The Nation Newspaper

Category: Foreign

  • Democratic Alliance ensnared in Jooste’s financial machinations

    Democratic Alliance ensnared in Jooste’s financial machinations

    In a shocking revelation that could upend South African politics, the Democratic Alliance (DA) finds itself entangled in the web spun by none other than South African businessman Markus Jooste. Once among the wealthiest figures on the continent, Jooste’s descent from grace is a tale of scandal, fraud, and betrayal.

    Markus Jooste, a name synonymous with corporate success, catapulted to fame as the CEO of Steinhoff International, amassing a fortune that made him one of the richest in Africa. His Midas touch in business seemed unerring until it all unravelled in a spectacular fashion.

    In 2017, the façade of Jooste’s empire began to crumble. December of that year marked his abrupt resignation from Steinhoff amidst admissions of “accounting irregularities.” The following investigations revealed a concerning lack of records, as personal electronic records crucial to the inquiry were found to have been destroyed. This event did not just mark a personal failure but was labelled as South Africa’s most significant corporate scandal and collapse in history.

    The tremors of Steinhoff’s collapse were felt far and wide, with the State Employees’ Pension Fund (GEPF) absorbing a massive hit. As reported by Times Live, the GEPF’s holdings plummeted from a staggering 24 billion rand to a mere fraction, incurring losses of around 18 billion rand—a devastating 1% of their total assets. This loss epitomizes the grave impact Jooste’s actions had on the hard-earned pensions of countless South Africans.

    Fast forward to 2022, and the scales of justice began to tip. The South African Reserve Bank took decisive action, attaching billions of rand in assets linked to Jooste. According to Daily Maverick, these included his lavish properties and investments, such as the Lanzerac Wine Estate and an extensive art collection, under suspicion of exchange control violations.

    THE DA’S CONTROVERSIAL ASSOCIATION

    The scandal took on a political hue when the Democratic Alliance’s connections with Jooste surfaced. The political sphere was abuzz when it emerged that Mmusi Maimane, then-leader of the DA, was reportedly using a luxury SUV donated by Jooste. Beyond personal gifts, Jooste’s monetary contributions to the DA were significant, and these revelations came to light amidst the outcry of millions of South Africans who lost their retirement savings to Jooste’s schemes.
    In a dramatic turn of events, after Germany issued an arrest warrant for Jooste in 2023, it was rumoured that DA-affiliated companies-initiated collaboration with Jooste. This was speculated to be an effort to keep past financing schemes from surfacing in international probes, suggesting potential complicity in the wake of Jooste’s alleged suicide.

    INCRIMINATING CORRESPONDENCE

    The house of cards seemed to collapse when a letter surfaced during a raid on Jooste’s residence. Authored by John Steenhuisen, DA’s leader, it expressed gratitude for Jooste’s generous financial support to the party. This letter, now part of the investigation’s evidence, raises uncomfortable questions about the depth of Jooste’s involvement with the DA.

    A CONSPIRACY AT PLAY?

    The ongoing investigation paints a grim picture: The DA might have eliminated Jooste to prevent a damning testimony about their financial liaisons and their connections. The tendrils of Jooste’s scandalous activities, supported by external patronage potentially provided by the DA, suggest a complex network of deceit and corruption. In the face of these allegations, the DA finds itself in a precarious position, facing public scrutiny and the looming question: What else might emerge from the shadows of Jooste’s scandalous legacy?

  • Earthquake shakes western Greece

    Earthquake shakes western Greece

    A strong earthquake has shaken western Greece on Friday morning, but no casualties reported.

    The Greek Geodynamic Institute in Athens, said the 5.8 magnitude quake occurred at 9:12 am (0812 GMT) local time.

    The epicentre of the quake was about 20 kilometres below the seabed off the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula near the islet of Stamfani, also known as Strofades.

    It was preceded by a smaller quake with a magnitude of 4.1.

    Greece’s Civil Defence organisation did not initially say whether there were any casualties or damage to buildings.

    Read Also: Over 240 people still missing after Japan earthquake

    A tsunami warning was not issued.

    “We felt the tremors very strongly,” a resident of the nearby Olympia region said, adding that

    “everyone here is on the streets.”

     Local media reported that many schools had been evacuated as the quake was felt throughout western Greece, and on the tourist island of Zakynthos and as far away as Athens, about 300 kilometres away.

    The deepest point of the Mediterranean Sea is located between western Greece and Sicily in Italy, with a depth of over 5,000 metres.

    The African and European tectonic plates meet in this region, which make it prone to strong earthquakes. (dpa/NAN)

  • AU extends congratulations to Senegalese president-elect

    AU extends congratulations to Senegalese president-elect

    African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Moussa Mahamat has congratulated Bassirou Faye on his victory at Senegal’s presidential election.

    In a statement issued on Friday, Faki said he warmly congratulates Faye on the occasion of the official proclamation of his election in the first round as the next president of Senegal.

    “The AU Commission chairperson wishes Faye every success in his heavy and noble task of deepening a peaceful, stable and tolerant democracy in the service of inclusive and shared prosperity,” the statement said.

    Read Also: Senegalese’s crushing blow on Sall

    The statement added that the AU welcomes the unanimous acceptance of the results of the presidential elections by the entire Senegalese political class.

    Faki commended the “dignified and responsible” behavior of all Senegalese political and social actors which he said attested  to the deep roots of democratic traditions in the West African country.

    Faye, the candidate of the opposition coalition “Diomaye President,” won 54.28 per cent of the votes, according to results released Wednesday by the country’s National Vote Counting Commission. (Xinhua/NAN)

  • No limits on electioneering campaign spending in U.S., says prof

    No limits on electioneering campaign spending in U.S., says prof

    Dr. Ray La Raja is a professor of political science at the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at University of Massachusetts Amherst.  He is co-founder and co-director of the UMass Poll, which conducts public opinion research in Massachusetts and the United States to inform policy making. He speaks at the Foreign Press Center’s Election Series. United States Bureau Chief OLUKOREDE YISHAU reports that the political scientist points out that America has no limits on how much a candidate can spend on campaigns. The country, he said, only limits how much an individual can donate to a campaign. Excerpts:

    Unusual aspects

    Let me just point out a few unusual aspects about U.S. campaigns that might be surprising to many of you.  First of all, there’s no limits on political spending in the United States.  So under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, you can’t tell any group, any individual for that matter, how much they could spend in politics.  This means there’s no laws that limit political spending. 

    Now, note – I’ll say a little more about this – there are contribution limits, how much you can give to a party or candidate, but the implications of no spending limits are pretty profound.  Without ceilings politicians have an incentive to raise a lot of money, and then additionally many groups get involved because they can spend unlimiting. 

    Now, the second point is that almost all financing at the federal level comes from private sources, okay?  There’s some limited public funding for the party conventions, but the major candidates don’t use public funds.  They just – they used to use them in the past, but they’re – elections are so expensive now that they don’t even bother using them because there’s too many limits.  Third, spending from independent groups is increasing rapidly, and I’ll say more about this in a moment, but this goes back to point number one because it’s far easier to raise money and spend it with no contribution limits. 

    Sources of financing

    Okay, let me talk to you about the sources of financing in U.S. politics.  This stuff might not be too surprising.  Parties can give money to candidates; they can run ads for the candidates; they can help mobilize voters like in other countries.  Then there’s something called PACs.  It stands for Political Action Committee.  These organizations are sponsored by corporations, by labor unions, by advocacy groups, and they collect money and give it to politicians, okay.  Then there’s the individual donors.  They can give unlimited amounts to as many candidates and parties as they want.  Now, there’s contribution limits on them, but they can give to many different candidates and committees. 

    And then finally, there’s what I mentioned earlier, these independent committees.  And these groups are independent.  Why?  Because they do not contribute to campaigns.  Instead, they spend the money directly to help a candidate; they run ads.  Now, the key thing here is they can’t talk to the candidate or the party.  They’re independent, because if they do talk to them that counts as a contribution, which is limited.  So you already see some nuances here, okay?  And I’ll say a little bit more.  A lot of these independent groups, there’s a name we use called super PAC.  Why super?  Because they could spend as much – they can raise and spend as much money as they want. 

    So I’ll say a little bit more about the limits on contributions to candidates and parties.  So individuals under the federal law, they can give up to 3,300 per election, okay.  So that means if I want to give money to someone in the primary and the general, I give them 6,600 for both.  By the way, if I have a spouse, I could – she could give the same amount.  If I have children, they could give the same amount.  So this thing – these things can escalate.  Usually it’s just the one person.  They can also give 41,000 to a political party.  Most of this money from individuals, not surprisingly, comes from the same urban geographic areas in the United States which have a lot of wealth.  That includes New York, L.A. – Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, and other major cities throughout the country. 

    Where Democrats get money

    Now, the next – I should say generally that Democrats, for those of you who follow this, get most of their money from unions, from lawyers, from the entertainment industry, and to some extent from Wall Street.  Actually, Wall Street gives to both sides.  Republicans from corporations, especially from extraction industries like oil, manufacturing, mining.  And the modern industries like big tech – Google, Apple – they tend to split their donations, maybe slightly more these days to Democrats.

    In terms of political action committees – so they can give $5,000 to each candidate per election.  So if I’m the – for instance, the CEO of General Motors automaker, okay, they can donate.  They have a committee that can donate 5,000 to a candidate, okay, after I’ve given maybe – I’ve given 5,000 to the PAC and then the PAC can in turn give 5,000. 

    Now, there’s a term you might come across called bundling, and this is allowed, and that is a common practice to kind of – not – it allows someone to raise a lot of money from their rich friends and collect the money, and then they get credit for collecting all this money.  So if I’m an investment banker, I have a party, I invite my professional associates over; each of them at my party, they – by credit card or personal check they give – they give – they write it and then I turn over that money to the politician. 

    There are no contributions from foreigners allowed except if you are a non-citizen resident.  If you have a green card, you may contribute.  So, but no money from any foreign entity or any foreigner who doesn’t have that.

    Questions about transparency

     I don’t know how well you can see this, but there are very good sites in the United States to check who gives money and who receives money.  This happens to be a website you might want to use: OpenSecrets.  You can look up the name, the occupation, and how much was donated and where these people live.  So I could look up to see my neighbors, how much money they gave to – and which party they gave to.  So it’s very good to understand individual and group contributors.  So this happens to be Michael Bloomberg.  It looks like Michael Bloomberg gave quite a bit of money to certain PACs in this case.  But I highly recommend using this site, or the Federal Election Commission has a site.  This one’s a little bit easier to use, but the Federal Election Commission is very comprehensive. 

    Okay.  What about the rules on spending?  As I said, there are no limits on how much you can spend.  The Supreme Court in the United States has ruled that although contribution limits are justified – that is, to prevent corruption, so the politician has no – there’s no exchange – you’re – they’re – we’re allowed to put contribution limits on – you can’t limit how much they can spend.  That would be a violation of the First Amendment because, the argument goes, you need money to express yourself in modern society.

    So there was a decision called Citizens United v. the Federal Election which really was a continuation of a previous court decision.  It wasn’t really that new, but it really put an exclamation point with the Supreme Court saying, no, you cannot – you cannot limit any group’s right to free speech.  It’s a very controversial decision.  Most of the people on the left oppose it, and most of the folks on the right support it. 

    Okay.  To get a sense for the sources of money and changes over time, this figure comes from my own research and it shows large donors.  That’s the top line in olive green.  They typically give the most.  Now, large donors – anyone who gives over $200 to a candidate is considered large.  Now, if you look at the red line, this has really changed in the United States.  This is the recent surge in small donors.  These are the citizens who give less than – $200 or less to a campaign.  And the amounts they gave even surpassed the large donors in 2020.  So some people might say, well, this is a good sign that more campaigns are being funded through smaller contributions, and some politicians were very good at this, including Donald Trump; Joe Biden actually gets a lot of small donors as well; and people like Bernie Sanders, people who definitely know how to attract a crowd.

    So the blue line, however, is something – what we refer to as independent spending.  These are the super PACs, and look at how they’ve really gone up.  And as I said, why “super”?  Because they have no limits on their spending and a lot of wealthy groups and people now give to these organizations.  They can’t give to politicians; they can spend on their own.  Okay.  So again, that’s the distinction.

    The surge

    The surge in the – in this independent spending without limits is one reason why we see such an increase – this is showing the increase over time from 1998 to 2020.  So in the 2020 elections, there was almost 15 billion in spending, okay – that’s both Congress, the blue; president race is the yellow.  I – it’s going to be hard to predict what 2024 is.  I imagine it’s going to be even higher, maybe close to 20 billion, again, because it’s so easy to raise and spend money, and critically the stakes seem so very high for so many people. 

    So of course, there’s the presidency, which people – there’s a lot of tension around that between the two sides.  But Congress is so close together; it could flip to either party.  So I guarantee you there is going to be a lot money spent on not that many races, because not that many contests are competitive.  But the few that will determine the control of the United States are going to have millions and millions spent on them.

    Read Also: Tinubu, grand master of progressive politics, says Speaker Abbas

    Finally, a quick word just about enforcement.  The Federal Election Commission regulates money in politics for federal elections.  There are six commissioners, three from each of the two major parties.  And for that reason, actually, it makes it very challenging sometimes to arrive at some enforcement decisions, because they often disagree three to three, so there’s some what we call deadlock.  So enforcement is not always very strong in these cases.  Can someone like Trump spend money on legal expenses?  That should be adjudicated, usually by the Federal Election Commission initially, and I’m not sure we’ll get an answer from them.

    Terms you might hear as you go forward is things like joint fundraising committee.  These political committees – basically a lot of committees sign up with this committee, and the donors write one large check or give one large amount – almost up to a million sometimes – and then that gets – after the check goes to the committee, it gets spread out to the committees that ask for it. 

    So for example, Trump has a joint fundraising committee called Trump 47 – 47th president he wants to be.  It raised almost $1 million from a single donor; it does this for several donors.  The money gets distributed to Trump’s official campaign committee, okay; the Republican National Committee, the Republican Party and its satellite state parties – a lot of it goes there; and then finally, the Trump super PAC called Save America, okay. 

    So the first 3,300 as a contribution goes to his campaign, and then the next 5,000 will go to the PAC, okay, and the rest to the Republican Parties.  Now the Save America PAC is interesting, and someone asked about contributions to pay for his legal fees.  It’s not really clear, to be honest.  Lawyers are really trying to figure this out.  A candidate campaign must only spend money on campaign-related activities, legal fees that apply to the campaign.  And in some cases that are – that Trump is facing are not related to the campaign.  The ones related to challenging the results of the 2020 election, I can imagine that being used with this campaign.  Others, not so much, like the case involving top-secret documents found at Mar-a-Lago.  But some argue – and the Trump campaign is doing this – that the PAC, the PAC that Trump has, the super – they have more ability to spend on non-campaign-related activities.  So that is very much a gray area.  It’s not clear, and the Trump campaign is kind of pushing limits.

    So I’ll tell you what.  Let me stop there.  There was one other question actually about spending in the last election.  Maybe I’ll show this slide.  This slide shows how much – how many millions, almost billions, spent on advertising in the United States in the last election, 2020.  So broadcast TV, almost $1 billion.  That was 55 percent of total.  And then the question was how much digital.  And almost a quarter of money is now spent on digital, online.  That’s a big increase, okay, since the last time.  So I wanted to point that out.  I’m – I know TV spending is going to go up as well as digital as a new form. 

    Regulation

    The cornerstone of American regulation is transparency, okay – you can spend as much as you want, but we want to know who’s spending it.  And so I pointed out that website that shows who’s giving money.  So if you’re reporting on this, you can find out exactly who gives money to Trump, who are the biggest donors to his political campaign.  You can find out what industries they represent.  You can find out where they’re – what state they’re from.  So that’s pretty good.

    One change, however, is there is a group of organizations that do not have to report their donors.  And I won’t get into the technical details, but they – because they’re considered social welfare or educational associations, nonprofits, they’re allowed to have anonymity with their spending as long as they don’t spend more than 50 percent on politics.  So that has become a vehicle for some – not all, for some – to give money unlimited without revealing who they are.  The challenge comes in, of course, because we don’t know who these folks are, and these groups may often give to the super PACs – again, which doesn’t spend.  So American campaigns used to be extremely good at keeping track of donors and who is giving it, but it’s become a little bit harder now.  And that is one problem.

    But by and large, the system runs on that principle of transparency, limited contributions, and again, unusual for many of you to hear this, but absolutely no limits on how much you can spend in any campaign.  If I was a rich – if I was Elon Musk, I could spend my entire fortune on running for president if I wanted to.  Not to say that Elon Musk would win, but that’s how it goes.

    Attempts to limit spending

     There have been several attempts.  The challenge for people who want to reform and put limits in place is how the Supreme Court interprets the First Amendment, and the Supreme Court has argued in their statements and – that the government shouldn’t be involved in adjudicating how much you can spend on politics.  They don’t want to give that authority to anybody in the government. 

    So their concern is corruption.  They have argued at the Supreme Court level this is the – you can prevent someone from giving a million dollars for a candidate because it potentially corrupts the candidate.  But if the group spends and says vote – vote for Ray La Raja, okay, or vote for Elon Musk, and they – as long as they don’t talk to me or to Elon Musk, they don’t see that as corrupting.

    Okay, now, some of you may say, oh, of course the candidate’s going to feel some gratitude towards anybody who spends money on their behalf.  But the Supreme Court wanted to set a very bright line.  So reformers have bumped up against this First Amendment issue time and time again, and it’s allowed a lot of these independent groups to spend money unlimited.

    You’re right that Americans don’t like this much spending.  They’re trying to come up with reforms that enable more public financing, reforms that might increase the number of small donors.  I mean, I think it’s rather extraordinary – I don’t think you find this in other nations – how many people give a small amount of money to politicians.  So that is one hope, but I have a feeling that it’s never going to end the very, very large donations that are allowed under the First Amendment.

  • Crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years for multi-billion dollar FTX fraud

    Crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years for multi-billion dollar FTX fraud

    Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a judge on Thursday for stealing $8 billion from customers of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded, the last step in the former billionaire wunderkind’s dramatic downfall.

    U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan handed down the sentence at a Manhattan court hearing after rejecting Bankman-Fried’s claim that FTX customers did not actually lose money and finding that he lied during his trial testimony. A jury found Bankman-Fried, 32, guilty on Nov. 2 on seven fraud and conspiracy counts stemming from FTX’s 2022 collapse in what prosecutors have called one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.

    Kaplan said Bankman-Fried had shown no remorse.

    “He knew it was wrong,” Kaplan said before handing down the sentence. “He knew it was criminal. He regrets that he made a very bad bet about the likelihood of getting caught. But he is not going to admit a thing, as is his right.”

    Bankman-Fried, wearing a beige short-sleeve jail T-shirt, acknowledged during 20 minutes of remarks to the judge during the hearing that FTX customers had suffered and he offered an apology to his former FTX colleagues – but did not admit criminal wrongdoing.

    He has vowed to appeal his conviction and sentence.

    Bankman-Fried stood with his hands clasped before him as Kaplan read the sentence. He spoke with his defense lawyer Marc Mukasey briefly before he was led out of the courtroom by members of the U.S. Marshals Service after the hearing.

    The sentence marked the culmination of Bankman-Fried’s plunge from an ultra-wealthy entrepreneur and major political donor to the biggest trophy to date in a crackdown by U.S. authorities on malfeasance in cryptocurrency markets.

    “His deliberate and ongoing lies demonstrated a brazen disregard for customers’ expectations and disrespect for the rule of law,” Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement.

    Kaplan found that FTX customers lost $8 billion, FTX’s equity investors lost $1.7 billion, and that lenders to the Alameda Research hedge fund Bankman-Fried founded lost $1.3 billion. The judge also said Bankman-Fried lied during his testimony when he said he did not know that his hedge fund had spent customer deposits taken from FTX.

    Federal prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of 40 to 50 years. Mukasey had argued that a sentence of less than 5-1/4 years would be appropriate.

    ‘I’M SORRY FOR THAT’

    Addressing the judge, Bankman-Fried said, “Customers have been suffering … I didn’t at all mean to minimize that. I also think that’s something that was missing from what I’ve said over the course of this process, and I’m sorry for that.”

    Referring to his FTX colleagues, Bankman-Fried told the judge, “They put a lot of themselves into it, and I threw that all away. It haunts me every day.”

    Three of his former close associates testified as prosecution witnesses at trial that he had directed them to use FTX customer funds to plug losses at Alameda Research. All three have pleaded guilty to fraud.

    During the hearing, Mukasey sought to distance his client from notorious fraudsters like Bernie Madoff.

    “Sam was not a ruthless financial serial killer who set out every morning to hurt people,” Mukasey said, describing his client as an “awkward math nerd” who worked hard to get customers their money back after FTX’s collapse.

    “Sam Bankman-Fried doesn’t make decisions with malice in his heart,” Mukasey added. “He makes decisions with math in his head.”

    Bankman-Fried testified in his own defense that he made mistakes such as not implementing a risk management team, but denied he intended to defraud anyone or steal customers’ money.

    His parents, Stanford University law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, attended the sentencing. Bankman held a green umbrella as they exited the courthouse into a rainy Manhattan afternoon with their arms around each other.

    Read Also: How 2022 shocked, rocked and rolled global markets

    A Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, Bankman-Fried rode a boom in the values of bitcoin and other digital assets to a net worth of $26 billion, according to Forbes magazine, before he turned 30.

    Bankman-Fried became known for his mop of unkempt curly hair and commitment to a movement known as effective altruism, which encourages talented young people to focus on earning money and giving it away to worthy causes. He also was one of the biggest contributors to Democratic candidates and political causes ahead of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.

    Prosecutors have said the responsible image he cultivated concealed his years-long embezzlement of customer funds.

    Bankman-Fried has been detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since August 2023, when Kaplan revoked his bail after finding he likely tampered with witnesses at least twice. Kaplan said he would recommend that Bankman-Fried be sent to a prison close to San Francisco.

    REUTERS

  • Evergreen of China-Nigeria relationship tree

    Evergreen of China-Nigeria relationship tree

    In March 2021, with a lofty mission on my shoulder and great excitement in my heart, I landed in Abuja and my journey as the 14th Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria and the 6th Chinese Ambassador to ECOWAS began. In the past three years, I have visited different states in the country, made friends from all walks of life, and devoted myself to the growth of China-Nigeria friendship. 

    China is the second largest economy and the most populous country in the world. Nigeria is the largest economy and the most populous country in Africa. The importance of the bilateral relations between China and Nigeria cannot be overstated. In order to foster the relations between our two countries, I proposed the 5-GIST Growth, Development and Progress Strategy, aiming at promoting all-round relations of our two countries crossing from political trust to people to people exchange.

     With our joint efforts, the past three years have witnessed more frequent high-level visits between our two sides, and our mutual political trust has been continuously consolidated. In particular, H.E. Kashim Shettima, Vice President of Nigeria attended the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in October last year and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vice President Han Zheng respectively. Leaders of both sides mapped out the blueprint of the future development and cooperation of our two countries. Besides, the China-Nigeria Intergovernmental Committee was established and five sub-committees held their first meetings successfully. China-Nigeria legislative exchanges, political party exchanges and local provincial and state cooperation continued to advance. China firmly supports Nigeria in exploring a path of development in line with its national conditions, and appreciates the Nigerian government for upholding the one-China principle and supporting China in international arena. I’d like to say that China and Nigeria are now partners standing to rise and fall together.

    Meanwhile, China-Nigeria practical cooperation has been significantly fostered. Nigeria has long ranked as China’s largest project contracting market, second largest export market, major trading partner and investment destination in Africa. China and Nigeria have achieved fruitful outcomes in the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, featuring a series of infrastructure projects undertaken by Chinese enterprises such as the Zungeru Hydropower Project, the Lekki Deep Sea Port, the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline Project, the Lagos Blue Line and Red Line, the Abuja-Keffi-Lafia-Makurdi road dualisation, the Nigerian Railway Modernization Project, Kano Galaxy Backbone’s National Tier IV Data Center, etc. The Lekki, Ogun, and Shagamu Free-trade zones (industrial parks) are attracting many companies world- wide to invest in Nigeria. The China-aided Nigerian Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center and the second phase of the solar traffic lights project in Abuja are put into operation, and the construction of ECOWAS secretariat building aided by the Chinese government is under good progress. Our practical cooperation is far more than the above. It’s also covering agriculture, mining, industry, infrastructure, digital economy, talent cultivation, finance, and other fields. China-Nigeria practical cooperation has become a role model of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

    Read Also: Understanding China’s global community with shared future for mankind concept

    The friendship of nations lies in the affinity of people, and the affinity of people lies in the affinity of hearts. Driven by my initiative of   Sharing Chinese Harmony, Performing Nigeria-China Symphony, the people-to-people exchanges between our two countries have dramatically increased over the past three years. We organized a series of culture events including the Happy Chinese New Year Temple Fair, Chinese Film Festival, China-Nigeria Cultural Fiesta Singing & Dancing Competition,  the Chinese Bridge-Proficiency Competition, etc, which greatly brought the hearts of our two peoples closer. In 2023, the China Central National Orchestra and the Sichuan Orchestra of China visited Nigeria, and together with the Nigerian Orchestra, they played a strong beat of “Harmony and Symphony” between China and Nigeria.

    Since the new administration of Nigeria took office last year, China-Nigeria relations opened a new chapter. This year, China will host the meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in autumn, during which Chinese and African leaders will gather in Beijing again after six years to plan our future development and cooperation. Nigeria has always been a steadfast partner of the FOCAC, and we keenly look forward to the participation of Nigeria of this important event. I firmly believe that as long as our two countries continue to work together to promote traditional friendship, expand practical cooperation and strengthen people-to-people exchanges, the “cake” of China-Nigeria cooperation will grow bigger, and the tree of our China-Nigeria friendship will become evergreen.

    Nigeria is a country beloved by me. It has splendid ancient culture, peace-loving and hardworking people, and immeasurable development potential. As I am about to complete my tour of duty as Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, I will miss every precious moment of my stay here. On the occasion of parting, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my friends in Nigeria, my Chinese compatriots, and people from all walks of life who have cared for and supported China-Nigeria friendship. I hope that you will, as always, support the work of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria and contribute your valuable strength to China-Nigeria friendship.

    I sincerely and firmly believe China and Nigeria will grow, develop, progress and prosper together, and wish us a happy Chinese Lunar New Year, a dragon year!

    • Jianchun is Chinese ambassador to Nigeria
  • Putin failing in energy market, says US

    Putin failing in energy market, says US

    Geoffrey Pyatt is the Assistant Secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources.  Pyatt speaks on America’s global energy priorities at a briefing organised by the Washington Foreign Press Center. United States Bureau Chief OLUKOREDE YISHAU attended. Excerpts: 

    CERAWeek

    Last week I spent four days in Houston, Texas at CERAWeek, which is the world’s largest energy conference.  And it was a particularly opportune moment, both to do a lot of the kind of intensive energy-focused coordination that ENR does all the time, but also, I think, to take the temperature of the international energy community at a moment of profound transformation. 

    For me, there were two key takeaways from the CERAWeek discussion, and then an area of future focus.  The two takeaways were both the continued acceleration of the global energy transition, and the especially important American leadership in that regard.  The Inflation Reduction Act in particular is clearly changing the conversation here domestically, but also internationally, about the opportunities around new clean energy technologies, ranging from carbon sequestration to clean hydrogen to advanced battery storage technologies.

    And the – all of the issues around the acceleration of the electrification of our energy systems – transportation, lots and lots of focus in Houston on artificial intelligence and the huge growth in demand for power that is going to create for cloud computing centers here in the United States and internationally; but also, and I think as an American energy diplomat, a particular point of pride, how American companies are leading the charge in this regard, leveraging the opportunities that the Inflation Reduction Act is creating, the degree to which the IRA has really supercharged an energy transition that was already well underway. 

    The other framing aspect of the conversations in Houston actually built on what I did the Friday before traveling to Houston, which was the annual U.S.-EU Energy Council.  We were very pleased to have Commissioner Kadri Simson and Director General Ditte Jorgensen both at the State Department for the annual Energy Council.  This year in particular was a celebration of the tremendous progress that we have made in our transatlantic energy relationship, the degree to which Europe has exceeded expectations in de-risking its exposure to Russian energy coercion –   dramatically reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian oil, gas, coal, and looking to the future, nuclear fuel – but also the very strong alignment between U.S. and European objectives as we seek to navigate the disruption of global markets that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the weaponization of Russia’s energy resources has prompted. 

    And then the area of future focus – and I think we’ll see more on this in the weeks ahead – are the issues around critical minerals, which is an issue where ENR has led the State Department’s work internationally, including through our flagship initiative, the Mineral Security Partnership, which seeks to bring together likeminded countries around the world to mobilize resources and mobilize our private sectors to reduce our dependence on a single country as the principal supplier of the energy minerals that are so important to our transition.  As some of my European colleagues put it in Houston, we have to work very, very hard to ensure that an era of European dependence on Russian oil and gas is not followed by an era of collective dependence on China for all of these processing and extraction of critical minerals. 

    In that regard, there were some really interesting conversations, especially with our private sector companies, looking at what the State Department is doing through MSP, through MINVEST, our private sector partnership; with SAFE, the energy security NGO here in Washington.  And as I said to Dan Yergin at one point, I think in some ways the conversation around critical minerals is a little bit like where the conversation around oil was in the 1970s after the oil shocks and the creation of the International Energy Agency. 

    Critical minerals 

    We are starting to think about these critical minerals not just as a commodity issue but as a question of national security.  And it’s in that spirit that we approach this issue, and it’s in that spirit that we are working with the 15 countries and economies that are part of the MSP coalition, significantly now representing more than half of global GDP.  You will see a bit more on this, I think, next week when Secretary Blinken will be back in Europe.  But you’ve also seen the statements from Under Secretary Fernandez, including around the SAFE Summit two weeks ago, and all of the work that we are doing in the MSP context to mobilize partners, to mobilize resources, to leverage what the White House has done through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, and to, as I said, approach these questions not just as an issue of industrial policy or as a commodity question but as a matter of national security. 

    Recent Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy infrastructure

     So let me begin by just saying my heart goes out to the millions of Ukrainians who’ve been affected by the latest wave of Russian attacks that began on Friday, the biggest single series of air strikes against energy infrastructure since the start of the war.  This is a focus of tremendous attention across the administration, including Secretary Blinken.  We are working very closely with allies and partners around the world.  

    I also want to note just our tremendous, tremendous admiration for the Ukrainian energy workers who are responding to this situation.  Just this morning I had a long discussion with the Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the CEO of Ukrenergo, the national grid operator.  Volodymyr described to me the recovery efforts that are being made in Kharkiv, in Burshtyn, in Krivyi Rih, in Dnipro, in Odesa.  We have seen a complex set of tactics by Putin – who spent, by the way, hundreds of millions of dollars in munitions in these series of attacks.  There has been tremendous progress over the past few days in recovery, but there has also been great damage. 

    I will note some of the good news, which is that the passive protection measures that the United States and our European allies have been helping to support – did prove its utility at a number of sites.  But Putin was able to inflict significant damage as well.  And I just want to underline how outrageous it is that the Kremlin continues to target these civilian objects with no military objective, simply to cause pain and suffering among Ukrainian citizens.  And we will respond.  

    I will host tomorrow another in the series of G7+ energy sector support videos that the United States helped to organize, at the time jointly with our German allies, starting in October of 2022.  This will be one of the most important of these calls that we’ve done.  We will have Minister Galushchenko from Kyiv, but also Mr. Kudrytskyi and other Ukrainian officials, to present their damage assessment and also their immediate requirements.  

    We need to do several things at the same time.  We will be seeking to mobilize immediate assistance, as we have been doing since October of ’22 when these energy sector attacks began.  We will also be continuing our work to focus on Ukraine’s long-term objective of building a future energy system that is cleaner, greener, and fully aligned with European standards.

    But I want to emphasize also that Putin is failing.  This is – we are now at the end of the third winter of Russia’s war against the people of Ukraine.  Ukraine has demonstrated tremendous resilience, thanks in large part to the courage of energy workers from companies like Ukrenergo and DTEK.  The lights have stayed on.  Putin has failed in that effort.  He has lost Europe as an energy market.  And we are committed to ensuring that that failure continues.

    I think – you asked about future resources.  Last June, at the London Ukraine Recovery Conference, Secretary of State Blinken announced $522 million in energy sector assistance to tackle those two challenges that I talked about, both the immediate reconstruction and recovery, but also the long-term resilience and Europeanization of Ukraine’s energy system.  That remains our guiding objective.  We are working very, very hard and hope very much that Congress will approve the President’s national security supplemental as soon as they come back from the Easter recess.  I think the attacks of the past few days make that action even more urgent.  I know that the White House is optimistic that we will get a positive outcome from Congress, and that’s certainly what I hear from members of Congress when I speak to them.

    Read Also: Olawepo-Hashim commiserates with Russia, Putin over terror attack

    So we will assess where we are in terms of requirements.  We will coordinate with our allies, who are carrying a significant amount of the burden.  And then we will begin our work looking towards the next Ukraine Recovery Conference, which will be hosted by Germany in Berlin at the middle of June.

    Preventing potential disaster

    So we see a consistent pattern of irresponsible Russian actions.  You mentioned the attack on the Dnipro hydropower plant.  Last night I saw in Ukrainska Pravda the photographs of the destroyed Kharkiv central heating plant and thermal power plant.  DTEK has shared with me the pictures of destruction at Burshtyn.  Again, Putin’s actions have crossed every line in terms of his military tactics and the destruction that he is inflicting with no military objective on the people of Ukraine and Ukraine’s infrastructure.  President von der Leyen and all of our European allies have made clear that Putin and Russia has to be held accountable for those actions, and that, as President von der Leyen has put it, the aggressor will pay.  So there is a cost attached to this.  

    But in the meantime, we are going to do everything in our power to ensure that Putin’s war continues to be a strategic failure for the Kremlin, and that the Ukrainians have the resources and the wherewithal they need to prevail and to continue to sustain the extraordinary resilience that they’ve demonstrated up until now.

     Iraq and Iran 

     I had the honor of joining yesterday’s meeting between my boss, Secretary of State Blinken, and the deputy prime minister, foreign minister of Iraq, Fuad Hussein.  These issues were front and center in those conversations, as they will be front and center when the Iraqi prime minister comes here to the United States.  I’ve been working with the Iraqi ambassador on that visit, including opportunities for engagement with American energy companies, because of the central role that in particular the oil and gas industry plays in the Iraqi economy, but also because of the issue that you referred to, which is the vulnerability created by Iraq’s requirement for energy imports, both gas and power, from Iraq.

    I will note a couple – there are a couple of different issues that are wrapped around this.  One is the waiver, and I think they – the department’s actions on that issue speaks for itself.  This is a topic on which I regularly engage with members of Congress.  Another is the work that we continue to do with officials in Baghdad, with officials in Ankara, and with the KRG on the reopening of the ITP pipeline, which is an energy asset that the United States very much wishes to see brought back online because of the critical role that that provides in helping to sustain the energy economy of the KRG region, but also because of the product, the crude oil that that pipeline delivers to global and especially European markets that are hungry for non-Russian sources of supply.

    I am – I will be part of the discussions during the Iraqi prime minister’s visit, in particular the work of the HCC.  And we talked a little bit about that with the deputy prime minister yesterday.  And in that HCC context, it’s very clear that ENR issues around energy – energy security, gas, electricity, oil, decarbonization – will be front and center.  We also have been very supportive of the work that Iraq has been doing with global energy companies, including American companies like Baker Hughes, which has projects to capture some of the gas which is currently vented and flared from Iraqi oil fields.  

    We’ve also been very supportive of the work that Total has been doing, the multi-billion-dollar investment that Total has made for a similar gas capture and energy initiative.  This is a critical part of helping to build Iraq’s own energy security and to achieve what the prime minister has stated is his goal of ending dependence on Iranian energy within the next three or four years.  

    In that regard, I also look forward to traveling myself to Iraq hopefully later this spring to advance the work that will be done during the prime minister’s visit, and in particular to advance our agenda around supporting Iraq’s energy security.

    The U.S. and Iraq 

    I don’t want to put myself in the middle of the commercial negotiations between our companies that are active in KRG and the government in Baghdad.  But what I will underline is I know that the Iraqi Government is interested in attracting more foreign investment to its energy sector, and in particular to modernize that energy sector, to make it cleaner, to maximize the availability of energy for Iraqi citizens.  

    That will be much more difficult as long as the issues around the ITP remain unresolved.  This is also an issue that I’ve had regularly on my agenda with Turkish Energy Minister Bayraktar, and it’s a regular topic of conversation, not just in the U.S.-Iraq context but also in the U.S.-Türkiye context.  So I hope very much that we will be able to see progress on this issue in the run-up to and around the prime minister’s visit.  But that ultimately is going to depend on what’s really a three-sided conversation between Baghdad, Erbil, and Ankara, and then also the commercial negotiations with our companies that are on the ground.

    Energy partnership with Türkiye 

    So let me say a couple of things here.  One is just to underline my personal focus on our energy partnership with Türkiye and the importance that we place on making continued progress.  I have had the opportunity to meet with Energy Minister Bayraktar on three different continents, I think, as we’ve all traveled around the world.  I last saw him in Riyadh when we were together there in January.  And then last month, I was very pleased also to see Minister Bayraktar’s deputy when we were together at the IEA 50th anniversary in Paris.  So we are maintaining a regular tempo of engagement, both between Washington and the energy ministry and authorities in Ankara, but also with the foreign ministry.  And I am very glad to have a really strong relationship with my counterpart in the Turkish foreign ministry as well.

    I think as we look to the future, the next step, we hope very much to be able to welcome Minister Bayraktar here to Washington in the weeks ahead over the course of the spring.  The ball is really in his court in terms of figuring out when we can manage that.  But we have a very rich agenda of work to do together following the discussions between Secretary Blinken and Minister Fidan in the context of the strategic mechanism.  We see this both on European energy security, and Türkiye has played a very important role as the host of the Southern Gas Corridor, in helping to diversify European energy supplies and European gas supplies away from dependence on Russia; as the host of multiple LNG liquefaction facilities, which have received a lot of American LNG over the past two years since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.  

    You may have seen a speech that I gave to a forum in Alexandropolis about two weeks ago.  It’s on the State Department website.  But I described there our support for the Vertical Corridor, which is designed to bring non-Russian gas up into Central Europe, including to markets like Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia that remain dependent on Russian gas.  This will be especially important in the context of what we expect will be the end of transit through Ukraine at the end of this year when the transit contract expires.  So there’s an important potential role for Türkiye there as well as an entry point for non-Russian gas into that Vertical Corridor, which would go up through Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine, leveraging the gas storage that Ukraine has available in western Ukraine.  

    And then there are all the issues around energy transition, and I think I’ve shared the story before.  I will always remember from my time as ambassador in Athens a visit that I made to Rhodes in I think it was August of 2021, which is when the terrible fires were happening across southwestern Türkiye.  The sky was bright orange over the island of Rhodes.  It was all the smoke and the flames that were coming from Türkiye, and it was a reminder that, much like my home state of California, much like Greece, Türkiye is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change.  The fact that the Mediterranean has seen some of the most severe sea temperature change of any region of the world and the risks of more extreme fire events, but we are also conscious of the leadership that Türkiye has played in deploying wind and solar and the potential to do much more in this area. 

    And then finally, one of the follow-ups from the strategic mechanism that I will look forward to discussing with Minister Bayraktar when he comes to Washington is critical minerals, where Türkiye has literally thousands of years of history in mining and the potential to be an important part of our effort to diversify global supply chains for the critical minerals that we need to power the energy transition.

  • Injury toll rises to 360 in Moscow’s concert terror attack

    Injury toll rises to 360 in Moscow’s concert terror attack

    The number of injuries from last week’s terror attack on the Crocus City Hall in a suburb of Moscow has risen to 360, local media reported today.

    The TASS news agency citing the Federal Disaster Medicine Centre reported this morning that, 360 people, including 11 children, were injured as a result of the terrorist attack.

    According to the centre, 92 people have been hospitalised, 63 others already been discharged, and outpatient care was provided to 205 people.

    Earlier on Monday, head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin said the deaths from Friday’s terrorist attack had risen to 139.

    Read Also: No evidence Ukraine involved in Concert Hall attack near Moscow – U.S.

    Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Tatyana Golikova, said on Tuesday that the rising toll of injuries was from individuals in shock leaving the scene without immediately seeking medical care.

    (Xinhua/NAN)

  • Hamas leader must be taken dead or alive, says Israeli president

    Hamas leader must be taken dead or alive, says Israeli president

    Israeli President Isaac Herzog has vowed that Hamas leader Yehya al-Sinwar will be gotten dead or alive.

    Herzog sees the Hamas leader as the lynchpin in the Gaza war and key to getting Israel’s hostages held in the Gaza Strip released.

    “In the end, there is no choice,” Herzog said in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

    “We must continue the fight and we must get to Sinwar – either alive or dead – so that we can see the hostages back home.

    Read Also: Gaza: Hamas, Israel are under pressure for truce before Ramadan

    Herzog added that the reality is clear, saying: “Everything begins and ends with Yehya Sinwar.

    “He’s the one who decided on the October massacre.

    “He’s been seeking to shed the blood of the innocent ever since.

    “It is he who aims to escalate the regional situation, to desecrate Ramadan, to do everything to shatter coexistence in our country and in the whole region, to sow discord among us and around the world.” (dpa/NAN)

  • AGOA/CBI: Okonjo-Iweala, Senator Natasha talk trade in Geneva

    AGOA/CBI: Okonjo-Iweala, Senator Natasha talk trade in Geneva

    The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the chairman, Senate committee on local content, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, met amid the ongoing 148th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) holding at the International Conference Centre, Geneva, Switzerland. 

    Senator Natasha who has been a strong advocate of export opportunities for Nigeria, urged Dr Okonjo-Iweala to help facilitate access to global markets for Nigerian businesses, and enhance export capabilities to bolster economic growth and diversification. 

    According to a statement issued by her chief press secretary, Arogbonlo Israel, 

    Senator Natasha further expressed concerns about her desire to see Nigeria take advantage of the opportunities that African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI) offer, respectively.

    Read Also: WTO DG, Okonjo-Iweala gushes over 3-year-old Nigerian girl who dressed like her

    “It is my earnest expectation under the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to see Nigeria take advantage of these export opportunities through your support and by working closely with my office as the Senate Chairman on Local Contents,” she stated.

    She said she believed Nigeria amid the acute dollar shortages can tap the opportunities to boost its non-oil exports under AGOA to earn the much-needed foreign exchange for its economy.

    In her remarks, the WTO Director-General lauded Senator Natasha for her valuable contributions and promised to look into her recommendations.

    She also assured her readiness to collaborate with the Kogi lawmaker for the greater good of Nigeria, especially in the area of trade and commerce.

    AGOA, a US trade initiative established in 2000, allows African nations to export various products, especially non-oil goods, to the United States on favourable terms, thereby promoting economic development and trade on the continent.

    It has been a crucial lifeline for many African economies, offering opportunities to access the vast American market.

    South Africa, Kenya, Madagascar, Lesotho, and Ghana dominated the 2022 non-oil AGOA exports, accounting for 90 per cent of the total non-oil AGOA exports in 2022, with Nigeria missing on the list.