an attack on Kaura Namoda, in Nigeria's northwest Zamfara state, police and residents said on Tuesday.

Africa's largest economy is grappling with a multifaceted security crisis, including kidnappings for ransom in the northwest, which has reached alarming proportions.

Zamfara police spokesperson Yazid Abubakar confirmed the attack and said reinforcements have been deployed to the Kasuwar Daji district of the town where the incident took place.

Residents, including some of the victims, told Reuters by phone about their ordeal which began with an attack on the local police station.

"Sporadic gunshots woke me up around 0100 GMT. They started with the uniformed men before they moved into our houses," Hussaini Mohammed said.

"They took more than 40 women and children, including some elderly men," added Mohammed, who managed to escape.

Hamisu Kasuwa Daji, who heads the town's transport union, told Reuters his son and two grandchildren were taken by the attackers.

"My house is adjacent to the police station. The bandits started attacking the police station, which they engaged for several minutes until they killed two policemen and two other civilians.

"Then they proceeded to my house, by which time I had already fled. After I returned home later, I realised they had taken my son and two grandsons," he said.

Gangs of heavily armed men referred to as bandits by locals have wreaked havoc across Nigeria's northwest in the past three years, kidnapping thousands of people, killing hundreds and making it unsafe to travel by road or to farm in some areas.

Widespread insecurity is exacerbating a cost-of-living crisis caused by the policies of President Bola Tinubu who has not yet said how he plans to tackle the mounting problems.

Reuters

Israel and Hamas are making progress in cease-fire and hostage-release talks, officials say

Israel and Hamas are making progress toward another cease-fire and hostage-release deal, officials said Tuesday, as negotiations went on and Israel threatened to expand its offensive to Gaza’s southern edge, where some 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge.

The talks continued in Egypt a day after Israeli forces rescued two captives in Rafah, the packed southern town along the Egyptian border, in a raid that killed at least 74 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and caused heavy destruction. The operation offered a glimpse of what a full-blown ground advance might look like.

A cease-fire deal, on the other hand, would give people in Gaza a desperately needed respite from the war, now in its fifth month, and offer freedom for at least some of the estimated 100 people still held captive in Gaza. Qatar, the United States and Egypt have sought to broker a deal in the face of starkly disparate positions expressed publicly by both Israel and Hamas.

Israel has made destroying Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and freeing the hostages the main goals of its war, which was launched after thousands of Hamas-led militants rampaged through southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 people captive. Tens of thousands of Israelis were displaced from destroyed communities.

The war has brought unprecedented destruction to the Gaza Strip, with more than 28,000 people killed, more than 70% of them women and minors, according to local health officials. Vast swaths of the territory have been flattened by Israel’s offensive, around 80% of the population has been displaced and a humanitarian catastrophe has pushed more than a quarter of the population toward starvation.

In other developments, South Africa, which has lodged genocide allegations against Israel at the International Court of Justice, said Tuesday that it filed an “urgent request” with the court to consider whether Israel’s military operations in Rafah constitute a breach of provisional orders handed down by the justices last month. Those orders called on Israel to take greater measures to spare civilians.

Israel has adamantly denied the genocide allegations and says it is carrying out operations in accordance with international law. It blames Hamas for the high death toll because the militants operate in dense residential areas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press on until “total victory,” and has insisted that military pressure will help free the hostages. But the rescued hostages, 60-year-old Fernando Marman and 70-year-old Louis Har, were just the second and third captives to be freed by the military since the war erupted.

Other Israeli officials have said only a deal can bring about the release of large numbers of hostages.

Over 100 were freed in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong truce last year. Three hostages were killed erroneously by Israeli forces in December and one female Israeli soldier was freed in a rescue mission in the early weeks of the war. Israeli officials say around 30 hostages taken on Oct. 7 have died, either during the initial attack or in captivity.

BRIDGING THE GAPS

A senior Egyptian official said mediators have achieved “relatively significant” progress ahead of a meeting Tuesday in Cairo of representatives from Qatar, the U.S. and Israel. The official said the meeting would focus on “crafting a final draft” of a six-week cease-fire deal, with guarantees that the parties would continue negotiations toward a permanent cease-fire.

CIA chief William Burns and David Barnea, head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, attended the Cairo talks. Both men played a key role in brokering the previous cease-fire.

A Western diplomat in the Egyptian capital also said a six-week deal was on the table but cautioned that more work is still needed to reach an agreement. The diplomat said the meeting Tuesday would be crucial in bridging the remaining gaps.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive talks with the media.

While the officials did not disclose the precise details of the emerging deal, the sides have been discussing varying proposals for weeks.

Israel has proposed a two-month cease-fire in which hostages would be freed in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, and top Hamas leaders in Gaza would be allowed to relocate to other countries.

Hamas rejected those terms. It laid out a three-phase plan of 45 days each in which the hostages would be released in stages, Israel would free hundreds of imprisoned Palestinians, including senior militants, and the war would wind down, with Israel withdrawing its troops. That was viewed as a non-starter for Israel, which wants to topple Hamas before ending the war.

But President Joe Biden signaled Monday that a deal might be within reach.

“The key elements of the deal are on the table,” Biden said alongside visiting Jordanian King Abdullah II, adding, “there are gaps that remain.” He said the U.S. would do “everything possible” to make an agreement happen.

DEATH TOLL MOUNTS

The signs of progress came despite ongoing fighting.

Palestinians were still counting the dead after Israel’s hostage rescue mission as the death toll climbed Tuesday to 74. Residents and displaced Palestinians in Gaza were searching through the rubble from Israeli airstrikes that provided cover for the rescue mission.

Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab broadcaster funded by Qatar, said an Israeli airstrike in Rafah wounded two of its journalists, with one having to undergo an amputation. It identified the wounded as cameraman Ahmad Matar and reporter Ismail Abu Omar. It was unclear when the strike took place, and the Israeli military had no immediate comment.

While concerns have grown over Rafah because it is sheltering such a large number of Palestinians, fighting continued throughout the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said troops were battling militants in Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, and in central Gaza. It said Tuesday that three soldiers were killed in combat, raising the death toll among troops since the Gaza ground operation began in late October to 232.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the bodies of 133 people killed in Israeli strikes were brought to hospitals over the past day. The fatalities brought the death toll in Gaza to 28,473 since the war began on Oct. 7, according to the ministry, which says more than 68,000 people have been wounded.

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

‘No way in hell’ Russia will lose Ukraine conflict – Musk

There is “no way in hell” that Russia will suffer defeat in its conflict with Ukraine, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said.

Musk, one of the world’s richest men, made the comment on Monday during a discussion about a Senate bill aimed at providing additional US aid to Kiev on X Spaces – part of his social media platform, X (formerly Twitter).

He was joined by a number of other people opposed to further funding for Ukraine, including Republican lawmakers Ron Johnson, JD Vance and Mike Lee, former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and entrepreneur David Sacks.

”This spending doesn’t help Ukraine. Prolonging the war doesn’t help Ukraine,” the Tesla and SpaceX chief said, as quoted by Bloomberg.

He urged Americans to contact their elected representatives about the $95 billion emergency spending proposal, which includes $60 billion for Ukraine, as well as funding for Israel and Taiwan.

The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday, but it’s expected to have a hard time in the House of Representatives, where opposition to further funding for Kiev is much stronger among Republicans. They are demanding increased spending on security at the US-Mexico border.

Musk has been calling for a peaceful settlement of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and has criticized US military assistance to Kiev on many occasions during the two years of the fighting. He said that accusing him of being an apologist for Russian President Vladimir Putin over those statements was “absurd.”

His companies “have probably done more to undermine Russia than anything,” the entrepreneur claimed, noting that SpaceX had provided its Starlink internet service to Ukraine.

Musk said what he really desires is for deaths to stop on both the Ukrainian and Russian sides.

He also addressed some Western politicians who “want regime change in Russia,” saying “they should think about who is the person that could take out Putin, and is that person likely to be a peacenik? Probably not.” That person would likely be “even more hardcore than Putin,” he added.

The Russian leader spoke about Musk in his interview with independent US journalist Tucker Carlson last week, calling the entrepreneur “a smart person.”

“I think there’s no stopping Elon Musk, he will do as he sees fit,” Putin said, adding that his activities still need to be “formalized and subjected to certain rules.”

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine defence minister, new armed forces chief inform Western generals of Kyiv's plans

Ukraine Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and newly appointed armed forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi discussed Kyiv's military plans for 2024 with the supreme commander of the NATO Armed Forces in Europe and the commander of the Security Assistance Group Ukraine, Umerov said on Facebook on Tuesday.

Colonel-General Syrskyi, who has led Ukraine's ground forces since 2019, was promoted to commander of the armed forces last week as the war with Russia nears its third year. He replaced Valeriy Zaluzhnyi.

Umerov in his Facebook posting said he and Syrskyi had "a clear and substantive conversation" with General Christopher Cavoli and Lieutenant General Antonio Aguto.

"We discussed our military plans for 2024," Umerov said. "The Commander-in-Chief announced the priorities. Among them are the optimization of the structure of the Armed Forces, improvement of the quality of training of our military, additional staffing of existing brigades and creation of new ones, supplying of regular needs in weapons and equipment."

The parties also discussed Ukraine's need for more electronic warfare equipment to combat Russian drones and the importance of rotating the fighters on the front lines, Umerov said without providing any details.

** Russia's airstrikes hit hospital, injuring several in east Ukraine, governor says

Russia launched several missile attacks on the town of Selydove in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, damaging a hospital, destroying a dozen residential flats and injuring several people, Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin said on Wednesday.

"Reportedly, three people, including a child, are under the rubble (of the hospital)," Filashkin said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that 100 patients were evacuated to hospitals in nearby towns.

The 1 a.m. Wednesday strike (2300 GMT Tuesday) damaged a wing of the hospital, Filashkin said. He posted a video of windows blown out, walls torn and rubble inside what it seemed like a medical facility, with patients sitting or lying in beds.

The attack followed a strike on Selydove late on Tuesday that destroyed 12 apartments in a five-storey residential building and injured at least four people, including two children, Filashkin said.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports. There was no immediate response from Russia's defence ministry to a request for comment.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in strikes on each other's territories. Both sides say their air attacks, often away from the front line, have a goal to destroy critical energy, military and transport infrastructure.

The town of Selydove, which had a pre-war population of around 24,000, has come under increased Russian airstrikes in recent weeks, Ukrainian officials have said.

The Donetsk region, 57% of which is now occupied by Russia, has been at the forefront of war since 2014, when Russian-backed proxies seized the region's capital city, also called Donetsk, as well as many other large towns.

RT/Reuters