WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

US expected to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine

Human Rights Watch has called on Russia and Ukraine to stop using cluster bombs, and urged the US not to supply the munitions to Kyiv, amid reports the Biden administration is poised to include the controversial weapons in a new military aid package.

Russian and Ukraine forces have used cluster bombs, which break apart in the air and release large numbers of smaller bomblets across a wide area.

The bomblets are designed to detonate on hitting the ground, but do not always explode, posing a risk to civilians for years afterwards. The weapons, first used in the second world war, were banned by more than 120 nations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008. Russia, Ukraine and the US have all declined to sign the treaty.

Kyiv has urged members of the US Congress to press the White House to approve sending over cluster bombs. US officials say cluster bombs would be effective for Ukraine against Russian forces in strong defensive positions.

The White House said on Thursday that providing cluster munitions to Ukraine is under “active consideration”, and US officials told Reuters that the administration is expected to announce the new weapons aid package that will include these weapons on Friday.

Ukrainian and Russian forces have used cluster munitions that caused numerous civilian deaths and serious injuries, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Thursday, calling on both sides to immediately stop using the “inherently indiscriminate” weapons.

US officials have claimed that any munitions provided to Ukraine would have a reduced “dud rate”, meaning there will be far fewer unexploded rounds that could later result in unintended civilian deaths.

Ukraine fired cluster munition rockets into Russian-controlled areas in and near the eastern Ukrainian city of Izium last year, causing many casualties among Ukrainian civilians, the rights group said, citing interviews with more than 100 residents, witnesses and local emergency personnel. The Ukrainian attacks killed at least eight civilians and wounded at least 15 civilians in Izium, it said.

The group has previously reported that Russia’s use of cluster bombs in Ukraine resulted in the deaths of scores of civilians, and the United Nations human rights council has also documented the use of such bombs by both sides.

“Cluster munitions used by Russia and Ukraine are killing civilians now and will continue to do so for many years,” said Mary Wareham, acting arms director at Human Rights Watch. “Both sides should immediately stop using them and not try to get more of these indiscriminate weapons.”

Transferring cluster bombs to Ukraine would inevitably cause long-term suffering for civilians, the group said. It warned that the use of cluster munitions in areas with civilians makes an attack indiscriminate in violation of international humanitarian law, and possibly a war crime.

** Russia and Ukraine announce prisoner exchange

Russia and Ukraine announced a prisoner of war exchange on Thursday involving the return of 45 soldiers from each side.

Russia's defence ministry said that 45 Russian servicemen had been returned from Ukrainian custody, the Russian news agency RIA reported.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential staff, said 45 service personnel and two civilians had been returned to Ukraine.

In a post on the Telegram messaging app, Yermak said some of those freed had fought in Mariupol and the southern city's Azovstal steel plant, and others had fought on the frontline elsewhere.

"Each of them is a hero," Yermak said.

Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said most of those freed were "seriously injured" and all would undergo rehabilitation.

In a separate post, Yermak said that two children aged six and 10 had been allowed to return to Ukraine following the release of their mother, a military medic, last October.

Russia and Ukraine have periodically exchanged groups of prisoners in the course of the war, now in its 17th month.

Lubinets said that 2,576 Ukrainians have been freed in prisoner swaps since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

NATO, led by the US, plans, manages Ukraine’s military action against Russia — official

NATO, led by the US, coordinates Kiev’s military operations against the Russian Army, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said Thursday.

"Neo-Nazis grabbed power in Ukraine after the bloody coup, organized by the US and its satellites. Pursuing their selfish goals, the US carries out an undeclared war against Russia, using territory and population of Ukraine," he said during a meeting on national security in the Southern Federal District Thursday.

"Today, NATO states, led by the US, continue to fund the terrorist regime in Ukraine, pump it with weapons, provide intelligence, train Ukrainian troops, plan and coordinate military operations against the Russian Army," the official stated.

** Wagner PMC founder Prigozhin currently in Russia, not in Belarus, Lukashenko confirms

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) founder Yevgeny Prigozhin is currently not in Belarus, but rather is located in Russia while his fighters are quartered at their permanent base camps.

"As far as I’ve been informed, as of this morning, the fighters are at their permanent base camps where they have been located since withdrawing from the frontline for rest and recuperation. After Bakhmut (Artyomovsk in Russian - TASS), they withdrew to their camp. That’s where they are located. As for Evgeny Prigozhin, he is in St. Petersburg. Maybe he went to Moscow, but he is not on Belarusian soil," he said at a meeting with representatives of foreign and Belarusian media outlets.

Lukashenko also said that Prigozhin was not imprisoned. "We talked several times over the phone. I think, yesterday, we had a phone conversation in the afternoon. We discussed the PMC’s further actions," he said, adding that the PMC chief told him that the Wagner fighters will "work toward Russia’s well-being in the future and perform their duty until the end." The Belarusian president said that he had made arrangements to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future to discuss the situation around Prigozhin.

No risks

According to Lukashenko, the relocation of Wagner fighters to Belarus "will depend on the decision made by the Wagner PMC and Russia’s leadership." "If they deem it necessary to deploy a certain number of fighters in Belarus to rest or train, I will carry out my decision," he said.

The Belarusian leader stressed that he did not see any risk in deploying the PMC on Belarusian soil. "I do not think that Wagner would rebel somewhere and turn their weapons against the Belarusian leadership and government. I do not see such a situation today. <...> I absolutely see no risks from deploying the Wagner PMC <...>," the president noted.

"If it becomes necessary to engage them, we will engage them immediately," he said.

In his opinion, Wagner PMC’s fighters and commanders could share their expertise with the Belarusian armed forces. "I mean the military expertise they’ve accumulated," he specified.

If they are deployed in the country, Belarus will conclude a contract with them, Lukashenko added. "If the Wagner PMC is here, they will protect our interests. When they make a decision to be stationed here, a contract will be concluded with them, legal liability, where everything will be spelled out. Then restrictions, limitations will be determined at the level of the law [or a] presidential decree," he explained.

Lukashenko noted that Minsk offered some mothballed Belarusian military bases as housing for the Wagner group but the PMC had its own opinion on this issue and it has not yet been decided.

Position reinforced

Replying to questions about the situation in Russia during Prigozhin’s attempted mutiny on June 23-24, Lukashenko said that, in his opinion, the situation did not weaken Putin’s position. "Don’t even hold your breath for it. There was no vacillation, no weakening; Putin was fully engaged in carrying out his duties," he said.

According to Lukashenko, the situation around the Wagner PMC served to bolster ties between Belarus and Russia.

He also said that, during the mutiny attempt, several aircraft were ready to deploy Belarusian troops to defend Moscow. "The first five or seven planes, I don’t remember anymore, it’s a known fact, landed in Belarus to redeploy a Belarusian special forces brigade near Moscow," he said, adding that in the end, they "did not go anywhere but they were on full combat alert."

Lukashenko did not hold any consultations with other countries over the mutiny. "I knew what to say myself, without any consultations," he said. He noted that he had not interacted with China either and "had it taken place, it would have been with one person only, with [Chinese President] Xi Jinping." "We did not talk and such a conversation was hardly possible even if I had wanted to [have it]," the Belarusian leader added.

The Guardian/Reuters/Tass

I’m not sure what breaks the heart more: her insistence on her innocence or the prospects of a future that now hangs in the balance. For a young adult with a promising future, the emerging facts only suggest one thing: it doesn’t rain, it pours.

Mmesoma Ejikeme was one of the numerous students of Anglican Girls Secondary School (AGSS), Nnewi, Anambra State, who took the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in May 2023.

The first child in a family of four whose father eked out a living as an Okada rider, Mmesoma remained not just the pride of her parents, she was also one of the stars in AGSS, a missionary school handed back to its owners by former Governor Peter Obi in 2009. 

Many public schools across the country were returned to the missions after years of neglect and mismanagement by government. It appears that the very reason they were returned has come back to haunt the new owners. 

“My dream,” Mmesoma told reporters in the thick of allegations this week that she forged her UTME result, “was to become a pharmacist or a medical doctor. And I have always studied and worked hard to achieve it.”

That dream has either taken a fatal blow or may be unravelling after the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) flagged Mmesoma’s result as forged and barred her from exams conducted by the board for three years.

For a country obsessed with politics, it was a surprise that the misery of this young adult and her family toppled political stories on the front pages for days and even drowned the heroics of the World, Commonwealth and African champion athlete, Tobi Amusan, who repeated her 2022 feat at the Diamond League in Stockholm, Sweden.

Instead of draping the national flag and posting Tobi’s photos on timelines like we did last year, the public space morphed into a triangle of controversy covering Mmesoma and her family; her school and the Anambra State Government; and JAMB. 

High on emotions but short on facts and logic, the lynch mob on social media, never short of subjects and objects, has snapped-up the vomit. As usual, it is prosecuting, judging and executing with the virulence and toxicity of snake venom. 

Some of the toxicity has also managed to seep in from a bitter spring of ethnic divisions that left the country deeply divided after the general elections. Yet, this tragedy is neither Igbo nor Yoruba; neither Efik nor Fulfude. It’s a human tragedy.

It does appear that Mmesoma has been duped. Or she may have let herself into something she must now be sorry for. Information from her own video, interviews, and the response of JAMB, tend to show that the “notification of result” in which she claimed she scored 362, was fake.

Apart from taking JAMB’s word for it, I have spoken with six other candidates who took the same May UTME exam with Mmesoma. None of them has a slip that bears “notification of result,” which the examiner, JAMB, insists is one of the marks of the forged result. 

The mix-up in her date of birth – which actually reflected the date of birth of Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle, the original owner of the slip who took the exam two years ago and scored 138, and the bar code – also suggest strongly that what Mmesoma is showing as her result, was not her result.

Candidates get their results through one of two means: either by SMS or through the JAMB portal. The board has gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that both methods are significantly secure. Of course, there are numerous fake sites offering everything from “upgrade” of JAMB scores to “self-service results,” complete with options for grades a la carte. I guess you would find similar Ochanja markets, even for politicians.

Yet, in Nigeria’s forest of desperately failing public institutions, JAMB, especially under Professor Ishaq Oloyede’s watch, has been exceptional. It understands that if the bird has learnt to fly without perching, the hunter must also learn to shoot without missing.

Except if Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo has other assignments for his investigating committee of eight of whom five are professors, it does not require a committee of eggheads to see that either Mmesoma has been duped, egged on by family, or she may have been a willing part of a bigger scam. 

Mmesoma’s travail is not an isolated case or one-of-a-kind. Perhaps, hers has re-echoed because of the ripple effects. She was on her way to winning a scholarship from the state government, after a N3m award by Innoson Motors Chairman, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, when the bubble burst. 

More audacious is Kaduna State-born Gerald Atung, earlier reported to have obtained 380 points in the same exam. Unlike Mmesoma, however, Gerald got his distinction for an exam he neither registered for nor participated in. 

According to JAMB, “Gerald Atung never obtained the 2023 UTME forms not to talk of sitting for the examination.” Miracle? Even a credulous congregation might argue that at least there was water, before it became wine!

How did we get here? As in many things dumb and useless, politicians have managed to lead the way to the collapse of values. When they started throwing money at candidates with the highest cut-off marks in JAMB, instead of investing more in primary education, making public secondary schools more competitive, and state-owned tertiary institutions more skills-driven and science-focused, it was only a matter of time before they would democratise the rat race. Now, we’re reaping the whirlwind. 

Politicians have continued to make a lot of noise about JAMB cut-off scores, even when JAMB has said, time and again, that the idea of cut-off marks is meaningless. Owners of private schools and tutorial/CBT centres also use high UTME scores as a sales gimmick and the fool’s button. 

A candidate is assessed for admission not only on the basis of their UTME score, but also based on their school certificate exam result and their post-UTME score. 

Crucially, other factors such as the general performance for that year, compliance with admission rules (by both the schools and candidates) for the course of study, quota catchment, and availability are also important. The cut-off war is unnecessary and irrelevant. What is the use, for example, of splashing cash on a cut-off hero who fails the school certificate examination? 

As far as UTME goes, Mmesoma’s 249 was a good score and didn’t need padding. With 64 in Use of English; 54 in Physics; 74 in Biology; and 57 in Chemistry, I’m not sure if she would have made it into Pharmacy at the University of Lagos, which was her first choice or the Lagos State University, which was her second. 

But assuming she passes her school certificate examination (and/or the NECO, which she is still taking), she might have been in good stead either for a state university, a federal university in the South East, or one in Delta State, which has no place at all for quota.

Mmesoma’s travail shows that obsession for short-cuts and quick fixes often lead to broken hearts and deeper misery. It’s not about tribe or ethnicity, else Mmesoma would not have chosen all four school choices outside the South East, her native enclave. 

She made the regrettable error of climbing the tree of her ambition beyond the leaf. And sadly, she has landed where there’s no road to medicine or pharmacy and she cannot continue to double down. Life is not over. With help, she can rise again.

JAMB has made its point robustly. It has rightly thrown out the bath water. It should, however, spare the baby.

** Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP

Plus: why you should never use the middle stall.

If you have a habit of using the middle stall, we've got bad news for you. You've been toileting all wrong...

You waltz through security, sink a few coffees, do a bit of light shopping, and prepare to find your gate. Suddenly, a deep, dark sensation envelops your insides.

You need the toilet. You head to the nearest bathroom, bracing yourself for all the gross aromas, sights and sounds you are now forced to endure (from someone hacking their lungs up in the sink to someone loudly getting Bali belly before their trip has even begun).

Most people have to navigate this scenario with just their eyes and ears. But now, thanks to a trending TikTok video, we can approach it with science. Or at least, psychology.

"Use the first toilet always. It's cleaner and easily accessible," a recent TikTok video, which has been viewed 12.8k times, suggested.

This travel hack is backed up by boffins, with research indicating the middle stall, due to a phenomenon called "centrality preference," is typically the most used (aka, the grossest).

According to Business Insider, one toilet paper usage study from the 90s found that "Far more people used the middle stalls than random chance would predict - 60 per cent of finished rolls came from the central stalls, with only 40 per cent from the end stalls."

Another theory is that the stall closest to the bathroom door often gets overlooked because it is less private (and so it is often cleaner).

As Mehmet Oz, writing on Sharecare, explains, "Experts theorise that people tend to skip the first stall in favor of stalls farther back to have a little more privacy."

There you have it. Next time you're in an airport bathroom, you know where to go...

Escape

Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issues – everything from how to deal with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor.

Here's a roundup of answers to four questions from readers.

I like to think I'm pretty good at judging technical abilities, but I'm wondering if I'm actually only looking for the cues that people like me (male/western culture) show. If so, I'm wondering how I can get better.

Here's the situation that makes me wonder: At a recent technical conference, we gave prizes to young engineers for the best contributions. When the prize committee met, all agreed that "Alice" deserved first prize.

However, when I had visited that group (I work with lots of groups in this field) last year, Alice asked me for advice. I recommended she not work initially on the hard problem she was successful at, but instead start on an easier problem before tackling the hard one. 

She ignored me, and did a fantastic job. I clearly didn't spot how bright Alice was. She listened to my advice, but didn't ask any of the questions I normally see as markers of really good technical abilities. My question then is how can I improve my "spot bright people" skills.

Green responds:

It's definitely possible that the talent markers you look for, both consciously and unconsciously, are culturally biased. Most people have that kind of bias unless they make a deliberate effort to fight it, and even then it can be hard.

I'd start by actively interrogating the things you see as proxies for talent. You noted Alice didn't ask the questions you normally see as markers of strong abilities. Are there any commonalities among the people who do ask those questions – race, age, educational background? 

What might lead someone to ask or not ask those questions, beyond raw talent? Look for patterns there. And when you think about what did Alice talk to you about, can you see signs in retrospect that you overlooked then? If you can't, what could you still be missing?

But also! How much meaningful time do you spend with people who are demographically different from you – different races, different genders, different cultural backgrounds, different ages, different socioeconomic groups? 

Spending time with people who are different from you – and really listening and soaking in their perspectives – is likely to broaden your sense of what talent looks and sounds like. (Doing a lot of reading by authors who are different than you is another way to work on this. How often do you read books by women of color, for example? If rarely or never, that's something to change too.)

2. My coworker keeps texting me about non-emergencies

I work at a nonprofit that's recently experienced a lot of staff turnover. When I was helping to onboard two new admins, I explained that my work email doesn't forward to my phone once I've left the office but that they always call my cell number if there was an emergency after hours or on weekends.

One of them has only texted once, with something time-sensitive and important. The other texts me regularly on my day off, or early in the morning and late in the evening on work days, about things that are work-related but not even close to being emergencies. 

At first I tried not responding to non-emergency texts that came on my day off, but got more texts and an in-person "are you getting my texts? I'm not sure if they're going through." I explained that they'd come in while I was busy with other things, which took priority because it was my day off.

The last time I got a text before 7 am, I replied, "Let's talk about what to do about the problem when I get to the office." Which worked for that day, but hasn't stopped the bigger issue of getting woken up by work texts. 

My colleague is retired and working for us part-time, while I'm newly married and work 50-hour weeks. I mention this not as a judgment or competition, but because I expect that she may have more mental/emotional space to devote to our organization outside of our set work hours.

Do I just ignore texts that come in at all odd hours? I've tried subtlety in explaining that any work that can wait for office hours will have to wait for office hours, but to no apparent success. If I have to have a more direct conversation about this, what do I say?

Green responds:

Stop with the subtlety and just tell her directly! You can be really matter-of-fact about it: "I apologize if I wasn't clear when I gave you my cell number. It's for emergencies only. Please always email me rather than texting, unless something is true an emergency like (example) or (example)." That it! 

She might feel a little embarrassed to realize she's been doing it wrong, but so be it – a little embarrassment isn't the worst thing in the world, and there's no getting around that if you want this to stop.

Then if you get another non-emergency text, ignore it until you're back at work, at which point you can say, "Like I said, please do not text me unless it's an emergency. Instead, please email me about things like (latest example)." 

And if it still continues: "For some reason we're having trouble straightening this out! I really don't want work texts unless it's an emergency, so going forward I'm not going to respond to texts until I'm back at work."

You've been expecting her to pick up on hints – which would work with many people. But it's clearly not working with her, so you have to be more direct.

3. Why won't anyone eat the last cookie?

I work at a small company and occasionally treats get left in the kitchen for everyone to enjoy. People will gladly eat the food all day until we get to the dreaded "last cookie." 

No one will eat the last cookie and sometimes someone will even go so far as to cut the last cookie in half and leave the sad little half to languish away on the plate until someone has mercy on it and throws it out a day or two later. Why will no one eat the last cookie?

Green responds:

It happens with donuts too – someone will cut the last donut in half, and the someone will cut the half in half, and so forth.

It's rooted in politeness – no one wants to take the last of something, in case someone else was hoping to have some and arrives to find none left. At some level, people worry that if they eat the last cookie/donut/piece of cake, they'll be conveying, "I am more entitled to enjoy this cookie than whoever might come looking for it after me, and I do not care that I have created cookie scarcity for others." 

They don't necessarily worry they'll be conveying this to other people, who may never know that they took the last cookie. It's more of an internal guilt thing.

4. My CEO insists on advertising jobs we're not hiring for

Our CEO insists on posting half a dozen roles that we aren't actually hiring for. He says it makes us look like we're growing, and that it's always good to collect resumes.

While there's definitely merit to passive recruiting, I don't like people submitting their resumes into what is essentially a black hole, where nothing will likely happen and no one will ever reach out to them. This, to me, isn't the way to build either a viable candidate pipeline – or a good impression of our company. How do I combat this misguided theory?

Green responds:

Yeah, that's not a great practice. People are spending time crafting cover letters and possibly tailoring their resumes for jobs that don't exist.

You can certainly suggest that there are more effective ways to build a pipeline, like building relationships with people in your industry, or at least being more transparent with a "we're not actively hiring but we're always interested in hearing from people with X background" type message. 

And you can point out that collecting resumes of people who are actively job searching now means you're collecting a lot of resumes from people who may not be on the market by the time he decides to contact them. (Although I'm skeptical that anything is really going to happen with those collected resumes; often nothing does.) 

You can also point out that candidates who find out their time was wasted are less likely to be interested in applying in the future, especially if your company gets a reputation for doing this.

Inc

As the prices of essential food items continue to skyrocket, Nigerians face an uphill battle in their fight against poverty. The soaring food inflation has exacerbated the poverty situation in the country, leaving many struggling to meet their basic needs.

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigerians faced higher food prices in May 2023.

The survey, which includes staple food items like local rice, yam, tomato, bread, plantain, veggies, fish, beans, and others, was contained in the ‘Selected Food Prices Watch (May 2023)’ report released on Tuesday.

According to the data, Nigerians paid an average of N2,520 for 1kg of beef in May 2023, a 24.2 percent increase from N2,029 in the same period of 2022.

On a month-on-month basis, the average price of 1kg of beef (boneless) grew 1 percent to N2,520 in May 2023 from N2,495.69 in April 2023.

NBS said the average price of 1kg of tomato increased by 17.68 percent on a year-on-year basis from N423.48 in May 2022, to N498.34 in May 2023. The price of the item increased by 2.73 percent in May 2023, on a month-on-month basis.

According to the survey, the price of 1kg of local rice (sold loose) rose by 24.06 percent on a year-on-year basis from N447.51 in May last year, to N555.18 in the same in 2023. The study, on a month-on-month basis, noted that the cost of the staple jumped by 1.54 percent from N546.76 in April 2023.

Likewise, on a year-on-year basis, the cost of 1kg of onion bulb increased by 17.12 percent from N387.53 in May 2022, to N453.86 the same this year. The price also moved upwards by 2.83 percent on a month-on-month review.

“The average price of 1kg of yam tuber rose by 22.84 percent on a year-on-year basis from N372.23 in May 2022 to N457.25 in May 2023. On a month-on-month basis, it increased by 2.83 percent from N444.69 in April 2023,” NBS said.

Meanwhile, the May 2023 inflation report also documents the unrelenting upsurge in food prices, effectively reducing the purchasing power of some Nigerians.

The report had pegged the food inflation rate at 24.82 percent year-on-year. This was 5.33 percent points higher compared to what was recorded in May 2022 (19.50 percent).

The statistics body said the rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of oil and fat, yam and other tubers, bread and cereals, fish, potatoes, fruits, meat, vegetable, and spirit.

“On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in May 2023, was 2.19 percent, this was 0.06 percent higher compared to the rate recorded in April 2023 (2.13 perecent),” the report had said.

“The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve-months ending May 2023 over the previous twelve-month average was 23.65 percent, which was 4.97 percent points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in May 2022 (18.68 percent).

“On a year-on-year basis food inflation was highest in Ondo (25.84 percent), Kogi (25.70 percent), Rivers (25.02 percent); while Taraba (19.55 percent), Sokoto (19.56 percent), and Plateau (19.89 percent) recorded the slowest rise in headline inflation.”

The Cable

Months after the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria requested that terminal charges be reviewed upwards, Ports & Terminal Multipurpose Limited has announced a 36 per cent increase in tariff on imported vehicles with effect from July 1.

In a public notice sighted by our correspondent on Tuesday, signed by the management of PTML, the terminal said the current economic conditions of surging inflation, currency devaluation and subsidy removal had increased its operational costs.

The terminal in the notice said it had received the approvals of relevant authorities for the tariff hike.

The notice read in part, “PTML would like to bring to the attention of its esteemed customers that the current economic conditions of surging inflation, coupled with the devaluation of currency and removal of fuel subsidy have caused the operational costs to increase multi-fold.

“Hence, having received the endorsement of the relevant authorities, it has become imperative to restructure our terminal tariffs from the 1st of July 2023. PTML is confident that its esteemed customers will understand the rationale behind this review that will cost assist us in ensuring our superior level of service while keeping the competitiveness of its rates.”

Our correspondent gathered that tariff on SUVs was formerly N113,000 but it has been raised to N139,420 while the tariff on SUVs that are not working has been reviewed upward to N153,395.

Terminal tariff on a saloon car which was N92,000 was hiked to N112,115 while saloon cars not working have been adjusted up to N121,575.

Recall that a few months ago, MWUN in a statement, said it was supporting a hike in terminal operators tariff so that the terminals can fulfill their commitments to the dockworkers, who are members of the union.

Reacting to this development, Acting National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, Kayode Farinto said, the agents would have to educate the importers on how to adjust to the new tariff.

“The reality on the ground is what we have all seen, subsidy removal with the exchange rate (adjustment), everything is changing. We just have to see how we can educate our importers on this.

“There is no possibility of withdrawing services. The reality on the ground is that the government has removed subsidy. Fuel is now N500 per litre; the dollar is not stable. There is no more official rate. And we can just be naïve as if we don’t know what is on the ground.”

Punch

President Bola Tinubu and his party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), have closed their defence in Peter Obi’s suit challenging Tinubu’s victory at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja.

Obi of the Labour Party came third in the 25 February presidential election, but he is urging the court to overturn Tinubu’s victory on account of electoral fraud and non-compliance with statutory provisions in the conduct of the poll.

Tinubu and the APC had on Wednesday opened their defence after Obi finished presenting his own case on 23 June,

Tinubu, APC and Nigeria’s electoral commission, INEC, are respondents in the suit.

They have closed their defence, marking the end of the trial.

It also sets the case for its next phase, which is exchanging final written and addresses among parties, and a day for closing arguments.

At Wednesday’s proceedings, Tinubu’s lead lawyer, Wole Olanipekun, tendered volumes of documents to defend the president’s mandate.

Key among the tendered documents were academic records of Tinubu from Chicago State University in the US, details of the president’s Nigerian passport and a clearance letter from the US Embassy in Nigeria to the Nigeria Police Force.

The letter from the US Consular General in Lagos dated 4 February 2003 revealed that Tinubu had no record of criminal conviction or arrest in the US.

The five-member panel of the court headed by Haruna Tsammani admitted the documents in evidence despite opposition from Obi’s lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu.

INEC’s lawyer Abubakar Mahmoud and APC’s lead counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, did not object to the admissibility of the documents.

Witness

After the documents were admitted and marked as exhibits, Olanipekun, called Tinubu’s first and only witness.

The star witness, Michael Bamidele, a senator, while being led in evidence by Olanipekun, told the court that Obi was not a genuine member of the Labour Party at the time he vied for Nigeria’s presidency.

A membership register of the Labour Party in Anambra State, Obi’s home state, Southeast Nigeria, was earlier tendered in evidence to buttress the allegation.

Under cross-examination by Fagbemi, Bamidele, who represents Ekiti Central at the Nigerian Senate, said, “There can be no criminal conviction of anyone without a charge in the US.”

Bamidele, who was called to the New York Bar since January 1999, was apparently referring to Tinubu, whom Obi and Atiku’s Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, alleged he was convicted and forfeited 460,000 dollars in drug-related offences in the US.

Disagrees with ECOWAS election report on violence

However, Bamidele, who is the leader of the current Senate, disagreed with a portion of the ECOWAS election observation mission report concerning widespread violence during the recent general elections.

Under cross-examination by Uzoukwu, Bamidele attributed cases of killings and arson in Nigeria’s Southeast region to the grisly activities of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The separatist group has been waging a struggle against the Nigerian state, demanding a declaration of the State of Biafra.

In his testimony on Wednesday, Bamidele blamed IPOB for the brutal killing of a senatorial ticket-holder in Enugu, a few days before the presidential and National Assembly elections on 25 February.

This was after Uzoukwu drew Bamidele’s attention to the ECOWAS report on the outcome of the general elections.

“I agree with the conclusion, but I disagree with that part of the ECOWAS election observation mission report concerning widespread violence during the polls,” Bamidele told the court.

“I attribute the killings in Enugu of the Senatorial candidate to IPOB activities,” he added.

After Bamidele concluded his testimony, he was discharged from the witness box.
Olanipekun then went on to tender the tons of documentary evidence led by his team, adding that Bamidele’s witness had “covered the field in the case.”

Subsequently, Olanipekun informed the court that his client’s defence had ended.

Toeing Olanipekun’s line of submission, APC’s lawyer, Fagbemi, adopted the evidence led by Tinubu’s legal team as theirs.

“There is no need to subject your Lordships to the torture of sitting and writing in long hand. Therefore, we have established our case through the 2nd respondent (Tinubu).
“We have called evidence, but we are not calling any witness,” Fagbemi told the court.

Case set for closing arguments

Following the conclusion of their defence, chairman of the five-member court, Tsammani, said, “The respondents shall have ten days to file their final written addresses, while the petitioner shall have seven days to reply.”

Tsammani added that the parties should be notified of when the hearing would resume for the adoption of their final written addresses.

PT

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian missile strikes apartment block in Lviv, kills at least three

A Russian missile attack killed at least three people in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, and rescuers were searching through the debris of a apartment building for survivors and casualties, the local mayor said.

"Three people have been killed," Mayor Andriy Sadovy said in a post on his Telegram channel. He said the street would remain closed until emergency workers "clear debris and pull out all the dead."

Sadovy said in a previous post that eight people had been wounded, but it was unclear if the three who died were included in that number. He said about 60 apartments and 50 cars were damaged.

Regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyi posted a 13-second video showing a wide, curving, four-storey apartment building with parts of the upper floors missing or in rubble.

The posts from the officials followed widespread air alerts across Ukraine and reports of cruise missiles entering Ukrainian airspace. Sadovy reported a series of explosions in the city.

** Ukraine's Zelenskiy says sought Western weapons to start counteroffensive sooner

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told CNN he wanted a counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces to have started sooner than it did in June and that he had urged Western allies to quicken the supply of weapons for that mission, according to excerpts via a translator released on Wednesday.

"I wanted our counteroffensive to happen much earlier, because everyone understood that if the counteroffensive unfolds later, then a bigger part of our territory will be mined," Zelenskiy said. "We give our enemy the time and possibility to place more mines and prepare their defensive lines."

He said difficulties in the battlefield had led to Ukrainian forces slowing down the counteroffensive, which is aimed at reclaiming territory in eastern and southern Ukraine seized by Russia since its February 2022 invasion began.

The Ukrainian leader has consistently pushed the United States and other Western allies to supply his armed forces with more sophisticated weaponry, such as U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets and longer range missiles.

He did so again in the CNN interview while also thanking Washington and the European allies for their support.

"It's not even about the Ukrainian advantage in the sky over the Russians," Zelenskiy said. "This is only about being equal. F-16s help not only those on the battlefield to move forward. It is simply very difficult without cover from the air."

Last week, Zelenskiy said the counteroffensive was "slower than desired", without getting too specific but he said advances had been made "in all directions".

Reuters was unable to verify the situation on the battlefield. Russia has not acknowledged Ukrainian gains and has said Ukraine's forces are suffering heavy casualties.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will be attempting to consolidate his power following a short-lived mutiny on June 24 by Wagner Group mercenaries led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, Zelenskiy said. Prigozhin has gone into exile in Belarus after striking a deal with Putin.

"After all these events, where did Putin go?" asked Zelenskiy. "He rarely comes outside to the street. We see him in his offices, etc., but we never see him out and about."

Days after the mutiny, Putin appeared in public to tell about 2,500 Russian security personnel at a ceremony on a square in the Kremlin complex in Moscow that the people and the armed forces stood together in opposition to the rebel mercenaries.

"You have saved our motherland from upheaval. In fact, you have stopped a civil war," he said.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Newsweek reveals CIA role in Ukraine

Central Intelligence Agency has boots on the ground in Ukraine and operates a clandestine supply network to help the government in Kiev fight Russia, Newsweek reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources within the US government.

“The CIA was central to the war even before it started,” claimed the article, written by William Arkin. Its director, William Burns, famously visited Moscow in January 2022 and, though he failed to persuade Russia not to “invade,” he got the Kremlin to accept US “rules” – at least according to Arkin and his sources.

Supposedly articulated by US President Joe Biden, the “rules” state that Washington and Kiev “will not undertake any actions that might threaten Russia itself or the survival of the Russian state.” In return, Moscow “won’t escalate the war beyond Ukraine or resort to the use of nuclear weapons.” 

It “falls to the US to enforce those pledges,” a senior defense intelligence official told Newsweek on condition of anonymity. Arkin said he spoke with “over a dozen” officials and intelligence experts over the course of a three-month investigation. No named sources appear in the article.

Arkin’s sources admitted that the CIA is running a campaign of support for Ukraine based out of Poland, including a “gray fleet” of commercial aircraft shuttling weapons and other material through central and eastern Europe. CIA agents also “went into and out of Ukraine on secret missions, to assist with the operations of new weapons and systems,” but always tried to “avoid direct confrontation with Russian troops.”

“Is the CIA on the ground inside Ukraine? Yes, but it’s also not nefarious,”said another senior intelligence officer, who framed it as part of a Biden administration effort to “keep Americans out of harm’s way and reassure Russia that it doesn’t need to escalate.”

The problem appears to be that Ukraine is not following Biden’s “rules,”however. Newsweek blames Kiev for the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines, the Kerch Bridge bombing, and the drone attacks on Russian air bases and the Kremlin. These attacks have “raised questions” as to whether the CIA knows enough about Ukrainian plans “to both influence them and to adhere to their secret agreement with Moscow.”

The agency is now “as uncertain about Vladimir Zelensky’s thinking and intentions as it is about [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s,” the article claims.

“The CIA learned with the attack on the Crimean Bridge that Zelensky either didn’t have complete control over his own military or didn’t want to know of certain actions,” according to the anonymous military intelligence official.

Meanwhile, Zelensky himself directly contradicted Arkin’s article two days before it was published. “We don’t have any secrets from the CIA,” he told CNN on Monday, commenting on a recent visit to Kiev by the agency’s director.

Reuters/RT

By now, it should be clear to all that no one is safe from bad government policies, including its cheerleaders. The effects of wrong-headed approach to governance is evident in every home, every plate of food (if any), quality of living; even on Abuja’s now near empty streets, and near collapse of small-scale businesses. We all bear the brunt of ill-advised and ill-timed policies as recently enunciated by the new government of President Bola Tinubu.

In contrast, the over 100 convoy of cars in the president’s movement in Lagos, the almost 50 SUVs seen earlier during his triumphant return to Abuja in preparation for the inauguration; the governors’ and lawmakers’ convoys, numerous aides and the flamboyance, lavish lifestyle, waste associated with them and their retinue — of staff, family members, appointees, all show the polarity in the lives of those in authority and the governed.

The stratified society being created by dimming the hope for Eldorado that Nigerians had hoped the new president represents, speaks volume, from his actions so far. Welcome to President Bola Tinubu’s republic. Within one month of his coming to power, everything nosedived, for worse. The initial euphoria of ‘an action government’ has since given way to disillusionment. Replacing President Muhammadu Buhari who took almost six months to appoint some principal staff, with the same dullness dogging his government in eight years, the Tinubu regime was ushered in with open hands and excitement because he was at least proactive having taken some salient actions and made key appointments early in the day. How good or bad those decisions are, are now measured and talked about in every home, office or street corner in the country.

Tinubu told us to tighten our belts and make sacrifices for the country. He removed petrol subsidy, the last semblance of government impact in the lives of the people, and floated the Naira almost in one fell swoop with devastating consequences.

These twin actions erased all pretensions about renewing our hopes in good governance, because there was no iota of thought for the poor. Normally, before a new government unleashes terror, it tries to cuddle and romance the people with some positive vibes in friendly policy pronouncements, as a means of appreciation. No, not with Tinubu. From the get go, he showed the ugly signs of things to come. The cancellation of the official forex has raised the naira beyond the black-market rate that Tinubu inherited.

I am not an economic analyst, but as a practical and realistic player in the Nigerian street economic system, my experience of the last few days is proof that the government has fleeced us. Tinubu cancelled multiple exchange rates and unified same. On paper. For instance, If you want any hard currency like dollars or pounds, you have to purchase at the black-market rate (which is still multiple). Yet, you still have to go through CBN’s Import and Export (I&E) window using Form A. What is the point of form A again (supposedly the official market rate window of the previous government), whereas there is no facilitation by CBN and while you still have to buy dollars from the black market and process through a dorm account. The only reason I guess is to enable you and I pay tax to a government that has abdicated its responsibility of protecting and managing the nation’s fiscal and monetary policies? In simple term, citizens are made to pay for services not rendered by CBN, in addition to bank charges.

Meanwhile, the much-talked about palliatives to cushion the effect of the new policy measures may soon become stale. If it was so easy to pronounce by fiat that ‘subsidy is gone’, why is it so difficult to pronounce palliatives into instant action? Is it when more Nigerians have been pushed further down the poverty level as predicted by the World Bank which observed that further 7.1 million more poor Nigerians will be added to the 133 million dimensionally poor, that the palliatives will come? Isn’t that medicine after death?

Meanwhile countries of the West which we love to copy blindly still subsidise and offer palliatives to their citizens. In a Bloomberg report of November 2022, it was revealed that the German government was going to spend 83.3 billion Euro to subsidise the 2023 energy prices. The subsidies will cover the cost of gas and district heating, and reduce the cost of electricity for households and businesses to protect them from “higher energy prices”. It was also disclosed in the same report that governments across Euro area have spent 200 billion Euro to support energy and economic output. Not doing the above is tantamount to committing mass murder in Europe considering their inclement weather. But for Nigeria, the impunity of those who govern us is celebrated, even more by those oppressed and or impacted adversely.

In his weekly column in Tribune, Farooq Kperogi, noted that the US government subsidises and gives palliatives as a form of social service despite officials’ involvement in corruption, maintaining that instead of stopping the palliatives, the government fights the inherent corruption in its application of the palliatives. Contrary to this logic, what the Tinubu government has done so far is to condone corruption and allow those involved in forex exchange and fuel subsidy scams go scot-free. The vulnerable is punished for the infractions of the rich while the poor wallows in more misery.

By his action so far, we have an idea of the colour of the Tinubu government and its direction in the coming days. Are you surprised that the new government is yet to make concrete statements concerning the twin challenges of corruption and insecurity plaguing the country and the possibility of local refining of crude? What is his position on our comatose refineries and over 70 registered Modular refineries? The new government should have got those refineries working before subsidy removal. I do like the electricity bill that he signed into law. States and groups now have the opportunity to generate their own power without recourse to the federal government.

Instead, Tinubu has created more damage and confusion in the system, while doing more politically correct things such as board dissolution, key personal appointments, fuel and forex matters and removal of CBN governor Emefiele and EFCC chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa, which analysts say bordered on personal vendetta.

Yet, it is no brainer that refining locally, ordering manufacturers of highly consumed goods such as car and phone companies to establish their plants here if they want to operate in the Nigerian market etc will create employment opportunities for citizens, reduce fuel prices, and stabilise forex to a certain extent and draw hard currencies back home.

On security, our story has not changed. At least 123 deaths have occurred since Tinubu’s inauguration according to Isa Sanusi, Acting Nigeria Director of Amnesty International.

“It is horrific that attacks by gunmen have claimed at least 123 lives more weeks after Tinubu assumed office on 29 May. Rural communities, always bracing themselves for the next bout of violence, are facing deadly attacks by rampaging killers. Protecting lives should be the utmost priority of the new government. The Nigerian authorities must urgently take steps to stop the bloodletting.

“The brazen failure of the authorities to protect the people of Nigeria is gradually becoming the ‘norm’ in the country. The government said it will enact security measures in response to these attacks, but these promises have not translated into meaningful action that protects the lives of vulnerable communities. The Nigerian authorities have also consistently failed to carry out independent, effective, impartial and thorough investigations into these killings — and this is fuelling impunity.

“The Nigerian authorities are obliged under international human rights law, regional human rights treaties and Nigeria’s own constitution to protect the human rights of all people without discrimination — and that includes the right to life. Those suspected of criminal responsibility for these callous crimes must urgently be brought to justice in fair trials.”. None of these has happened so far.

To be honest, Tinubu has his job cut out for him, and Nigerians were eager and even impatient for a life-changing experience as contained in his policy documents and espoused by his minders. Asking for more time and sacrifice is no elixir to our pain. As president now, Tinubu lives on the state, which provides all his needs. He doesn’t pay for electricity bills, accommodation, or transportation. His security is guaranteed; his wellbeing (and healthcare) is on the state as against the citizens who struggle daily to eat. What kind of sacrifice will he make as a Nigerian, not as president, because we know that in Nigeria leadership takes and manages everything ? We have the right to know.

Already Tinubu has lost the euphoria and initial advantage going for him. Going forward, he may have to do a lot to mitigate the negative impact of his initial policies to prove his doubters wrong and make meaningful impact in a bleeding country. It will be too bad to associate his regime with only enriching the rich and further pauperising the poor.

Nano-sized particles made from copper and silver are able to kill cancercells with minimal side effects to healthy tissues.

This is the promise of new research from the Middle East, who demonstrated a new delivery mechanism for the cancer-killing nanoparticles in cell cultures in the laboratory.

If realized clinically, the new treatment approach could offer an alternative to chemotherapy, which comes with some inherent limitations.

Chemotherapy drugs tend to have a low tumor specificity and cause unpleasant side effects. On top of this, cancers can develop resistance to these treatments, leading to relapse.

The nanoparticle approach, however, can be delivered with far greater specificity to cancer cells, and may overcome conventional resistance issues.

The study was undertaken by mechanical engineer Professor, Yousef Haik of the University of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, and his colleagues.

Haik said: "Our treatment is based on administering silver-copper nanoparticles that kill cancer cells, but leave surrounding healthy cells intact."

Metallic nanoparticles have been attracting considerable attention for their potential in the treatment of cancer thanks to their reduced toxicity, lack of stability and retention.

What is novel about the work of Haik and his team, however, is the approach they are using to get their nanoparticles into the target cancer cells.

Their technique involves taking advantage of a form of natural cell-to-cell communication that relies on exosomes - nano-scale, sac-like "vesicles" that carry genetic material and proteins from the cell that produced them to others.

By binding their metallic nanoparticles up with wheat germ agglutinin and feeding them into healthy cells of the type as the cancer in question, the team were able to get them preferentially delivered to the target cells.

Thanks to the binding protein, the particles get incorporated into exosomes which are formed, Haik explained, "through a biogenesis process and shed outside the cells as drug-loaded vesicles".

He added: "Exosomes derived from healthy cells tend to preferentially accumulate in tumor cells of the same tissue origin ten times more than any other cells due to composition matching between these exosomes and these cells."

Haik said: "If the finding is applied as treatment, the novel drug will damage cancerous cells, leaving no harmful effects on the surrounding healthy tissues.

"Silver and copper nanoparticles have shown to preferentially kill cancer cells at low concentration without any effect on healthy cells within the therapeutic dose."

The study, he added, provides a fresh and significant platform for a "complimentary anticancer drug and a smart delivery vesicle".

He went on to suggest the work will serve as "a foundational resource for the emerging field of nanoengineering and medicine."

The researchers have cautioned that further investigation will be needed before their approach might be considered for clinical applications.

However, Haik concluded: "Our study demonstrated the feasibility of producing novel drug carriers from healthy cells."

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Advanced Biology.

Daily Express, US