Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday inspected Dangote Group's books as part of investigations into possible past misuse of foreign currency sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria, two sources at the Commission said.

The Dangote Group, which counts cement and fertiliser manufacturing and sugar refining among its businesses, is owned by Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote. Dangote is also readying a 650,000 barrels per day oil refinery that cost $20 billion to build.

Under former CBN governor Godwin Emefiele, the bank had multiple exchange rates and sold dollars cheaply to some businesses, including Dangote, to help them import raw materials.

A Dangote spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Two people at the EFCC said Thursday's search at Dangote offices in Lagos, was part of an investigation set to be expanded to other companies.

"We went to the head office of Dangote Group today to look into their books on the ongoing investigation on the abuse of the extant laws that govern the foreign exchange transaction during the tenure of Godwin Emefiele as CBN governor," one of the sources told Reuters.

"Here, we are talking about multiple exchange rates and others. It is an ongoing investigation and it was the turn of Dangote Group today," said the source, who declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak on the issue.

EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale declined to comment.

A second source confirmed the investigation, adding that at least one other listed Nigerian conglomerate would be targeted.

Reuters

Men and commanders of the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun, from Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Ondo states held a walk on Thursday in Akure in honour of the late Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu.

The Amotekun corps were joined by Akeredolu’s successor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, during the walk from the Cathedral area of Akure to the Governor’s Office.

Akeredolu died on December 27, 2023, after a prolonged battle with prostate cancer. He was aged 67.

As the Chairman of the South-West Governors’ Forum, Akeredolu rallied his fellow governors from the six South-West states to form Amotekun as a regional security outfit in response to the escalating insecurity, particularly attacks on farmers and kidnapping by killer herdsmen.

Despite the initial opposition by the Federal Government, through then Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, Akeredolu, led his fellow South-West governors to see the formation of Amotekun through.

During the walk on Thursday, Aiyedatiwa said South-West governors would continue to work together to ensure the continuity of Amotekun.

He said, “I can assure you that  Amotekun will be sustained because of its role in society; because the security of lives and property of the people of the South-West zone is very important to us; we will use whatever is in our possession to support and sustain it.”

He commended the Amotekun corps and commanders for honouring Akeredolu, “whose passage was a monumental loss to the state and Amotekun as a whole.”

Responding on behalf of his colleagues, the commander of the Ondo Amotekun, Adetunji Adeleye, said Akeredolu would continue to be remembered for his legacy.

Adeleye, who is the Chairman of the South West Amotekun Commanders, appreciated the officers and men of the corps for their unrelenting efforts.

“We have met all the governors and all of them have shown their solidarity with the people of Ondo State.

“All the corps commanders travelled all the way from their various states today; that’s the essence of the 5km walk we embarked on today.

“The good work he (Akeredolu) did, mainly in the security system in South-West, is worth mentioning.

“We all knew what the security situation was before the creation of Amotekun; that’s about three years ago, and we are a living testimony to the fact that security in the South-West has greatly improved.

“We are resolute to continue the good work that he (Akeredolu) started. That’s our own contribution to immortalising him as our great leader.

“Akeredolu was resolute and sincere at making sure that Amotekun corps became a reality,” he said.

Also, the Corps Commander from Oyo, Olayinka Olayanju, pledged that the corps would continue to operate.

Punch

Israeli defense minister lays out vision for next steps of Gaza war ahead of Blinken visit

Israel’s defense minister on Thursday laid out his vision for the next phase of the war in Gaza, describing how Israeli forces would shift to an apparently scaled-down “new combat approach” in northern Gaza, while continuing to fight Hamas in the south of the territory “for as long as necessary.”

Ahead of a visit by the U.S. secretary of state, Yoav Gallant also outlined a proposal for how Gaza would be run once Hamas is defeated, with Israel keeping security control while an undefined, Israeli-guided Palestinian body runs day-to-day administration, and the U.S. and other countries oversee rebuilding.

Israel has come under heavy international pressure to spell out a post-war vision but so far has not done so. The issue is likely to be on the agenda in Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s talks this weekend in Israel and other countries in the region. The United States has pressed Israel to shift to lower-intensity military operations in Gaza that more precisely target Hamas, after nearly three devastating months of bombardment and ground assaults.

The vagueness of many of Gallant’s provisions made it difficult to assess how much they mesh with the U.S. calls.

The document issued by Gallant was titled a “vision for Phase 3” of the war, and Gallant’s office said the phase had not yet begun. It also said the ideas were Gallant’s and not official policy, which would have to be set by Israel’s war and security cabinets.

Gallant, who is a member of both cabinets, may be aiming to put his personal plan before the Americans ahead of others in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, which includes hard-right members likely to want a tougher approach.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 22,400 people, more than two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted around 240 others.

Much of northern Gaza, which troops invaded two months ago, has been flattened beyond recognition. Associated Press footage from Gaza City showed people wandering through a shattered landscape with large fields of broken concrete and splintered wood and streets lined with toppled buildings.

With the focus now in the south, Israeli forces are battling Hamas militants in the city of Khan Younis and in urban refugee camps in the center of the territory.

Some 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes and squeezed into smaller slivers of the territory. Israel’s siege of the territory has caused a humanitarian crisis, with a quarter of the population starving because not enough supplies are entering, according to the U.N.

At the same time, airstrikes and shelling across Gaza continue to destroy houses, burying families taking shelter inside.

An Israeli strike Thursday flattened a home in Muwasi, a small rural strip on Gaza’s southern coastline that Israel’s military had declared a safe zone. The blast killed at least 12 people, Palestinian hospital officials said. The dead included a man and his wife, seven of their children and three other children ranging in age from 5 to 14, according to a list of the dead who arrived at Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis.

There was no immediate response from Israel’s military.

GALLANT’S VISION

Gallant’s statement underlined that the war would go on until Hamas’ military and government capabilities are eliminated and the more than 100 hostages still in captivity are returned.

In the north, the statement said, forces will shift to a new approach that includes raids, destruction of tunnels, “air and ground activities and special operations.” The aim would be “the erosion” of the remaining Hamas presence.

There was no word whether northern Gaza’s population, which has almost entirely been driven south, would be allowed to return.

The statement did not clarify how the new approach would differ from current operations, but Gallant has previously said it would be a lower scale. Israel began last week to withdraw some troops from northern Gaza, where the military says it has largely gained operational control after weeks of heavy fighting with Hamas. Still, Gallant has said several thousand Hamas fighters remain there.

In the south, he said, fighting would continue “as long as is deemed necessary.”

After the war, the statement said, Israel will keep security control, taking military action in Gaza when necessary to ensure there are no threats and maintaining inspections of all goods entering the territory.

Gallant said there would be no Israeli civilians in Gaza, ruling out calls by some in Israel’s far-right for a return of Jewish settlers to the territory.

Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year presence.

Palestinian entities — apparently local civil servants or communal leaders— would run the territory, with Israel providing “information to guide civilian operations,” the statement said without elaborating. A multinational task force, led by the U.S., would be in charge of rebuilding.

The apparent picture of an Israeli-dominated Palestinian administration for Gaza differs starkly from U.S. calls for a revitalized Palestinian Authority to take control of the territory and a start to new negotiations toward creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have rejected that idea.

FEARS OF WIDER WAR

An apparent Israeli strike that killed a top Hamas leader in Beirut has stirred fresh fears that the conflict could expand into other parts of the Middle East — a prospect that is also likely to be high on Blinken’s agenda.

The killing of Saleh Arouri prompted warnings of retaliation from Hamas’ ally, the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. But there was no immediate escalation in the daily exchanges of rocket fire and shells between Hezbollah and the Israeli military over the two countries’ border. Regional tensions climbed as a U.S. airstrike killed an Iranian-backed militia leader in Iraq and as Yemen’s Houthi rebels continued attacks on ships in key Red Sea shipping lanes.

At the same time, Israel has stepped up warnings of tougher military action against Hezbollah unless it pulls its fighters out of the border region, as called for under a U.N.-brokered 2006 cease-fire. Israel says that is the only way tens of thousands of Israelis who evacuated from communities in the north can return.

Gallant said Thursday that there was a “short window of time” for diplomacy with Hezbollah. But he said Israel was determined to bring about “a new reality in the northern arena, which will enable the secure return of our citizens.”

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says it hit two Russian military targets in occupied Crimea

Ukraine said on Thursday its air force conducted a strike on a Russian command post near the occupied city of Sevastopol more than 200 km (120 miles) from Kyiv-held territory, and hit a military unit in a separate strike on the Crimean peninsula.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defence units had downed a total of 36 Ukrainian drones over Crimea.

Ukraine's Air Force Commander, Mykola Oleshchuk, posted a video from social media on the Telegram messaging app showing smoke rising from an explosion near Sevastopol, a Crimean port that serves as the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

"Thanks again to the air force pilots and everyone who planned the operation for perfect combat work," he said.

He also published a screenshot of a social media post saying that a Russian military base in the city of Yevpatoria had been hit in a strike.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, described the attack as "the most massive in recent times".

One person was hospitalized after a piece of shrapnel struck a house, he wrote on Telegram.

In a later posting, Razvozhayev said three residents of a home hit by falling debris had been evacuated. Further evacuations might be necessary as forensic experts examine part of a missile that fell near a village.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

In a report just after midnight, Russia's Defence Ministry reported the downing of 36 drones in Crimea and one over the southern Russian region of Krasnodar.

The head administrative official in Saky, home to an air base north of Sevastopol, said several Ukrainian air attacks on the area had been repelled.

And Ukrainian bloggers and unofficial Telegram channels said Russian air defence units had been in action repelling Ukrainian attacks in the Kerch strait, on Crimea's eastern coast, and in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

The Russian defence ministry had earlier reported that its forces had destroyed 10 incoming missiles over the peninsula.

The Strategic Communications Department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said a Russian command post had been hit near Sevastopol.

Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on the Crimean peninsula, which was seized and annexed by Moscow in 2014, seeking to destroy Russian military capabilities and force its fleet to pull back from the Black Sea.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Kyiv has managed to seize the initiative from Russia in the area.

** White House says Russia used missiles from North Korea to strike Ukraine

Russia recently used short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) sourced from North Korea to conduct multiple strikes against Ukraine, the White House said on Thursday, citing newly declassified intelligence.

National security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters the United States will raise the development with the United Nations Security Council.

Kirby called North Korea's arms transfer to Russia a "significant and concerning escalation" and said the United States would impose additional sanctions against those facilitating the arms deals.

Both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied conducting any arms deals, but vowed last year to deepen military relations.

The use of the missiles drew condemnation from Britain, as well as South Korea, which had reported in November that North Korea may have supplied SRBMs to Russia as part of a larger arms deal that also included anti-tank and anti-air missiles, artillery and mortar shells, and rifles.

"Our information indicates that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea recently provided Russia with ballistic missile launchers and several ballistic missiles," said Kirby, using the official name of North Korea.

On Dec. 30, he said, "Russian forces launched at least one of these North Korean ballistic missiles into Ukraine," adding that it appeared to have landed in open field.

Then on Tuesday Russia launched "multiple" North Korean missiles as part of a broader wave of heavy air strikes, Kirby said. Washington was still assessing the impact of those missiles.

Russia recently has launched some of its most intense strikes on Ukraine since the war began almost two years ago. Kyiv on Tuesday said that Russia had launched well over 300 attack drones and missiles of various kinds at cities across Ukraine since Friday.

HELPS RUSSIA

"Just like the artillery and munitions, this all helps prolong Russia's warfighting efforts," said Jenny Town, director of the Stimson Center's 38 North Program, which studies North Korea.

While the White House would not say specifically what type of missiles Pyongyang had sent to Russia, Kirby said they had a range of about 900 km (550 miles) and released a graphic that appeared to show KN-23 and KN-25 missiles.

Such missiles are new, solid-propellant SRBMs that North Korea began testing in 2019, said Ankit Panda, of the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"This is the first known combat use of these North Korean missiles," he said.

Joost Oliemans, a Dutch researcher and expert on North Korea's military, said images from Ukrainian social media accounts clearly show fragments of the ring housing the control vanes that are characteristic to North Korea's Hwasong-11 family of missiles, which includes the KN-23 and KN-25.

Kirby said the U.S. expects Russia and North Korea to learn from these launches, and anticipates Russia will use additional North Korean missiles to target Ukraine.

He said Iran has not delivered close-range ballistic missiles to Russia, but Washington believes Russia intends to purchase missile systems from Iran.

Moscow has been heavily reliant on Iran for drones and other weaponry for use against Ukraine.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Putin approves citizenship for foreigners in Russian army

President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree granting the right to obtain Russian passports to foreigners who sign up for service in the country’s Armed Forces or other military units during the Ukraine conflict, the Kremlin reported on its website on Thursday.

Family members of such foreigners will also have the right to obtain Russian citizenship, according to the decree.

In addition, simplified naturalization rules will apply to foreigners dismissed from military service during the fighting for health reasons, upon reaching the age limit, or the expiration of their contract.

Applications to secure Russian ID for the foreign nationals are to be considered within a month after the relevant papers are submitted to the Interior Ministry. The term can be extended to up to three months in case some data needs additional verification, the document reads.

The move can help to solve the problem of extraditing foreigners who took part in the fighting for Russia to other countries, according to Aleksandr Khinshtein, the head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy.

“Now the problem with the extradition of veterans of the military operation to other countries, where they are to be punished as ‘mercenaries’, will be resolved. Russia doesn’t extradite its citizens!” he wrote on Telegram.

Foreigners have been allowed to sign contracts with the Russian military since November 2022. However, a simplified path towards naturalization previously only applied to those who committed to at least one year of service.

Last month, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that the number of “foreign volunteers” joining the country’s military units had increased sevenfold over the past year. He didn’t reveal the exact number.

Also on Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry published data on foreign mercenaries fighting on the Ukrainian side. According to its estimates, over 13,500 soldiers of fortune have arrived in the country since the outbreak of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022.

A total of 5,900 mercenaries have been killed, while over 5,600 have fled the battlefield. The number of foreigners in the ranks of the Ukrainian military currently stands at over 1,900, according to the ministry.

** White House not ready to report damage to weapons supplied to Kiev

The US administration is not ready to inform, what portion of US weapons transferred to Ukraine was damaged in combat actions, Coordinator for Strategic Communications of the US National Security Council John Kirby said at the regular briefing.

"That's a better question put to the Ukrainian defense forces, not the United States," Kirby noted. "We are working very, very hard to make sure that for every system that is provided to Ukraine, there's a measure of accountability for it, that we can assure the Congress and the American people that the material is being used appropriately on the field of battle. And we've seen no indication that it hasn't been, that there's been some wide-scale corruption or misuse by the Ukrainian military," the official said.

The US is tracking Ukrainian capabilities in the conflict with Russia, Kirby added. "We added expertise and individuals to the team in Kiev specifically for accountability purposes," he noted.

Reuters/RT/Tass

After futile attempts by others to get the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate allegations of genocide against the parties in the war in Gaza, South Africa raised the stakes by filing a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Unlike the ICC, the ICJ is an organ of the UN for civil complaints, and Israel is a signatory to its charter.

But South Africa’s latest action may well be symbolic. It means nothing to Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has sworn not to stop the war in Gaza until the last member of Hamas has been eliminated.

In pursuit of that remnant in hospitals, schools, UN safe spaces, bunkers, tunnels – wherever they may be found – at least 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza. No one is exactly sure how many of the dead are members of Hamas, although Israeli military authorities claim they’re hunting them down.

Depending on where you’re getting your figures, however, the number of children, women, innocents (including humanitarian workers) caught in the crossfire are between 12,600 and 15,000. After three months of bombardment, the last Hamas – and we don’t know how many survivors they are – is obviously still on the run. The deadly hunt goes on, as does the war.

First strike

Of course, we can’t minimise how this latest round of war started. The deadly attack by Hamas on Israeli holidaymakers, tourists and picknickers on October 7 in the coastal town of Ashkelon and border towns provoked a global outrage and evoked memories of the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. Israel was obliged to defend itself and take reasonable steps to prevent a recurrence.

It does appear, however, that Israel under Netanyahu and with the backing of the US, appears to be telling the world that “reasonable steps” mean, among other things, the killing of thousands of people, apart from the destruction of about 70 percent of the infrastructure in Gaza, on top of a mounting pile of humanitarian carnage.

I’m not sure that South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ would dissuade Netanyahu from the devastatingly bloody hunt for the last Hamas. Even though South Africa’s parliament passed a motion to sever ties with Israel in November, the resort to ICJ was just another in a series of desperate attempts by a number of concerned countries to get Netanyahu to stop the war. Will he?

I doubt that. Yet, I also doubt that this bloody chase that is daily claiming more and more innocent lives on both sides, would track down the last Hamas – or even if it does, that it would not be replaced by something worse.

A page from history

Netanyahu has said this war is about justice for the innocent dead and security for Israel. Unfortunately, history hardly supports the view that a lasting peace can only be purchased by a pledge to destroy an idea or a people with the force of arms. The existence of the State of Israel today, despite all odds, is one proof of that.

If military victory alone could guarantee peace, we might not have had the Second World War. The unfair terms of the Treaty of Versailles, for example, which included territorial annexation, demilitarisation and heavy war reparations, pushed Germany to the brink.

It created conditions that led to the rise of Hitler. In its blind and desperate pursuit of the last “aggressive German” in particular, for example, the Allied forces sowed the seed that led to the rise of exactly what they hated the most: the Weimar Republic, and finally, Nazi Germany.

Over 70 years later, the same mistake was repeated in Iraq. Saddam Hussein was framed as the Hannibal of Mesopotamia with a religious fervour, deadly cult following, and enough weapons to destroy the world beginning, of course, with the potential destruction of his neighbours. Well, it turned out that even though he was a really bad guy, his capacity had been maliciously exaggerated.

Yet, the effect of the war to eliminate Saddam left the country and the entire region broken with religious extremism rising faster than had been known for decades in the region, and deadly franchises of extremism also exported for good measure.

In Afghanistan, the US was too obsessed with its bloody chase of the dangerous Taliban to learn the lessons that humbled Britain and Russia decades earlier. As surely as a stumble imitates a trot, after 20 years, an estimated 243,000 dead as direct result of the war, and $2.3 trillion spent, the US left Afghanistan with its tail between its legs, leaving in charge the same dangerous, but savvier group of Taliban than the ones it set out to vanquish.

That was not all. Like cutting off the head to cure the headache, we also saw this madness, this obsession to suss out, to hunt down, to chase, to search and destroy again in Libya. Moummar Ghaddafi was thought to be spreading a dangerous form of extremism which the West, especially the US and the UK, said it could not ignore because Ghaddafi was thought to possess the capacity to put his money – and tons of it – exactly where his mouth was.

The plan was to strike him and scatter the sheepfold. A US-led attack under President Barack Obama struck Ghaddafi, of course, chasing him down a sewage drainage and killing him there. But what have we got since? The sheep didn’t go away meekly as was planned.

After the killing of Ghaddafi, there has been a significant rise in extremism in the Sahel, destabilising much of the region from Mali to Chad and Niger, with consequences reaching many Northern states in Nigeria. Gaddafi is dead, but his spirit and the vacuum caused by his death have infused radical groups on the continent, making wolves of the sheepfold. The chase continues, but neither Libya nor its neighbours are secure.

Break the cycle

Netanyahu thinks it would be different in Israel. That the destruction of the last Hamas would deliver peace and security to Israel. It’s more complicated than that. If he hasn’t learnt anything from such futile chases in history, then his own personal story should have taught him.

Apart from his belated attempt to use this war to cover his government’s pre-attack intelligence failure and the chaos of the last few years of his premiership, Netanyahu is also a product of years of bitter resentment and distrust of Palestinians. He is proof that wars, more often than not, breed new warriors.

His resolve not to relent until he destroys the last Hamas has been shaped just as much by the killing of his brother, Yoni, after Arab hijackers diverted a plane to Entebbe as it has by the half a dozen Arab-Israeli wars, a number of which he fought as a soldier.

In like manner, the current deadly attacks on Gaza might be raising a generation of non-Hamas Palestinian young people for whom this carnage makes no sense, except to breed in them a fresh spirit of revenge that only perpetrates the cycle of violence, even after the last Hamas has been destroyed. Netanyahu must end this war, if not for his own sake, then for the sake of his own children and children’s children.

October 7 was inexcusable and stands condemned. But unlike the previous wars with the Arabs, the long-term impact of this war on Gaza — beamed live by the minute to our homes with all the horrors, misery and deaths — will be hard for generations of Palestinian children to forget, even when allowance has been made for fabrications.

The cycle of heart-wrenching violence has to stop at some point. And the world must line up behind South Africa to increase the pressure on Netanyahu to stop.

Enough!

** Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP

A few months ago, we asked our readers a simple question: are you happy with how much time you’re spending on your phone?

We received hundreds of responses, and they made one thing clear: many of us are deeply unhappy with how much time we spend on our phones, but find it hard to pull away.

“I’m unhappy, I feel addicted. My ability to concentrate seems to have vanished.”

“I can’t just sit and ‘be’ any more. I automatically reach for my phone if there is a moment of downtime. My brain struggles to settle and focus for any period of time.”

“It’s the first thing I reach for in the morning, and last thing I use at night. I think it’s affecting my ability to be fully with people.”

“Even when I’m not looking at it, I can feel it tugging away at the back of my mind.”

If you also struggle with your phone use, you’re not alone. And with the arrival of a new year, we think it’s the perfect moment to do something about it – and we can help.

This is why we’ve launched Reclaim your brain – our new series and free coaching program that will scrutinize the hold phones have on us, and explain how we can begin to escape their grip.

The newsletter is designed to help you waste less time on your phone using tried and proven methods, and you can sign up here.

‘I stress about the time I’ve already lost to mindless scrolling’

Something isn’t quite right, is it? You might have noticed it yourself: the jarring little moments that have become so normalized, when perhaps they shouldn’t be.

It could be someone almost walking into you in the street because they’re staring at their screen. It might be your friend who can’t stop looking down while you’re sharing a meal, scrolling through Instagram instead of paying attention to you. Or it’s the concert where phones seem to outnumber people, wielded as if everyone is about to have their memories wiped on the way out.

There’s also the smaller, weirder moments: checking your phone when it hasn’t even buzzed. Feeling anxious when you don’t know where it is. Closing an app after exhausting all its possibilities, only to mindlessly open it again. Scrolling when you should be going to sleep, opting to be sleep-deprived instead.

While people have always managed to find ways to procrastinate, it’s remarkable how effective phones have been at eating up more of our attention over the last decade.

A 2021 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 31% of US adults said they were online “almost constantly”, up from 21% in 2015. Half of those aged 18-29 said they were “constantly online”. Meanwhile, a recent review of 82 high quality studies found that excessive phone use has been worsening over time (look out for our deep dive into the science of phone addiction, coming later this week).

Personally, I struggle most when I’m alone, free from anyone’s judgment, and can’t escape the beamlike glow of my phone screen. I stress about the time I’ve already lost to mindless scrolling through TikTok, Instagram and X, and the time I might still lose; the hours that will eventually add up to days, months and years.

Despite knowing I want to spend less time on my phone, I’ve never been able to meaningfully reduce my screen time. As I started reading what Guardian readers had to say about their phone use however, I realized I wasn’t alone.

“I’m finishing a doctoral degree and I feel very disturbed by the way the phone is taking my time (and I can’t control it despite trying to),” wrote Anna Karla, 32, from Lausanne, Switzerland.

“I have to look at a computer screen, like many people, all day at work,” wrote Sara Jean Harden, 30, from Phoenix, Arizona. “When I get off work, I can’t keep myself from looking at my phone.”

Maybe it’s time to try something new.

A free, fun newsletter to help you scroll less and live more

Over the next several weeks, we’ll publish articles exploring all different aspects of our phone lives. But to really make a difference to you, Guardian readers, we’ll also offer a free six-week newsletter to help you reduce your screen time in the new year.

The newsletter is co-written with Catherine Price, the author of How to Break Up With Your Phone. She’s crafted a week-by-week plan with tried-and-proven tasks and tips for reducing your screen time.

The newsletter will also include weekly diary entries from our intrepid reporter Rhik Samadder as he battles his own demons to unglue himself from his phone. Can he finally restore some balance in his life? His methods are unorthodox – and definitely funny – and you can read about his epic journey by signing up.

One more thing: we’re not here to create a panic around what phones are doing to us, especially as scientists are still trying to figure out their various impacts – and many disagree with each other. We’re also not claiming that all screen time is wasted time: phones allow us to read the news, stay in touch with our family and friends, learn new languages and enrich our lives in a whole range of ways. They can help us unwind when life’s many stresses have spun us the other way.

Instead, the simple question at the heart of Reclaim your brain is the same one we asked our readers: are you happy with how much time you spend on your phone? Is it quality time, or mindless scrolling when you’d rather do something else?

The key, then, is finding the right balance between our physical and digital lives.

The Guardian, UK

Trade Union Congress (TUC) has asked the federal government to implement all agreements reached with organised labour in 2023, especially the national minimum wage. 

On October 1, President Bola Tinubu approved N35,000 as the provisional wage increment for all treasury-paid workers for six months as part of an agreement reached with the labour unions to avoid a nationwide strike due to the removal of the petrol subsidy.

Festus Osifo, TUC president, said the union had strived to ensure that social dialogue with the federal government prevailed.

He, however, said the federal government has failed to implement basic agreements with labour, saying “Our hope is not renewed yet”.

Osifo spoke in a New Year message jointly signed with Nuhu Toro, secretary-general of the union, on Wednesday.

He said organised labour had insisted that the October 2, 2023 agreements between the unions and the federal government be notarised by the court.

“However, government has serially violated the agreements. For instance, Item two states clearly that: ‘A minimum wage committee shall be inaugurated within one month from the date of this agreement’,” he said.

“Today, three months after, no such committee has been set up and this is our experience with this government in at least two previous agreements reached from June.

“TUC has resolved to demand of the Tinubu administration that in 2024, all agreements between labour and government should be implemented.

“This include the payment of the monthly N35,000 Wage Award to Public Servants in the Local Government, State and Federal services.

“These must be implemented until a new National Minimum Wage is implemented.”

Osifo said a new minimum wage must be negotiated, implemented, and if further delayed in the year, arrears must be paid.

He noted that inflation, which was running at 28.2 percent, must be drastically reduced to the Sub-Saharan African regional average of 9.4 percent.

The TUC president urged governments at state and federal levels to stop “the unnecessary, economically-unwise and unpatriotic tradition of taking loans”.

“This is especially when these loans only end up being used to purchase thousands of expensive jeeps for legislators, pampered members of the Executive and their spouses, among others,” he said.

He urged the government to stop “its ill-advised devaluation of the national currency”, adding that the move has led to mega inflation in the import-dependent economy.

The TUC president also called for drastic reduction in the price of petrol to repair the damage done to the economy and by ensuring local production of refined products.

Osifo added that the security of Nigerians should be the yardstick with which to determine whether the military, security chiefs and others should remain in office or be replaced.

He urged Tinubu to sanction officials for serious security breaches such as the Plateau killings.

He also said community policing should be prioritised alongside the mobilisation of the citizens to defend themselves against bandits.

“The Year 2024 holds a lot of promise for us all provided Nigerians, as a people, would unite and assert our authority over all powers,” he said.

“These include the Nigerian ruling class manning all branches, levels, institutions and organs of government.”

In December 2023, the federal government said a new minimum wage regime would take effect from April 1, 2024.

The Cable

Central Bank of Nigeria has released inaugural guidelines for banks opening cryptocurrency accounts, while retaining its ban on them holding or trading in virtual assets on their own behalf.

The rules, published on the CBN website on Tuesday, flesh out the regulator’s decision last month to lift its prohibition on banks operating accounts for crypto service providers.

“Current trends globally have shown that there is need to regulate the activities of virtual assets service providers which include cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets,” it said.

Nigeria joins other African regulators in extending oversight of cryptocurrencies, spurred by a string of corporate collapses capped by the bankruptcy of Bahamas-based exchange FTX in April. The continent’s most populous nation has seen a surge in virtual currency adoption, in part fueled by the steep decline of the nation’s fiat currency.

Only naira-based accounts will be permitted and there will be no cash withdrawals, the CBN said. The restrictions also bar clearing third-party checks through crypto accounts and will limit withdrawals to two per quarter.

South Africa, the backdrop to several of the world’s largest crypto scams, in July ordered crypto exchanges operating in the country to apply for licenses by the end of 2023.

That followed neighbor Botswana passing a law in 2022 to regulate the sector which lawmakers said risked becoming the “Wild West” of finance. Kenya has not licensed cryptocurrency activity but has also declined to outlaw it while it prepares regulations.

Elsewhere, the Bank of Mauritius has been pushing ahead with plans to launch a central bank digital currency as part of a broader strategy to embrace financial technology on the Indian Ocean island.

Bloomberg

Sierra Leone's ex-President Ernest Bai Koroma has been charged with four offences including treason for his alleged role in a failed military attempt to topple the West African country's government in November, a court in the capital Freetown said on Wednesday.

The court's decision could escalate tensions in Sierra Leone coming after the attempted coup and a contentious election in which President Julius Maada Bio was reelected for a second term in June 2023.

Tensions have been on the rise in the country that is still recovering from a 1991-2002 civil war in which more than 50,000 were killed.

The result of the election was rejected by the main opposition candidate, and questioned by international partners including the United States and the European Union.

Gunmen on Nov. 26 attacked military barracks, a prison and other locations in Sierra Leone, freeing about 2,200 inmates and killing more than 20 people.

The government said later that it was a foiled coup led mostly by Koroma's bodyguards. They summoned the ex-president for questioning at the start of December.

The former president condemned the attacks in a statement shortly after they happened.

Koroma's charges, which also include misprision of treason and two counts of harbouring, were read out while he stood in the dock and some of his supporters cried in the courtroom.

"A dangerous precedent has been set... We are dragging a former head of state - democratically elected - on trumped up charges under a political vendetta," Koroma’s lawyer, Joseph Kamara, told Reuters.

A high court later on Wednesday granted bail to the former president, who is currently restricted at his home in the capital. The case was adjourned until Jan. 17.

According to Sierra Leone's penal code, a person found guilty of treason could face imprisonment for life.

A letter from West Africa's main regional bloc, ECOWAS, dated Tuesday and seen by Reuters, said Nigeria had offered to host Koroma on a temporary basis, and that the former president had accepted the offer.

Sierra Leone's foreign minister, Timothy Kabba, told Reuters the government had received the letter, which he said did not accurately reflect the meeting President Bio has recently held with an ECOWAS delegation in Freetown.

Kabba said the government will "not countenance" the proposal to relocate Koroma.

Twelve other people also have been charged with treason in connection with the failed coup, including ex-police and correctional officers and a member of Koromoa's security detail, the government said on Tuesday.

Reuters