Niger’s ruling junta said discussions are under way that are expected to result in the rapid withdrawal of French troops, after the West African country ended a military cooperation agreement with its former colonial ruler.

“The government has already revoked the deals that allow for the French troops to operate on our territory,” Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine told reporters in the capital, Niamey, on Monday. “They’re here illegally. Talks are underway, which should allow for a swift withdrawal.”

Ties between Niger and France have frayed since soldiers seized control of the country on July 26 and ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. The junta on Aug. 3 gave France a month to pull its 1,500 troops out, becoming the third West African nation to sever defense links that were forged to combat a decade-long Islamist insurgency in the Sahel.

Talks are currently underway, a French defense ministry aide said, without specifying the nature of the discussions. France has so far refused to recognize the junta’s authority to request the withdrawal of its troops or its ambassador.

There have been nine coups in sub-Saharan Africa in the past three years, creating a belt of countries stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea that are more friendly with Russia than with the West.

Military leader Abdourahamane Tiani said on Aug. 17 that regional sanctions against Niger and backed by France are part of “a plan to dismantle our country.” France has demanded Bazoum be returned to office and said it supports efforts by the Economic Community of West African States to overturn the coup.

The regional bloc has said it would use all means necessary, including force as a last resort, to restore constitutional order in Niger. Zeine played down the threat, saying that military action isn’t backed by all of the bloc’s members.

“Out of the 15 Ecowas members, maybe three or four are behind a military intervention,” Zeine said. “All the dispositions are in place and we’re ready to defend ourselves if it comes to it.”

Economic and financial sanctions imposed by the bloc following the coup should be lifted soon, Zeine said, after visiting Nigeria for talks with Ecowas mediators over the weekend.

Niger’s neighbors closed land and air borders, froze the nation’s assets at the regional bank and cut access to the regional bond market, among other steps aimed at compelling the junta to reinstate Bazoum. Nigeria, Niger’s southern neighbor, ratcheted up pressure on the military government by cutting its electricity supply to the country.

Last month, Niger gave the French ambassador 48 hours to leave the country, a deadline that France ignored, pushing Niger to revoke Ambassador Sylvain Itte’s diplomatic status and instruct police to expel the envoy.

“As far as the ambassador’s concerned, I think there’s nothing more to be done,” Zeine said. “His behavior was inappropriate for a diplomat.”

French troops withdrew from neighboring Mali after a 2020 coup in the former colony and the deployment of the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-linked Russian private military company. It left Burkina Faso earlier this year after falling out with the military leadership.

Bloomberg

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's defence systems engaged in repelling air attack over Kyiv - Ukraine's military

Ukraine's air defence systems were engaged early on Wednesday in repelling a Russian air attack on Kyiv, the capital's military administration said on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters' witnesses heard several blasts which sounded like air defence systems being deployed.

All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts as of 0550 a.m. (0250 GMT).

** Ukrainian intercepts show Russian soldiers’ anger at losses, disarray

Ukraine’s counteroffensive was in its second month when Andrey, a Russian soldier, called his wife to say his unit was taking heavy casualties. They were so badly equipped, he said, it felt like the Soviet forces in World War Two.

“They are fucking us up,” Andrey said by telephone on July 12, comparing the onslaught to the worst moments of Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. “No fucking ammunition, nothing ... Shall we use our fingers as bayonets?”

The conversation was one excerpt from 17 phone calls placed by Russian soldiers fighting in the south and east of Ukraine that were intercepted in the first two weeks of July by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the country’s main intelligence agency.

The expletive-laden intercepts, shared with Reuters by a Ukrainian intelligence source, provide a rare - albeit partial - glimpse into the conditions of some Russian soldiers as Kyiv prosecuted a major counteroffensive, which started in early June, two military analysts told Reuters.

While Russia has so far largely stemmed Ukraine’s military campaign and made some modest territorial gains of its own in places, the soldiers in the intercepts complain that their units have suffered from heavy losses, a lack of munitions, proper training and equipment, as well as poor morale.

Both Russia and Ukraine treat their losses as state secret. Ukraine has acknowledged that its efforts to recapture territory have been hindered by vast Russian minefields and well-prepared defensive lines. It has liberated a string of villages but retaken no major settlements so far and the frontline has remained largely unchanged, frustrating Kyiv’s Western allies.

Reuters was unable to determine how representative the intercepts are of the conditions in Russia’s armed forces. The Ukrainian intelligence source said they illustrated the challenges facing Russian soldiers but did not elaborate on how the recordings were selected.

Neil Melvin, director of International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a defence and security think tank headquartered in London, said the calls appeared to confirm some Russian forces were thrown into defensive operations with little preparation and were sustaining high casualties, sowing tensions between soldiers and commanders.

Russia’s Defence Ministry did not respond to requests for comment for this story. In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the military had to learn from and fix the problems it had experienced in Ukraine, promising to provide the army with whatever it needed. Reuters reported this month that Russia has doubled its defence spending target this year to more than $100 billion – a third of all public expenditure.

The SBU said in a statement it was constantly monitoring the situation in occupied parts of Ukraine, including via telephone intercepts, but it did not provide any further details.

“Turned it to crumbs”

The source provided what the SBU said were the names, telephone numbers and, in most cases, the units of 15 soldiers speaking in the intercepts. Reuters verified that the mobile numbers provided were registered in the names of the enlisted men or their relatives but calls either went unanswered or the phones were turned off.

Reuters is only using excerpts from some of the 10 soldiers whose identity it was able to verify using messaging accounts or social media in their names, which in some cases contained photographs of them in military uniforms.

The news agency is not disclosing the full names of the soldiers as it was not able to obtain their comments about the excerpts. In three cases, the soldiers’ wives confirmed their husbands were at the front in messages to Reuters but declined to comment further. One cited Russian secrecy laws.

In the excerpts, several soldiers used profane language to describe Russian units that had taken heavy casualties and had been unable to retrieve their wounded. One said his detachment had managed to advance but at a high price.

“That’s it. There is no second battalion left. They fucking turned it to crumbs,” Maxim, a soldier from the Siberian region of Irkutsk, told his wife Anna by phone on July 3.

He said the battalion - a unit that usually comprises around 500 troops - had been on the Lyman front in the northeast, one of three areas where the Ukrainian General Staff were reporting heavy fighting and Russian counter-attacks at the time.

British intelligence has said Russia has made some local advances around Lyman and Kupiansk in recent weeks.

The SBU said Maxim served in Russia’s 52nd Regiment. Reuters was unable to verify that affiliation or establish which second battalion he was referring to. The regiment could not be reached for comment.

According to an assessment by the U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency leaked online in April, Russia had 35,500-43,000 troops killed in action during the conflict, compared to roughly 15,500-17,500 for Ukraine. Russia says U.S. estimates of its losses are far too high - and propaganda.

Maxim referred to his dead comrades as “cargo 200”, a term that originated during the Soviet Union’s 1979-89 war in Afghanistan as a military codeword for the zinc coffins used to transport home the bodies of dead Russian soldiers.

Often shortened to “200”, it is still widely used in both Russia and Ukraine to describe slain soldiers, while “Cargo 300” denotes the wounded.

“Basically, they couldn’t even retrieve the (cargo) 300s. The 300s became 200s,” Maxim said, meaning that the wounded soldiers had been left on the battlefield and died.

‘Everyone is scared’

Following months of fierce Ukrainian resistance on the battlefield, Putin in September announced a “partial” mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of reservists to replenish the ranks. He later acknowledged in a speech to defence chiefs in December that it had been dogged by “certain problems.”

Reuters traced one soldier back to the day he was mobilised into the Russian army on Sept. 29. His mother Elena posted a photograph online of her and her son in uniform on social media with the caption: “They took him today”.

About nine months later, the soldier, Alexei, was on the phone to his mother from Ukraine, talking graphically about battlefield losses.

“They were torn apart. They’re lying there: they can’t even collect some of them. They’re already rotten - eaten by worms,” he told her on July 12. Elena replied: “Really?”

“Just imagine, thrown on the front line with no equipment, nothing,” he told his mother. She did not respond to Reuters’s requests for comment by phone and on social media.

Alexei said that mobilised troops like him were being sent to the front line, despite public assurances by Putin that they would not be, and said they were not being provided with proper equipment to fight.

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The SBU intercept said Alexei was located in Russian trenches around the occupied city of Rubizhne in Ukraine’s eastern region of Luhansk. Reuters was unable to verify that information or to determine the unit he belonged to.

Alexei derided his superiors and the army high command for concealing troop losses from Putin. “Everything is covered up,” he said.

“Everyone’s scared... They’re sending mobilised troops to the front line,” he added. “In the end, the generals couldn’t care less.”

Russian officials have said there are no current plans for a new wave of mobilisation and it is focused on recruiting professional soldiers. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said in July that 185,000 new recruits had joined the army as professional contract soldiers since the start of the year.

A fourth soldier, also named Andrey, told his wife on July 5 about problems retrieving wounded and dead troops from the battlefield as well as heavy casualties sustained by a Russian company.

The SBU intercept said the soldier was the deputy commander of a fighting vehicle. Reuters was unable to identify his unit or the company.

“The guys got fucked up yesterday. The whole ninth company was turned to rubbish - that’s 72 people. There’s 17 guys left.”

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine used cluster munitions against civilians – Human Rights Watch

The Ukrainian military used cluster munitions to shell the city of Izyum and caused civilian deaths, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. The attack happened months before the US provided Kiev with additional cluster shells, overruling the objections of many NATO members.

“We figured this out after the Russians left and our investigators went there to look into the war crimes and atrocities that were committed – and they saw remnants of cluster munitions everywhere,” HRW’s Mary Wareham told RIA Novosti. “After finding out the direction from which the fire came, they established that they had been used by Ukrainian forces.”

The 2022 annual Cluster Munition Monitor report, published by HRW this week, notes that the group had first reported on the attack in July, but that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry officially denied ever using such munitions in or around Izyum. 

The city commands a key strategic position in Kharkov Region and was held by Russian forces between May 2022 and late September, when they withdrew due to a Ukrainian attack further north. In addition to the attacks documented by HRW investigators, the Ukrainian military had used cluster munitions against the area throughout 2022, the report noted, citing the UN’s Independent Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine. 

Wareham pointed out that HRW had detailed testimonies about civilians who were killed or wounded by cluster bombs.

A HRW report from January also included information about the Ukrainian use of cluster munitions, as well as the targeting of Izyum by ‘Butterfly’anti-personnel mines, which killed 11 civilians and wounded around 50, including five children. HRW said that the Russian military informed the civilians about the danger of the mines, citing testimonials from around 100 local residents.

“Cluster munitions are abhorrent weapons that are globally banned because they cause both immediate and long-term civilian harm and suffering,” Wareham said while announcing the annual report. “It’s unconscionable that civilians are still dying from cluster munition attacks 15 years after these weapons were outlawed.”

Ukraine, Russia, and the US are not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), which has sought to ban this type of ordnance, citing its toll on civilians. Earlier this year, Washington rejected objections from several NATO allies who are party to the CMM and sent Kiev 155mm artillery shells loaded with dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM). 

Some US outlets have reported that the Pentagon receives detailed reportsfrom Ukraine about when and where its DPICM ordnance is used. Russia has documented multiple instances of their use against civilians in Donetsk. 

** Kiev lost 66,000 people in past three months, fails to achieve goals — Shoigu

Ukrainian forces have lost more than 66,000 people and 7,600 units of weaponry since the start of the so-called counteroffensive, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said in a conference call with ministry staff.

He stated that the Ukrainian military failed to achieve its goals in all areas. The minister also reviewed the results of the recent Army-2023 conference, plans to replenish transport and long-range aircraft and training given to military cadets in the use of drones. Below are the highlights of the minister’s speech, as compiled by TASS.

Failure of Kiev’s 'counteroffensive'

Ukraine's armed forces have lost more than 66,000 people and 7,600 weaponry units since the beginning of their so-called counteroffensive. (In early August, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Kiev had lost more than 43,000 people and about 5,000 weaponry units - TASS.)

"In no area did the Armed Forces of Ukraine achieve their goals. <...> Trying to hide the failure of the offensive, Ukrainian militants attack civilian facilities and pass these terrorist attacks off as military victories."

The most tense situation has developed in the Zaporozhye area where "the enemy has committed into battle its strategic reserve brigades, whose personnel have been trained under the guidance of Western instructors." In the Kupyansk and Kremenaya areas, Russian troops significantly improved their positions.

Army-2023 conference results

The Army-2023 forum that was held in August "once again proved that even in the conditions of sanctions it remains a relevant platform for countries ready to build equitable partnership relations in the military-technical realm." The event was attended by military delegations from 83 countries and representatives of six international organizations.

During the conference, 20 government contracts worth more than 400 billion rubles were signed (a year earlier, 36 contracts worth 525 billion rubles were signed - TASS).

The concurrent Moscow Conference on International Security brought together 800 delegates from 76 countries, including 26 defense ministers. "The conference affirmed Russia's high authority on the international stage and demonstrated the failure of the efforts by the collective West to isolate it."

Aircraft

The Russian Armed Forces are to receive six Il-76MD-90A military transport aircraft and four modernized Tu-160M strategic bombers this year.

The Russian Defense Ministry will consider "opportunities for further development of military transport aviation," which has transported almost 376,000 people and over 2,700 units of equipment since the beginning of the special military operation.

Education and heating

The number of students and cadets in the Defense Ministry’s higher education institutions has exceeded 60,000 people, pre-college students 17,000. "Enrollment in 2023 significantly exceeded that of last year."

"Curricula have been revised to reflect the experience of the special military operation. Particular attention is paid to practical training, simulations, issues of organization and support of combat operations, the use of weapons, military and special equipment, including new models."

Cadets and students of Suvorov Military Colleges, for example, will take courses on the use of drones, and pre-college students and cadets will take part in command post exercises.

The Defense Ministry has already turned on the heating in its facilities across five Russian regions. In general, preparatory work "has been completed in full," and in the Far North "fuel reserve standards have been met."

Reuters/RT/Tass

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has teased an interview with Larry Sinclair, a man whose 2008 allegations of having sex and smoking crack with Barack Obama were shrugged off by US media outlets as the then-senator cruised toward victory in that year’s presidential election.

Carlson posted a social media promo showing snippets from the interview on Tuesday, indicating that the full conversation will be released on Wednesday evening. The one-minute clip on X (formerly Twitter) garnered about 4 million views within just one hour of being posted.

Sinclair said he was introduced to Obama outside a Chicago bar in November 1999 and had no idea that he was an Illinois state senator. He said he twice had sexual relations with Obama, and the two men used cocaine together. He claimed that Obama purchased cocaine on his behalf, and he watched the future president smoke crack in his limousine.

Sinclair detailed his allegations during a briefing at the National Press Club in 2008 and in a book published in 2009. He claimed in the book that Obama also had a gay affair with the choir director at his church and that the man was murdered in December 2007, while the then-senator was running for president.

Asked why the Washington press corps showed no interest in telling his story, even as US voters were assessing Obama and the other 2008 presidential candidates, Sinclair told Carlson, “It would be a story if the media really cared about telling people the truth.” Carlson claimed in an interview last week that the media didn’t run with the story because the Obama campaign threatened to refuse them access to the candidate. “The amount of lying in the media about it was unbelievable,” he said. “This happens all the time up and down government.”

Carlson noted that Sinclair signed an affidavit and took a lie detector test to give more credence to his accusations. However, his credibility was undermined by the fact that he served prison time in the 1980s for financial crimes, including forging checks. Sinclair ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Cocoa, Florida, in 2018.

There has been a spate of reports in recent weeks regarding Obama’s sexuality. His half-brother in Kenya, Malik Obama, posted a Twitter message in July claiming that the former president is “definitely gay.” The post, which was reported by several media outlets, came in response to a letter in which Barack Obama denounced the banning of controversial books in public libraries, including graphic material illustrating gay sexual acts.

Last month, multiple media outlets reported on a recently resurfaced letter that Obama, then a 20-year-old college student, wrote to an ex-girlfriend. “In regard to homosexuality, I must say that I believe this is an attempt to remove oneself from the present, a refusal perhaps to perpetuate the endless farce of earthly life,” he said in the 1982 letter. “You see, I make love to men daily, but in the imagination.”

Obama married his wife, Michelle, in 1992. The couple has two daughters, who were born in 1998 and 2001, respectively.

Russia Today

Fat has had quite the parley in dietary discussion spaces – the low-fat movement starting in the 1980s told us we should eliminate fat, while high-fat diets like keto tell us the opposite. 

How do you know where the answers lie? The reality is, fat is engrained in American diets. It’s in the oil we use in the pan, the fish we cook, the vegetables we eat (think avocado). It’s also an essential part of a healthy diet and is crucial for energy, cell function, hormone production and nutrient absorption.

What are the healthiest fats?

Not all fats are created equal, says registered dietitian Chris Mohr, but overall fat is essential to our diet. According to Mohr, the “healthiest” fat is one we need but often don’t get enough of – omega-3s.

Omega 3s are polyunsaturated fats that are essential nutrients, meaning our bodies don’t make them on their own. But according to a study based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 68% of adults and over 95% of children consume less than the recommended amount.

Omega-3s are most commonly found in fish, although you can also get them from dark leafy greens, flaxseeds, hempseeds and walnuts. Omega-6s, another type of polyunsaturated fat, are also essential, but Mohr says we don’t have trouble getting those into our diet because they’re found in many cooking oils, nut butters and eggs. 

Ideally, Mohr says, you’re getting a balance of fat sources. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, fat should make up between 20-35% of our daily caloric intake, with less than 10% of that coming from saturated fats. The guidelines also say to avoid trans fats, which are known to increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

“Too much of some types of fat may not be best for us, while others are fantastic,” Mohr says. "There’s some nuance in terms of not just quantity but also the quality of the fat we’re eating.”

There are four major types of fats – trans fats, saturated fats and two types of unsaturated fats:

What are the benefits of omega-3?

Omega-3 fatty acids support heart health and may also help lower the riskof cancer, cognitive disease and eye disease. According to Mohr, a lack of omega-3s can present itself in the form of dry skin and brittle hair. Studies have also shown a connection to mood – omega-3s have anti-inflammatory properties that may alleviate depression.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends at least 8 ounces of seafood per week for adults consuming a 2,000-calorie diet. Pregnant or breastfeeding individuals are advised to consume between 8 and 12 ounces of low-mercury fish per week for developmental benefits for the baby. One serving is about 4 ounces of fish.

Fish is the most common source of omega-3s – salmon and tuna are tried-and-true favorites, but Mohr recommends trying out herring, sardines and anchovies too. You can also get some from leafy vegetables, vegetable oils, nuts, flax seeds and flaxseed oil. 

For those who don’t consume enough fish, Mohr recommends looking into omega-3 supplements that are at least 500 milligrams. For non-fish eaters, check out an algae oil supplement, which is where even the fish get their omega-3 content.

Is saturated fat bad?

Much of the public’s knowledge about saturated fat is that it increases low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (“bad cholesterol”) and the likelihood of heart disease. But some recent studies challenge current guidelines and suggest there is less of a link between saturated fat and increased risk of cardiovascular disease than previously thought. 

According to Mohr, saturated fat is “one piece of the puzzle” when it comes to cardiovascular disease risk. Often when people are told to reduce saturated fat in their diets, they instead increase their intake of refined carbohydrates like added sugars, Mohr says. This may lower LDL, Mohr says, but will also lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ("good" cholesterol) and raise triglycerides. It may be healthier to replace saturated fat with unsaturated fat in the diet rather than just focusing on reducing saturated fat. 

The takeaway then, he says, is to focus most of your fat intake on monounsaturated and polyunsaturated and replace saturated fat intake with unsaturated fats when you can. 

“Fats are essential, we just need to be wary of what we’re eating, how much we’re eating,” Mohr says.

USA Today

As a business professor, I have studied organizations that range in size from startups with just a few employees to huge multinationals that employ tens of thousands of people.

In the course of my research, I have seen an irony play out time after time: Small companies almost always yearn to be more "grown up" and professional, while mature companies wish they could be more youthful and freewheeling again. 

Management consultants have benefited mightily from this, as they help small companies scale up by professionalizing them and as they suggest ways for lumbering behemoths to become more agile.

But if such an outcome is inevitable, why can't more organizations prepare for it and find a happy medium between the two extremes as they grow? 

In my previous article I noted that most founders of fast-growing startups are unwilling to introduce the systems and processes they need to sustain their businesses.

As I pointed out in a Harvard Business Review article I co-wrote called "Startups That Last," founders "often develop strategies opportunistically, lacking a frame of reference because they are starting from scratch and they take a similar ad hoc approach to building their organizations. When they eschew order and discipline, however, they pay a steep price: Chaotic operations and unpredictable performance."

As I explained in the article, founders must introduce four main elements if they are to avoid descending into chaos and improve their chances of long-term success: 

1. Hire specialists. An "all-hands-on-deck" approach may work in the very beginning, but as an organization expands, functional experts in areas such as sales, HR and marketing are necessary.
2. Install management structures. Without more delegation of management, decisions end up in a bottleneck at the very top.
3. Add planning and forecasting capabilities. Improvisational decision-making can work well at first, but analyzing data and setting performance goals is key as a company matures.
4. Reinforce cultural values. As an organization becomes more complex and far-flung, founders must make a concerted effort to ensure that all employees are aware of its unifying purpose.

Initially, when I spelled out these requirements, I thought I had done my job. But then I started hearing from founders who had introduced these structures.

"You're not telling the whole story, Ranjay," they said. Yes, they had done all the things I outlined in the article and yes, they had been necessary, they told me.  "But we killed something in the process, and now we want it back," they lamented.

And I always asked them: "What is it?"  

They would say things like: "We miss the old days," "We used to be like a family," and "We used to have so much fun." I knew the issue went deeper than this, though and I sensed that further investigation would reveal something important.

So I spent nine months conducting  more than 200 interviews at more than a dozen small, fast-growth companies that had succeeded in introducing systems, structures and processes.

Presenting my findings in a 2019 Harvard Business Review article, I wrote: "There's an essential intangible something in start-ups – an energy, a soul... It inspires people to contribute their talent, money and enthusiasm and fosters a sense of deep connection and mutual purpose. As long as this spirit persists, engagement is high and startups remain agile and innovative, spurring growth, But when it vanishes, ventures can falter and everyone perceives the loss."

In my article, titled "The Soul of a Startup," I explained that companies needed to focus on three crucial factors in order to recapture their original entrepreneurial spirit. 

They are: 

1. Customer connection.  I found that businesses were more likely to thrive if "founders and employees intimately understood the perspectives and needs of the people to whom their products and services were targeted and felt personally connected in a way that unleashed their energy and creativity."
2. Employee experience. Employees who felt that they had both "voice" and "choice" were most likely to help a company retain its original startup essence. In other words, employees could tell that their opinions mattered and that they had a certain amount of discretion to make their own decisions.
3. Business intent. The most successful companies stayed true to their original reason for being. "Many ventures define their mission or business core, but the intent I uncovered went further, taking on an almost existential significance," I wrote.

I described how companies including Warby Parker, Netflix, BlackRock and Starbucks managed to keep their entrepreneurial spirit alive – or help restore it when it was waning – while still building and adhering to the internal structures that needed to be developed as they matured. 

As I wrote: "So often entrepreneurs, consultants and scholars like myself emphasize the need to implement structure and systems as a business grows, missing the importance of preserving its spirit. We can and should focus on both. With effort and determination, leaders can nurture and protect what's right and true in their organizations."

Inc

President Olusegun Obasanjo, who twice led Nigeria — first as military head of state (1976-1979) and later as an elected civilian president (1999-2007) — can claim to have seen it all. Born on March 5, 1937, the 86-year-old retired general has been a constant in Nigeria’s history in and out of office, offering comments — even if controversially — on political and economic issues. In this interview with TheCable, he gives his opinions on a wide range of issues.

TheCable: Increasingly, we are witnessing an era of military coups in Africa again. What do you think is going on? 

Obasanjo: In 2021, when Col Mamady Doumbouya overthrew President Alpha Condé of Guinea, I recall that I travelled to Conakry. I spent two nights there. The coup leader didn’t want to meet with me because he didn’t know what I would say. They said he was out of town, which was not true. But I met every other important government official. I met his No 2 and his speaker. I listened to them and concluded that we had a new phenomenon on our hands. I realised that they had the support of the youths and were not thinking of staying in power for four, five years years. They are in for a generation.

When I noticed this, I went to Addis Ababa to meet the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat. I told him that maybe he had not seen what I was seeing. That I saw this in Guinea Conakry. He said I was talking about Guinea Conakry, what about his own country, Chad? He said Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea Conakry, and Chad were thinking the same way and they were connected. I said that was a new phenomenon in Africa. I said I was the one who in 1999 advocated that if you are not a government backed by the constitution, you should be suspended from the African Union, and these chaps don’t even mind any suspension. I told him that all the instruments we had used in the past would not work and asked what he would do about it. He told me about his challenges, especially with his country. So we have a situation where we have a continent where we have to rethink democracy. The liberal democracy we are copying from settled societies in the West won’t work for us.

TheCable: What type of democracy would work for us? 

Obasanjo: I don’t know. But we have seen that the liberal type of democracy as practised in the West will not work for us. We have to put our heads together.

TheCable: Some would say it is working in Nigeria, that it has survived 24 years…

Obasanjo: I won’t answer you (laughs).

TheCable: But what can work?

Obasanjo: You have to put your heads together to fashion it out. You can give it any name. But we have seen that this is not working. Out of the six countries that have experienced coups, three of them are directly from elections. Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, and Gabon that we have just had are directly from elections. The other three are indirect, if you like.

TheCable: Would you say ECOWAS could have handled the Niger coup differently? 

Obasanjo: What I said about the Niger is now what we did with Gabon, not a threat of force. Tinubu said “we are watching”. In Niger, ECOWAS has beaten the drum, and they have seen that it didn’t work. The point is this: where in Africa have the people benefited from the dividends of democracy? Tell me.

TheCable: Maybe Botswana…

Obasanjo: You don’t know the inside of Botswana. Ian Khama, the former president, cannot go to Botswana today. His father was the first president. I worked with him. As they were settling down, I thought they were making progress because the president after his father was the one who became minister of finance. When I was military head of state, he used to come and visit us, and we would render assistance to them, and he later became vice president and president. The next one was the same way. Ian Khama, who became the head of the army, moved the same way. The one that succeeded him now is chasing him from pillar to post. That is not liberal democracy.

TheCable: What of Ghana?

Obasanjo: (laughs)

TheCable: Even if not in terms of dividends of democracy but liberal democracy…

Obasanjo: Maybe Namibia is the closest to it.

TheCable: Coming back home now. There is a raging issue regarding Mambilla hydropower over the award of a $6 billion contract to Sunrise Power by your government in 2003. It is now a subject of arbitration. Sunrise is asking for $2.3 billion in compensation, alleging breach of contract. But the federal government is arguing that the contract was invalid…

Obasanjo: Did you say my government awarded the contract to Sunrise?

TheCable: Olu Agunloye, your minister of power in 2003, wrote to Sunrise announcing the award of the contract…

Obasanjo: Who gave him the authorisation? When I was president, no minister had the power to approve more than N25 million without express presidential consent. It was impossible for Agunloye to commit my government to a $6 billion project without my permission and I did not give him any permission. If a commission of inquiry is set up today to investigate the matter, I am ready to testify. I do not even need to testify because all the records are there. I never approved it. When he presented his memo to the federal executive council (on May 21, 2003), I was surprised because he had previously discussed it with me and I had told him to jettison the idea, that I had other ideas on how the power sector would be restructured and funded. I told him as much at the council meeting and directed him to step down the memo.

I find it surprising that Agunloye is now claiming he acted on behalf of Nigeria. If I knew he issued such a letter to Sunrise, I would have sacked him as minister during my second term. He would not have spent a day longer in office. When I was in office, Leno Adesanya, the promoter of Sunrise Power, ran away from Nigeria. I would have jailed him if he was in the country because of the things I knew about him. After I left office, he returned and I saw him. I told him that he was lucky I was no longer president. Otherwise, I would have jailed him.

TheCable: You took a different route over the power sector, coming up with the power sector reform and building power plants such as Geregu, Papalanto, and Omotosho. But the problems of the power sector remain. What else can we do?

Obasanjo: You can only get the power sector right when you get all the fundamentals in the power sector right. In 2006, we ordered 42 turbines that should have been completed if not by 2007 then in 2008. My target was 10,000 megawatts of power by 2007. Up till today, I understand that five of the turbines have yet to be installed. I have been out of the office for 16 years. If after 18 years when those turbines had been ordered, five have still not been installed, what are you talking about?

TheCable: One major issue was that the turbines could not be transported to location because of issues with bridge and water depth in some places. The feeling was that you did not do a proper assessment before ordering the turbines.

Obasanjo: We did what we should do before I left office. I targeted 10,000 megawatts but today, we are still struggling with 4,000. Then you had President Goodluck Jonathan doing privatisation. If that privatisation was done the way we did privatisation, it would have been okay for the country. When you see these things and still ask me the questions you ask, I feel like punching you (laughs).

TheCable: Let’s discuss the refineries. They are still not working…

Obasanjo: They will not work as long as the government is keeping hold of them. When I was president, I invited Shell to a meeting. I told them I wanted to hand over the refineries for them to help us run. They bluntly told me they would not. I was shocked. I repeated the request and they stood their ground. When the meeting was over, I asked their big man (MD) to wait behind for a little chat. Then I asked him why they were so hesitant on not taking over the refineries. He said did I want to hear the truth? I said yes. He listed four reasons. One, he said Shell makes its money from upstream and that is where its interest lies. Two, he said they only do downstream or retail as a matter of service. Three, he said our refineries would be bad business for them, that globally, companies are going for bigger refineries because of the economics of refineries. Four, he said there is too much corruption in refineries.

I thanked him for his honesty. I knew we had a big problem in our hands. I had virtually given up hope on the refineries when God did a miracle. Alike Dangote and Femi Otedola approached me and said they would be interested in buying two of the four refineries. They said they would buy 51 percent stake in Port Harcourt and Kaduna. I was over the moon. I said, finally, this burden would be taken off the neck of the government. They offered $761 million and paid in two instalments. Unfortunately, Umaru (President Yar’Adua) cancelled the sale and returned the refineries to NNPC. Today, we are still where we were. Someone told me Tinubu said refineries would work by December. I told the person the refineries would not work. This is based on the information I received from Shell when I was president.

TheCable: When you were military head of state, you believed in state ownership. You were a changed man when you returned as president in 1999. What happened? 

When I was military head of state, we ordered 19 new ships to be built for the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL), which was owned by the federal government. We had about five at the time, and with 19, we were to have 24 ships. We took delivery of some before we left office. President Shehu Shagari took delivery of the remaining balance. When I returned after 20 years, the shipping line had been liquidated. Not one ship left. Let me tell you the story of one of the ships. They sold it for half a million dollars. Then, they started the Oron merchant navy school and needed a ship for training. They bought the ship they had sold for half a million dollars for $2 million and spent another $1.5 million to refit it so it could be seaworthy.

The ship went on the first voyage a week after I became president in 1999. One of the first things they brought to me was that the ship had been arrested for not being seaworthy and that I should bring $1 million to pay as fine for the ship that had been detained. I requested that they allow me time to look at the issues, and when I studied the issues, I told them to inform those who arrested the ship that I had gifted them the ship. The following day, the ship was released without Nigeria paying a dime. You can guess what happened there.

We left 32 aircraft for Nigerian Airways in 1979, but we had only one serviceable aircraft 20 years after I left office. When you look at that and what happened to Nigerian Airways, some directors formed an offshore company, and it was the company that they gave the maintenance and repairs to. The same company would then engage the people that would actually carry out the maintenance and repairs. The payment would be to the offshore company who, in turn, did not pay the contractors. When I returned in 1999, I took a stance that I didn’t owe Nigerians an airline. What I owed Nigerians was secure and safe traveling. So, when they talked about this Nigeria Air project, you would know it is nonsense. When I say certain things, people say Obasanjo has started again. It is because I know what I am talking about.

TheCable: Our economy is currently in a bad shape with a heavy debt burden. With your experience, how do you think we can come out of this? 

Obasanjo: Tinubu said the other day that it was unacceptable that he would spend 90% of his revenue to service debts. I wasn’t spending 90% when I went worldwide to get debt relief. Do you think that anybody would give you debt relief today? Buhari was spending money recklessly. I know Buhari didn’t understand economics. I put that in my book. But that he could also be so reckless, I didn’t know. Who would you go to today and ask for a favor? Tinubu says he has trimmed the number of people attending the United Nations General Assembly. Is that news? He will meet with Justin Trudeau, and he will meet with  Emmanuel Macron. That will not solve any problem.

TheCable: You’ve pointed to a number of your policies reversed or abandoned by President Yar’Adua. Since he was never an insider in your government, why did you support him to be your successor?

Obasanjo: See, I set up a committee headed by Olusegun Agagu, of blessed memory, to search for a successor. They considered many names and did an extensive assessment of all them. They made their recommendation. Umaru was top on the list. Their biggest argument in his favour was that he had integrity and would not steal. The issues concerning his health were raised and I gave his medical reports to an expert for an opinion. Umaru’s name was redacted so that the expert would not know who it was and why I was seeking his opinion. After assessing the reports, he said the patient appeared to have done a kidney transplant and if that was the case, there was nothing to worry about and he would be as healthy as any other person. That was it. All insinuations that I knew he was going to die and that was why I supported him to be president were false. This is the true story I have told you.

The Cable

Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, will today begin a two-day warning strike after shunning a meeting with the Federal Government over increasing hardship and suffering across the country caused by the removal of fuel subsidy.

This came as the Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong, yesterday warned that the strike will worsen the plights of ordinary Nigerians and urged NLC to shelve the action.

The NLC had on Friday, given notice of a two-day warning strike to protest the excruciating mass suffering and impoverishment experienced around the country, threatening a total and indefinite shutdown of the economy within 14 working days or 21 days after the warning strike, if government did not take steps to address the hardship experienced across the country.

While briefing on Friday after its NEC’s meeting, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said: “NEC in session of NLC resolved to embark on a total and indefinite shutdown of the nation within 14 working days or 21 days from today until steps are taken by the government to address the excruciating mass suffering and the impoverishment experienced around the country.”

Why NLC shunned meeting with FG

Though sources in the NLC leadership told our correspondent that the strike would go ahead, despite yesterday’s scheduled meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Lalong, it was gathered that a media briefing by the minister allegedly castigating labour leaders, ahead of the meeting, forced NLC leaders to shun the meeting that would have been held at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Federal Secretariat.

The minister was said to have threatened the NLC leaders at his briefing, foreclosing any chance that NLC would honour the meeting.

One of the visibly angry NLC leaders said that the minister’s alleged outburst a few hours before the scheduled meeting put the final nail to NLC’s resolve to proceed with the strike as resolved by members of its National Executive Council, NEC, last Friday.

His words: “We were scheduled to meet the Minister of Labour and Employment later today (yesterday), precisely by 3 pm but a few hours to the meeting, the minister called a media briefing where he castigated us and threatened us among other uncomplimentary words.

“Not that the meeting would have stopped the strike, but we intended to attend the meeting in the spirit of social dialogue. But as you are aware, the Minister of Labour, before the scheduled meeting, held a media briefing castigating and threatening us.

‘’You do not expect us to attend a meeting when we had been warned of a possible arrest.

In fact, we thank the minister for putting us on notice of their plan. So, the right thing to do is to keep away from such meetings and avoid any possible arrest.

“What the minister had done was nothing short of industrial dictatorship and naked blackmail. The Federal Government had already taken decision on the proposed meeting, the minister was kind enough to hold a briefing ahead of the meeting to disclose part of the government’s decision.

‘’Well, like I said earlier, the strike goes ahead as planned. After Wednesday, we will determine what next steps to follow. The NEC’s communiqué was loud enough. We cannot continue as if we are living in a different country from our political leaders and their cronies.

‘’You cannot continue to beat us and say we should not cry. Everywhere you go in every part of the country; people are complaining of hardship and suffering without concrete efforts by government to lessen our pains. Instead, the government is unleashing more policies to send us to untimely death.”

Minister waits for NLC delegation

Expectedly, the Federal Government said it waited for the NLC to attend a negotiation meeting at the Ministry of Labour and Employment headquarters, but the Congress refused to attend.

Labour and Employment Minister, Lalong disclosed this at the meeting attended by the delegation of the Trade Union Congress, TUC of Nigeria.

The minister also said that the ministry was yet to receive any formal communication from the NLC on the proposed two-day warning strike.

He said the strike notice came when he was receiving briefing from the various departments in the ministry, adding that he had to suspend the briefings to convene the meeting with the NLC because of the urgency of the issue at hand.

His words: “In the last two or three days, while we were receiving our briefing from the ministry to set the ball rolling, we were confronted few days ago with the strike notice.

“Because of the urgency of that strike notice, we quickly summoned a meeting today (yesterday) and we conveyed a notice of this meeting to the NLC and I must apologize too that your own meeting came this morning and all of you attended because in the course of some of the issues that were raised we needed to sort them out and we believe that it was within our capacity to see if we can sort out some of these problems, even today.

“Because we raised our own point in our press conference earlier today that we just came on board, receiving our briefing to set the ball rolling but suddenly we are confronted with strike notice so we suspended the briefing to carry on with this headlong because some of the issues are issues that we are already getting briefing from our department.

“So we thought that by commencing this briefing we will have a headway in solving some of the problems. So just yesterday we also got information that the TUC also met but when we got the information, we said if that’s the case we will combine the TUC and the NLC so that we see all the issues and if possible treat those issues holistically.

“So that’s the purpose for this emergency meeting which we convened and I fixed the time for 3 pm so we kept on waiting for the NLC from three o’clock till this time we have not received any information about their attending the meeting but I am happy that the TUC is here.

“So, the purpose of this meeting like I said is to quickly address those issues that were raised and see the possibility of averting this strike action that is scheduled to be embarked upon by tomorrow.

“Although, I am sure up to today, we have not received any communication of any strike from the NLC.”

Vanguard

Italy's Eni has agreed to sell its Nigerian onshore subsidiary to local company Oando, the two companies said on Monday, the latest international energy giant to divest onshore assets in the West African country.

With the deal on its Nigerian unit Agip Oil Company Ltd (NAOC), Eni takes another step in its long-term strategy to reduce oil exposure in favour of natural gas following its disposal in June of oil activities in Congo Republic.

The Italian group will keep its offshore activities in Nigeria.

The acquisition of NAOC Ltd will nearly double Oando's reserves to 996 million barrels of oil equivalent, the Nigerian company said.

Oando added that the purchase would enable it to "significantly increase production" and "brings to bear the important role indigenous actors will play in the future of the Nigerian upstream sector".

Neither company commented on the price. Investment bank Jefferies pegged the deal at more than $500 million.

It is the latest move out of Nigeria's onshore sector by an international oil major. Nearly all of them, notably Shell and Exxon Mobil Corp, have sales underway amid rampant oil theft and spills, perpetual clashes with communities and more focused exploration budgets.

Most oil majors have kept stakes in offshore assets in Nigeria, typically Africa's largest oil exporter, which has struggled to pump in the past several years due to theft and years of under-investment. Some energy majors are loathe to pour cash into developing assets they want to sell.

The country, which relies on oil for the bulk of its much-needed foreign exchange, urgently needs investment in the sector, but other planned deals have hit legal and regulatory hurdles.

Exxon's proposed sale to local firm Seplat is in regulatory limbo, and is opposed by state oil company NNPC Ltd, while court cases have complicated Shell's asset sales.

NAOC Ltd, which focuses on oil and gas exploration and production, has interests in four onshore blocks, two onshore exploration leases and two power plants, Eni said.

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The deal is subject to local and regulatory authorisation. After the sale, Eni will retain the unit's 5% stake in the Shell Production Development Company (SPDC) joint venture operated by Shell, it said.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's counteroffensive has 'failed' – Putin

Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive has not “stalled” but failed, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on Monday. With Ukrainian losses mounting and Kiev ramping up its conscription efforts, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu affirmed his commander-in-chief's assessment.

The Ukrainian operation “is not stalled; it is a failure,”Putin declared, following talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the resort city of Sochi.

“At least, this is how it looks today,” he continued. “Let’s see what happens next. I hope this will continue to be the case.”

In early June, Kiev launched its long-awaited counteroffensive against Russian forces, using Western-provided tanks and armored vehicles to attack multiple points along the Kherson-Donetsk frontline. According to Russian figures, advancing through minefields and without air support, Ukraine lost at least 43,000 men in the first two months of the operation alone. It failed to penetrate even the first line of Russia’s multi-layered defensive network.

The Ukrainian military has since switched tactics, relying on lighter and more mobile infantry units to seize individual buildings and positions. However, losses remain high, and with Russian forces effectively counteringthese advances with drone-corrected artillery fire, Kiev is urgently seeking to draft more troops. 

Ukraine has loosened its medical requirements for military service and is reportedly considering extraditing draft dodgers who managed to flee the country since last February.

In separate remarks to the media on Monday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu confirmed Putin’s assessment of the counteroffensive. “Today everything is exactly as our president said,” Shoigu declared. The minister noted that the Ukrainian military has "for the last ten days at least"been carrying out "violent attacks with large forces,” but has not managed to break Russia’s defenses.

Much of the fighting over the last two weeks has centered around the village of Rabotino, located in the Zaporozhye sector of the front and near the city of Artyomovsk/Bakhmut in the Donetsk Region. Although Kiev and its Western backers claim to be making incremental progress at Rabotino, The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that it repelled a Ukrainian attack on the village the previous night, killing up to 115 Ukrainian troops and destroying multiple armored vehicles and US-made artillery guns.

** Up to 50 flights delayed at Moscow airports after reported drone attacks

Up to 50 flights were delayed and six more cancelled at Moscow airports, according to online schedules of the Russian capital’s airports.

As of approximately 6:00 a.m. Moscow time six flights were delayed and two cancelled at the Domodedovo Airport, 17 flights were delayed and another one cancelled at the Vnukovo Airport, 23 flights were also delayed at the Sheremetyevo Airport, while the Zhukovsky Airport cancelled three flights.

The Russian Defense Ministry and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced earlier about an attempted attack of Ukrainian drones on the Russian capital. The drones were destroyed en route to Moscow in the air space over the Kaluga, Moscow and Tver Regions.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Give Russia security guarantees for lasting peace in Ukraine, Hungary says

The West should give Russia security guarantees and ban Ukraine from joining NATO, a senior Hungarian minister said on Sunday in comments likely to further strain Budapest’s already rocky relations with Kyiv.

To ensure lasting peace, “the Western world that supports Ukraine must give security guarantees to Russia, but definitely not NATO membership to the Ukrainians,” said Gergely Gulyás, minister in charge of the prime minister’s office, at a university event.

The remarks echoed comments by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán last week that the West “should make a deal with the Russians on the new security architecture to provide security and sovereignty for Ukraine but not membership in NATO.” Orban also said Ukraine has no chance of winning the war against Russia. In June, Orbán said that Kyiv was “no longer a sovereign state” and financially “non-existent,” sparking fury from Ukraine.

“Ukraine does not trade its territories or sovereignty,” Oleh Nikolenko, a spokesperson at Kyiv’s foreign ministry, said in response to Orbán’s most recent comments.

The repeated calls for giving Moscow security guarantees are likely to further fuel tensions between Hungary and Ukraine.

EU foreign ministers last week were unable to green-light an eighth tranche of military aid for Ukraine worth €500 million after Hungary blocked the disbursement of funds on the grounds that Kyiv had designated Budapest’s OTP bank an international sponsor of war.

Still, in a sign that Hungary wants to avoid a total collapse in relations, Hungarian President Katalin Novák visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month in a bid to improve bilateral ties.

Since 2018, Hungary has blocked Ukraine attending NATO ministerial-level meetings over claims Kyiv is discriminating against Hungarian ethnic minorities by limiting their rights to education in their native tongue.

Meanwhile, Hungarian lawmakers continue to delay the ratification of Sweden’s entry to NATO. While admitting the military alliance would become stronger if Sweden joined, Gulyás said Sunday that Budapest first wanted clarification from Stockholm on previous comments where it “accused our country with unworthy and baseless accusations.”

** Ukraine says it retakes more ground as Zelenskiy visits front lines

Ukraine said on Monday its troops had regained more territory on the eastern front and were advancing south in their counteroffensive against Russian forces while President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited two front-line areas.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Kyiv's forces had retaken about 3 square km (1.16 square miles) of land in the past week around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which was captured by Russian troops in May after months of heavy fighting.

She also reported unspecified "success" in the direction of the villages Novodanylivka and Novoprokopivka in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, but gave no details.

Ukraine has now taken back about 47 square km of territory around Bakhmut since starting its counteroffensive in early June, Maliar wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters was not able to verify the reports and Russia has not confirmed the Ukrainian advances. Both sides have counted gains of tiny villages or pockets land as recent successes.

Videos posted on the Ukrainian presidential website on Monday showed Zelenskiy visiting troops in the eastern Donetsk region, where Bakhmut is located, and in Zaporizhzhia region, where Kyiv's forces are trying to push southward to the Sea of Azov.

Zelenskiy was shown presenting medals to soldiers at a number of sites and offering thanks to medics at a field hospital on the southern front.

In his nightly address, delivered from a train, the president said the soldiers' feedback on the course of the conflict would be taken seriously.

"Everything that our fighters talked about will be put to participants in meetings of the command, especially regarding electronic warfare. Guys, we heard you clearly", he said.

Kyiv officials have bristled at criticism in Western media reports that the counteroffensive has been too slow and hindered by poor tactics -- particularly positioning troops in too many locations.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said last week that critics should "shut up".

Kyiv has retaken a number of villages and settlements in its three-month-old offensive but its soldiers have been hampered by vast Russian minefields and trenches.

Maliar said last week that Ukrainian troops had broken through the first line of Russian defences, and Ukraine's military expects now to advance more rapidly.

Moscow has continued to carry out air strikes on Ukrainian targets including port infrastructure, and has reported drone attacks on Russian territory.

A Russian Defence Ministry account on Telegram on Monday quoted an officer with the code name Hedgehog as saying: "The enemy is attacking in a strong and serious fashion, but we are standing firm. We will not let them through."

RT/Tass/Politico/Reuters