When he steps down next week President Muhammadu Buhari will be leaving Nigerians less secure, poorer and more in debt than when he came to office in 2015.

The former military ruler became president after winning a momentous election which saw the defeat of underperforming incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.

Riding a wave of optimism that change was possible, he was supported by a powerful coalition and had the reputation of being a hard-man soldier, who would get things done.

After Buhari's brief stint in charge in the 1980s, his second coming was on the back of promises to curtail the rampaging Islamist insurgency in the northeast and tackle widespread corruption.

He is the last of a generation of British-trained military men who went on to govern the country.

But the 80-year-old's two four-year terms have left many disappointed.

There have been gains in tackling Boko Haram and other extremist groups in the northeast, aided by improved military hardware from the US.

While the groups still carry out attacks on communities and military installations in the region, it is a big improvement from the years when they operated freely and controlled a large portion of Nigerian territory.

Buhari also utilised Chinese loans to upgrade the ailing road and rail infrastructure, building a new port in Lagos, completing a crucial bridge in the southeast, and passing important electoral and oil-sector laws.

But whatever gains have been recorded in the northeast against the Islamist militants have been eroded by the emergence of equally violent groups in other parts of the country under his watch.

Clashes between farmers and cattle herders from the Fulani ethnic group, which had simmered for years, were allowed to boil over into deadly armed confrontations with an ethnic element, as the government ran out of ideas to solve the problem of where animals could graze.

Buhari, a Fulani from northern Nigeria, was accused of bias in the conflict and his proposal of grazing reserves for the herders were rebuffed by powerful southern state governors who saw it as a land-grabbing tactic.

Some of the armed groups created by the farmer-herder crisis have since transitioned into violent motorcycle-riding bandits targeting communities in the northwest and central states. These groups have helped turn a lucrative kidnap-for-ransom business into a behemoth that now extends countrywide.

It took hold during the first decade of the century when oil workers were kidnapped in the Niger Delta and blossomed under Buhari's watch as the targets changed.

For instance, thousands of school children were abducted between December 2020 and September 2021, according to the UN's children's organisation, Unicef. That eclipsed the 270 girls seized from a school in Chibok who made global headlines in 2014 - a crime that was a crucial factor in Buhari defeating Jonathan.

"I thought that as a former military ruler he would have the solution to Nigeria's security challenges," Musa Ahmadu a farmer now living in the northwestern state of Kano, told the BBC.

Ahmadu, originally from the president's home state of Katsina, abandoned his land and fled to neighbouring Kano alongside thousands of others because of the activities of armed groups in the region.

Many also believe that Buhari has mishandled the situation thrown up by separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu.

Kanu heads the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a group seeking secession in the southeast which is proscribed by the government.

He is a charismatic figure with a huge appetite for sensationalism which he fed devotees via his internet radio station.

Ipob was largely ignored by many Nigerians until Kanu was first arrested for treason by the Buhari government in 2015. A subsequent state-sanctioned attack on his home marked the beginning of an armed confrontation that has spiralled out of control, claiming hundreds of lives in the process.

After escaping in 2017, he was abducted in unclear circumstances abroad and returned to Nigeria in 2021 to face trial. A judge has ordered his release as the process of his return was illegal but authorities continue to hold him.

These security challenges made many question Buhari's handling of a sector that was supposed to be his area of expertise.

"I am surprised at the level of embarrassment he has brought to his constituency, the military, despite all the promises he made," said retired Colonel Hassan Stan-Labi, a security analyst.

"How can you fail in your own area of specialty?" he asked.

The countrywide insecurity under Buhari has largely been muted in the oil-rich Niger Delta where oil-militants and sea pirates held sway in the past.

But that peace seems to have coincided with a period of large-scale oil theft, with the government accused of looking away while different groups in the region steal crude from the pipelines. This led to Nigeria's production plunging to a 30-year low in 2022.

The shocking discovery last October of a kilometres-long pipeline used to steal oil was described by commentators as "nearly impossible" without help from authorities.

In one location, thieves built their own 4km-long pipeline through the heavily guarded creeks to the Atlantic Ocean. There, barges and vessels blatantly loaded the stolen oil from a seven-metre rig visible for miles on the open waters.

That theft on such a scale happened directly under Buhari, who also doubled as Nigeria's petroleum minister, undermined his claim to be fighting graft, Salaudeen Hashim of anti-corruption NGO Cleen Foundation, told the BBC.

Buhari's integrity was also impugned by his frequent medical trips to the UK despite spending large sums to refurbish a clinic in the presidential villa.

This lack of transparency "drained taxpayers' monies, encouraged illicit financial flows and other corruption-enabling activities the administration preached against", Auwal Rafsanjani, the head of Transparency International in Nigeria, told the BBC.

Rafsanjani scored the administration four out of 10 in fighting corruption, and said Buhari's appointment of people with ongoing corruption cases to his cabinet and his wife's long stays in expensive Dubai homes "contravened best practices by an administration that was fighting corruption and mismanagement".

As he leaves, Buhari's handling of the Nigerian economy will most likely be remembered for his botched attempt earlier this year at redesigning the local currency.

An otherwise rudimentary exercise descended into chaos as scarcity of the new naira notes, which have now almost disappeared, resulted in untold hardship for millions in the country who relied on cash for basic needs.

"The small business we were doing was destroyed by that man," said a university graduate in Abuja who made money by supplying banknotes to her customers before the cash crisis.

Her anger was fuelled by a common problem in Nigeria - a lack of work among educated young people.

Currently one in three Nigerians who want to work are unable to find a job. Before Buhari took over that figure was less than one in 10.

The government has blamed a drastic drop in oil prices in its early days, the Covid pandemic and Russia's war in Ukraine.

But some of its policies, such as currency restrictions and closing the land borders to boost local production, have contributed towards record inflation that has made millions poorer and depleted a once burgeoning Nigerian middle-class.

Last week, with the end in sight, Buhari pleaded with lawmakers to hurriedly approve an $800m (£640m) loan from the World Bank. Nigeria's public debt could pass $150bn this year - when he took over it stood at a little over $60bn.

His borrowing spree has drawn warnings from the World Bank that Africa's largest economy was using 96% of its revenue to service debts.

But the huge debt has been defended by the administration who say it is within acceptable limits, pointing to cash payments to poor people as justification for some of the loans.

"These welfarist interventions give a window into the kind soul of the president, a man some people have not bothered to discern, dissect and decipher," presidential spokesman Femi Adesina wrote last week.

Like him, many in the administration insist it has had a good eight-year run. Although both he and his wife have apologised for not delivering on promises made, Buhari has said that he tried his best.

"I want [Nigerians] to analyse how things were when we came in and how they are when we're leaving," he responded when asked about his legacy last year.

The fact is that Nigerians were safer, better off and less in debt before Buhari took over, and many will remember him for presiding over the toughest eight years they might ever face.

BBC

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Drone-bombs hit Russian border region – governor

Ukrainian forces targeted several settlements in Russia’s Belgorod region with explosive-carrying drones on Monday night, according to governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. The region was placed under the “anti-terrorism operation” regulations in the wake of a raid by a Ukrainian saboteur group.

Late in the evening, several improvised explosive devices were dropped on civilian houses in the town Grayvoron, which is located some 7 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, Gladkov confirmed on Telegram. Two houses caught fire, but there were no casualties, the official added.

Grayvoron is the administrative center of the district that had been targeted in a Ukrainian intrusion earlier in the day. 

A similar attack happened in the settlement of Borisovka, 25 kilometers further away from the border, where at least two bombs were dropped from drones on an “administrative building,” Gladkov said shortly after midnight. Several hours later, yet another drone attacked a civilian house in the same village.

A group of saboteurs crossed from Ukraine into Belgorod region earlier on Monday, forcing the governor to introduce “anti-terrorism operation” regulations and provide additional power to law enforcement to deal with the threat. At least eight civilians were wounded during the intrusion.

** Hungary opposes new EU sanctions, military assistance to Ukraine — top diplomat

Budapest opposes a number of key provisions in the 11th package of sanctions on Russia developed by the European Commission and will not support giving any additional military assistance from the European Peace Facility until its OTP Bank is taken off of Ukraine’s list of international war sponsors, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Monday.

He recalled that EU countries want to increase military assistance to Ukraine from the European Peace Facility to the tune of 500 million euro. "We demand the Ukrainians remove OTP from the list of international war sponsors. Until that happens, we will not give our consent to allocate these 500 million euro to EU countries as compensation for their spending on weapons to Ukraine," he told Hungarian journalists during a break in the meeting of the EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

The top diplomat’s press conference was broadcast live on his Facebook page (Facebook is banned in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as extremist).

On May 4, Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention put Hungary’s OTP Bank Group, which continues to operate in Russia, on the list of international sponsors of war. Szijjarto slammed this decision as "scandalous and unacceptable."

As of today, he stressed, Hungary’s largest bank, OTP, "had not violated a single national or international law" and its blacklisting in Ukraine is absolutely illegal.

The top Hungarian diplomat also recalled that his country’s government was against weapons supplies to Ukraine in general and would not budge from this position. "Weapons supplies are fraught with the risk of escalating the war and the longer this war continues, the more people will die," he stressed.

Touching on the 11th package of anti-Russian sanctions, which was also a topic of discussion for the EU foreign ministers, the Hungarian minister noted, "Brussels should have learned a lesson from the consequences of the sanctions."

"Sanctions are more harmful to Europe than they are to Russia and I think that the 10th package of sanctions should not be followed by an 11th, which would turn out to be a true test for Europe in general and the economy of European countries," he said, adding that Hungary opposed additional restrictions for European companies in terms of trading in Russian goods, as well as sanctions on Chinese companies suspected of cooperating with Russia.

He also reiterated that Hungary will oppose any EU sanctions that would restrict cooperation with Russia in the field of nuclear energy. "Despite the pressure that’s being exerted on us, we will strongly oppose any kind of sanctions affecting the nuclear industry, because that concerns Hungary's energy security. In no case will we risk the security of Hungary's energy supply," he said.

Apart from that, Szijjarto stressed that Budapest will continue to demand that the Ukrainian authorities restore the rights of the Hungarian minority in the Zakarpattia Region. Until this problem is settled, Hungary will not support Kiev’s aspirations to integrate into the European Union, he pledged.

Summing up the results of the ministerial meeting, the Hungarian minister noted that no decision had been made about using the European Peace Facility to further finance weapons supplies to Ukraine. "No decision on sanctions was made either," he said.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said earlier on Monday that the 11th package of sanctions could be agreed before the next EU ministerial meeting in June. Talks on this topic continue. At the same time, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has admitted that not only Hungary but a number of other countries object to the 11th package.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia fights cross-border raid that Ukraine says is Russian opposition

Russia said on Monday it was battling a cross-border incursion by saboteurs who burst through the frontier from Ukraine, in what appeared to be one of the biggest attacks of its kind since the war began 15 months ago.

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said a Ukrainian "sabotage group" had entered Russian territory in the Graivoron district bordering Ukraine and was being repelled.

But the Ukrainian outlet Hromadske cited Ukrainian military intelligence as saying two armed Russian opposition groups, the Liberty of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps, both consisting of Russian citizens, were responsible for the attack.

A Ukrainian presidential adviser said on Twitter that the Kyiv government was watching the situation with interest but "has nothing to do with it".

The Russia Volunteer Corps published video footage late on Monday which showed what it said was a fighter inspecting a captured armoured vehicle. Another video showed what it said were fighters operating an armoured vehicle on a country road.

Other videos posted on Russian and Ukrainian social media channels showed pictures and video of what were described as captured Russian servicemen and their identity documents.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the situation.

GOVERNOR IMPOSES 'COUNTER-TERRORIST' MEASURES

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin had been informed and that work was under way to drive out the "saboteurs", the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Belgorod governor Gladkov said on Telegram that at least eight people had been wounded and three houses and an administrative building damaged. In a later briefing streamed on social media, Gladkov said a large part of the local population had left and that he had imposed a "counter-terrorist operation" that restricts movement and communications.

The Telegram channel Baza, which has links to Russia's security services, said there were indications of fighting in three settlements along the main road leading into Russia. The "Open Belgorod" Telegram channel said power and water had been cut off to several villages.

The Liberty of Russia Legion said on Twitter it had "completely liberated" the border town of Kozinka. It said forward units had reached the district centre of Graivoron, further east.

"Moving on. Russia will be free!" it wrote.

Ukrainian social media users made regular reference to what they called the "Belgorod People's Republic" - a nod to events in eastern Ukraine in 2014 when Russia-backed militias purporting to be rebels against the Kyiv government declared "people’s republics" in the eastern Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

BAKHMUT BATTLE RAGES ON

The Kremlin said the incursion aimed to distract attention from the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which Russian forces claim to have captured in its entirety after more than nine months of fighting.

Moscow says capturing Bakhmut opens the way to further advances in the eastern industrial region known as the Donbas bordering Russia. Ukraine says its advance on the Russian forces' flanks is more meaningful than its withdrawal inside Bakhmut itself, and Russia will have to weaken its lines elsewhere to send reinforcements to hold the shattered city.

There were 25 clashes on the main sectors of the frontline with the epicentre of fighting remaining Bakhmut and Maryinka further south, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement on Monday night.

Russian forces continued offensive actions including air strikes on Bakhmut and on the village of Ivanivske on its western fringe, the statement said. At least 12 towns and villages in the area came under shell fire, including Bakhmut and Ivanivske, it said.

Separately on Bakhmut, Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for the eastern group of Ukrainian forces, told Ukrainian television: "In the past 24 hours, Ukrainian troops have made steady progress, advancing 250-400 metres on the flanks and establishing a foothold. Even though these advances are gradual, it is better when such advances are well planned."

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Meanwhile, the United Nations expressed concern on Monday that Ukraine's Black Sea port of Pivdennyi (Yuzhny) has not received any ships since May 2 under a deal allowing the safe wartime export of grain and fertilizer.

RT/Tass/Reuters

UN envoy to Sudan warns of 'ethnicisation' of conflict, impact on region

The United Nations envoy to Sudan warned on Monday of the growing "ethnicisation" of the military conflict that broke out in Sudan last month and the potential impact on neighbouring states.

"The growing ethnicisation of the conflict risks engulfing the country in a prolonged conflict, with implications for the region," Volker Perthes said during a briefing at the U.N. Security Council.

** Over 60,000 have fled to Chad from Sudan since conflict started -UNHCR

Between 60,000 and 90,000 people have fled from Sudan to neighbouring Chad since violence erupted last month, the U.N. refugee agency said on Monday.

More than 250,000 people have crossed the borders to neighbouring countries since the conflict broke out, with more expected to flee as fighting continues.

"Almost 90% of new arrivals are women and children. Many have been sheltering under trees in makeshift shelters with very limited services," said UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Operations Raouf Mazou after a four-day visit to Chad.

"As the rainy season approaches, we urgently need to relocate new arrivals to the nearest refugee camps," he said in a statement issued in N'Djamena.

The new arrivals have added to around 600,000 mostly Sudanese refugees already present in Chad after fleeing previous conflicts.

Chad is now hosting almost 700,000 refugees in total, the UNHCR said, urging more international support for displaced people from Sudan.

The U.N. Food Programme said earlier this month that it needed $162.4 million to support the government of Chad in assisting 2.3 million people in urgent need of food.

Reuters

We have been made to believe everything foreign is better than ours. The 'White is Right' Colonial Mentality which is aptly known as Coloniality of the Self/Being. In addition to the high rate of bleaching, there is a deep-seated racial inferiority complex that affects the quality and length of our lives, from our foods, architecture, dressing, religion, medicine, family organization, work ethics, employment practices and social responsibility. Our worldviews have been so warped that even if God dropped a first class industrialized economy or democratic system on our laps, we might not patronize it, or even sabotage it.

There are four main world civilizations - indigenous Ifa-Afa-Iha-Fa-Efa African, European Christian, Afroasiatic Islamic and Asian Buddhist civilizations. Civilizations are fashioned by our environment which also influences our physiology. The Original African civilization is the first and oldest civilization, according to recent genetic and cultural anthropological evidences that show Yoruba-Igbo and indigenous Africans of South and Middlebelt are the oldest full sized humans and started accumulating their observations of natural phenomena in Ifa-Afa-Iha-Fa-Efa, the world's first knowledge bank and religion. The Original African civilization was based on a naturalist Binary Complimentarity philosophy since we evolved in a bountiful environment of Yams and Palm oil that didn't inspire a scarcity mindset. Though all other civilizations adapted the naturalist foundations of the Original African civilization from about 700BC to 1AD in what is known as the Axial Age, their freezing arid wildernesses reconditioned the Eurasian civilizations, especially the Abrahamic civilizations, to evolve Binary Opposition philosophies, having to survive with a scarcity mentality that bred war and breaks a whole lot of natural laws. Eurasiatic civilizations faced the need to control the sole or few water sources, while the Original African civilization, the land of thousands rivers, were not so constrained.

The scarcity of resources of the Asiatic civilizations resulted in imperialism, first through brutal wars then cultural imperialism for long term control. While all Asiatic civilizations started with brutal war to wipe out African Civilizations across South Asia, the Abrahamic civilizations evolved cultural imperialism through religious and political doctrines. The Islamic Afroasiatic civilization colonized and balkanized the Original African civilization into caliphates and Emirates, while the Christian European civilization balkanized other civilizations into nationstates. However, while in most cases the brutal war colonizations don't last for more than 80yrs and are reversed or loosened with a decolonization process, the effects of cultural imperialism known as Coloniality are far more resistant to decoloniality.

Three or four types of coloniality have been identified - knowledge, power, being and ecology. The coloniality of knowledge sources distorts our worldview and collective consciousness, starting with epistemicide, the killing of our own civilizational Ifa-Afa-Iha-Fa-Efa knowledge bank with misconceptions like Esu/Ekwensu as the devil, and replacing it with Western knowledge banks, academia and media with different philosophical and spiritual perspectives. We have not been able to discard and replace foreign knowledge sources, because of coloniality of power sources through the local colonially educated neocolonial guards, institutional violence to balkanize the Original African civilization into divisive tribes, propaganda, economic hitmen and coups to prevent decoloniality regimes etc. These two forms of coloniality are often manifested in the arrest of our economic and political development, however what is most important to us as individuals is how the coloniality of Being makes us self destructive and perpetuates collective coloniality through our wrong personal social preferences. While China, the most successful example of decoloniality, through revolutionary regime change has been able to reverse coloniality of knowledge and power sources, China still struggles against coloniality of the Being of it's citizens influenced by global White supremacy doctrines.

This article is not to romanticize our past and seek going back to it, but to strike a healthy balance moving forward. While the colonists still kept their initial natural laws as their moral foundations along with messiahanic religions, their Westernization through Christianity and commerce imposed through coloniality was incomplete, and replaced our own complete beliefs, leaving Africans morally stranded in a civilizational void. The change of our collective consciousness started with the capture, destruction and coloniality of our economic system that forced us to seek foreign knowledge in order to eke out a living from the new economic system of our conquerers and colonizers. The coloniality of our knowledge sources through religion, education and media formally imbued a racial inferiority complex, as Western Modernization became the socioeconomic and political ladder. Therefore to gain a foothold, we were made to denigrate and discard our belief systems. We not only learned to hate our cultural identity as a process of 'modernization' but also hate other sister tribes in our own civilization.

The coloniality of being as humans beings begins at birth even before we can speak or write, watching our mothers makeup to be Europeanized women, seeing television images portraying White is better and ultimately going to Church/Mosques where God is not Black African. Abrahamic religions are institutional foundations of unnatural Global White Supremacy doctrines. When we become toddlers, instead of our own educational and knowledge systems, we start a foreign educational system whose greatest fulfilment is in the Western world where it was designed from and for the environment.

Unlike our own time-tested traditional education system that trained our kids for 12 years to be self employed and sustainable Babalawos/Dibia that will never be unemployed or seek employment from others; or trained to continue and takeover family business, we put our kids in a Western educational system for 18yrs only to be dependent on Westernized institutions and sources of employment, with reduced benefit to their family and collective. We are educated of foreign lands but remain illiterate of ourselves, our environment and natural laws. The history never gives a conclusive account of our heritage, their geography racially skews maps in their favor, the philosophy is lineal as opposed to our cyclic perceptions, etc Therefore we end up with huge unemployed and unemployables, while those employed become alienated from their roots. The muddling of our worldviews bred excessive consumerism, individualism, corruption and other social vices, especially with the discarding of our cyclical natural laws of retribution (Esan/Ogu n Ofo) for messiahanic justice..

In addition to education that miseducates, our consumption preferences have been questionable right from the time we switched from our local palmwine to sugary wines and brevarages that increases diabetes. Right from waking up in the morning, we have dropped our chewing sticks for flouride that not only sterilizes our mouth but it's spiritual ase force. Our consumption of Western goods leads to the increase in diabetes, cancer, fibroids, a lower reproductive rate and lower life expectancy. Men switching to tight fitting trousers in a warm climate reduces sperm count. Perming, body creams and sprays infuse us with cancerous chemicals. Studies are showing that permanent footwear prevents the electromagnetic waves from the earth from keeping us Earthed and electrically balanced. Malaria is by far the greatest killer, and though we have always had malaria, our contemporary town planning results in more stagnant water for breeding more mosquitoes. To reduce mosquitoes, we have replaced our use of natural products like orange peel incense with cancerous environmentally hazardous pesticides. The use of natural herbs like Ugu boosted our blood that also naturally countered malaria parasites.

Western medicine is largely about pinpointing the symptoms and killing with antibiotics and chemotherapy, while Original African medicine sets out to balance the chemical composition that causes the ailment. Instead of cutting fibroids, African medicine counters the chemical composition that brought about growth. Another example is sickle cell, Nigeria being the epicenter of sickle cell, while 90% of sickle cell crisis treatments includes painkillers like morphine, a natural approach is to dry up the mucous at the source of most crisis, with vitamin C, marijuana and other herbs that are preventive in approach.

The coloniality of Being doesn't only manifest physically but also other social maladjustments. Our relationship from the family unit to the civilizational level became warped. We were convinced that polygamy was wrong, not realizing that it was a socioeconomic institution. While Men farmed and mined, women marketed their products, and to increase business more wives and children were enabled. Property was collective, not individual. Coloniality sought the breakdown of the family/cooperative business approach in order to draft the masses to Western plantations and mass production industries. This reduced family wealth and self actualization since majority gave their productive life to government and multinational corporation.

Our architecture was influenced by our economic organization, resulting in courtyards that were in practice a permanent roundtable of family stakeholders. However the Westernized economic system bringing about specialization and institutional labor over the last 160 years, favored and inspired nuclear families. The initial poor masses reliant on the city based employment were made to live in face to face buildings with a linear common space/corridors. Those that moved higher up the Eurocentric socioeconomic ladders were moved into newly created Government Reserve Areas, where they build slavemasters houses and not family houses, thereby isolating them from their roots and balanced family structures. Rather than the Bigman effect, the effect was the effemination of Men whereby Men are isolated and surrounded only by his woman and children that he uses his life earnings to feed and educate in the Western system, only for them to graduate and move afar, coming back to take their mothers, leaving the father alone in old age. Once they grow old and can't pay or need an army of servants, their slavemasters architecture homes becomes desolate unlike the traditional cyclic houses that subsequent generations continue to pass through. So even if we survive the wrong attitudes, wrong consumption that cuts our lives short, we end up dying in loneliness, not able to teach the coming generations or be appreciated by his peers abroad.

The question is despite decolonization, why haven't we been able to get out of this sorry state  of mental and spiritual slavery across Africa? We went through decolonization but not decolonialiy that is much harder to accomplish.  As Fela sang, Oyinbo don free you but you never free yourself. The first step is to learn and appreciate our cultural history and linkages to stop self hate and tribalism that prevents us from unifying to uplift ourselves. Personally, we must recognize that we adopted scientific materialism and consumerism from those with a scarce mentality due to their aridity of their evolving environments, and it's unsustainable. It is time for Africans to appreciate their environment and natural laws through scientific spiritualism that can bring about true fulfilment and meaning of life. It is only when we look inside to question our personal choices and interaction with the wider society that we can make progressive collective aspirations to uplift ourselves and the Black Race. As some say the Change you seek in the wider society or country starts with you. We must first break the coloniality of our Self/Being, before we can challenge coloniality of knowledge and power sources.

The first time I was in China, I became one of her lost girls. As I was taken from my birth mother’s arms and placed at a nearby train station, I became a statistic ―another baby uprooted by the country’s one-child policy. At 11 months old, I was plucked from China’s embrace and placed into that of my parents. My roots began to grow in the soil of a different land.

When I was old enough to comprehend the gravity of my truth, my parents sat me down and told me that I had been adopted from China. This supposed revelation did not alter the trajectory of my life as my parents feared it might. It was fairly easy, even as a child, to recognize that I did not look like those around me, especially my parents. In fact, I found it quite awesome to be different ― to have come from a country so rich with history and culture.

However, the reality of living in a town with a predominantly white population is that many of its residents ostracize anyone who is different. I tried desperately to fit in with the other kids, but it became clear early on that despite my parents’ whiteness, my Chineseness would always make me an outsider.

Growing up, I listened as friends discussed which parent they resembled the most, and I grappled with the guilt that came with wishing I could participate in those discussions. I laughed along with others as they asked me to talk to them in “my language” and proceeded to speak gibberish in a way that was supposed to imitate Mandarin. For years, I didn’t know how to feel, or if my feelings were even valid. I didn’t realize that these seemingly small acts of aggression were racist and that they would grow into hatred in the future.

The first time I returned to China with my parents, I was 9 years old and longing for a place filled with people who looked like me. I was completely in awe of the country that created me, and this is when I first realized that I needed to embrace being Chinese. This proved nearly impossible. It was obvious that I did not belong to those who lived in China. From the way I dressed to the language that I spoke ― or couldn’t speak ― to them, I was American through and through.

As the trip went on, I found myself becoming increasingly disconnected from China and Chinese culture. I felt like a foreigner in a country that I desperately believed should have felt like home. This was the revelation that changed the trajectory of my life: My identity as a transracial adoptee seemed to define me everywhere I went. I was too Chinese to be American in America, and I was too American to be Chinese in China.

As I grew older, it became more common for adults to ask me how lucky I felt to be adopted from China, and I became resentful at how their questions commodified me. If I did not respond with gratitude for being adopted, it was as if a switch flipped in their mind and they saw me as a selfish girl who owes her parents everything. I left an abundance of words unsaid. To these people, this topic seemed clearly black and white: I was adopted from China after being left at a train station and should be grateful for my parents’ generosity ― for the roof they put over my head and the food they put on my plate.

Obviously, I love my parents. They have given so much to me and I would not be where I am today without them. My epiphany occurred when I realized that I am allowed to simultaneously love my parents and grieve what I lost. While transracial adoptees may be placed into amazing, loving families, it does not change the fact that their culture was stolen from them.

I have always belonged to an in-between place: not quite Chinese, but definitely not white either. The spaces and resources available to transracial adoptees are few and far between despite how large our population is, especially in the United States. My parents never hid the fact that I was Chinese, and they did the best that they could to expose me to Chinese traditions, but their efforts had their limits. Still, I am lucky to have parents who wanted and pushed for me to be connected to the country in which I was born.

When I came to them about wanting to feel more connected to China and Chinese culture, they searched for years to find someone who could teach me Chinese. Unfortunately this task proved immensely difficult, so instead I began teaching myself the basics. My parents promised to take me back to China as soon as possible, especially now that I was older and could understand the importance of the trip a little bit more. They could tell I was struggling to reconcile my identities and always made sure that I knew I could lean on them for support. Unlike others, my parents never held my emotions against me and were ― and still are ―pillars of support.

The second time I returned to China, I was 15 and felt more in touch with my emotions. I wanted to build connections with other adoptees and hear their stories. This trip, which catered to adoptees from the same agency, allowed me to spend time with others who had been taken into white families.

Together, we found and created a safe environment for each other where we could talk about our experiences and vent our emotions without fear of judgment. This visit was different for me. I felt seen and heard by others who experienced the same inner turmoil that I had. Together we laughed and cried and lamented what could have been. In another life, would we have been able to meet under different circumstances?

It didn’t matter, we answered. We realized that all that mattered was what we had now, a fragmented past blended with a found family, each other included. While we didn’t all have the same goals for our return to China, we did share one: to reconcile our guilt and our curiosity. For me, I held no anger toward my birth mom for giving me up, especially when I understood the state of China and the one-child policy. But the curiosity of knowing about where and who I came from was there, and probably always will be. By the end of the trip, I cannot say that this goal was completely achieved. But while it might sound cliche, we adoptees did find each other, and in some way that was worth more to us than our original goals.

When I returned to the United States, I finished high school with a different perspective than the one I entered with. I felt able to embrace my in-between identity and reconcile the parts of me that had always felt at odds. Still, I lean on those I have found on my journey and continue to search for others who help me feel whole.

All transracial adoptees deserve to have a place where they can release their emotions and feel a sense of community. While I know not all transracial adoptees will want or be able to return to their country of birth and connect with others who have shared experiences, I hope they can find another way to build a community, perhaps through local groups or online. Being able to share my thoughts, emotions and challenges ― which I worried only I was thinking, feeling and facing ― with people like me has changed my life for the better.

It has been a difficult adventure to reach a place where I feel comfortable with who I am ― Chinese, American and an adoptee ― but it has allowed me not only to deepen my roots, but also to make flowers bloom in my life today.

** Iris Anderson is studying biology and psychology at Columbia University and is part of the class of 2026. She loves to write in her free time and is inspired by her personal experiences and those around her. Iris would like to thank her University Writing professor, Emily Weitzman, and her Literature Humanities professor, Taarini Mookherjee, for their support of her writing endeavors.

HuffPost

There are basic barriers to learning that can stop even the most intelligent person from understanding something.

Your small business is no different than a big company in that everybody you have on your payroll is there because they bring something great and unique to the table. But, unlike a big company, you probably have to do all your training yourself, and often the most realistic way to get people working quickly is through on-the-job work and training where the new hire watches you or another employee.

Many times you thought you explained something very clearly yet the new hire doesn’t do what you asked or trained them to do. You end up frustrated and think that they just don’t get it. However, in the majority of cases, you don’t have any cognitive issues to deal with, but, rather, a communication problem. Adjust your communication and you’ll probably find that the worker performs really well, just like you want them to.

The importance of starting with a big step back

It’s super easy when you’re training someone to forget that you were once in their shoes. You tend to think that just because you understand it, they should too. But, that’s not always the case. 

A major key to successful training is to slow down a little and take a step back. Remember that people don’t want to look stupid or be embarrassed. They’re probably going to just nod “yes” if you plow through a bunch of stuff and ask them on the spot if they get it. Tell them flat out to stop you if they don’t understand. Let them know that you can pause any time to answer a question and that you’d rather do that and get a great result than have them be confused and not do the job correctly.

The 4 major hurdles to jump through for great training results

Once you acknowledge that you can’t just prattle on and you shift into the right mindset to empathize a little, there are four common barriers to understanding, based on Hubbard’s learning technology, that you’ll still have to overcome with your trainees.

1. Lack of substance

Sometimes when you’re trying to teach somebody, you might have to deal with more abstract concepts. It’s important to give people examples or tools that help them fully visualize the concept. 

For example, if you’re a dentist and your patient doesn’t know anything about implants, you might have to show them a physical model. The model is something tangible they can see and touch, which makes it easier for the patient to form a working definition of what you’re talking about. 

In the same way, when you’re training new employees, you have to figure out where you have information gaps. Use whatever you can to make what’s “imaginary” more concrete to the trainee.

2. Steep gradients

Imagine you’re teaching addition to a bunch of first graders. Then, all of the sudden, you throw exponents or all kinds of other more advanced math at them. What do you think would happen? Probably, just a lot of blank stares. The learning gradient is just way too steep.

You can’t just jump a bunch of levels and expect trainees to do well without knowing what in the world you’re even talking about, either. You have to take it step by step. If your worker looks lost, go back. Ask them where they got lost and figure out the pace they need to master the task you’re working on.

3. Misunderstood words

Typically, if you throw in a new word or phrase at a trainee, one they’ve never heard before or just don’t understand, you’ll lose them. This gets frustrating because you mistakenly think they’re checking out or bored, when, in reality, they didn’t understand the definition or meaning of something you said and it threw them for a loop. This fundamental problem of not having the right definition for a word or words is why we can sometimes get to the bottom of a page and completely forget everything we just read. 

Instead of forcing a trainee to piecemeal together what something means from context (which may or may not give them something accurate), encourage them to ask for a straight meaning, or have them look up the dictionary definition. Then have them practice rephrasing that term or defining it in their own words. Use it in a few sentences. If they can do that, they probably have a pretty good grasp of what it means.

4. Thinking you know everything

If you think you know everything, then it becomes difficult to want to keep learning, because you don’t think you have to or that there’s even anything left to learn. This know-it-all attitude can hold you back when you’re training others because you can become close-minded to the fact that you’re not seeing different issues or opportunities with the trainees. Always ask yourself if you’re missing something and be willing to hear the trainees out.

With an eye on your communication, training workers and obtaining great results is totally attainable

Small business leaders often have to train workers on their own. Good communication is crucial during that training in order for the leaders to get good results. If you feel like your new hire just doesn’t get it, start by slowing down and putting yourself back in the trainee’s shoes. Then pay close attention, not just to the specific language or tangible tools you use but also to the pace of what you’re doing and the attitude you do it with. With all of those hurdles properly addressed, your trainees will likely perform just the way you need them to in no time.

Entrepreneur

Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has suspended its five-day warning strike.

President of the association, Orji Emeka Innocent, announced on Sunday that the doctors would resume by 8am on Monday (today).

The NARD president said, “progress made will be reviewed on 2nd June 2023 during the association’s general meeting where next line of action will be decided.”

The association had embarked on the strike on Wednesday following the failure of the federal government to meet its demands.

Before the strike, NARD had given the government a two-week ultimatum to meet its demands.

Some of the association’s demands include an immediate increment in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) to the tune of 200% of the current gross salary of doctors.

It also demanded the immediate withdrawal and jettisoning of the “ill-conceived” bill by Ganiyu Johnson, a member of House of Representatives, on the “enslavement of young doctors in Nigeria”.

NARD also demanded immediate payment of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) in line with the agreements reached at a meeting convened by the Federal Ministry of Health.

While calling for massive recruitment of clinical staff in the hospitals, NARD also called for immediate infrastructural development in hospitals without further delay.

The association called for immediate implementation of CONMESS, domestication of MRTA, and review of hazard allowance by all the state governments as well as private tertiary health institutions where any form of residency training is done, among others.

Daily Trust

National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says more than 70 percent of food exported from Nigeria are rejected abroad.

Speaking at the official commissioning of the new NAFDAC office complex at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Mojisola Adeyeye, the agency’s director-general, said the issue was causing huge financial losses to the exporters and the country at large.

However, she said the incidence of rejection of food exports by other countries may soon become a thing of the past if collaboration between NAFDAC and other government agencies at the ports is strengthened.

Adeyeye said along with the port agencies, NAFDAC would ensure goods being exported are of requisite quality and meet the regulatory requirements of the importing countries before they are even packaged.

“Over 70 per cent of the products that leave our ports get rejected. Considering the money spent on getting those products out of the country, it is a double loss for both the exporter and the country,” she said.

Adeyeye added the mandate to safeguard the health of the populace and the quality of imports into a nation like Nigeria – which is “overwhelmingly dependent” on importation – can not be actualised “without the effective presence of NAFDAC at the ports and land borders.”

The director-general commended the police and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for the symbiotic relationship that exists between its management and the agency.

“Without customs, we will not be able to do a lot of what we have been able to do,” Adeyeye said.

She also said that without the police, NAFDAC cannot do much in terms of investigation and enforcement.

“We have over 80 policemen with us in NAFDAC. They help us a lot when we are doing raids or investigations as the case may be.”

The Cable

No fewer than nine farmers were killed by bandits at Unguwar Danko near Dogon Dawa village in Birnin Gwari Area of Kaduna State. The incident happened on Saturday afternoon when the victims were working on their farms.

Residents said the bandits whisked away about three other farmers to an unknown destination.

Member-elect representing Kakangi Constituency, Yahaya Musa, confirmed the incident, saying all those killed were farmers and that those who sustained gunshot injuries were rushed to hospitals for treatment.

“Yes it was confirmed to me Sunday morning that nine farmers were killed by bandits at Unguwar Danko near Dogon Dawa village on Saturday afternoon and others sustained gunshot injuries,” he said.

He explained that some of the villagers also confronted the bandits which led to some sustaining gunshot injuries.

The state government has not reacted to the incident yet but the state police command’s Public Relations Officer, Mohammed Jalige, promised to get back to our correspondent with details.

Daily Trust