Podcasts about Katsina

Nigeria Troops Kill 44 Days After Boko Haram Sack 3 Military Base In Bornohttps://osazuwaakonedo.news/nigeria-troops-kill-44-days-after-boko-haram-sack-3-military-base-in-borno/25/05/2025/#Nigerian Army #army #Borno #Damboa #Katsina #Marte #Rann #Sokoto #Wulgo ©May 25th, 2025 ®May 25, 2025 9:16 am Nigerian Army in a series of reports during the week says its troops have killed over 44 terrorists in different locations in Borno, Katsina and Sokoto states days after Boko Haram terrorists had on May 12 and 13, 2025 sacked the Armed Forces of Nigeria, AFN military base in Wulgo town, a Nigeria border town in Borno State of Ngala local government area, a throw stone to Cameroon in the shores of Lake Chad, also, the Boko Haram terrorists attacked and sacked the 3 Battalion, a military formation in Rann, headquarters of Kala-Balge Local Government Area in Borno State, and the military base in Marte town in Marte local government area of Borno State, killing soldiers, overrunning the military formations, stealing arms and ammunitions and setting the military buildings ablaze including the armed forces operational vehicles, with the Governor of Borno state, Professor Babagana Zulum, saying, the Boko Haram terrorists in recent days are currently in control of 299 communities out of a total of 300 communities in the Marte Local Government Area of Borno state, meaning, the Federal Government under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is barely and currently controling one community after the Nigeria commander-in-chief of the armed forces whose supporters are apparently busy talking and preparing his re-election ahead of the country 2027 general elections had lost territories to terrorists and the Boko Haram terrorists appeared; aggressively advancing and retaking more territories in Nigeria. #OsazuwaAkonedo

Shirin kasuwa akai miki dole na wannan makon ya mayar da hankali ne kan halin da ake ciki game da noman zoɓo a jihar Jigawa da ke arewacin Najeriya, da kuma yadda ake fita da shi zuwa ƙasashen ƙetare. Duk da cewa ana noman zoɓo a Jihohi irin su Zamfara da Katsina da Kano da Kebbi da Borno da Yobe, bayanai na cewa kusan kaso 70 cikin 100 na zobon da ake fita da shi ƙasashen waje a jihar Jigawa ake nomawa, sai dai a shekaru biyu da suka gabata manoman na zoɓo sun ɗan  fuskanci kalubale a harkar. Ku latsa alamar sauti don sauraron cikakken shirin tare da Ahmed Abba..........

Mit Bischof Gerald Mamman Musa (Bistum Katsina), Nigeria. Im Norden Nigerias sind Christen nur eine kleine Minderheit und müssen sich der islamischen Rechtsordnung der Scharia unterwerfen. Wie die Christen trotz großer Herausforderungen durch Kreativität viel Gutes für den Frieden und das Zusammenleben in Nigeria beitragen können, berichtet uns der katholische Bischof von Katsina, Gerald Mamman Musa, in dieser Sendung.

Christian Association of Nigeria has issued an ultimatum to the governments of Bauchi, Katsina, Kano, and Kebbi states, demanding the reversal of their directives mandating a five-week closure of schools for the Ramadan fast.CAN described the move as discriminatory and a violation of the rights of non-Muslim students, warning that it would pursue legal action if the orders were not rescinded.To what extent is this action and how will it benefit the affected states?Richard Badung and Yemi Kosoko will be hosting Rev. Father Polycarp Lubo (CAN CHAIRMAN, PLATEAU STATE) and ALI GARBA

Shirin TAMBAYA DA AMSA da wanan mako  tareda Nasiru Sani ya kuma amsa tambaya da wasu suka aiko mana kan muhimmanci Garin Goma na Jamhuriya Dimokradiyar Congo ga 'yantawayen M23. Ku latsa alamar sauti domin jin karin bayani

It's Friday, March 7th, A.D. 2025. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 125 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus Nigerian states close all schools for Muslim Ramadan fast Northern Nigerian governments of Bauchi, Katsina, Kano, and Kebbi States issued a directive to close all schools — public and private — for up to five weeks during the Muslim Ramadan fast. It has ignited strong reactions from the Christian Association of Nigeria and the Middle Belt Forum. The groups argue that the closures, which affect millions of students, pose serious threats to education, fairness, and national unity, reports International Christian Concern. John 4:24 underscores the importance of worshiping the one true God, not the false Muslim deity. It says, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Trump chastises Democrats for not applauding anything good On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump smartly confronted Democrats early on with their refusal to celebrate any good news. Listen. TRUMP: “This is my fifth such speech to Congress, and once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me, and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud. Nothing I can do.   “I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, a disease that would wipe out entire nations, or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history, or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded. And these people, sitting right here, will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. They won't do it no matter what. Five, five times I've been up here. It's very sad, and it just shouldn't be this way. (applause) “So, Democrats sitting before me for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America? For the good of our nation, let's work together and let's truly make America great again.” Despite his plea, Democrats, without exception, sat on their hands as he announced the acceptance by West Point of Jason Hartley, a high school senior in the gallery, the awarding of the honorary title of Secret Service Agent to D.J. Daniel, a 13-year-old brain cancer survivor in the gallery who aspires to be a law enforcement officer, and the naming of a national wildlife refuge in the Houston area after Jocelyn Nungary, the 12-year-old girl who was brutally killed by two Venezuelan illegal aliens.  Jocelyn's mother was in the gallery. Rep. Al Green kicked out of Trump's congressional speech As he waved his cane, 73-year-old Democratic Congressman Al Green of Texas interrupted Trump by yelling, "You don't have a mandate."  Despite House Speaker Mike Johnson's patient pleas for Rep. Green to stop, he continued, prompting Johnson to have him removed. TRUMP: “Small business optimism …” GREEN: “You don't have a mandate.” TRUMP: “So, it's the single largest one month gain ever recorded, a 41-point jump.” CONGRESSMAN: “Sit down!” JOHNSON: “Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the house and to cease any further disruptions. That's your warning. “Members are engaging in willful and continuing breach of decorum, and the chair is prepared to direct the Sergeant at Arms to restore order to the joint session. (applause) “Mr. Green, take your seat. Take your seat, sir.” GREEN: “No mandate.” JOHNSON: “Take your seat. Finding that members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum, the Chair now directs the Sergeant at Arms to restore order. Remove this gentleman from the chamber.” House censured Rep. Al Green for disruption of Trump speech Two days later, the U.S. House of Representatives considered a resolution to censure Rep. Green for his disruptive behavior. CLERK: “House Resolution 189: Resolution censuring Representative Al Green of Texas.” After five minutes, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced the vote results. JOHNSON: “On this vote, the yeas are 224, the nays are 198, with two answering present. The resolution is adopted.” The censure of Democratic Congressman Al Green of Texas passed largely along party lines, with 10 Democrats voting with Republicans in favor of the resolution and two lawmakers, including Green, voting "present," reports USA Today. JOHNSON: “Will Representative Green present himself to the well? By its adoption of House Resolution 189, the House has resolved that Representative Al Green be censured. That Representative Al Green forthwith present himself in the well of the House of Representatives for the pronouncement of censure, and that Representative Al Green be censured with public reading of this resolution by the Speaker.” DEMOCRATS: (sing “We Shall Overcome”) After the vote, instead of standing silently while the censure was read, the Texas Democrat led a group of colleagues in a rendition of “We Shall Overcome,” a song long associated with civil rights protests, suggesting that somehow the censuring of Green for his disruptive behavior was racist, reports Roll Call. JOHNSON: (Banging of gavel) “The House will come to order. The House will come to order.” After the Democrats refused to stop singing “We Shall Overcome,” House Speaker Johnson was forced to impose a break called recess. JOHNSON: “Pursuant to clause 12a of rule one, the House will stand in recess subject to the call of the chair.” A censure is considered a severe public rebuke of a legislator brought by other members of Congress, a form of punishment second only to expulsion. The U.S. Constitution allows for Congress to "punish its members for disorderly behavior." Censure is a formal disapproval intended to discipline members of the House. Sen. Fetterman: Democrats are metaphorical car alarms nobody pays attention to Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania had some of the harshest criticism for his party's protests from the chamber, reports RollCall. On Wednesday, Fetterman tweeted, “A sad cavalcade of self and unhinged petulance. It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained. We're becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to — and it may not be the winning message.” In 1 Corinthians 13:11, the Apostle Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Falling just as flat as Congressman Green's babbling were the Democratic congresswomen who staged a silent protest by wearing pink and other Democrats who held up little paddles emblazoned with lines including “FALSE”, “MUSK STEALS”, and “SAVE MEDICAID.” Plus, some Democrats walked out in the middle of the speech, revealing t-shirts with messages after they removed their jackets. Oil prices dropped to lowest levels in 3 years Oil prices have dropped to their lowest levels in over three years, driven by uncertainties related to the ongoing trade war, which is impacting the global economy and energy demand outlook. Gold up And finally, gold prices rose on Wednesday, supported by a weaker dollar, as investors awaited the release of the U.S. payrolls data later this week for additional insights into the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, reports CNBC. U.S. gold futures rose by 0.2% to $2,927.50 per ounce. Close And that's The Worldview on this Friday, March 7th, in the year of our Lord 2025. Subscribe by Amazon Music or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

On Daybreak Africa: An army jet killed at least six civilians after mistakenly attacking them while pursuing gangs in northern Nigeria's Katsina state, residents told the French news agency AFP. Plus, looting and chaos break out as the strategic Democratic Republic of Congo city of Bukavu reportedly falls to M23 rebels. In Chad, shops, schools and places of worship are closed as authorities race to contain a measles epidemic. Health practitioners in Uganda call for the release of opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye on medical grounds. U.S. health officials ban Red Dye No. 3 from American foods after studies linked the bright red color additive to cancer. Google reverses its policy against developing Artificial Intelligence weapons. For these and more, tune in to Daybreak Africa!

Shirin 'Al'adunmu na Gado' tare da Abdoulaye Issa a yau mayar da hankali kan rashin jituwar dake faruwa tsakanin gwamnoni a Najeriya da kuma ɓangaren Sarakunan gargajiya wanda har takai ga wasu jihohin na rushe Masarautu suna kuma kirkirar sababbi. A ‘yan shekarun nan, an sami irin wanann takun saka a jihohi irin Kano da Sokoto da Adamawa da kuma Katsina dukkaninsu a sassan Arewacin Najeriyar, inda masana tarihi da al'adu ke kallon al'amarin a matsayin barazana ga tsarin Sarautar mai dogon tarihi.Ku latsa alamar sauti don sauraron cikakken shirin.

Shirin Muhallinka Rayuwarka na wannan mako ya yi duba ne kan fitar da amfanin gona da aka noma a damunar bara da Kungiyar Gwamnonin Najeriya ta ce a ke yi sakamakon karyewar darajar kuɗin ƙasar, lamarin da su ka ce ya sanya su suma su ka tsunduma cikin masu ribibin sayen amfanin gonar, su na adanawa a rumbunansu domin maganin gobe. A farkon makon watan Janairun wannan shekarar, a yayin ziyarar gaisuwar sabuwar shekara  da kungiyar gwamnonin Najeriya ta ka kai wa Shugaban ƙasar, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Shugaban Ƙungiyar gwamnonin, kuma gwamnan jihar Kwara, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq ya yi bayani tare da ƙarin haske a kan aniyar gwamnonin.Sai dai kungiyar Manoman ƙasar wato AFAN, ta bakin kakakinta Muhammad Magaji, ta bayyana cewa ba sabon abu bane yadda ake fitar da kayan amfanin gona zuwa ƙasashen waje domin neman riba, amma ta ce ƴan kasuwa da ke sayen kayan a hannun manoman ne ke yin hakan ba manoman da kansu ba.Kasancewar matakin da gwamnonin su ka ce sun fara ɗauka na sayen kayan abinci su na adanawa na da buƙatar fashin baƙi daga masana, mun tuntuɓi Malam Abubakar Lawal Kafinsoli na sashen nazarin noma a Jami'ar Tarayya da ke Dutsinma a jihar Katsina dangane yadda hakan zai taimaka wa manoma da kuma harkar noma a ƙasar, wanda ya ce wannan ba hanya ba ce mai bullewa ba, musamman ga talakawan kasar.Shiga alamar sauti, domin sauraron cikakken shirin tare da Michael Kuduson.

Der Kunsthistoriker Aby Warburg unternahm 1895/96 eine Reise durch den Südwesten der USA. Seine Neugier wirkt bis heute nach in den indigenen Gemeinschaften.// Von Egon Koch/ DLF 2024/ www.radiofeature.wdr.de Von Egon Koch.

Der Kunsthistoriker Aby Warburg unternahm 1895/96 eine Reise durch den Südwesten der USA. Seine Neugier wirkt bis heute nach in den indigenen Gemeinschaften.// Von Egon Koch/ DLF 2024/ www.radiofeature.wdr.de Von Egon Koch.

3 Men From Katsina Brought Exploded Bomb To Abuja School Owner - Policehttps://osazuwaakonedo.news/3-men-from-katsina-brought-exploded-bomb-to-abuja-school-owner-police/07/01/2025/#Nigeria Police Force #Abuja #FCT #Islamiya #Katsina #Police #Sani #Tsangagyar #Uthman ©January 7th, 2025 ®January 7, 2025 1:01 pm Men of the Nigeria Police Force have arrested a male and female bomb victims in connection with the bomb explosion that occurred on Monday at Tsangagyar Sani Uthman Islamiya school at Kuchibuyi village in Bwari area council of Nigeria Federal capital territory, Abuja after three suspects from Katsina State brought the Improvised Explosive Device, IED to the school owner and thus tampered with it, causing deaths and injuries. #OsazuwaAkonedo

Ko kun san cewa har yanzu ana gudanar da al-adar nan ta sayen baki a Kasar Hausa idan an yi aure? Shirin Taba Ka Lashe na wannan lokaci ya yi nazari a kai.

Malnutrition in northern Nigeria has skyrocketed to 51 percent, with Katsina State recording the highest rate, according to a recent MSF report. Families are grappling with impossible choices—feeding their children or themselves, while chronic hunger leaves many too weak to work.In this episode of Nigeria Daily, we uncover the human suffering behind the statistics and explore tips on how to save lives.

Mazauna yankin Arewacin Najeriya sun kwashe kwanaki 7 ba tare da hasken wutar lantarki ba, abinda ya yi sanadiyar durkushewar jama'a musamman masu sana'oin da suka dogara ga wutar. Wannan matsala na barazana ga rayuwa da kuma tattalin arzikin yankin. Bashir Ibrahim Idris ya tattauna da daya daga cikin dattawan yankin, Alhaji Sule Ammani Yarin Katsina. Ku latsa alamar sauti don jin cikakkiyar zantawarsu ta su........

Wani sabon rahoton binciken kwakwaf da aka gudanar ya bankado yadda ‘yan ta'adda daga jihohin Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina da kuma Kaduna ke tsallakawa jihar Kano domin samun mafaka. Jihar Kano ce dai ke da dama-dama ta fannin ingancin tsaro a jihohin arewa maso yammacin Najeriya.Shin yaya masana ke kallon wannan sabon salo da kuma hatsarin da yake da shi, Rukayya Abba Kabara ta tattauna da Dr Yahuza Ahmad Getso masanin tsrao a Najeriya, ga kuma yadda tattaunawar tasu ta kasance.Ku latsa alamar sauti don sauraren cikakkiyar hirar......

Shirin Al'adu na wannan makon ya duba irin yanda masarautunmu na gargajiya ke kama hanyar zama ƙasa da ƙasa ta yanda sarakunan wasu masarautun ke nada ƴan wasu ƙasashe don basu mukamin a fadodinsu da sunan ƙarfafa zumunci da kyautata rayuwar jama'ar ƙasashen. A baya-bayan nan, mai Martaba Sarkin Damagaram da ke Jamhuriyar Nijar ya naɗa Alhaji Idriss Ousmane Kwado, a matsayin Talban Damagaram, bikin ya samu halartar gwamnonin jahar Zinder da na Katsina da wasu manyan sarakunan Arewacin Nigeria.  Ku latsa alamar sauti don sauraron cikakken shirin tare da Abdoulaye Issa.......

Gwamnan jihar Katsina da ke arewacin Najeriya, Malam Dikko Umaru Radda ya yi kira ga al'umma da ta jajirce wajen kare kanta daga hare-haren ƴan bindiga masu garkuwa da mutane, tare da bai wa jami'an tsaro hadin kai don kawo karshen matsalolin tsaro da suka addabi yankin. Ku latsa alamar sauti domin sauraren mabanbantan ra'ayoyin jama'a.

« Manifestations contre la vie chère et la flambée des prix », titre AfricaNews. « Des milliers de jeunes nigérians ont envahi la rue ce jeudi [1ᵉʳ aout 2024] pour protester contre la crise du coût de la vie, la plus pénible que le pays ait connue, depuis une génération », ajoute le site d'information.À Kaduna, le Guardian a remarqué des « tensions et des achats de panique sur les marchés, en raison des manifestations (...) au moment même où des agents de sécurité ont été déployés pour assurer la surveillance de lieux stratégiques afin d'empêcher le chaos provoqué par les manifestations contre la pauvreté ». Le Guardian qui cite également des propos tenus par le gouverneur de l'État de Kaduna, qui reconnaît « les difficultés économiques », auxquels sont confrontés les Nigérians, tout en ajoutant que le président Bola Tinubu « a la tâche difficile de nettoyer le désordre laissé par les administrations précédentes ».  De leur côté, nous dit AricaNews, « les organisations de défense des droits de l'homme et les activistes ont exprimé leurs inquiétudes quant à une possible répression des manifestations ». Des affrontements avec les forces de l'ordre ont eu lieu à Katsina, signale d'ailleurs le Guardian. Alors que selon le Vanguard, « 13 manifestants et un policier auraient été tués dans le pays », lors de ces manifestations contre la vie chère.À lire aussiNigeria: des milliers de manifestants dans les rues pour exiger de meilleures conditions de vieGénocostDe quoi s'agit-il précisément ? Actualité.CD le définit ainsi : « cette journée rend hommage aux dizaines de millions de morts, aux victimes des violences sexuelles liées aux conflits utilisés comme armes de guerre ou victimes des crimes contre la paix et la sécurité de l'humanité, ainsi qu'aux personnes qui leur ont apporté assistance », en RDC. Certains organes de presse parlent de « génocide congolais ». C'est le cas d'info.cd, selon lequel « deux jours de deuil ont été décrétés au Congo-Central ».Info.CD relate le culte œcuménique organisé hier, le 1ᵉʳ aout 2024, à Matadi, en « témoignage d'affection », aux Congolais « victimes de la guerre injuste imposée par les rebelles rwandais du M23 ».Mediacongo.net précise de son côté, que « la commémoration du génocide congolais vise à lutter contre le silence, la banalisation, le déni de justice et l'oubli des crimes graves commis en RDC ». Journées de commémoration auxquelles n'assiste pas le président Félix Tshisekedi, qui est en Belgique pour soigner une hernie discale. Plusieurs médias congolais publient une photo récente où l'on voit le président, le cou entouré d'une minerve.À lire aussiRDC: le président absent à l'hommage annuel aux victimes de massacres commis à des fins économiquesEnfin, au Cameroun, la disparition d'une personnalité des médias« Suzanne Kala Lobè, figure du journalisme camerounais nous a quittés », titre Afrik.com, qui la présente ainsi :  « éditorialiste influente et voix indomptable du paysage journalistique au Cameroun, Militante de gauche et fervente défenseuse de l'alternance politique, Suzanne Kala Lobé a marqué son époque par ses opinions tranchées et sa passion pour le débat ». Afrik.com cite l'un de ses proches : « Vous pouviez faire deux jours de débat autour d'un sujet », selon Séverin Tchounkeu, « très ému par la disparition de son amie et collaboratrice », et que vous pouvez entendre aussi sur RFI ce matin.« Le SNJC, le Syndicat national des journalistes, pleure Suzanne Kala Lobé », titre de son côté ActuCameroun. « Notre presse vient de perdre ainsi, non seulement l'une de ses plumes adultes, mais aussi une meilleure combattante pour une presse libre. De reporter à éditorialiste, elle a franchi toutes les étapes de la rédaction ».  Autre réaction, celle de l'écrivaine Calixthe Belaya, dans le Journal du Cameroun : « Elle m'expliquait le monde, ses pièges à éviter, ses mesquineries à esquiver, et la capacité de toujours répondre comme il faut à toutes les questions ». Enfin, Afrik.com parle d'une « vie dédiée à l'Afrique ». « Fière de son africanité, Suzanne Kala Lobè ne cessait de revendiquer une place de choix pour l'Afrique, dans le monde ».À lire aussiLa journaliste Romance Vinakpon surprise par Paris, entre inégalités et brassage culturel

« Manifestations contre la vie chère et la flambée des prix », titre AfricaNews. « Des milliers de jeunes nigérians ont envahi la rue ce jeudi [1ᵉʳ aout 2024] pour protester contre la crise du coût de la vie, la plus pénible que le pays ait connue, depuis une génération », ajoute le site d'information.À Kaduna, le Guardian a remarqué des « tensions et des achats de panique sur les marchés, en raison des manifestations (...) au moment même où des agents de sécurité ont été déployés pour assurer la surveillance de lieux stratégiques afin d'empêcher le chaos provoqué par les manifestations contre la pauvreté ». Le Guardian qui cite également des propos tenus par le gouverneur de l'État de Kaduna, qui reconnaît « les difficultés économiques », auxquels sont confrontés les Nigérians, tout en ajoutant que le président Bola Tinubu « a la tâche difficile de nettoyer le désordre laissé par les administrations précédentes ».  De leur côté, nous dit AricaNews, « les organisations de défense des droits de l'homme et les activistes ont exprimé leurs inquiétudes quant à une possible répression des manifestations ». Des affrontements avec les forces de l'ordre ont eu lieu à Katsina, signale d'ailleurs le Guardian. Alors que selon le Vanguard, « 13 manifestants et un policier auraient été tués dans le pays », lors de ces manifestations contre la vie chère.À lire aussiNigeria: des milliers de manifestants dans les rues pour exiger de meilleures conditions de vieGénocostDe quoi s'agit-il précisément ? Actualité.CD le définit ainsi : « cette journée rend hommage aux dizaines de millions de morts, aux victimes des violences sexuelles liées aux conflits utilisés comme armes de guerre ou victimes des crimes contre la paix et la sécurité de l'humanité, ainsi qu'aux personnes qui leur ont apporté assistance », en RDC. Certains organes de presse parlent de « génocide congolais ». C'est le cas d'info.cd, selon lequel « deux jours de deuil ont été décrétés au Congo-Central ».Info.CD relate le culte œcuménique organisé hier, le 1ᵉʳ aout 2024, à Matadi, en « témoignage d'affection », aux Congolais « victimes de la guerre injuste imposée par les rebelles rwandais du M23 ».Mediacongo.net précise de son côté, que « la commémoration du génocide congolais vise à lutter contre le silence, la banalisation, le déni de justice et l'oubli des crimes graves commis en RDC ». Journées de commémoration auxquelles n'assiste pas le président Félix Tshisekedi, qui est en Belgique pour soigner une hernie discale. Plusieurs médias congolais publient une photo récente où l'on voit le président, le cou entouré d'une minerve.À lire aussiRDC: le président absent à l'hommage annuel aux victimes de massacres commis à des fins économiquesEnfin, au Cameroun, la disparition d'une personnalité des médias« Suzanne Kala Lobè, figure du journalisme camerounais nous a quittés », titre Afrik.com, qui la présente ainsi :  « éditorialiste influente et voix indomptable du paysage journalistique au Cameroun, Militante de gauche et fervente défenseuse de l'alternance politique, Suzanne Kala Lobé a marqué son époque par ses opinions tranchées et sa passion pour le débat ». Afrik.com cite l'un de ses proches : « Vous pouviez faire deux jours de débat autour d'un sujet », selon Séverin Tchounkeu, « très ému par la disparition de son amie et collaboratrice », et que vous pouvez entendre aussi sur RFI ce matin.« Le SNJC, le Syndicat national des journalistes, pleure Suzanne Kala Lobé », titre de son côté ActuCameroun. « Notre presse vient de perdre ainsi, non seulement l'une de ses plumes adultes, mais aussi une meilleure combattante pour une presse libre. De reporter à éditorialiste, elle a franchi toutes les étapes de la rédaction ».  Autre réaction, celle de l'écrivaine Calixthe Belaya, dans le Journal du Cameroun : « Elle m'expliquait le monde, ses pièges à éviter, ses mesquineries à esquiver, et la capacité de toujours répondre comme il faut à toutes les questions ». Enfin, Afrik.com parle d'une « vie dédiée à l'Afrique ». « Fière de son africanité, Suzanne Kala Lobè ne cessait de revendiquer une place de choix pour l'Afrique, dans le monde ».À lire aussiLa journaliste Romance Vinakpon surprise par Paris, entre inégalités et brassage culturel

Ethiopia became the third African economy in 3 years to default on its government debt. To get IMF's fiscal support, it has had to lower the worth of its currency, making the Birr fall by 30% against the US dollar.We hear about the continued suffering with malnutrition of children in Katsina northern NigeriaAnd how did Senegal get its largest national park removed from the UN's list of World Heritage in Danger list?Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers:  Charles Gitonga in Nairobi. Patricia Whitehorne, Sunita Nahar and Yvette Twagiramariya in London. Technical Producer: Jack Graysmark Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

The two-day Northwest Peace and Security Summit in Katsina has come and gone.But it has left one :key question: Have the governors of the region any blueprint for the way forward?In today's episode of Nigeria Daily, we will look deeper into the outcomes of the summit.

Yau ake shiga rana ta biyu a taron hadin gwiwa kan tsaro da aka fara daga jiya Litinin a jihar Katsina, tsakanin Ƙungiyar Gwamnonin Yankin Arewa maso yammacin Najeriya da Hukumar Raya Kasashe ta Majalisar Dinkin Duniya UNDP, da kuma sauran masu ruwa da tsaki kan tsaro. Babbar manufar taron dai ita ce lalubo hanyoyin magance matsalar tsaro da yankin ke fama da shi, kuma kan haka ne Nura Ado Suleiman ya tattauna da Dakta Yahuza Getso, ɗaya daga cikin masana tsaron da ke halartar taron da ke gudana a jihar ta Katsina.

Shirin Ilimi Hasken Rayuwa na wannan mako ya yi duba ne kan yadda ake ci gaba da samun ci gaba a bangaren daliban da ke zuwa makaranta a yankin Arewacin Najeriya. Jami'ar Umaru Musa 'Yar Adu'a da ke jihar Katsina ta samu nasarar yaye sama da dalibai dubu 10 a wannan shekarar. Ku latsa alamar sauti don sauraron cikakken shirin ta re da Abdulkadir Haladu Kiyawa........

Shirin a wannan mako zai ba da hankali ne akan noman auduga,a shekarun baya, Nigeria ta kasance daya daga cikin kasashe masu tinkaho da noman auguda a nahiyar Afrika da duniya baki daya.Sai dai hankalin mahukuntan kasar ya koma ga bangaren man petur bayanda Allah ya albarkaci kasar da mai.Jihohin da suka yi fice a noman auduga a kasar, sun hada da Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Adamawa, Bauchi da kuma Gombe.

15-17 V 2024. Translationum COMPLURES a Luis Pesquera SUNT. ‘NUNTII IN LINGUA LATINA’ ‘IN LINGUA LATINA ET ANGLICA’ ‘AUDIS’! DE BELLO ISRAËLIANO-HAMASIANO ANNI DOMINI BIS MILESIMO VICESIMO TERTIO ET QUARTO. ‘CIVIS mortuus est’ et ‘duodeviginti MILITES vulnerati sunt’, sed ‘TERRORISTAE multae MORTUI FUERUNT’. /// ‘CIVITATES Foederatae Americae’ ‘Israeli’ ‘DICIT’ [‘bellum vincere’ ‘NON POSSE’] - {De syntaxe: infinitivi orationem secundariam completivam, in accusativo, cum infinitivo ab inteligentiae ATTENDE} /// De GALLANT contra Netanjahu: ‘GALLANT’ ‘Israelis regimen militarem’ ‘in Gaza’ ‘ABNEGAT’. /// ‘Beniaminus NETANJAHU, Israelis primus minister’, ‘CONFIRMAT’ [quod ‘ISRAEL’ ‘consilium post bellum’ ‘non HABET’] - {De syntaxe: orationem secundariam relativam, cum verbo in modo indicativo, ut obiectum explanans ATTENDE} /// ‘BELLUM’ ‘Gazam a Septentrione ad Meridiem’ ‘DESTRUIT’. IN UCRAINA. ‘Ucrainae COPIAE’ ‘assultibus russicis’ ‘PATIUNTUR’. IN ORBE TERRARUM. TRANSLATIO ab Alissa Sousa EST: Bene documentatum est quod aestas anni bis millesimo vicesimo tertio calidissima fuit terrae, a tempore quando instrumenta in saeculo decimo octavo coeperunt adhiberi. Novum studium in revista Britannica ‘Nature’ recensita a paribus dicit quod analysis annulorum arborum hoc tempus retroactum usque ad duo milia annorum agit. IN CANADA. TRANSLATIO a Valentina Suárez EST: Alice Munro, artifex fabellae qui scrutabat modos vivendi parvorum oppidorum Canadae, moritur. Vicit praemium Nobelianum et Booker. IN CIVITATIBUS FOEDERATAE AMERICAE. TRANSLATIONES duae proximae ab Israel García Avilés SUNT: Biden, considerans maxime pilas electricas et machinas energiae solaris, pretium acti Sinae auget. /// Ante suffragium, Biden cum iniquitate pretium acti Sinae auget, quod videatur factum comitiale. /// TRANSLATIO proxima ab Alissa Sousa EST: Comitiis anni bis millesimo vicesimo quarto. Biden et Trump conventum duorum certaminum consentiunt. Primum in Iunio iterumque in Septembri. IN BRITANNIARUM REGNO. TRANSLATIONES de Britanniarum Regno ab Israel García Avilés SUNT: Scholae sexualem doctrinam generis dogmaque vetant docere discipulis minoribus novem annos. Officium domesticum Sanitatis obesis hominibus pecuniam solvit ut ponderem diminuent. IN HIBERNIA. TRANSLATIO a Valentina Suárez EST: IBM octingenti occasiones laboris creat in colloquio intelligentiae artificialis. Novus labores trans Kork, Dublin et Waterford propagabunt. IN RUSSIA. ‘MOSCOVIA’ ‘satelles artificialem speculatorem’ ‘ad arma nuclearia utendum’ ‘LOCAT’ - {De morphologia: constructionem cum gerundio, in casu accusativo ATTENDE} IN INDIA. Secundum Tribunal Supremum, ‘Prabir PURKAYASTHA’ ‘comprehensio ab UAPA’ ‘invalida EST’. IN SINIS. ‘XI et PUTIN’ ‘cosociationem’ ‘ad ius legitum defendendum’ ‘contra Civitates Foederatas Americanas’ ‘FIRMANT’ - {De morphologia: constructionem cum gerundio, in casu accusativo ATTENDE} IN AUSTRALIA. TRANSLATIO proxima a Netzahualcóyotl Lara EST: Trecenti dollaria ad auxilium domare draconem inflationis. Australianis dabitur tres punctum quinque miliarda dollarium in subsidiis ad leniendum ictum ab magnis rogationibus energiae in ratio pecuniae foederatis qui fundit pecuniam ad mensuras familiae negotiique dum promittens inflationem secare ante electionem. ‘DISCIPULI, qui Paletinam supersunt,’ ‘Universitatis Melburniensis aedificum’ ‘INVADUNT’. IN NIGERIA. ‘TERRORISTAE’ ‘octogina personas’ ‘in Katsina’ ‘ABRIPIUNT’. ‘NUNTII IN LINGUA LATINA’ ‘IN LINGUA LATINA ET ITALICA’ ‘AUDIS’! IN SLOVACIA. ‘Ictos ab arma ignifera’ ‘ad Fico, qui Slovaciae primus minister est,’ ‘MITTUNT’. ‘Vulnerato in pectus et in adbdomen’ ‘FUIT’. ‘MEDICI’ ‘DICUNT’ [‘eum’ ‘pro vita sua’ ‘PUGNARE’] - {De syntaxe: infinitivi orationem secundariam completivam, in accusativo, cum infinitivo ab inteligentiae verbis ATTENDE} /// ‘Cinque ICTI’ ‘ab arma ignifera’ ‘in via’ ‘FUERUNT’. ‘Rei publicae MODERATORES’ ‘insidiam’ ‘CONDEMNANT’. /// ‘Homicidae NOMEN’ ‘Juraj Cintula’ ‘EST’. ‘Septuaginta unum annos natus’, ‘poeta et in recessus’ ‘EST’. IN ITALIA. ‘TOTI’ ‘vicinus’ ‘ex dimisione’ ‘EST’. ‘PRESSIO’ ‘contra praetorem’ ‘AUGMENTAT’. ‘NUNTII IN LINGUA LATINA’ ‘IN LINGUA LATINA ET GALLICA’ ‘AUDIS’! IN UCRAINA. ‘RESISTENTIA MILITARIS’ ‘in Kharkiv’ ‘DEBILITATUR’. IN BELGICA. ‘Belgae incolae’ ‘PONDUS emptionis’ ‘anno’ ‘acer DIMINIUT’. Sed ‘DIVITES’ ‘plus pecuniae’ ‘HABENT’. IN NOVA CALEDONIA. TRANSLATIONES de Nova Caledonia ab Alba Daniela Rodríguez SUNT: Nova Caledonia in spiram vis. In responsione ad prōposuit reformationem constitutionis de administratoribus electoralium, duae noctes tumultuum archipelagum labefecērunt, incolas violentias annorum millesimi nongentesimi octogesimi commemorantes. /// Nova Caledonia: spectrum belli intestini. Secundum praefectum Reipublicae, Ludovicum Le Franc, 'hic res seditio est, recta via in bellum intestinum ingredimur. ‘NUNTII IN LINGUA LATINA’ ‘IN LINGUA LATINA ET GERMANICA’ ‘AUDIS’! IN UCRAINA. ‘UCRAINA’ ‘in oriente’ ‘DEFENDITUR’. IN GERMANIA. ‘UCRAINA’ ‘Consociationis ex pacto Atlantico Septentrionali sodalis’ ‘VIS ESSE’. /// ‘Georgiae regimen’ ‘legem contra procuratores exteros’ ‘APPROBAT’, et ‘RECLAMATORES’ ‘ad vias’ ‘EICIUNT’. Georgia ad Russiam APPROPINQUATUR et ab Europa RECEDITUR. /// ‘Europae OECONOMIA’ ‘RECIPERATUR’, sed ‘Gemaniae OECONOMIA’ ‘aliquantulum RECIPERATUR’. ‘NUNTII IN LINGUA LATINA’ ‘IN LINGUA LATINA ET HISPANICA’ ‘AUDIS’! IN HISPANIA. TRANSLATIO a Fernanda Solís Cámara EST: Iuvenis hispanici viginti quinque centesimis pauperiores sunt quam in anno duo milia et viginti. IN MEXICO. TRANSLATIONES de Mexici nuntiis a Casandra Freire SUNT: Publicus defectus ducenti octo et quadraginta per centesima augetur. Pecuniae reditus petrolei decrescunt et impendium pro sociali causa ante comitia oritur. /// Historica violentia. Institutiones monent ut industria sceli regionem rei publicae increbebuerint, praeterea metuunt ne participationem in comitiis afficiat. /// Remotionem iudicialium fideicommissorum intermissunt. /// Giselae interfectores cadunt post quadraginta quinque diebus. IN ARGENTINA. Post sex menses, ‘INFLATIO monetalis’ ‘soltantum uno digito’ ‘EST’. IN BRASILIA. TRANSLATIO a Netzahualcóyotl Lara EST: Lula Pratem exauctorit; Magda Chambriard praeerit Petrobram. Nominatus pro civitate qui ANP ducebat dum gubernatio Dilmae. IN IAPONIA. TRANSLATIONES et nuntiorum selectio a his nuntiis ex Juan Carlos Luna SUNT: ‘Factio democratica liberalis’ ‘triginta milia membra’ ‘AMITTIT’. Primus Minister iubet: “optime reddens fidem”. /// NHK ministerium interretialis fiet “ministerium essentialem” secundum legem recognitam pro Instrumentis Communicationis Socialis. /// ‘Responsiones Waseda Universitas inqusitionis postulantes admittandae’ ‘FUGIUNTUR’. Praeteritis temporibus ‘fallacia electronica’ FUIT. Hoc die undas radioelectricas obstruere non POTEST. Si Nuntii in Lingua Latina traductor esse VOLUERIS, quaeso litteram electronicam ad lpesquera@up.edu.mx MITTAS’. If you would like to collaborate as a translator in Nuntii in Lingua Latina, please send an email to lpesquera@up.edu.mx

Good afternoon, I'm _____ with today's episode of EZ News. Tai-Ex opening The Tai-Ex opened up 57-points this morning from last Wednesday's close, at 20,395 on turnover of 9.1-billion N-T. The market shed more than 100-points last Wednesday - the final trading day of the week. Market sentiment was negatively affected by both the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck earlier that day and losses on Wall Street overnight. The bellwether electronics sector led the downturn. Investors were concerned about the possible impact on production resulting from the temblor. Czech Republic Looking into Allegations Chinese Diplomat Tailed HsiaoBi-khim The government of the Czech Republic says it's investigation allegations that a Chinese diplomat tailed Vice President-elect Hsiao Bi-khim during her visit to the country last month. According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the statement by Czech officials comes after Taiwan's representative office in Prague contacted authorities. There were reports by a news site that a Chinese diplomat was stopped by police while following Hsiao's motorcade. The report by a Prague-based news site says "Chinese governmental surveillance (監視)" continued until Hsiao arrived at her hotel in the Czech capital. Hsiao visited the Czech Republic from March 17 to 19 to speak at a seminar. Two More Taipei Restaurants Closed Due to Suspected Food Poisoning And, Health authorities in Taipei says two more restaurants in the city owned by Wowprime have been temporarily closed, after 22 people reported falling ill with symptoms of food poisoning. According to city government, the 22 people sought medical attention and reported symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea, after eating at Truewow and XIANG LA Spicy Hot Pot. Both are located in the same building in the city's Ximending shopping district. The 22 patients dined (吃飯，進餐) at the restaurants between April 2 and 4. Health authorities have carried out inspections at the two restaurants and found multiple problems. They are also testing food and environmental samples. Nigeria Kidnapping Victims Rescued Police authorities in Nigeria say operatives of the force have rescued over 100 victims of kidnapping in the country. The hostages were abducted (被綁架) by gunmen in Katsina state in the country's northwest region from March 1st to 31st. Tesem Akende reports from Jos. Tunisia Fundraising Runner Runs Length of Africa British charity fundraiser Russ Cook has reached the northernmost point of Africa, completing a year-long quest to run the length of the continent. Dozens of supporters cheered Sunday as Cook reached a rocky outcrop in northern Tunisia. The 27-year-old set off from South Africa in April last year. He has run more than 16-thousand km across 16 countries in 352 days. The run has raised more than $870-thousand US dollars for charities that work with homeless young people, and helps displaced (流離失所) people from Western Sahara. That was the I.C.R.T. news, Check in again tomorrow for our simplified version of the news, uploaded every day in the afternoon. Enjoy the rest of your day, I'm _____. －－－－以下訊息由 SoundOn 動態廣告贊助商提供－－－－ 彰化銀行「馬偕認同卡」，申辦即享國內1%、海外3%、指定藥妝/藥局最高6%現金回饋。 刷卡同時，彰化銀行將回饋0.25%予馬偕醫療財團法人。 快來申辦一起做愛心! 了解更多：https://bankchb.pse.is/5qja3c 謹慎理財 信用至上

Jihar Katsina da ke Najeriya na daya daga cikin jihohin da ke fama da matsalar 'yan bindiga a yankin Arewa maso Yammacin kasar. Duk kokarin hukumomi jihar na sasantawa da 'yan bindigar yaci tura. Dangane da halin da jihar ke ciki kan matsalolin tsaro, Bashir Ibrahim Idris ya tattauna da Comrade Bashir Dauda sakataren kungiyar muryar talata a Najeriya.Ku latsa alamar sauti don jin cikakken zantawar tasu.....

It's Tuesday, March 26th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus.  (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Kevin Swanson Nigerian Christian students ostracized at two universities After Nigerian Christians have faced years of persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists, now this. Alliance Defending Freedom International reports that two public universities in Katsina State, one state and one federal, have placed bans on the use of their facilities for Christian religious activities.  Lawsuits have been filed under provisions provided by the nation's constitution which allows religious freedoms. One of the universities enforced the ban by locking all worship and fellowship centers on university grounds, preventing Christian students and groups from accessing the facilities, and banning them from meeting for worship and fellowship elsewhere on campus. Meanwhile, Muslim student groups at both universities have been permitted to hold worship and fellowship meetings in university-constructed worship and meeting spaces. Both universities have relatively high percentages of Christian students and faculty despite Katsina being a Muslim-majority state. Nigeria is the sixth most difficult country worldwide to be a Christian. Nigerian pastor acquitted of helping runaway Muslim girl Thankfully, there is some good news in Nigeria. After languishing in a Nigerian jail for three years, Pastor Jonah Gangas and his wife, Josephine Gangas, were finally acquitted of wrongdoing after taking in and educating a young Nigerian girl. The couple took in a runaway 12-year-old Muslim girl at the request of the local police, but later was prosecuted by a local Islamic group.   Nigeria's crippling 30% inflation Persecuting Christians isn't helping the economic crisis in Nigeria. The nation is dealing with 30% inflation.  Prices for food staples like rice and bread have doubled in a year.  Nigeria's per capita Gross Domestic Product topped out at $3,200 in 2014, after which the nation began electing Muslim presidents.  The per capita GDP has since dropped off to $2,200.  Minnesota eager to persecute Christian ministries The State of Minnesota is on the warpath to persecute Christian ministries operating within the state lines.   The Minnesota state government turned over to complete Democrat control as of 2022. AlphaNews.com reports that a Senate committee voted down an amendment last week that would have protected religious institutions against claims of “gender identity discrimination.”   The Minnesota Human Rights Act now requires Christian schools and religious organizations not to discriminate against men, pretending to be women, in their hiring practices. Listen to this warning from Isaiah chapter 5, verses 18 and 20. “Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes. … Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Chemical abortions account for 63% of all U.S. abortions Over the last eight years, the Food and Drug Administration has removed “safety standards” for the use of drugs used for the intentional killing of pre-born children in this country.  This has enabled mail-order abortions, now available through Telehealth, in all 50 states.    These chemical abortions make up 63% of all abortions, and Telehealth accounts for 16% of all abortions. Also, according to reports assembled by MotherJones.com, 90% of these Telehealth abortions occur in states where abortions are banned or severely restricted. This amounts to at least 200,000 extra abortions for the top three providers. Colorado abortion providers are reporting 6,000 out-of-state abortions per year by Telehealth. Supreme Court hears Abortion Kill Pill case Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will be hearing arguments on a case filed by four national medical associations, their members, and four individual doctors against the FDA for unlawfully removing the “safety standards” over the Abortion Kill Pill. Pro-lifers are watching this highly significant case. Last week, The Worldview reported that the number of abortions is up 10% since 2020. The significant increase is due to the ease of access to the chemical abortion pill in all fifty states.  Man charged with double murder including pregnant mother and baby In a related story, a New Hampshire man is charged with a double murder, as the suspect in the killing of a pregnant woman and her pre-born child. The charge noted that the crime occurred "under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life.” William Kelly, age 38, has been indicted by the Carroll County Grand Jury in connection with the deaths of Christine Falzone and her pre-born child. This represents the first prosecution of the state's fetal homicide bill since it was passed in 2018. Leviticus 24:17 presents God's law on murder: “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death.” Median price of new homes fell 19% The median price of a new home in the United States fell 19% from its 2023 high, reports WolfStreet.com. The price difference between the median new home price and the median used home price is also the lowest since 2007 — just before the last great recession. $1.2 trillion funding bill passes, but bans homosexual embassy flags President Joe Biden got about everything he wanted in the $1.2 trillion government funding package passed over the weekend, except for one thing.   The Republicans attached a provision that banned the flying of LGBTQ Pride flags above U.S. embassies around the world. America's deficit heading to $2 trillion And finally, based on Bipartisan Policy's Deficit Tracker's numbers, the 2024 deficit is heading towards $2 trillion this year. That's up from $1.7 trillion last fiscal year, and $1.38 trillion the year before. To compare, the average annual deficit under Barack Obama's administration was $817 billion. Close And that's The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Tuesday, March 26th in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

News headlines *Reps okay bill on state police for second reading *Customs to begin distribution of seized food items — Spokesperson *Bandits kill six in fresh Katsina attack *Economic hardship: IPOB warns against protest in South-East

Die 22 Pueblo-Gesellschaften der USA haben Schilder aufgestellt, die jegliche Aufnahmen an ihren Orten verbieten. Der berühmte Kunsthistoriker Aby Warburg hat seinen Anteil daran. Von Egon Kochwww.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Das FeatureHören bis: 02. Februar 2025, 20:00

Embark on a fascinating journey through time and space and discuss  "Star people".  We delve  into the enthralling intersection of extraterrestrial phenomena and ancient indigenous wisdom. Join us as we explore the rich tapestry of stories, beliefs, and encounters that bridge the gap between the cosmos and Earth's original inhabitants.In this thought-provoking podcast, we bring you riveting accounts from indigenous communities, sharing their profound connections with celestial beings, encounters, and ancient astronaut lore. Unearth the age-old myths that describe cosmic visitors and their influence on cultural practices, from the Hopi prophecies of Katsina to the Zuni legends of the Sky People.Sit back and enjoy this amazing episode of Nightmares of the Americas Indigenous Tales! Merch store- https://indigenoustales.threadless.com/Email us at info@behillnetwork.com Also check out our Instagram -https://www.instagram.com/indigenous_tales/And our TikTok -https://www.tiktok.com/@indigenous_talesAmanda Bland Dallas area Bakeryinstagram - https://www.instagram.com/cupidsweetsbakes/Cupid Sweets- https://www.facebook.com/cupidsweets

The  recent attacks which happened separately in Zamfara, Kaduna, Bornu, and Katsina where so many  people  were abducted are some indications of the deplorable state of security in the country.Why are we experiencing the resurgence of these attacks? In this episode of Nigeria Daily, we find out.

Kate Adie presents stories from Israel, the US, Nigeria, Ukraine and Austria. After months of protests, Israel's Prime Minister moved to delay his controversial judicial reforms, which many have criticised for being undemocratic. But the underlying tensions over the future direction of the government have not gone away, and the protest movement is now split, says Tom Bateman. In Florida, several laws have come into force that restrict what can be taught in classrooms. Led by Governor Ron DeSantis, state Republicans say the laws are necessary to shield children from inappropriate content and liberal indoctrination around issues of race and sexual orientation. Chelsea Bailey visited one high school, where teachers say they are being scared into silence. In northwest Nigeria, gangs of bandits have been raiding villages and kidnapping men, women and children for ransom. Villagers have become reliant on local vigilantes to help protect them, but they are ill-equipped to take them on. Alex Last was in Katsina. James Landale, the BBC's Diplomatic correspondent, has spoken to a bartender in Kyiv who had to relocate from Kharkiv with his family when his apartment block was destroyed by a Russian missile. He and a group of bartenders have pooled their resources to start a new business in the capital. And finally, Bethany Bell reflects on the elevated status afforded to a regular of bars or restaurants - known as a 'Stammgast' which comes with bonus privileges. We hear how she finally acquired this honour at her local espresso bar. Series Producer: Serena Tarling Researcher: Bethan Ashmead Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Production Coordinator: Sabine Schreck

Humanoid Woman plays a curious tone and compels Chris and Charlotte to discuss Humanoid Woman, Through the Thorns to the Stars, Per Aspera Ad Astra, To The Stars by Hard Ways, and Через тернии к звёздам.SHOW NOTES.Humanoid Woman: MST3K Wiki. IMDb.Come see us live in Portland! Our episode on Robot Monster.[UPDATE: Looks like they were peeking at the movie beforehand at this point, but probably not watching it all the way through.]Some Russian sources: A thirtieth anniversary article. A fashion-forward look back. An official site [if it looks weird, try it in Chrome].A comparison of some of the edits.The full movie, unMSTed, uploaded [I believe] by the copyright holders. Watch this one, is my advice.A channel hosting a few versions of the 2001 edit with new effects [but possibly with the original sountrack and actors' voices?].An interview with Vladimir Federov.Ruslan and Ludmilla.Vadim Ledogorov in New Zealand.The Man Who Fell to Earth.Kir Bulychev.Gumby: Rain Spirits.Katsina dolls.The Cat from Outer Space.Jay Levy: Heiveinu Shalom Aleichem.All You Need Is Cash.The Rutles: Cheese and Onions.Hūsker Dū for sale.The New Zoo Revue: School.Support It's Just A Show on Patreon and hear some more from this episode that we cut for time.

Residents of Katsina decry cases of soldiers allegedly beating civilians, leading to the reported death and hospitalisation of many innocent people.The most recent reported case is the alleged of one Mohammed Mairuwa, a commercial driver, by some soldiers based in Funtua.In this episode we find out what really transpired.

In the last few years, powerful criminal gangs have terrorised a swathe of north west and central Nigeria. From camps in the forest, gangs of bandits on motorbikes have attacked villages killing and kidnapping men, women and children. So how can Nigeria's new leader restore security? What does it say about the future of security in Africa's most populous nation? Alex Last has been to the north western city of Katsina to meet some of those battling the bandits. Photo: Some of the weapons used by vigilantes in Zamfara state, north west Nigeria, 2019 (Photo by Kola Sulaimon / AFP via Getty Images) Reporter: Alex Last Producer: Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar Sound mix: Rod Farquhar Series Editor: Penny Murphy Production assistant: Helena Warwick-Cross

Dakta Kamaluddeen Kabir, dan asalin jigar Katsina ne mai digirin digirgir wanda yayi karatunsa a tsakanin Najeriya da Birtaniya sannan kuma Malami ne yanzu haka a jami'ar Umaru Musa 'YarAdua da ke jihar ta Katsina. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/usmankabara/message

It's Monday, January 23rd, A.D. 2023. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. By Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com) Nigerian Catholic priest burned to death, another survived gunshots On January 15th, a Catholic priest, Isaac Achi, was burned to death and another, Collins Omeh, sustained gunshot wounds in a terrorist attack in Niger state, Nigeria, reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide. In a separate incident the same day, 25 churchgoers were abducted in Katsina state in the northwest. The local chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria was burned beyond recognition and the rectory was gutted when terrorists set it ablaze after failing to gain entry forcibly. Pray that the violent and peaceful Nigerian Muslims alike would come to faith in Jesus Christ. First March for Life in post-Roe America On Friday, January 20th, 100,000 pro-lifers marched in the 50th annual March for Life, which first took place following the 1973 Supreme Court decision known as Roe v. Wade which legalized abortion, reports LifeNews.com. Jeanne Mancini, the President of the March for Life, welcomed the attendees. MANCINI: “Let me welcome you all here, in person, for the 50th March for Life, the first post-Roe March for Life. (applause) The country and world changed on June 24th, when the Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health decision allowing the people, through their elected officials, at the state and the federal level to impact pro-life laws. “So many giants paved the way for this momentous victory, including our own Nellie Gray, the founder of the March for Life, whose birthday was on June 24. I can't think of a better birthday gift.” Mancini talked about the pro-life battle ahead. MANCINI: “The human rights abuse of abortion is far from over. Sadly, this year alone in the United States, there will be well over 700,000 abortions. And we know that in every abortion one life is taken and at least one life is wounded. We will continue to march until the human rights abuse of abortion is a thing of the past.” Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” Pro-life Rep: Call your Senators to pass Born Alive bill Republican Congressman Steve Scalise of Louisiana was encouraged by the recent passage of the Born Alive Survivors Protection Act. SCALISE: “Just a few months ago, when Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House, we brought a bill called the Born Alive Act, a bill that says if a baby is born alive, outside the womb, you cannot murder that baby and call it abortion. Do you know 80 different times Nancy Pelosi blocked that bill from coming to the floor? (audience boos) “The story actually gets better. In just eight days of a Republican majority, we brought up that bill and passed it through the House of Representatives. (audience cheers) That bill is over in the Senate right now. “Call your senators. They haven't brought it up yet. [Democratic Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer doesn't want to bring it up. But if he hears from all of you, they'll have to bring that bill up. “There are only about a handful of countries that allow this barbaric process -- countries like China, like North Korea, and unfortunately America. America should not be on that list of barbaric countries.” To ask your two senators to pass the Born Alive bill, call 202-224-3121. That's 202-224-3121. Coach Dungy compares prayers for NFL player with unborn babies Former Indianapolis Colts Coach Tony Dungy talked about the power of prayer at the March for Life, reports LifeNews.com. DUNGY: “A young man named Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills made a routine tackle, and his heart stopped beating right on the field. It could have been tragic, but something miraculous happened. The team medical staff rushed out. They got Damar's heart started again. But you know what? that wasn't the miracle. The real miracle was the reaction of everyone to that. “The announcers on the broadcast, what did they say? ‘All we can do is pray.' (audience cheers) And all across the country, people started praying. Usually when that happens, the cameras cut away from that. “Back when I was coaching in the 1990s, Christian players got together and they said, ‘We want to pray after the games.' And we actually got a memo from the NFL office said, ‘Don't let your players do that. If you do, you'll be fined, because that's not appropriate.' Can you believe that? (audience boos) That's a true story. “Well, those prayers were answered. Damar is recovering. Now he's home. He's been released from the hospital. (audience cheers) But what's the lesson in that? You know, an unbelievable thing happened that night, a professional football game with millions of dollars of ticket money and advertising money on the line, that game was canceled. Why? Because a life was at stake. And people wanted to see that life saved. “Well, that should be encouraging to us because that's exactly why we're here today. Because every day in this country, innocent lives are at stake.” Atlanta rioters smash windows and set police car on fire Last Wednesday night, Manuel Teran, who objected to the building of a $90 million training facility for the Atlanta Police Department in a forested area dubbed “Cop City,” shot a police officer in the abdomen, reports CBS News. In the ensuing exchange of gun fire, Teran was killed. Proverbs 22:8 says, “Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity, and the rod they wield in fury will be broken.” Afterwards, a Twitter account for a local Defund the Police group, called @ScenesATL, called on Friday for a "night of rage" along with "reciprocal violence to be done to the police and their allies,” reports Fox5Atlanta. That account has subsequently been suspended. In response, on Saturday night, violent rioters, who stormed downtown Atlanta, set a police car on fire and smashed windows of three businesses including Wells Fargo Bank, reports The New York Post. Georgia Republican Attorney General Chris Carr   tweeted, “To the Atlanta Media: Peaceful protestors use words. Rioters smash windows, set police cars on fire & shoot law enforcement officers. Stop calling these people protesters.” Anarchists with a group called “Stop Cop City” stated, “All reported acts appear to be explicitly targeted against the financial backers & goons of the Atlanta Police Foundation, a shady nonprofit that funnels weapons and military gear into our city to wage war on black and brown folks.” 10 killed, 10 wounded at a dance club outside L.A. And finally, police were involved in a stand-off Sunday with an Asian man they believe killed 10 people in a mass shooting Saturday night at a dance club during the Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park, California outside Los Angeles, reports NewsMax.com. Ten others were wounded. Close And that's The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Monday, January 23rd, in the year of our Lord 2023. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Ahead of the March 11, 2023, governorship election, voters in Katsina State have emphasised the need for clear-cut policies.In a quest to understand the agenda of the gubernatorial canditates and what they have installed for the people of Katsina State, Media Trust in collaboration with Centre for Democracy and Development CDD has organised a townhall meeting.Find out in this episode of Nigeria Daily,  what the Canditates  have planned for the people of Katsina State and what the people really want.

It's Friday, November 4th, A.D. 2022. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. By Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com) Nigerian Muslims kidnap 40 kids and demand $70,000 ransom On November 3rd, unidentified Muslim militants in Northern Nigeria abducted 40 children in an attack on a farm in Katsina state, reports International Christian Concern. The Premium Times, a Nigerian newspaper, reported that the kidnappers have demanded the payment of $70,000 as ransom.  The militants have contacted the parents of the children asking for the money. Join me in prayer. Dear Jesus, Please intervene and orchestrate the situation so that these abducted Nigerian children will be safely and quickly returned to their families. Amen. In John 14:14, Jesus said, “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” How an Ohio voter stumped Democrat Senator Tim Ryan According to RealClearPolitics.com, the U.S. Senate continues to be a toss-up between the Democrats and Republicans as Election Day on Tuesday, November 8th rapidly approaches. Right now, there are 45 seats that are likely to be retained by the Democrats and 48 seats likely to be retained by the Republicans.  Plus, there are 7 seats that are toss-up. One seat that leans Republican is in Ohio between the Democrat, Tim Ryan, and the Republican, J.D. Vance. Right now, Vance is only leading by 3% which is within the margin of error. In a recent debate, a woman in the audience asked Ryan this pointed question. VOTER: "Can you look me in the face and tell me that government expenditures on green energy subsidies through the 'Inflation Reduction Act' that increase our national debt are in any way lessening my burden at the gas station and the grocery store?" RYAN: "I, I could not say that, right now, in the present moment." As you vote on Election Day, Tuesday, November 8th, make sure to go to www.iVoterGuide.com, type in your address and get access to a robust examination of the candidates on your ballot from a Biblical perspective. NPR plays audio of an abortion on air And finally, before you hear the next story, I'd like to issue a parental advisory. If you have children with you, and you're listening by radio, you might want to turn the volume off for about two minutes.  If you're listening to the podcast, you might want to listen to it at a later time when your kids are not with you. So, here's the story. Brace yourself. Yesterday morning, National Public Radio did something quite unique. They aired the audio of an actual abortion in Detroit, Michigan, reports LifeSiteNews.com. The woman had given her consent to have the murder of her baby captured by the radio affiliate. Narrated by reporter Kate Wells on Michigan's “Morning Edition,” they featured the story of a mother who aborted her 11-week-old baby at Northland Family Planning in metro Detroit. Here is the critical excerpt from her NPR story. It starts with an abortion assistant, named Brandi, directing the mother right before the abortion. BRANDI: “So, I am just going to get you set up on the table and we're going to do (inaudible) medicine. I'm gonna pull this out under your legs.” WELLS:  “Most patients are partially awake during the procedures. They get IV medication for pain and anxiety. The lights are dimmed, there's soothing music. It actually feels a lot like a childbirth. The medical gown, your bare legs in stirrups, and a person next to you saying, ‘You can do this.'” BRANDI: “Just keep breathing. Just keep breathing.” WELLS: “That's Brandi. She's one of the staffers. Her job is to monitor vital signs. But it is also to hold the patient's hand and talk her through this. Whether it's a birth or an abortion, it is often women guiding other women.” BRANDI: “You're going to hear this machine turn on now. Okay?  It makes a loud noise.” MOTHER: “Okay.” (The abortionist turns on the suction machine) After dilation of the cervix, a suction curette, a tube with a serrated tip, is inserted into the uterus. The strong suction, which is 29 times more powerful than your household vacuum cleaner, tears the baby's body apart and sucks it through the hose into a container. This is the most common method of surgical abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. BRANDI: “Blow it out. Blow it out. Breathe deep. Breathe deep.  Blow it out. Listen to me. Blow it out. If you hold it wherever you make it harder for you. Keep breathing. Keep breathing.” WELLS: “'Just keep breathing,' Brandy tells her over and over. ‘I can't!' the patient says at one point when the cramps get painful. ‘Yes, you can,' Brandy tells her. ‘You're doing it.' And then within just a couple of minutes, it's over.” MOTHER: (Moaning) BRANDI: “Take some deep breaths for me." MOTHER: (Moaning) BRANDI: “Catch your breath.” MOTHER: (breathing deeply) BRANDI: “You did it!” MOTHER: “Thank you guys so much!” BRANDI: “You are welcome.” Greg Price, a pro-lifer, tweeted, “This clip puts on full display what an abortion actually is: violence and full on dehumanization of the unborn. That's why it's important to share. To show reality.” Price also said, “So, listen to that audio. It's incredibly tough, but it's important. Listen to it and then think to yourself about how the only pitch the Democrat Party is making to the voters in the midterm election is more of that.” Plus, the pro-life group Live Action tweeted, “A recording of a murder.  Outlaw abortion now.” Note the cruel irony of how the NPR reporter oddly compared the brutal murder of the mother's baby to the joy of child birth. While NPR should be applauded for airing the audio, notice how they lowered the volume at the most difficult part to hear and the reporter complimented the abortion assistant for aiding in the murder. This much is clear. Proverbs 6 says God hates seven things including “the hands that shed innocent blood.” Close And that's The Worldview on this Friday, November 4th, in the year of our Lord 2022. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

My guest on this episode is Stefan Dercon - author of the recently published and most excellent book ‘Gambling on Development: Why Some Countries Win and Others Lose'. Development scholars have produced many explanations for why some countries did better than others after the Second World War. Factors like geography, quality or type of institutions, foreign aid, and protective trade policies, have been argued as what explains this divergence in national prosperity between countries. Dercon's contribution will no doubt be plugged into this long-running debate - and in my opinion, he comes closest to having a ‘‘first principles'' explanation than anyone I have read on the subject. Other theories leave you with nagging questions - Where do good institutions come from? Are countries condemned by their histories? Why do some countries use foreign aid better? Why are some countries with rich geographic endowments doing worse? Why does protective trade lead some countries toward becoming industrial exporting giants, and some others into a macroeconomic crisis?Dercon argues that countries that have done better do so by working out a ‘development bargain'. This comes about when the people with power and influence (elites) in a country find a cooperative agreement (bargain) to consciously pursue economic development and national enrichment. Development bargains are not simple, they are often messy. And elites are not a bunch of altruistic do-gooders. Rather, through many complicated networks of intra-elite competitions and cooperation, they decide to gamble on the future by betting that economic development will deliver the biggest win. Dercon does not claim to have found the holy grail of development - and there are still many questions to be answered. But his argument does lead to one inevitable conclusion. Countries and their people will have to figure out what works for them and how that delivers prosperity.Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University. He was the Chief Economist of the UK's Department of International Development (DFID).TranscriptTobi; Was your experience really what inspired you to write the book?Stefan; Well, you know, what inspired me definitely is just the contrast that I've had in terms of things I do. Because I've been an academic for a long time, I have more than 30 years writing and studying and, you know, I was one of these academics who like to, as one sometimes puts it, you know, like, likes to get mud on their feet, you know, mud on their boots. I used to work mostly on rural households and in most countries, these are amongst the poorest people, and you just get to know what's going on there. I have a policy interest, and I was just lucky 10 years ago, a bit more than that, I got a job as a Chief Economist in the UK aid agency, and it's just that contrast of having had the chance and the opportunity to get involved on the policy side, on meeting all the more senior people...and it's just that contrast between still enjoying being surrounded by people and what they do and understands livelihoods of poorer people, combined with being in the policy space, I felt like, you know, I have a unique perspective that I wanted to communicate. And it was just a quest to communicate, actually. If anything, I wanted just to tell more of these stories because I think, from all sides, we tend to misunderstand a lot of what's going on and how things work in practice. And that's definitely the case on the academic side. We're so far sometimes from reality that I wanted to tell that story a bit more.Tobi; And I mean, after you wrote the book, and after publication, I presume from some of the feedback that your book is actually quite successful. I gave so many copies away, right, I can't even count. I think at some point, I temporarily bought out Roving Heights' entire stock. So how has the reception been generally?Stefan; I mean, look, what you just told me makes it much more worthwhile than if white kids in Oxford are buying the book. So what I'm really pleased with is that it appealed to a much broader group of people. And actually, you know, if I'm really honest, I hadn't expected that people like you or I was in Bangladesh last week that young people there would actually appreciate the book, you know, that you would actually get people that think about these problems in these countries are actually interested in it. And I'm very pleased that people find it both worthwhile to read and quite interesting. Of course, I get some academics. One story last week in Bangladesh, I had a question, you know, how Lenin fitted in my book. Now, I had to struggle with the answer of how Vladimir Lenin would actually fit into the book and thinking, you know, that's an academic typically responding to, you know... I don't know, I'm not a deep theoretician but it was written out of a kind of pragmatic sense of what can I learn from economics and politics that actually is worthwhile communicating. So it's well received. And if I'm really honest, I don't mind that there are pdf copies circulating as well and things like that. Actually, as long as it's read, you know, you write a book, not because you want the highest sales, but you actually want it to be read, and that actually makes it really interesting that people seem to be able to relate to it. Another group that, actually, I found really interesting that can relate to it is people that are either civil servants working in governments like - in yours, as well as maybe aid officials and International World Bank officials, IMF officials, who actually find it helpful as well. You know, and there's usually a huge bridge between them, there's a huge gap between how in Washington when we think about these things, or in London or in Abuja, and so that's pleasing as well. You know, I don't give a solution to the things but I think I touched on something of where a big part of the problem of development lies is that actually, we are, unfortunately, in quite a few countries, still with governments that fundamentally are backed by elites that don't really want to make the progress and do the hard work. And that's an unfortunate message. But at the same time, you have other countries that are surprising countries that make the progress. And so clearly, there is a lesson there that it's not simply like the problem is simple. Actually, the problem is to some extent, simple. It's about, fundamentally, do you want to actually make it work, make this progress work? And I think that echoes with quite a lot of people - the frustration that many of us have, that some countries seem to be stuck and not making enough progress and we need to be willing to call it out for what it is that it's not entirely the fault of those people who are in control, but they could do far more for the better than they actually do.Tobi; For the purpose of making the conversation practical and accessible, in the spirit of the book itself, I'm going to be asking you some very simple... and what I consider to be fundamental questions for the benefit of the audience and people that probably have not read the book. So there have been so many other books on development that have also been quite as popular as yours, Why Nations Fail comes to mind, and so many others, The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs, some of which you actually reviewed in the opening chapters of the book. And at the heart of most of them is some kind of fundamental concept that then defines how the body of work itself or the central idea itself works, whether it's institutions, or culture, or industrial policy, or whatever. For your book, you talked a lot about the development bargain, what is the development bargain? And how does it work?Stefan; So the way I look at any country in the world, and I mean, any country, rich or poor country is that one way or another, there is a group of people, which I call for convenience, ''the elite.'' It's not like a pejorative title or a title to applaud them, but simply as a descriptive title. The group of people, in politics, civil service, in business definitely, maybe the military, maybe even civil society, key universities, public intellectuals, I talk about the group that I refer to as the elite, these are the people that have power, or they have influenced one way or another, that can be quite broad. Now in every society, I think it's that group that tends to determine what politics and the economy will look like, what the direction of a country will look like, in any society. And I call that underlying idea [as] they have essentially a form of an elite bargain, a bargain between the different people, they don't have to agree on everything, but to have some kind of an agreement that this is the principle by which, you know, my country will be run in politics and in the economy. Now we could have lots of these elite bargains. We could have an elite bargain that, for example, is based on: if I happen to have power, then everything that I'll do is to reward the people that brought me to power. I'll give them jobs in government. I'll give them maybe contracts, I'll do something, you know, technically, we call this Clientelist. You could have another one where he's saying, Look, no, we're going to run this country, totally, where everybody gets an equal right or equal opportunity, and in a particular way. And so you could have political systems that are around this. Now you could have all these things coming together. You could have also regimes that basically say, Well, the main purpose for us is to keep us as a small group in power, you know, he could have a particular way of doing it. Or indeed, to make sure we use it entirely to steal anything we can get and we'll actually put it in our own pockets, you could have a kleptocracy. You could have lots of these different things, you know, you could have different societies. Now, what I mean by development bargain, is actually fundamentally where that underlying elite bargain values, the underlying idea is that we want to grow our economy, and we want to do this in quite an inclusive way. We want to have developmental outcomes as well. And we make this a key part of the elite bargain. So basically, I define a development bargain as an elite bargain - the deals that we have in running our economy and our politics, that fundamentally, one big way we will judge it is that when we make progress in the growth of the economy, and also in development for the broader population, and I call that the development bargain. And I want to actually go a step further and say if you don't have this, you will never see growth and development in your country. You could have leaders talk about it. They could make big development plans, but if underlying all this there is not a fundamental commitment by all these key players that actually it's worthwhile doing, we're not going to achieve it. And maybe I'll make a quick difference here with say, how does that difference...(now, you mentioned Why Nations Fail.) Now, that underlying elite bargain, of course, the nature of your rule of law, your property rights, all these things, they clearly will matter to some extent, but Why Nations Fail puts this entirely into kind of some historical process. And a lot of people that talk about getting institutions right, they say, Well, you need to get institutions right before you can develop, and they seem to come from a long historical process. In my concept of elite bargain, I would actually emphasize [that] even if your country is not perfect in these institutions, even if there's still some corruption left, even if there are still some issues with the political system, even with the legal system, we actually have countries that can make progress if, fundamentally, that commitment is there amongst the elite. So you don't have to wait until perfection starts before you can start to develop. And that actually [means that] I want to put much more power into the hands... sorry, agency is the better word, I put much more agency in those who at the moment are in control of the state. History may not be favourable for you, there may be a history of colonialism, there may be other histories, factors that clearly will affect the nature of your country at a particular moment in time. But actually agency from the key actors today, they can overcome it. And in fact, in the book, I have plenty of examples of countries that start from imperfection, and actually start doing quite interesting things in terms of growth and development, while other countries are very much more stagnant and staying behind. Tobi; You sort of preempted my next question. I mean, since say, 1990, or thereabout, when the results of some of the ''Asia Tigers'' started coming in, maybe also through the works of people like Wade, Hamsden and co., countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, have become like the standard for economic development, and subsequent analysis around issues of development always look at those countries and also their neighbours who have actually made some progress, maybe not as much as those specific countries. But what I want to ask you about in your book is, you talk about some of the works on development trying to reach for some kind of long history or some kind of historical...I don't want to say dependency or determinism, but you get my point. So my point is, if we go outside of these Asian Tigers, if we go back to say, Japan, or even the second industrial revolution, America, Germany, the Netherlands, can we observe the development bargain as you have described it? Is it also consistent through history?Stefan; I would say Absolutely. I mean, one of the things with when we look at these countries with longer-term success, you mentioned correctly, you know, the Koreas and also Japan, or going back in time to the Industrial Revolution, the second industrial revolution and so on, actually, we take for granted that actually they really wanted to succeed. And it's actually one of these things, and especially in recent history, [South] Korea came out of deep conflict, of course, it was also called War so they got certain support as well. But it was really important for both Japan and Korea after the Second World War, for Japan to re-emerge and for Korea to emerge. It was a form of also getting legitimacy towards their own population. So it was a real underlying deep commitment by that elite in these countries to try to make a success of it. We take it for granted, if we go back in history, take England in the 19th century...I mean, it was a very strong thing, it's like, you know, we wanted to show that actually, we are ruling the world on commerce and all the kinds of things, there was a deep motivation. And of course, also the pressures, you know, remember, the society was being very fractured, and we can't call growth in the 19th century in Britain very inclusive. [There was] a lot of change happening, and indeed, you know, very poor people I think actually initially didn't manage to take up. But especially if we come to the early 20th century became this kind of thing surely [where] development in the form of growth was also when it's a little bit broader shared, became quite part of it. And it's one of these things that when you look at politics, whether it's in the 1930s or 40s or 50s or now, whether it's in England or in America, actually growth and development, I won't take it for granted. People are voted out of office because they are not managing the economy well. There is a lot of political pressure in Europe now. And it's really political because ''oh you're not dealing with the cost of living crisis right or you're undermining the real income increases.'' You know, the US election, we ended up interpreting Trump as an election that actually [served] people [who] had stayed behind in the process of growth and development. Actually, in the politics of most richer countries, it's so much taken for granted that that's a big part of the narrative. So it's an interesting one (maybe, if I may) just to [use] China, I find it a really interesting one. Because, you know, the historical determinism is problematic there. And of course, some people would say, China should never have grown because it has the wrong institutions. But of course, it is growing fast. But if you think of a bit of what would be historical institutions that are relevant? China has had centralized taxation for 2000 years, a centralized bureaucracy for 2000 years, a meritocratic bureaucracy for 2000 years, you know, it actually had a history that actually acquired strong institutions. But funnily enough, when did it start? Just at the moment of deep weakness in the 1970s. When the Cultural Revolution had destabilised the legitimacy of the state, ideology was totally dominating, Mao died in the early 1970s and mid 1970s the Gang of Four came up, which was his widow, it was all turbulence. And actually lots of people thought China would disappear. It's at that moment, it picked up that kind of thing, you know, and actually, fundamentally, if you read all the statements of that periods, they became fundamentally committed, ''we need to make progress in our economy, that's our source of legitimacy.'' So even there there, that's where you see that actually really emerges and this became something that they needed to achieve - a fundamental commitment to growth and development as a form of getting legitimacy to the population. So in a very different way, as some of the other countries, but it's the same principle. Legitimacy of a lot of countries is equated with progress and growth and development, which is essentially a feature of a development bargain.Tobi; Obviously, all societies have some form of elite bargain. Not all elite bargains are development bargains. That's the gist of your book, basically. Now, what I'm trying to get at here is elite bargains that are not for development, that do not benefit the rapid progress of a society, how do they emerge? You talk about the agency of the people that are running the country at a particular point in time. To take Nigeria as an example, a lot of people will blame Nigeria's problems on colonialism. And I'm also quite intolerant of such arguments, at least up to a point. But what I'm trying to get at is that how do elite bargains that are not for development, how do they emerge? Is it via, also, the agency of the elites of those societies? Or are there features of a particular society that kind of determine the elite bargain that emerges? For example, sticking with Nigeria, a lot of people will argue that our elites and our institutions will think and look differently if we don't have oil.Stefan; Yes. Tobi; Right. The state will be less extractive in its thinking, the bureaucracy will be less predatory, right? A lot of people would argue that. So are there other underlying factors or features in a society that shape the kind of elite bargain that emerges, or this is just down to the agency of the people who find themselves with power and influence? They are just the wrong type of people.Stefan; So, Tobi, you make an excellent point here, and, so let's take this a little bit in turn. Leonard Wantchekon, the economic historian at Princeton, from Benin… he gave a nice lecture not so long ago, at Yale, it's on YouTube. And he made this very helpful statement, and he said, you know, if it's between history and agency, I would put 50% history 50% agency, okay. And I will actually add to it [which] is that depending on where you are, history is a little bit more or a little bit less. And so clearly, and he was talking about Africa in general, colonialism will matter. It has shaped your institutions and, you know, the way countries have emerged and the way they decolonized, all these things will have mattered, and they make it harder and easier and so on. But you alluded to it as well [that] at some level, it's already a long time ago now. Of course, it's still there, but it's a long time ago. So over time agency should become much more important. The point though, that you raise about oil makes a lot of sense. So the problem with a development bargain is that actually for a political elite, and for a business elite, dare I say for a military elite, the status quo is, of course, very convenient. Status quo is something that is very convenient because it involves very few risks. So the problem with growth typically is that, actually, new elites may emerge, a new type of business elites may emerge, they may question the economic elite that exists. As a result, it may change the politics. And in fact, if you go back to history, as we were saying, of course, that's the history of Britain where all the time, you know, there has been a shift of who is the elite, there's always a new elite, but it's shifting. So growth is actually a tricky thing. Because it actually, in that sense, changes relative positions in society. Now, that's obviously the case in every society. But it will even more so if the status quo is actually quite of relative affluence, if the status quo is actually quite a comfortable position to be. Now if you have natural resources, you don't need growth, to be able to steal. You can just basically control the resources that come out of the ground. And so your supply chain for stealing money can be very short, you don't have to do a very complicated game. If you need to get it from growth in the economy, it's much more complicated, and it's much more risky. Okay. And so it's not for nothing, that actually clearly, more countries that didn't have natural resources in recent times, over short periods of time, managed to actually get development bargains and basically leads gambling on it. Because actually, the status quo was not as lucrative as the status quo can be if you have a lot of oil or other minerals. And so you're right, and it makes it just really hard...and it actually means in fact [that] even well-meaning parts of the business elite in Nigeria will find it very hard to shift the model entirely. Because you know, you are a business elite, because you benefit from the system one way or another. I'm not saying that you steal, but it's just [how] the economy is based in Nigeria on a lot of non-tradables, is helped with the fact that you have so much to export from oil and so you end up importing a lot, but you can also keep your borders closed or anything you feel like keeping the borders closed for. And that helps for a lot of domestic industries, because protectionism, you know, you do all the things. So the system self sustains it. And with oil, there is not that much incentives to change it. So yes, it is actually harder if you have natural resources to actually reengineer the system to actually go for growth and development. So yes, it is the case. But it hasn't stopped certain countries from not going that route. You know, Malaysia has oil? Yes, it's not a perfect development bargain. But it has done remarkably well. Indonesia, in its early stages, also had oil in the 1970s as an important part, it managed this kind of relationship, and then maybe come the agency in it, you know, do we get enough actors that actually have the collective ability to shift these incentives enough to start promoting more outward orientation, try to export some new things from your country, all that kinds of stuff? And that is indeed what happened in Indonesia. There in the early 1970s, they had oil, but they also learned to export shoes and garments early on, they took advantage of good global situations. And Nigeria didn't, you know, and then agency comes into it, you know, the managers of both the politics and the relationship between politics and business, including from the military, they went in a particular route, and they had choices and they didn't take them. I'm pretty sure if you go back and, you know, there will be moments of choice and we went for another - as people call it - political settlement... another equilibrium that actually didn't involve development and growth as the key part. So yes, it makes it harder. But the agency still, still matters.Tobi; From that point, my next question then would be, what shifts an elite bargain more? That's kind of like do question, right? What shifts an elite bargain? These questions do sound simple. And I'm sorry, but I know they are incredibly difficult to answer. Otherwise, you wouldn't have written an entire book about it. Right. So what shifts an elite bargain more towards development? I mean, you talked about China, we've seen it also in so many other countries where the country was going in a particular direction that's not really pro growth, pro-development, and then there's this moment where things sort of shifts. So it may be through the actions of particular actors or events that inform those. So what... in your experience as a development practitioner and looking at all these places...What are the factors that have the most influence in shifting the elite bargain? Is it just luck? I mean, when I think about China, what if Deng Xiaoping and his colleagues had actually lost that particular power struggle after the death of Mao? So did they get lucky? Is it luck? What's going on?Stefan; You know, I wouldn't use title of gambling but there has to be a little bit of luck involved as well, you know, the circumstances have to play in your direction. But it's not just luck. Okay. So it's an interesting thing when you look at a couple of the countries, what were the moments that people within the elite managed to shift it in another direction? So. China is interesting because it was going through conflict, not deep conflict or violent conflict, but there was a lot of instability in China at the time, at the end of the Cultural Revolution in that period. Other countries like Bangladesh came out of conflict. And so conflict, definitely, or coming out of conflict creates a moment. But of course, there are lots of countries that come out of conflict that make a mess of it. It's a window of opportunity. And it probably is linked with something related to it, which is legitimacy. When you come out of conflict, most of the time, leaders need to reestablish legitimacy. This is clearly something that happened to Rwanda coming out of the genocide, Kagame clearly had to establish legitimacy, you know, he represented a very small group of people within the country and he needed to get legitimacy overall and he chose growth and development to doing that. I think Ethiopia is similar, that actually Meles Zenawi coming from Tigray, he needed, you know, post 2000, coming out of the Eritrean war at a time, and all kinds of other crisis that he was facing in his own party even, he needed to get legitimacy, and they thought he could get legitimacy for his regime through growth and development. So legitimacy-seeking behavior can be quite important. Now it has another side to it. If there's a crisis of legitimacy, that's the moment when the leader can actually take advantage of it. A crisis of legitimacy is actually saying, ''Well, look, we better go to something that begins to deliver to people.'' And why I'm actually suggesting it is that actually, there are in certain countries, a bit of pressure from below also seems to be quite useful. But there is a role there and I find it very hard to define exactly because I'm always scared of autocrats and so on. But the point of leadership is there. So I don't mean it as the strong leader, but more to do with the kind of group of people that manages to take other people along and convince them that is the kind of thing that they need to do. So if you go to Indonesia, I don't think it was Suharto personally, who was the great thinker there that did it. But he clearly surrounded himself with a group of people that included technocrats and also other people from politics, that actually managed to push this in a particular direction in doing it. So how do we get it? While it is actually people taking advantage of windows of opportunity to actually nudge towards it? Okay. But it's hard. We're talking Nigeria, other people have asked me questions about Brazil, about India, you know, large countries like yours with very complicated elite bargains that have national and state level things and so on... it's really complicated. Rwanda in that sense is well defined, you know, we have one well-defined problem and, you know, we could go for a particular model. It can be quite complicated to have some ideas on that on Nigeria, but maybe we can come to that a bit later.Tobi; So, I'm curious. I know you didn't cover this in your book. So let me let you speculate a bit on the psychology of elite bargains or development bargains specifically now. Given that I've also tried to look at some of the societies that you described, and even some others that you probably didn't mention, I don't think there's been a society yet where this is a gamble true, but where the elites have sort of lost out by gambling on development. So why don't we see a lot more gambles than we are seeing currently?Stefan; Actually, unfortunately, we see gambles that go wrong. I mean, for me, and I've worked a lot on Ethiopia, Ethiopia as a gamble that went wrong at the moment. And Ethiopia... you know, just think a little bit of what happened and maybe typify a little bit in a very simplistic way the nature of the gamble. You know, you had a leader under Meles Zenawi, under the TPLF - the Tigray and rebel group - where in the end the dominant force in the military force that actually took power in 1991. And they stayed dominant, even though they only represent, you know, five 6% of the population, they remain dominant in that political deal. Though other groups joined, but militarily, it was the TPLF that was the most powerful. So it also meant that the political deal was always fragile because in various periods of time, you know, my very first job was teaching in Addis Ababa University so I was teaching there 1992 93... you know, we have violence on the streets of students that were being actually repressed by the state, they were demonstrating against the government. You know, over time, we have various instances where this kind of legitimacy, the political legitimacy of that regime was also being questioned. Now, one of the gambles that Meles Zenawi took was to actually say, look, there's a very fragile political deal, but I'm actually going to get legitimacy through growth and development. So he used development as a way of getting legitimacy for something that politically and you know, just as Nigeria is complicated, Ethiopia is complicated with different nationalities, different balances between the regions, that he actually wasn't quite giving the space for these different nationalities to have a role, but he was gambling on doing it through growth and development. How did this go wrong? You know, I kept on spending a lot of time, but in the 2010s after Meles Zenawi died, very young from illness, the government still tried to pursue this. But actually, increasingly, they couldn't keep the politics together anymore. They were almost a different nationality, they were always on the streets, there was lots of violence and so on. And then in the end, you know, the Tigrayans lost power in the central government, and then, of course, we know how it escalated further after Abiy. But in some sense, the underlying political deal was fragile and the hope was that through economic progress, we could strengthen that political deal to legitimacy. That gamble is fine. Now it's a very fractured state and unfortunately, all the news we get from the country is that it's increasingly fractured. And I don't know how we'll put it together again. So that's a gamble that failed. Now, we know more about it. And it was very visible because it lasted quite a long time. Many of these gambles may actually misfire if they don't pick the right political moments. You know, if you don't do it at the right moment, and if you're a little bit unlucky with global circumstances, you fairly quickly could get into a bit of trouble politically, and whatever. For example, with the high inflation we have in virtually every country in the world now, it is clearly not the moment to gamble. It's extremely risky, [and] fragile, and your opponents will use it against you. So it's another thing like, you know, we don't see them gambling, you know, there are relatively few windows of opportunities at which you can gamble. And there are some that will go wrong. And even some that I described as successes, you know, we don't know whether they will last, whether they will become the new Koreas. I'm cautious about that. So, we need to just see it a little bit. Although I don't see Nigeria taking that gamble. So that's another matter.Tobi; No, no. I mean, that's where I was going next. Let me talk to you a bit about the role of outsiders here. We're going to get the aid discussion later. So currently in Nigeria, obviously, the economy has been through a lot in the last several years, a lot of people will put that firmly into the hands of the current administration. Rightly so. There were some very terrible policy choices that were made. But one point that I've quite often made to friends is that, to borrow your terminology, I don't think Nigeria was under the influence of a development bargain that suddenly went astray seven years ago. We've always been heading in this direction, some periods were just pretty good. And one of those periods was in the mid to late 2000s, when the economy seemed to be doing quite well, with high oil prices and also, the government actually really took a stab at macro-economic reforms. But if also you look carefully at the micro-history of that period, you'll see the influence of, should I say, outside legitimacy, you know, trying to get the debt forgiveness deal over the line and, you know, so many other moves that the government was making to increase its credibility internationally was highly influential in some of those decisions and the people that were brought into the government and some of the reform too. And my proof for that when I talk to people is to look at the other things that we should have done, which, we didn't do. We had the opportunity to actually reform either through privatization, a more sustainable model of our energy policy - the energy industry, generally. Electricity? People like to talk about telecommunications and the GSM revolution, but we didn't do anything about electricity, we didn't do anything about transportation. Infrastructure was still highly deficient and investment was not really serious, you know. So it was not... for me, personally, it was not a development bargain. Now, my question then would be, could it have been different if some of the outside influences that are sometimes exerted on countries can be a bit more focused on long-term development, as opposed to short-term macro-economic reforms on stability? You know, institutions like the IMF, the World Bank, I know they have their defined mandates, but is it time for a change? I think they actually have a lot more influence than they are using currently.Stefan; You make extremely valid points. And I think I will broadly agree with you with what you just implied. And I'll take a stance on it now. So the first thing, of course, and you correctly saw that something very misleading in Nigeria's growth figures is that periods of high growth are not at all linked to much action by economic policymakers. But it's still largely linked to oil prices. And we have this unfortunate cyclical behaviour in policymaking. Where the behaviour when prices are really good, is just always missing taking advantage of the opportunity. While when things are bad, we're talking about all kinds of things one ought to be doing but then saying, ''we can't do it because the prices are low.'' And so there is this kind of strange, asymmetric thing about policymaking that we always have the best ideas when we can't do them, and then we don't have the ideas we should have when the going is good. And this is in a way what you're alluding to. Of course, the role of outsiders that gets very interesting is what these outsiders were focusing on, actually, I think it was in the interest of the, call them, semi-outsider inside government...some of these technocrats that were brought in. And I can understand it entirely, you know, there were some really sensible finance ministers at various moments and so on. They were focused on actually things that were relatively easy in that period. So they were actually relatively easy, because the going was quite good. And so actually you created that strange impression, and it's a little bit like together with the outsiders, with World Bank, IMF, but actually, we're dealing with something really dramatic but, actually, we were not at all setting a precedent because it was actually, relatively... relatively politically low cost to do these things at that moment. Okay. So it was progress of sorts, you know, getting the debt relief, and so on. But arguably, you know, it's not a bad thing. But this actually was quite a low-hanging fruit and many of these organizations like these ideas of low-hanging fruits, because actually, politically, it played well, it increased the stature internationally of Nigeria...but, actually, it didn't really cost the elite much. It wasn't really hard for the elite to do these things. [If they did] the difficult things, they would really have started to change Nigeria. And so there is something there that I'm struck by the last sentence you said that some of these outsiders may be focusing on the wrong things. I think it has to be the insiders wanting to focus on these things, on these more difficult things. And then I do agree with you, the outsider should be smarter, and better able to respond to this. There's a problem with the outsiders here as well, take something that clearly you still struggle with and struggled forever with - electricity reform, the electricity sector. It's so complicated, and it's set up so complicated in all kinds of ways and whatever. So much inefficiency, so much waste that then it doesn't function and everybody, you know, complains about it. But it becomes politically very sensitive because there are definitely vested interests linked to it now and it becomes very hard to unravel it. Now the problem is if you ask typically a World Bank or an IMF for advice, they will make it very simple and say, Oh, just privatize the whole thing and do the whole thing. Now. You know that in a politically sensitive environment, you just can't privatize everything, so you privatize a little bit, but anything that's really with vested interests you won't touch. But these are the inefficient bits. So the easy prey, you privatize, and that's someone else making even more money off it because it's actually the efficient part of those systems that gets privatized, and then the inefficient part is still there and costs even more money. And so what I think these outsiders could do better is to have a better understanding of Nigeria's political economy, which is complicated at the best of times, but really understand, where can we start actually touching on something that we are beginning to touch on something vested interests that we begin to unravel a little bit some of the kind of underlying problem of, you know, politically connected business, you know, all the way to party financing or whatever...that you need to start unraveling somehow, where actually the underlying causes of inefficiency lie. Because the underlying causes of inefficiency are not just technical, they're actually not just economic. The underlying causes are these kinds of things. So I think why the outsiders did what they did at that time, it actually suited the government at the time, the technocratic ministers, that's the best they could do because that was the only mandate they had. Together with the outsider, they'd say, Well, that's certainly something we could do. But actually, fundamentally, you didn't really change that much. You don't still have then wherever it goes a bit bad, I'll get six or whatever exchange rates, and I'll get all kinds of other macroeconomic poor management, and, of course, nothing can happen when there's a crisis. There's no way we can do these more micro sector-specific reforms than doing it. So yeah, you're absolutely right. But let's not underestimate how hard it is. But starting to do the things that you refer to is where we need to get to to doing some of these difficult things.Tobi; The way I also read your book is that the two classic problems of political economy are still present, which is, the incentive and the knowledge problem. So I want to talk about the role of knowledge and ideas here. Let's even suppose that a particular group of elites at a particular time are properly incentivized to pursue a development bargain. Right? Sometimes the kind of ideas you still find floating around in the corridors of power can be quite counterproductive. A very revealing part of your book for me was when you were talking about the role of China. Also, I have no problem with China. The anecdote about Justin meme stood out to me quite well, because I could relate to it personally because I've also been opportuned to be at conferences where Justin Lin spoke, and I was slightly uneasy at how much simplification happens. I mean, just to digress a little bit, there was a particular presidential candidate in the just concluded primaries of the ruling party, I'm not going to mention the name, who is quite under the heavy influence of the China model. Right? Always consults with China, always meeting with Chinese economists and technocrats. And my reaction when he lost the primaries was ''thank god,'' right? Because what I see mostly in development thinking locally, I don't mean in academic circles, a lot of debates are going on in academics... is that the success of China and Asia more broadly has brought the State primarily into the front and centre. If you look at this current government, they will tell you seven years ago that they meant well. You know, judging by the Abba Kyari anecdotes where government should own the means of production. He may not believe that, like you said, truthfully, but you can see the influence of what has been called ''state-led development.'' In a state where there is no capable bureaucracy. The government itself is not even optimized to know the problem to solve or even how to solve that particular problem. Right. So broadly, my question is, if an elite chooses to pursue a development bargain, how does it then ensure that the right ideas, which lead to the right kind of policies, and maybe there might not even be the right policies - one of the things you mentioned is changing your mind quickly, it's an experimental process - but, you know, this process needs people who are open to ideas, who change their minds, who can also bring other people in with different ideas, you know, so this idea generation process in a development bargain, how can it be stable even if you have an elite consensus is that chooses to pursue development?Stefan; Look, it's an excellent question. And last week, or 10 days ago, when it was in Bangladesh, I was very struck that, you know, as a country I think that has the development bargain, there was a lot of openness. And you know, I was in the Ministry of Finance, and people had a variety of ideas, but they were all openly debated, there was not a kind of fixed mindset. And it is something that I've always found a bit unfortunate dealing with both politicians and senior technocrats in Nigeria. Nigeria is quickly seen as the centre of the world, there's nothing to learn from the rest of the world, we'll just pick an idea, and then we'll run with it and there's nothing that needs to be checked. And, you know, I love the self-confidence, but for thinking and for pursuit of ideas, you know, looking around and questioning what you hear whether you hear it from Justin Lin, who by the way, I don't think he's malign and he means well, he just has a particular way of communicating but it is, of course, a simplified story that you can simply get, and then you'll pick it up. And of course, if you ask the UK Government, the official line from London, they will also tell you there is only one model when they're purely official, but privately they will be a bit more open-minded, and maybe Chinese officials don't feel they have that freedom to privately encourage you to think a bit broader and so you have maybe a stricter line. So how do we do that? I think we can learn something here from India in the 1970s and 1980s. So when India after independence, it had a very strict set of ideas. In that sense, India was as a child of its time as a state, you know, state control, state-led development, there were strong views around it and India ended up doing a lot of regulation. They used to refer to India as the License Raj. Like a whole system based around licensing and everything was regulated by the state. So the state had far too much say in terms of the activity, despite the fact that the underlying economy was meant to be very entrepreneurship and commerce-led, but you had a lot of licensing rules, and so on. And of course, its growth stayed very low in the 1970s and 80s, it was actually very stagnant. It changed in the 1990s. Partly came with a crisis - in fact, a balance of payments crisis - it needs to reform and Manmohan Singh was the finance minister, then, later on, he became maybe a less successful Prime Minister. But as a finance minister in the early 90s, he did quite amazing things. And then during the 90s, gradually, every party started adopting a much more growth-oriented, more outward-oriented type of mindset. Now, why do I say this? Because actually, during the 1970s, and 80s, you had think-tanks, all the time pushing for these broader ideas. It took them 20 years. But there were really well-known think-tanks that kept on trying to convince people in the planning commission, economists in the universities and so on. And to critically think, look, there must be other ways. So actually, funnily enough, in India, it has a lot to do with the thinking and the public debates, that initially the politicians didn't take up, but actually found the right people to influence... you know, you actually have still in the civil service some decent technocrats there, they don't get a chance. But there are decent people, I know some of them and so on. But there needs to be a feeding of these ideas. And actually, this is where I would almost say there's a bit of a failing here, in the way the public discourse is done [in Nigeria] and maybe voices like you, but also more systematically from universities from think tanks and so on to actually feed and keep on feeding these ideas. There is a suggestion [by] Lant Pritchett - you know he's a former Harvard economist, he is now in the UK - [who] wrote this very interesting paper and he said, some of these think tanks who are actually getting a little bit of aid money here and there and he said, that's probably the best spent aid money in India ever. Because the rate of return and he calculates this number is like 1,000,000%, or something. Because he basically says the power of ideas is there. And I do think there is something there that I'm always surprised by that there are some very smart Nigerians outside the country, they don't really get much of a hearing inside the country, then there are some that are actually inside the country, the quality of debate is maybe not stimulated to be thinking beyond. It has to do probably with how complicated your country is, and of course, the Federal status plays a role. I just wonder whether maybe this is something that needs to start in particular states. You know, there are some governors that are a little bit more progressive than others. Maybe it is actually increasing and focusing attention over this on a few states to get the debate up to a high level and to actually see what they can do and maybe it's where the entry point is, but you need ideas I agree with you and I do worry at times about the kind of critical quality... there are some great thinkers in Nigeria, don't get me wrong, but the critical quality of ideas around alternative ways of doing the economy and so on, and that they get so easily captured by simple narrative, simple national narratives that are really just too simple to actually pursue. I mean...yeah.Tobi; That's quite deep. That's quite deep. I mean, just captures my life's mission right there. It's interesting you talked about Lant Pritchett and the question of aid, which is like my next line of question to you. There was this brief exchange on Twitter that I caught about the review of your book in the guardian, and the question of aid came up. I saw responses from Martin Ravallion, from Rachel Glennerster, I'm not sure I'm pronouncing her name right. So it's sort of then brings me to the whole question of development assistance, aid, and the way intervention has now been captured by what works. One fantastic example I got from your book is on Bangladesh, and how both systems work. You know, there's a broad development bargain, it's not perfect, nothing is, no society is. And there's the pursuit of economic growth. And also, it's a country where aid money and all forms of development assistance is quite active, and is quite huge, and it's actually quite effective. Now, my question is that basic insight from your book, which is for aid spending to be a little bit more biased, not your word... a little bit more bias to countries that have development bargains broadly? Why is that insight so difficult for, I should say, the international NGO industry to grasp? Why is it elusive? Because the status quo, which I would say, I don't mean to offend anybody, but which I will say is also aided by development economists and academics who have sort of put methodology and evidence above prosperity, in my view... because what you see is that, regardless of how dysfunctional the country is, broadly, the aid industry just carves out a nice niche where they do all sorts of interventions, cash transfers, chickens and, of course, you can always do randomized control trials and you say you have evidence for what works. But meanwhile you don't see the broad influence of some of these so-called assistants in the country as a whole. And these are institutions who proclaim that they are committed to fighting extreme poverty and we know what has vastly reduced poverty through history has always been economic growth and prosperity. So why is this elusive? Have those agencies and international development thinking itself been captured?Stefan; Look, I think I should make you do my interviews in the future. Yeah. So I've got to hire you to give...Because, look, I've been inside the aid industry and, in fact, the two people that you mentioned, you know, I would call them my friends, although one of them clearly is very cross at me at the moment. But you know, these are people I've worked with, and so on. And I am worried that there is such an obsession within the aid industry to prove their effectiveness. And I know I've been under pressure, you know, I've worked in it and sitting in London and getting your newspapers to say you're wasting all this money. It's really affecting a lot of people. And it was really hardwork for these 10 years that I sat inside it. But it's about just the humility that you just described, you know, and I want to make this distinction between...I'm about to make two distinctions. So the first one is - you made it well, even Bangladesh, something is going on. And you know, with all the imperfections, the government is trying to do something, and largely by staying to some extent out of the way. And there's some good stuff happening. So there's growth picking up and so on. So you can do all kinds of things. And I think aid in Bangladesh has been great at trying to make sure that the growth that was taking place in that country was a bit more inclusive than it probably would have been. I think it's great. And I think the aid industry should be proud of it. There is a great book that I quote as well also by Naomi Hossein and she calls it The Aid Lab and this is a bit like in praise of it. You know, if we do it carefully with some community and complement what's going on in a country that is deeply poor, you know, you can actually do really good things. Because in the book, I also mentioned Ghana that, actually, aid has been pretty effective because something had begun to change in the 90s, and so on. And we can question that to some extent and, of course, it's none of this perfection. But if you then come to a country where, you know... probably the two of us agree [that] there is some form of stagnation in that kind of [country], there's no development bargain, the elite bargain doesn't really push everything forward. Just be humble to say, look, I have a little niche, and there will be some chicken farmers that are happier, we'll do some good things in health... in health, actually, it's quite straightforward to do good things. But they are to call these good things, don't classify this as if you are leading the fight against extreme poverty, leading the fight against the change in these countries. Because, actually, if the local elite is not leading their change, and those people who have the power and influence not leading their change, the best you can do is doing good things. So I'm happy for us to be able to say we do good things. And it led me in the context of an interview to say like in India, as doing a lot of good things means that aid was actually in itself quite irrelevant, because the real change came, as I described in the 90s, actually, there was a real shift in gear, and suddenly their own development spending became gradually more effective. And of course, you can help them then to make it more effective. But, you know, I was a bit sad, and Martin Ravallion now took issue with it and wanted to emphasize... you know, and I don't want us to ever say, look, we did it. I mean, it's such a lack of humility I'll say this. At some point, we may have been supportive of doing it, but it's always the countries that did it. And the people there that did it. And other times just be humble and say, well, we may be doing something reasonably good, we may improve health outcomes, education outcomes, but not necessarily the whole country may do it in the schools that we work in, or whatever. And it's, that's good, you know, that's just as there are Nigerians that do good things via their own organizations and so on, they do good things. And it's probably teachers in the country, within the state schools that do some of these good things in the best practice stuff. And so yeah, they improve things, but overall, have the humility to say you're not changing Nigeria, because unfortunately, Nigeria is not being changed at the moment.Tobi; So my question then would be, is it reflective of the current intellectual climate in development economics where randomized control trials, they pursue...I know Lant Pritchett has really come down quite heavily on this particular movement, though, sometimes he seems to be the only one standing, maybe not quite literally true and I'll give you two examples from Nigeria, right? In 2012, when the anti subsidy-removal protests broke out, when the government on the first day of January removed fuel subsidy and prices suddenly went up. And the labour movement, the student movement, opposition politicians mobilized the population against that particular move. Some form of resolution that the current president at that time reached was to do what they call a partial removal of subsidy, you know, prices will go up a little bit and the government then did a scheme - an entrepreneurship scheme - where you submit a business plan and you're paid to get $50,000 to do a business.And I read a particular study by David Evans of the World Bank of how fantastically successful this particular scheme was, and of course, no doubt, it was successful. I mean, if you get $50,000 to do business in Nigeria, that's a lot of money. I don't need econometric analysis to know that, but maybe some people do. But the truth is, if you look today, I can bet you that a lot of those businesses are probably dead now due to how the economy as sort of evolved after that. Secondly, at the time we were having these debates and protests in 2012, the subsidy figure there was $8 billion annually, today it is $15 billion. So if you say you have evidence that something works, what exactly is your time horizon for measuring what works? And if you say something works, works in whose benefit, really? The most recent example was in 2018, 2019, where the government was given a small amount of money to small retailers, they call it Trader Moni. I'm sure there were World Bank officials and economists (I have a lot of respect for them) who are measuring the effectiveness of this thing. But you could see clearly that what was politically going on was the government doing vote buying. Right? So if you say something work, works for whom? Right? That was my response to Rachel on Twitter, but she didn't reply me. My question then to you... Sorry, I'm talking too much... Is this reflective of the current intellectual climate in development economics? Stefan; So yes and no? Okay. So, well, i'm going to have to be very careful. Of course, Rachel...I know her very well. And, actually, I have not that many gripes with her. She comes out of, indeed, the whole school of RCTs. By the way, I also actually do RCTs. I like it as a tool to actually study things. And I'll explain in a moment a bit more. So I do these randomized control trials as well. But I am very, very sympathetic. And I actually totally agree with your frustration around this idea to creating that impression about what works. You know, I have it in the book, I even mentioned it, there was a particular minister that at some point announced we're only going to spend our money on what works, you know, like a great slogan, as if you have all the answers, you know what to do. And of course, there is a technical meaning to it. Technical meaning would mean, if I do something and if you haven't done it, what would have been the outcome? And the paper that you refer on the entrepreneurship, this entrepreneurship for the $50,000... I know actually the research very well, the original was from David McKenzie and then other people commenting on it. Yes, relative to a counterfactual, yes, it was actually much bigger than an alternative scheme, you know, then that's something. So you could say, well, you know, as a research question, as a researcher, I find it interesting. From a policy point of view, I'm so much more cautious. And I'm totally with you. You know, first of all, in the bigger scheme of things, how tiny maybe it be... now there are some people who would say, well, we don't know anything, really, what to do in this whole messy environment so at least [to] have something that does a bit better than other things is maybe a useful thing to know. I think it comes back to that humility. As a research tool, it's great at getting exact answers. As a policy tool, I think we need to have much more humility. Because are these ideas tha totally transforms everything, that is actually makes a huge difference? Not really. It probably means that we can identify a little bit and I think even Pritchard wouldn't disagree with [that] sometimes a few things are a little bit better than other things. And if we want to do good, maybe it's helpful in medicine whether we know whether we should spend a bit more money on X or on Y, that it actually does a little bit better in the functioning of a health facility or not, if we spent a bit more money on that practice or on that practice, same in teaching in the school, if we do a little bit more of that in a very constrained environment than something else, that's useful, it doesn't change dramatically. And I categorize it with doing good. With humility, if we do good, it's helpful to know which things are a bit better than other things...when we try to do good. It's an interesting thing, even in Rachel's thread, she actually used it, we can still do quite a lot of good with aid. Actually, funnily enough, I don't disagree that deeply with her and say, Yeah, we may be able to do it good, but don't present it as if we, in the bigger scheme of things, which is where you're getting that, make any difference. And this is where I'm also sympathetic with Lant in saying, Look, sometimes we seem to be focusing on the small trivial things and yeah, it's useful to know but meanwhile the big picture is what you were describing, there's so much going on and, actually, nothing changes there. And so I categorize it in a bit of the same thing. Because I'll now give you an account, which is then go to Bangladesh again. Look, I think it was extremely useful in Bangladesh at some point to really have ... an RCT - a randomized control trial. So really careful evidence to show that a particular program that BRAC, the biggest NGO in the world, the local NGO, was actually what it was actually doing to the ultra-poor. In fact, two weeks ago, I was visiting the program again. And I find it really interesting because it's really helpful for BRAC to know that that program, when I do it in a careful evaluation relative to other things, that actually this program is really effective. And that, actually, we know for BRAC that they can have so much choices to spend their money on poverty alleviation, the things that we can dream up, to actually know this is actually a really good thing. And why of course does it work? Well, it works relative to doing nothing, but of course, it helps in Bangladesh {that] growth is taking place and it actually can get people to become [a big] part of it. In fact, I was visiting people that, whether we use a Nigerian or Bangladeshi definition of extreme poverty, they wouldn't have been in that state 10 years ago and so this is their being six, seven years in that program, and it was really interesting that I was sitting into some interviews they were doing, and I looked over my shoulder, and they now had a TV and a fridge. And I say, okay, an extremely poor person in Bangladesh would not have had this. So there's clearly something happening. Now, that's not simply because of the program. It's also because the whole country is improving. But I'm pretty sure and what the data showed is that those who actually had a program would have found it a bit easier to take part in that progress. And I'm pretty sure that the TV, and the fridge, probably was helped, to some extent, by the programme. In fact, we have very good evidence in the kind of evidence that Rachel Glennerster talks about. So again, I think it's all about a bit of humility, and understanding better what we mean by it. And to be honest, I think there are lots of people who work in that field that are careful with it. And that actually will do it, use it well. It gets just really worrying that people, often more junior people than Rachel, they've never really been in the field properly and then they make massive statements. So they work in big organizations, and they use that evidence, overuse it and overstate it. I think Rachel is actually careful, even her thread was very careful, although your question is a very good one. But it's very careful. But it still allows other people to overinterpret this whole thing. And then I get really worried. I'm actually going to put out a thread on Twitter in the coming days where I'm going to talk about tribalism in development economics... where I'm good to deal with your question as well because I think the way the profession has evolved is that you need to be in one tribe or another, otherwise, you're not allowed to function. I think, you know, you need to be eclectic, you know, no one has this single answer. And there's too much tribalism going on, much more than I've ever known before. You know, you need to be Oh, a fan of that, or you need to be the historical approach, or the Political Economy approach, and the whole... we should learn from all these bits. That's the idea of knowledge that you learn from... as much as possible from the progress in different parts of a discipline, or in thinking.Tobi; I'm glad to have caught you on a free day because having a lot more time to have this conversation has made it quite rich for me personally, and I'm sure for the audience as well. So I just have a couple more questions before I let you get back to your day. The first of those would be...um, when I first became aware of your book on Twitter, it was via a Chris Blattman thread. And he mentioned something that I have also struggled with, both personally in my thought and, in my conversation with people. And somethin

Katika Habari za UN hii leo Leah Mushi anaanzia makao makuu ya  Umoja wa Mataifa ambako kumeanza mkutano wa marekebisho ya mfumo wa elimu na kikubwa leo ni uzinduzi wa darása la mfano linaloonesha kuwa ni mtoto 1 kati ya 3 wenye umri wa miaka 10 duniani kote ndiye anayeweza kusoma na kuelewa hadithi fupi, kulikoni basi? Sababu ni mgogoro kwenye sekta ya elimu! Kisha ni Geneva, Uswisi kumulika hatua za Tanzania katika kusongesha haki za binadamu, anayezungumza ni Profesa Eliamani Sedoyeka, Katibu Mkuu Wizara ya Maliasili na Utalii ambaye anashiriki mkutano wa 51 wa Baraza la Umoja wa Mataifa la Haki za binadamu. Makala tunabisha hodi Kenya na mashinani ni kauli ya mtoto kutoka jimboni Katsina nchini Nigeria kuhusu jinsi fedha taslimu kutoka UNICEF zimemwezesha kurejea shuleni na sasa ana ndoto ya kuwa daktari.

If you ask any Nigerian today what the number one problem that they think political leadership should tackle - I am fairly certain security will be the overwhelming answer. In the last week alone there have been two deadly attacks in the Ondo state and Kaduna state with scores of people murdered in their homes and places of worship. Go back a week further, and the number of such murderous attacks would have risen to six. What many Nigerians depressing is that the problem is worsening and spreading to all parts of the country without any sign that it might abate anytime soon. Politicians seeking elective positions in next year's elections are making promises to end the crisis, but given how much it has gotten worse under the current administration despite similar promises leaves very little room for optimism. It is in the light of this that I speak to my guests on the podcast today James Barnett and Dr. Muritala Rufai. Our conversation is about what is now known as banditry in the Northwest of Nigeria. We talked about the origins of banditry, the nuances of the many factors at play, corruption, and the failure of local governance. Dr. Murtala Rufai is a professor of history at Usman Danfodiyo University in Sokoto.TRANSCRIPTTobi; So I'll start right at the end, which is not the most recent attack, but the Kaduna train attack was heavy in people's memory, and mentality, and maybe because of the status of some of the people that were involved. And in the weeks after there has been suggestions that the banditry issue is sort of evolving into something rather different. Maybe something akin to Boko Haram or ISWAP tactics. And some have even suggested that there are some evidence that both groups are now working together. So I like to take it from there because in both your paper your article on this, you suggested that this is a problem that has the potential to evolve even more dangerously. So is this part of that evolution? And if so, what can you tell us about the background to that and where it's likely to go next?James; ...In terms of the kind of the relationship between the bandits and Boko Haram, you know, the term that we talk more generally about jihadist because, really, there're kind of at least three different primary factions of what was once Boko Haram in Nigeria, today. There's ISWAP, there's the original Boko Haram, which we use the acronym JAS, which was led by Abubakar Shekau until May of last year when he was killed. And then there's also the Ansaru splinter faction of Boko Haram. So when looking at relationships between bandits and jihadists, I think if anything, our study was maybe a bit more skeptical of some of the claims that, you know, by 2021 (by last year) there was already more speculation. You had more comments from government officials, commentators, journalists saying, you know, the bandits, they are being recruited by Boko Haram, they're working together. I think our study was, in some ways, a bit more skeptical of the degree of, I would say, co-optation.You know, we kind of pushed back to some extent against this idea that the jihadists were coming in and recruiting all the bandits and that they were kind of transforming the conflict. I think our argument was that the conflict in the Northwest for now is very much still one being driven by the bandits rather than by Boko Haram or the jihadists. We do note, as you say, I think there's definitely room for closer potential cooperation. I think that from what we're beginning to see of the Kaduna train attack, the evidence so far, the details I've heard so far, there are kind of concerning issues there. But I think that for now, you know, even recognizing that the Kaduna train attack is a notable attack, a very serious one and obviously, the situation is still ongoing in terms of the the situation with the hostages, negotiations. So I think it's good to kind of avoid commenting too much right now as the situation is rather uncertain. But I think my view is still that one of the impediments that has, kind of, historically prevented the jihadists from getting closer to the bandits is that the bandits, for the most part, they really prized their autonomy. It's very much part of their modus operandi to operate very independently, they will cooperate with, you know, different gangs, will cooperate with each other, but banditry is definitely an activity that in some ways, kind of rewards autonomy. You know, the groups are not as rigidly structured as a jihadist organizations. It's an area where many people today if they want to get rich, they can take up arms and become a bandit. And so I think, because the bandits kind of value their autonomy, and also just given the fact that they've become, frankly, so powerful in recent years, they are not necessarily in such desperate need to kind of be recruited or trained or equipped or supported by jihadist. So I think my view is that there are opportunities from the perspective of Jihadist to work with bandits in certain instances, you know, to cooperate on certain operations. But I think, as we've seen with for example, especially the group Ansaru, which has tried in the past several years to recruit bandits to say, 'you should stop acting like bandits, you should join our group. Your fight is not with Muslim people. It's with the Nigerian government.' They go on this preaching tours and their efforts have really fallen flat. The bandits have not been interested in joining Ansaru. And so there have actually been many clashes. And recently, I think, as recently as a week ago, was the last one. And so, you know, the situation in Northwest is very volatile, many different militants, many different gangs, and sometimes they work together, sometimes they fight together, but I think for the foreseeable future, that the jihadist element to the northwest - this Boko Haram, this Ansaru...it's a problem, it's a challenge and makes things more complicated for sure. But I think that, in my view, the primary challenge in the Northwest is still bandits. It's not Boko Haram.Dr Rufai; I should just continue from where he stopped. You see, the fundamental problem is that the bandits are not in any way a monolithic criminal formation. There are quite a number of bandit gangs and also bandit groups operating separately and individually. Now having the unity of the bandits into a one united organization, for instance, is indeed a very difficult exercise. Because when we talk about a bandit group or a bandit gang, we've seen cases and instances where three, four, five people, for instance, form up a gang. And they have their own independent and absolute autonomy. They could actually do and undo, they may decide to go on attack, they may decide to carry out abduction, they may decide to do whatever they feel like doing. So now, putting all these bandits together into a one single platform - it is indeed a very difficult exercise. And there are also quite a number of them that consider this jihadist group including Boko Haram, Ansaru and ISWAP that he pointed out clearly, as their traditional enemies, and on several locations attempts by these groups to bring to the fore the members of the bandits, for instance, became so much challenging to the extent that some of the bandit groups and also bandit leaders were making it very clear to them that our problem as you were arguing is not with the Nigerian state - that is what we fail to understand. The problem of banditry is basically and fundamentally local. Until probably recently, that the whole conflict is now taking a more national dimension. You go to the rural areas, you interact with the pundits, they will tell you that their problem is local and solution to their problem also remain local.Local in the sense that they more or less have problem with the an sake - with the vigilante - and other local authorities than even with their state governors. So now, my argument has always been: bringing this bandits, about 120 gangs operating separately and loosely, individually, into a one single platform to probably relate with any of the jihadist groups or any of the criminal group like the case of Boko Haram, ISWAP and Ansaru is actually going to be a very difficult exercise. But I am also not disputing the fact that there are very few number of these bandits that subscribe to the view of either Ansaru or Boko Haram. For instance, the general believe and also accusation which is actually not confirm about the train attack is actually something executed and conducted under the leadership of Ali Kachalla. Ali Kachalla has been a very good friend of Dogo Gide, who were all initially bandits under the control of Buharin Daji. Now, there is that possibility of having that continuity in the relationship between Ali Kachalla, who was until probably recently, a bandit, relating with Dogo Gide who is actually his traditional friend while they were under the leadership and control of Buharin Daji. Of course, going by the pattern of the attack. In terms of the train attack, for instance, we've seen actually certain features and characteristics that differ slightly the case of the bandit. And that is why people have the belief that there must be actually connections with [an]other international terrorist group like ISWAP... some said it's ISWAP. some are even talking about Ansaru, and people also talking about the involvement of Boko Haram. But we've also seen historically, as far back as 2016 - 2017, when some Boko Haram elements were sent to the northwest to come and actually recruit and create a certain ideology on the bandits. At the end of the day, some of these members of Boko Haram became bandits. Because of what? Because they feel there is comfort, there is joy, there is freedom, and also there is wealth in banditry compared to Boko Haram.And that has to do with nothing other than the level of independence and autonomy that is within the bandit world.James; I would just jump in really quickly. I think he did a very good job of explaining how the bandits prize their autonomy and that issue with the jihadists. He brought up the character Dogo Gide who I think is worth describing very quickly.He's an interesting figure in terms of understanding, okay, who's a bandit, who's a jihadist, maybe [for] some of the listeners who don't follow these issues as closely. But he's someone that we profiled a bit in our article, our study for the CTC Sentinel, which is a big research report on the bandit-jihadist relations. And he's someone very interesting because he's a bandit, but he has had very close ties with jihadists for several years. There are disagreements, you know, different sources, different people will place his first contact with jihadists at different points. But he's someone that a couple of years ago, he was mostly saying, 'I don't have any ties with Boko Haram.'He is denying any relationship with the jihadist. But now in the past year or so he started to act as if he is a jihadist. But even as we did when we were digging through and doing our analysis, what we found is that he is maybe even now pretending to be more of a jihadist than he really is. Because he will release these videos or he will be communicating with intermediaries, he will be trying to sound like a jihadist, but he doesn't actually even know the proper Arabic phrases. In one instance, he refers to the leader of ISIS to suggest that he is a member of Daesh or ISIS, but he's referring to the dead leader, who's been dead for over a year. And so I think it's one of the challenges of doing this research in the northwest. It's why I think it's good to be very cautious and skeptical and try to kind of scrutinize all the data coming out. Because on the one hand, sometimes like Dogo Gide a couple of years ago, he would have understated his contacts with jihadists. He would have pretended that he doesn't have any at all. Whereas in fact, we do know that he has.He has been in contact with various jihadists for some time. But then he could also maybe overstate his level of influence. Because there are instances in which the bandits find it advantageous to maybe assume the appearance of jihadists because they think it will make them seem more powerful, or because they think that it will give them some sort of advantage in negotiations, for example. That was the case with the Kankara abductions back in December 2020 that was conducted by Awwal Daudawa in Katsina. So it's a very important question, you know, how much are these bandits and jihadists working together? And it's one that I think requires a bit of a skeptical eye. Because sometimes things are not necessarily as they appear on the surface. And sometimes these bandits… they have [a] complicated kind of calculus that will determine how they interact with jihadists, whether they want to give you the jihadists credit for an operation or something like that. So I think that the Dogo Gide example is a very interesting one.Tobi; The sense I'm getting is 'this a bit hard to predict, because the tactics and the motives are constantly changing.' So before I draw you guys into the issue of causality, which is going to be my next question, briefly, given where James stopped, do you think that's part of the reason why the government and security forces have not been able to deal with this issue? Because it's constantly in flux, it's unpredictable? And like he said, there is need for a patient and cautious strategy. Also, and this is a bit speculative, are there people in government to your knowledge who are also aware, and why is that not reflecting in the security approach?Dr. Rufai; Well, you see, what is important about the approach to this particular security threat, in my opinion, is to have a detailed, deeper, and clearer understanding of the issues. And even within the bandit cycle, for instance, we've seen people in the rural areas with AK 47 and AK 49, 24/7, that are not bandits. You can see a major problem now. When you define a bandit on the basis of weapon, for instance, you've completely missed the issue. Why? Because some of these people bearing these weapons are, basically, and fundamentally, using them for self-defense. Without these weapons, for instance, the bandits will within a twinkle of an eye, wipe them out. And that becomes a very serious problem and also challenging to the Nigerian security operatives as well. So, now, the government actually, in my opinion, the security operatives are doing their utmost best, but their best is not enough. It is not enough because there is still a gap. And what is that gap? A knowledge gap of what actually is happening in the field. It is not just about going kinetic. Before you go kinetic, before you take the kinetic approach, for instance, it is far more important to have an underground knowledge of what is obtainable in the rural areas. For instance, the Gide we are talking about, a long time ago, has established a mutual relationship and understanding with the rural communities. And I'm telling you, the rural communities around Dansadau, around Baba Doka, around Birnin Gwari, around Madada, around Dandala will never or have never seen Dogo Gide as a problem or as a threat.That, rather, what he is after is the abduction of school children, abduction of expatriates, and his major problem is with the federal government. And as long as he will keep on fighting the State, the local communities have no problem with him, they may even decide to support him.And at times, getting credible intelligence from the rural areas by the security agencies becomes a very serious problem, because the rurals will rather relate with the bandits than with the Nigerian state. You can see a major problem, a major problem here. And again, because of this level of intermingling between the bandits, where areas that are dominated by the bandits. And also, with Boko Haram elements, where areas dominated by the Boko Haram elements with the rural communities, it becomes a very difficult exercise for the security agencies to execute operations in those areas. And the major dilemma they are facing today, I'm talking about the agencies - the security agencies - is the issue of the collateral damage. If at all you are going to address this issue head-on, then definitely the issue of the collateral damage will be 100%. Why, because, you cannot differentiate who is a bandit and who is not? Who is a member of Boko Haram, and who is not? Who is a passive and active collaborator of these people? And these are some of the issues that actually compounded the issue more. So we cannot say that the security agencies are not doing anything in the field. But, in my opinion, what they are doing is not enough. What is important is not going to kinetic alone, but let us have a clearer and deeper understanding of the issues. And for that to be done, a lot of underground research(es) needs to be conducted, and a lot of sensitization and mobilization, and winning the support and confidence of the rurals or the locals must be done without which I think we are likely going to continue this war to a foreseeable future.Tobi; You want to weigh in James? James; Yeah, I guess I would just add... I think in addition to everything that Dr. Rufai has just said, one other challenge, as Dr Rufai noted in a previous answer to your question that, you know, the issue with banditry in many ways is very local. But it's also become much more of a national issue. And this also, in some ways, complicates the response of the state because the state itself is not monolithic, right.If you look at, you know, who is involved in trying to address this issue of banditry, very often these issues are occurring at a very local level, within a particular district within a particular emirate within a particular local government area. But also, it's become much more of a national issue.The security forces, particularly the military, since the launch of the first major military offensive operation [...] - that was now what? six, seven years ago. The military has also been engaged in the northwest in these anti-banditry operations. And so sometimes, there have been issues of a lack of coordination between all the various stakeholders on the side of, you know, the governments, if you will - broadly defined to include district officials, traditional rulers, local stakeholders like that - where sometimes you'll have one community [that] is actually attempting to negotiate something like a peace deal with some of the local bandits or an amnesty with the local bandits at the same time that the military is conducting a military offensive in the area. And so this kind of erodes trust. Or likewise, there will be times where, you know, a certain area is being really badly affected by the bandits, but the military's focusing on another area because their forces are overstretched. And so I think it's one of the challenges that Nigeria faces so far is looking at, okay, who are the authorities or the stakeholders that are tasked with addressing this issue of banditry? And how can you increase the coordination between the state governments; but also between the state and the federal governments; between the states and the local governments; between the formal authorities and the more informal or traditional authorities which in many regions still have very significant informal influence. So that's also been one of the challenges. And it's reflected to some extent, as he noted in the very fractured nature of the bandits themselves. We were discussing this yesterday with some colleagues of mine here at Unilag after the presentation, one of whom is from the Niger Delta area, and we're comparing and contrasting. He was saying, why can't they do what they did in the Delta? You know, what is the difference between what's happening in the Delta and what's happening in the Northwest? And Dr. Rufai put it very well. He said, you know, in the Delta, the militants can speak with one or two or three voices. But this is a big challenge for the bandits. So, anyone can form a gang these days, there are just so many bandits that there's no one person you can talk to, that represents all the bandits and you can negotiate.Dr. Rufai; And I think, added to the issue of interagency rivalry that he's talking about, it is actually a major challenge. And when you look at the operations against banditry in the northwest today, it has become a military affair. And if all is well, if teams are moving the way they should, this is an issue that's supposed to be addressed by the police. But where are the Nigerian police force today when you're talking about banditry? Nobody talks about the police. And not even the police, for instance, we have the Civil Defense. These are very local problems, local security challenges that actually supposed to be addressed by these people. But as we speak today, it is actually the military that is in charge of addressing some of these issues. And look at it, the role of the military, within the context of provision of internal security, for instance... virtually there are so many operations taking place, virtually in every part of the country. 36 states, including Abuja, for instance, you'll find different military operations. Look at the number of the military within the context of the increasing rate of crime and the violence, insecurity, for instance, the two cannot in any way match. And that becomes a very serious problem. And by extension, the military [personnel] are overstretched and overwhelmed by the level of conflict taking place in the country. And not only that, this problem of banditry just like I said earlier, is basically a local problem. And it is something that actually requires the activities of special forces. Do we really have the special forces within even the military, for instance, to address this issue? Because there's not just an affair of [the military]. Of course, nobody is talking about the State Department and the underground role they are supposed to play in this. So virtually, it is the military operating alone.And this same military [personnel] we're talking about are gradually overwhelmed by the volume, and also the gravity of the problem. They don't even know, in some cases, where to start from. Identifying who is their friend and who is their enemy becomes a problem. The attack on the train, the Abuja-Kaduna train we are talking about, is not in any way aimed at the victims. Rather, to send a danger signal to the Nigerian state. And they've actually succeeded in doing that. And as we speak, identifying where these people are, becomes a huge problem to virtually all the security agencies. Simply because of what? Because of lack of harmony, lack of coordination, and lack of peaceful working relations amongst all the security agencies.Tobi; I don't want to lean too hard on the security angle, at least for now. Because I mean, primarily, you guys are researchers, not policy advisors, at least for the purpose of this conversation. So let's go back for a little bit. Because in your work, you guys stated that the manifestation of this is multi-dimensional. There’s elements of criminality going on, economic opportunism in inter-ethnic clashes, you know, there's also the issue of climate change and damage to the environment and the strain that puts on resources between farmers and herders and many other interests. But what ties these all together? Right? How did this become such a national Flashpoint? Because I recall, maybe, 2016 when these attacks started blasting on the pages of newspapers, we don't even know the word bandit. Right? Bandit made it into the national Zeitgeist much later. It was always herders, Fulani herdsmen, you know. At some point, the presidency was claiming that they're actually foreigners who come to attack locals and carry out criminality and all that. So help me in as many words as you can untangle the causality of this. How did this escalate?James; I think Dr. Rufai can give the ... I mean, it's very multi-dimensional. And he's the historian and has been looking at this for a long time. And you know, in our different reports, we've explained this, yes, there's issues of land use, there's [the] issue of ethnicity, all these different factors that go into it. I think the one that I always stress, and these coming from my background, I worked in Washington, DC for several years, I'm still in contact with people there. Like, when people talk about farmer-herder conflict in Africa, and very often in DC, the first thing is that people have a very reductionist view of it.That's in many ways, kind of, very apolitical in some ways. They think farmers and herders used to get along, and then climate change meant there were fewer and there's fewer land, fewer resources and so now they're fighting each other. And climate change is definitely real, it's definitely a problem. It's absolutely aggravating the situation there. But I think that leaning too hard on the climate change angle, and you see sometimes governments doing this, not just Nigeria, but other governments: they'll say, ah, you know, the problem here is climate change - it's a way to escape responsibility, right? Because you throw up your hands and say, we didn't do this. Tobi; It's not my fault.James; It's not my fault. I think that one of the central issues that is seen in every aspect of how this conflict escalated from people becoming angry, to the weapons flowing into the region, to people not trusting their neighbors, to not trusting the authorities… one of the central issues is corruption.And this is an issue everywhere in Nigeria, right? It's not just in the northwest. But the specific ways it played out in the northwest, I think had a very pivotal role to play. From people not feeling that they could trust the criminal justice system or the authorities to handle disputes or legal matters related to land use, farmer-herder issues. Herdsmen felt that they were really being extorted because they were seen as kind of an easy target by authorities… whether it's the police, village heads, judges in the courts, they were seen as people that can easily be extorted. And then just everything from the fact that I mean, the IGP announced the other day that something like 85,000 AK 47s that belong to the police are unaccounted for. Tobi; Yeah.James; Right. And you wonder how you go out and, you know, we both interview bandits, we've seen nine-year-olds with AK 47s? How is it that that happens? It's not all coming from the Nigerian military or police stockpiles. But you know, there are many reasons that there are so many weapons in West Africa today.But corruption is a huge challenge, both in the inability to prevent weapons from flowing into and around the country. And also the fact that very often weapons that are intended for use by the Nigerian state find their way into the hands of criminals.So I could go on and on that, but I think interviewing people in the Northwest, and you ask them how did this start? Very often they'll talk about corruption.Dr. Rufai; I think he has actually said it all. What is far more important is the issue of corruption, the issue of corruption he's talking about. But again, added to that is, the collapse in our family value system actually added to the crisis. Situations where we have families that could not in any way take care of their children. Within the context of, in some cases, poverty, unemployment, underemployment, all play significant roles in the conflict. And also within the context of the traditional authorities again, it's become a very serious problem. And the point he pointed out on the issue of corruption. Corruption within the traditional rulers contributed and contributed significantly to the escalation of the conflict. But there are a lot of issues lumped together, more especially this issue of injustice.All people contacted and also interacted, interviewed on this issue of rural banditry are pointing to the issue of injustice. Injustice in all sense of the word. Injustice from the traditional authorities, injustice from the security agencies, injustice from virtually every angle of the society, and that plays a very important role, and it serves as a unifying factor that contributed to and that unite virtually most of the bandits together. For instance, you see them also talking about the activities of the vigilante and the an sake. And when you look at the operations of the vigilante and the an sake, it's nothing other than the idea of extrajudicial killings. The level of extrajudicial killings actually taking place in the rural areas is unimaginable even before the issue of rural banditry becomes a problem. And that is why the Fulani people feel they are not actually taken care of, they are absolutely rejected and detected by the Nigerian states and they feel they are on their own. And the best thing to do is to fight for their freedom. And that idea of freedom fighting, forming a union, or a gang for the Fulani liberation movement, for instance, was the bedrock of the banditry.So there are a lot of issues put together. And more so, within the context of the Fulani, they feel the presidency, for instance, Mr. President is a Fulani and they feel if at all they need to be taken care of, there is no regime that's supposed to take good care of them other than this particular regime that the head is someone that is their own - one of them. And that becomes a problem. And you see some of them lamenting and lamenting bitterly about the level of neglect by the State - by both the federal government and also the state government. And when you look at it, [the] absence of state presence plays also a very important role in the rural areas. Infrastructure-wise, for instance, the presence of security in the rural areas is virtually zero. I am talking about villages, I am talking about rural areas. You go to a village with 3000-4000 people, you cannot in any way see a single presence of the State, and that becomes a huge problem. So there is this type of high level of disconnection between the rural world and the urban world. And now, it is the rural world fighting in the urban world. Because of what? Because the rural world was neglected, the rural world was not taken care of, the rural world was absolutely spared from [infrastructure-wise] what we see in the urban centers. And that also constitutes a major problem. Talking about the issue of climate change, talking about the farmer-header issue, in my opinion, are just issues that are of secondary importance to this violent conflict. There has been farmer-herder conflict right from day one, right from the onset. And not only that, traditionally, conflict resolution mechanisms or dispute resolution mechanisms, for instance, were actually at work, and also addressing the farmer-herder clashes. And then the question is, where are they? Taken away by so many things, taken away by the issue of injustice, by the issue of corruption, and lack of respect for traditional authorities.And today, some of these traditional authorities, village heads, district heads, and to some extent, emirs, in Zamfara, in Sokoto, and in other places are under the control of these bandits. Simply because no state presence, no security presence, and the only thing they think they will do is to listen to the bandits.Dance according to the tune of these bandits, and also subscribe to the view of the bandits. Not because they want to do so, but because they were neglected by the federal and the state authorities. And that constitutes a very big problem. Unless we get some of these things right, unless we fix some of these issues, lacuna, and problems associated with the rural areas, I don't think peace will actually elude some of our urban centers and even at the national level.Tobi; It's so important for me to talk about this because in trying to analyze a lot of these issues, some things become a talking point. Right. And even though the government's censorious stance kicks in to quell some of these things, but they do happen. Whether it's on social media, or on internet radios, that's why I'm trying to tease out the issue of causality. Because some people will tell you, without any iota of doubt, that there is a Fulanisation agenda going on and that is the underlying driver of this. Some will say there is a systematic massacre of Christians going on in that region, that has drawn the attention of the Trump administration on religious persecution and so many other issues. So it's very important for the purpose of the audience, and you know, Nigeria is a diverse multi-ethnic society, it's easy for certain talking points to get away and... I mean, it becomes something else. So, now, I get you correctly. Even the issue of causality is not just one thing. But I'm saying it, maybe you guys are not, there's a huge level of state failure going on. Right. Now, my question then is, elections: politicians are campaigning again. As a matter of fact, one thing I learned from this conversation is that nobody is even talking about the issue of restructuring or decentralization of power in the context of this conflict. Right? We are talking about VAT or how to administer Lagos or Port Harcourt or Kaduna. So nobody is even talking about how empowering local governance, local institutions can actually bring peace, you know.But today, if you ask everybody, insecurity is the number one national issue. You know, all politicians are saying that if you elect me, I'm going to solve this... So then my question is, given the level of state failure that I am saying that I can tease out from this conversation, if you have to sketch some kind of starting point or an attempt at addressing the issue, where would you start from?Dr. Rufai; Excuse me, please, I think you've raised very critical issues that require [a] deeper and clearer explanation.Tobi; Please go on.Dr. Rufai; The first issue is the Fulanisation of maybe Nigeria or northern Nigeria, or whatever. I think if at all, there is an ethnic group that is understudied, and that is still less clear in terms of the nature, the operations, and the relationship, I think it's the Fulani.There is a high level of internal division, internal rivalry, and internal conflict among the Fulani. They are not in any way a one united ethnic group as we see, in the case of the Hausa, in the case of the Nupe, and, to some extent, in the case of the Yoruba, and the case of the Igbo.These are people that are so much attached to their traditional and local way of life. Even if you are born and brought up a Fulani, if you don't have respect and value for the Fulani culture, they don't consider you as part of them. And that is why 90%, let me not exaggerate - 60 or 70%, of the victims of rural violence, rural insecurity, rural banditry are Fulani. And 90% of the victims are not just Fulani, are also Muslims. You get the point. And you interact with some of these bandits, you talk about, okay, this person you killed, this person you rustled [their] cattle, this person you intimidate, this village you actually raided, for instance, it is a Fulani dominated village, they will tell you that that particular person, that particular village, that particular community you're talking about, we don't consider them as members of the Fulani. They are not in any way respected within the Fulani circle. They have their own code of conduct that serves as their guiding principles, that serve as their Constitution. Whoever strays away from that code of conduct, for instance, they have no value, no respect for him. And there is also a striking difference between an urban and the rural Fulani. For instance, the town Fulani is different from the village Fulani, the village Fulani is different from the nomadic Fulani, the nomadic Fulani is different from the stationed Fulani. All these nuances are not really clear. Now, if you decide to create a whole northern Nigeria to be under the control of the Fulani, I am sure there will be a lot of crisis and a lot of conflict, internal dynamics and internal differences will not even allow that to happen. Now, in spite of all this, if you have the knowledge and understanding of this, you go by the code of conduct, if you also don't speak the Fulfulde language, they have no respect and no value for you. These are things that people don't understand.Talking about now, a Fulani agenda, trying to create... No. And when it comes to the issue of suppression, exploitation, high level of injustice, I think the level of injustice committed against the Fulani in Nigeria could not be compared with injustice committed against any other ethnic group in Nigeria. These are people that I don't want to use the word docile, but are people that don't voice out. They are people that actually have this idea of not forgiving, and also not forgetting. You commit a crime, you cheat a Fulani man, for instance, today, if he sees you after 10-20 years, he will remember. And he will also wait for a chance and a better opportunity to retaliate. So now, we are simply paying the price of social injustice, exploitation, extortion that we've committed against these people over time, and it has manifested. And that is why when they decided to form up a union in 2011, you find a large number of Fulani people with long historical and deep-rooted grievances populating the gang. Virtually the first generation of the bandits, for instance, have that feeling.And you see if I am given the opportunity today….Tobi; Yeah.Dr. Rufai; To address the problem of rural banditry as the president of this country... I think the easiest way to address the issue is local government autonomy, no more, no less. If you give local government autonomy today, you have no problem with the rural areas. Rural communities will actually hold their local government Chairmen accountable, their are counselors accountable. And when there was local government autonomy in the past, for instance, we've seen the level of infrastructural development taking place in the rural areas. Because every area, every ward, every community has a representative in the local governance. And for instance, you cannot be relating with the local authorities, with the local government chairman without complaining and we've seen the level of projects executed by these local government chairmen in the rural areas. And some of these projects we're talking about are still there in the rural areas. But the major bottleneck is governance will certainly not allow that to happen unless and until they are overpowered, or else they will not allow local government autonomy. They will not because they are the ones controlling the resources. All local government resources go to the state governments. And when you go to the local government areas to the rural areas, you find virtually nothing. So now, if you have this idea of local governance, they are given their autonomy, they get their subvention directly from [the] Federal [Governement], monthly, for instance, you don't even need to hold these local government Chairmen accountable over what is happening in rural areas, the local communities will be the one putting pressure on them to work. And you set in also the idea of high level of competition among the local government chairmen, everyone will be competing. And whenever and wherever there is a rural or a local violence, rural conflict coming up, you hold the local government chairman accountable. So I think, in my opinion, the answer to some of these problems revolves around local government.James; I think, and I would agree with everything you said there, and I think, unfortunately, not to be too pessimistic but that's one reason I don't see this situation dramatically improving anytime soon. Because all of these issues, you know, I'm not an expert in Nigerian governance, but looking at like the security sector, for example, which is a scenario maybe I'm a bit more familiar with. We got a question when we gave our presentation at the University of Lagos yesterday, and one of the questions I got was about state police, people are always fighting about state police. And as I was talking to the person who asked the question after the presentation; I was like, Look, I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other about state police versus Federal Police. All I can say is that there's not going to be some law that just creates state police tomorrow, like, that's not going to happen. Because it all ties into larger questions of the federal structure. You can't just have, you know, a reform of the police into the state police level in a vacuum. Everything is about this larger question of the structure of the federal government, which also gets into this question of oil rents, and you know, how the government funds itself. And so you're not going to be able to pick at these little issues so much and say, Okay, we'll do a bit, we'll restructure the police to the state police, we'll give local government autonomy because all of it ties into this bigger question about the structure of the Nigerian state. And I don't have like a vision for, oh, here's how you should reconstruct Nigeria to improve all these issues. But it's simply an observation that many of these reforms or these kinds of challenges that people have identified that I think are already very much in the public consciousness about, you know, people are demanding local government autonomy, state police, all that stuff...there's a reason that hasn't happened yet. And it's because there are significant structural political impediments to that happening. And so I think that if you know, if the problem really is that, okay, it's the structure of the federal police force, that that's one of the major challenges, then that's not something that's going to be solved overnight.Tobi; One thing that came to my mind now is the issue of power generation. National Assembly just passed a law that would actually require the ratification of two-thirds of the states... good luck with that happening...that then allows state governments to generate their own power. So we've all been locked into this dysfunctional structure. So like you, James, I'm not super optimistic. But one thing I want to push you guys on... your work is gaining a lot of exposure and I'm sure a lot more international exposure is still ahead. Hopefully, there'll be a book. So, now, one thing that regularly comes up is....there was a time the President even wrote an op-ed, on the Financial Times asking for international aid, and security, securing weapons, lifting some of the restrictions, and all that. My point is, how should the international community engage on this banditry issue? Because we just talked about how the security forces sometimes are not the appropriate force level contact for some of these problems. There have been issues of extrajudicial killings even by the security forces, there's the huge issue of excessive force, even in bombings, air raids, you know, collateral damage, and all that. And the same government that controls the security forces then goes to the international community, whether it's the EU, or China, or the United States for aid and assistance in tackling insecurity. But, given the complexity of this issue, how should the international community engage on this [issue]?James; It's really tough. The international community, I think, when we say that what you really mean is like Western governments...Tobi; Absolutely...James; China, depending on what the context is...Tobi; Yeah. There's a Western alliance.James; Yeah, exactly. The Western alliance. I think these conflicts are so complex, deep-rooted in these kinds of systemic issues in Nigeria. And frankly, we just don't have a great track record, you know, speaking as an Oyinbo man, we don't have a great track record of intervening in complex conflict situations like this. I think that one thing that I was very wary of... this is something that we kind of touched on a bit at the end of our study on jihadisation is that, you know, for now, the bandits have a much more parochial local agenda than the jihadists.Dr. Rufai; Yeah.James; This Ansaru, one of the things that was really interesting interviewing with people who had heard Ansaru preach in their villages, in these villages Birnin Gwari, they would say: yeah, Ansaru, they're always complaining about America. They're always saying: your fight is not with Nigeria, your fight is not with this, your fight is with America. They're the great Satan, they're hurting us. And these people they think, 'huh?' you know, that doesn't really resonate with them. They think 'no, no, my complaint is with the local governments and you know, the fact that I don't have roads and school and stuff,' they're not thinking in terms of this big ideological struggle. And I think it's the same for the bandits, you know.I was able to interview several bandits who... they see me, a foreigner, a Christian man, they're just oh, they're very interested. They want to learn, oh, what's the, you know... they're even asking what's Bature land, like, you know, are there different tribes of Bature? Very curious, they did not have these strong preconceived notions about the West and whether or not it's a friend or an enemy. It was very remote to them, you know. And so I think that if you had the kind of Western powers coming in and taking a more visible role in, for example, security assistance or something, then in some ways you'd be giving propaganda to the jihadist right, you know. And I'm not saying anyone's suggesting this now. But since your question was okay, the Nigerian military is not handling the situation sufficiently, what can the international community do? I do not think that the answer is to kind of take on a more forceful role, right? If you had these, like Reaper drones flying over northwestern Nigeria, these bandits, you know, their fight is a local fight. But all of a sudden, they're getting pursued by US military hardware, they go what's happening? And then that's the moment that Ansaru can say, ah, we told you, you see? Your real enemy is America. Dr. Rufai; Yeah. James; You weren't bothering anyone but these Americans, they're ideologically hell-bent on killing Muslims. And so that's why you have to join us. So I think this is a very long way... I'm not giving you a satisfactory answer, I'm just saying what I think we shouldn't do. But I think that it's important to stress that level of caution that whatever approach, the ''international community'' takes, I think it needs to be very careful, very clear to let Nigerians lead on this, to not be taking a too visible role in some ways, especially on the security front. And I think that's a challenge, right? Because as you know, it's a dilemma in some ways, because the Nigerian security forces have not shown the capacity to handle this. But I think that very often, you know, the medicine can be worse than the disease. And so I think that that's kind of my word of caution. But I'll let Dr. Rufai...Tobi; I get you and I'll get to Dr. [Rufai] in a minute, so my question is actually a lot more subtle than that. Of course, everything you say is true. If you have drones flying over the Northwest, this will certainly make it worse but what I'm asking is [that] there is some engagement going on, either it is funding or it is selling military hardware to the Nigerian government, that probably makes this worse? Maybe not directly, from the Western alliance…But, what I'm saying is, how should the engagement change if it's going to, to be a bit more progressive? Even if it is to fund more local researchers to better understand the problem? Right? I mean, to say the obvious, at least for me, in this particular case, it took an Oyinbo man, like you said, to be aware of his work. James; Yeah, it's true. It's one of the challenges.Tobi; Which is not supposed to be so. Right? So I'll go back to that point, how exactly should engagement be, even at [the] diplomatic level? Not just force? How do we better make the incentive and issues clear? Dr, you can weigh in?Dr. Rufai; You see, in my own opinion, rather than going too much international, looking at the Western world... I think, to address this issue properly and adequately, the Nigerien government [Niger Republic] has a better, clearer, and deeper understanding of Northwest's problem, unfortunately, than even the Nigerian state.Because when these conflicts actually started, it was more or less a cross-border issue between Nigeria and Niger. And what the Nigerien Government fantastically did during that period, is to profile all the bandits along the border. Both on the Nigerian side, and also on the Nigerian side. Not just an ordinary profiling, but rather to have the names, the locations, and also the family background of each and every potential bandit. And of course, they succeeded in drawing a map of their locations, and also their relationships. And when that was also going on, for instance, every local head... I mean, either the village head, or a district head, or an emir in Niger, for instance, in that particular part of the world, they have the names of these people. And these people or these bandits, for instance, were declared wanted. And we've seen, of course, going by my interviews, and also fieldwork in some part of Niger, where whenever a bandit comes in, they alert the authorities. And that was how they succeeded in picking [a] larger number of them that are in Niger. On the Nigerian side, when the Northwestern governors, for instance, feel there is need for collaboration with their counterparts in Niger. Of course, they had series of meetings with the governors of Northwest - Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, and the rest. But their unfortunate conclusion is that we are not serious people, these governors are not in any way committed to ending banditry anytime soon. Because there were, of course, some series of joint operations, but at the end of the day, the Nigerien side that were committed, and also ready to end the problem, were rather given out to the bandits.To the extent that they lost some of their officers and men in the course of fighting banditry. And they felt that is basically coming from the neglect of the Nigerian or the Northwestern authorities. And on that basis, they cease to assist, they cease to discuss issues related to insecurity in the Northwest of Nigeria. And not only that, if today, the Nigerien government decides to strengthen its border security, the movement of small arms and light weapons into the northwest, into Nigeria, will certainly reduce and reduce drastically. But since they feel we are not serious people, we are not committed to end[ing] the problem, or the security challenges, for instance, they let it go and they loosely operate along the border. And we've seen cases and instances where people were saying that, okay, there are cases of people moving into the country with arms and ammunition across the border, but Nigerien border officials, for instance, will decide to even close their eyes and feel nothing is happening. And some of these arms and ammunition as long as they aren't going to be used in Niger, they let it move into the northern part [of Nigeria]. So instead of looking for assistance, financial, funding, selling [buying] of military hardware from the Western world, the problem still remains local. I said it's local because you cannot differentiate [between] the people who live in Daura, the President's hometown for instance, and the people who live in Kwangalam, which is in Niger Republic. It is a stone's throw. They are the same father... people from the same father and the same mother, they are people of the same family. And now, there could be other forms of engagement at the local level without necessarily engaging or even involving the state government, not to talk about the federal government. So if you strengthen this old relationship between these border communities, it is enough, for instance, for you to address the issue. And the unfortunate scenario, the unfortunate happening and now is that you see two-three kilometres... for instance, if you take Illela, you can trek from Illela which is in Nigeria in Sokoto State to Kwani, which is just three-four kilometres to Kwani. And you see absolute peace, absolute security, absolute harmony in Kwani, and a high level of insecurity in Illela. And what the larger number of the people in Illela do now is when it is 6 'o' clock, they trek down to the other side of the border...To sleep!To some extent not even sleep in houses, in villages... they sleep in an open space along the border. Wake up in the following morning and move to Nigeria for their daily business and economic activities. So one begins to wonder what is actually happening?Not only in Illela, you go to Kwangalam, you find the same thing. You go to the Medujia, you find the same thing. You go to Jibia, you find the same thing. You ask the question, what is actually happening? And today, some of these border communities have more confidence, trust, pride in the Nigerien security than the Nigerian security. And in an event of [an] attack, they'd rather call the Zandarma, for instance, in Niger to call other security operatives along the border in Niger than to call Nigerian security operatives. So the trust, confidence, is not there at all. So if now we can strengthen international relations within these border areas, look at issues around ECOWAS protocol, for instance, free movement and all that, strengthen that aspect. I think it is something that will go a long way in addressing some of these challenges.Rather than seeking for funds, military hardware, support, from the international communities. And no right-thinking nation in the Western world will engage itself or involve itself in the mess that is happening in Nigeria because it is a local problem.It is a local problem. You get the point. And probably the only thing I think they will do in cases like that is to provide, probably, the necessary advice, the necessary military training, and all that. If not, nobody will just come directly and get themselves into that. And not only that, the major people, people having a very serious threat on this are basically the Chinese. As we speak, there are a large number of Chinese nationalities that were abducted by these bandits. Though some people say bandit and I argue, I said, no, not bandit, rather, Boko Haram, Ansaru, and the rest of them.Because they are people that relate directly with the rural communities. And because of that relationship, they are vulnerable to abduction. And unfortunately, if you interact with some of these Chinese nationalities, the information and the news you will get from them is frightening. It's frightening because we've seen instances and situations where the security guards that are supposed to provide security to these people were the same people collaborating, serving as informants, serving as spy agents to some of these bandits, and also to some of these Boko Haram members.Meaning they facilitate the abduction of these nationalities. And at the end of the day, they will get their own share of the loots. So, there are lots of ugly stories taking place in the country, at times is even better you don't know than you know because you know you won't even say. Because the situation is completely hopeless.James; I think that last point... the penultimate point about strengthening cooperation with Nigeria and Niger. I think that's a great comment, in part because, also, it's not something that the international community, you know, the Western powers needs to do. The mechanisms for that exist, right? Tobi; Yeah.James; You have ECOWAS, you already have all these bilateral forums and stuff between them. So it's just there needs to be the political will on both sides to actually work together on this. This isn't something that you need to turn to Washington or Brussels or London for. These mechanisms for Regional Cooperation already exist, it's just a question of whether there's the political will to use them to actually channel effort towards addressing these issues.Tobi; So I mean, your jobs might be hard, because sometimes the numbers that you deal with, and analyse, are actual human lives. And I know we've been analytical and impersonal so far. These are serious issues with real lives at stake.People are dying, 1000s, every month now, in Nigeria. So on that sombre note, I think we can close the podcast with this last lighthearted question. What's the one idea - it's a bit of a tradition on the show.... what's the one idea that inspires you, that you would like to see spread? That you'd like to see people everywhere believe, adopt, or just be fascinated by? And it could be anything. So what keeps you guys going...what keeps you guys slogging through this?James; Caffeine keeps me going. [laughs]It can be hard to be optimistic sometimes. But I think seeing... I don't know, maybe it's a bit banal, but seeing the energy that many of my Nigerian colleagues have for actually trying to address this issue, I think that helps me avoid fatalism, maybe. I think even Dr. Rufai, you know, we're sharing accommodation here in Unilag, he was up several hours later than I was last night and he was up before me. And so I think sometimes if I get fatalistic or tired, I remember that there are a lot of good people (not just Dr. Rufai that, you know, I got the benefit of working with a number of colleagues in Abuja, Kaduna, people up in Gusau) who genuinely believe that there are solutions to this that they need to be pushing for. For them, the stakes are much higher than they are for me, I have to be honest about that, you know. And so I think that seeing the enthusiasm, the energy, that people bring to this…it acts as a check on my kind of instinct towards pessimism and fatalism. Yeah, I think that's important.Dr. Rufai; I think for me, all I want to see is peace. Harmony. Inter-community relations and inter-community collaboration that actually used to happen in the past. Where we have a free rural world. People operate freely, relate freely, and that love for one another is there.But the unfortunate story is that today, no trust, no freedom, in fact, nothing works actually in the rural areas. And you interact with the rural communities (more), especially in Zamfara, where I know and where I conducted a larger part of my research. Some of these people will tell you [that] they don't need anything from the state government. All they want at the moment is nothing other than peace. A peace that will actually give them an opportunity to continue with their social, economic, and political way of life. They have their own definition of comfort. If it actually rains, cat and dog every year, they consider themselves as the most prosperous people.Because it is from that rain, the grains they produce, [the] different types of crops they harvest, for instance, that they run their daily and yearly life. An ordinary farmer in Zamfara, in Katsina, in some parts of Sokoto is not in any way poor (going by our own definition of poverty, poverty line, and also someone to be poor). Why, because they have their own way, local and the rural way of life... they harvest, they rear their animals, and you see them every year, paying money, millions to go on pilgrimage, Hajj, without intervention from the state, without a penny from anybody. And of course, from the foodstuff, they sustain their life. And they will tell you, if at all there is anything they need from the state, it is the infrastructure and facilities, particularly the roads. Access roads, where they will access the markets, no more, no less. They don't need electricity, for instance, they will tell you that 'take away your education,' they don't bother about that as long as they have operational Islamiyya schools, for instance. They will tell you that 'take away even your justice system,' as long as their traditional village heads are strong, alive, and active to [sic] their responsibilities. They believe in them, and they are capable of providing them with absolute justice. So all this beauty in the rural areas are [sic], today, no more. And what do we see in the rural areas today? A high level, an increasing number of internally displaced persons. People that were millionaires, I mean, millionaires in the actual sense of the war, before banditry, today, are beggars.Today, lives from hand to mouth. They have become so much degraded, wallowing in absolute and abject poverty as a result of these rural conflicts. And what do we see in the rural areas today, we see a large army of internally displaced persons, as I said, child prostitution, and we've seen marriage and the respected women that lost their beloved ones, their husbands, their relatives, their breadwinners, turning into prostitutes, just for them to survive. And the unfortunate story is that nobody cares, nobody reports and nobody tends to know that some of these things are happening. You will understand this better if you go to some of these rural areas.They are poor, not because they are naturally been poor, but because they were denied access to their farmlands by the bandits. And their own definition of life is land. Life begins and ends with land. If they have access to land, I mean farmland, for instance, they have access to a decent living and also to a life that could be compared with any other life in the urban centers. They don't need your water supply. They don't need your electricity. They don't need anything that one could think of within the context of a comfortable life in the urban center. Their rural setting, they are comfortable with it, because you'll see some of them spending five, six years without coming to the state capital. You ask them 'you've never been to Gusau,' for instance, which is your State Capital, he will tell you 'what will I do in Gusau? If at all, you see me in Gusau or any of the urban centers, probably I'm going to the airport, flying out to Mecca.'And look at it, these people will also tell you that the best people you can easily manage, govern and administer with ease are Nigerians and also the rural dwellers. You live a comfortable life, you steal their money, you engage yourself in corruption; they never bother. All they want is peace. If you give them peace, continue with your life. Because their belief is that in the Hereafter you will account for your deed. And that is where the problem lies. So in my opinion, I want to see life going back to normal, the way it used to be in the past - a prosperous and happy, rural areas. Thank you very much.Tobi; Thank you very much, Dr. RUfai. Thank you, James. It's really fantastic talking to both of you. And hopefully, when next we speak about this, things would have improved, hopefully. Thank you both so much. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ideasuntrapped.com/subscribe

Koshari is a sacred clown who is commonly seen at Katsina ceremonies and he is a powerful figure in the community. At the divine ceremonies, the divine clowns are let loose at important religious events with a lot of physical and fun. These divine clowns have a long and noble tradition of behaving with extreme silliness.The Koshari are both sacred and profane, and they are regarded as the father of Kachinas. Clowns are made to be funny and humiliating, and the carvers usually add their own styles into the making of the clown, depending on what they see as funny or humiliating.Read more about the Koshari at https://mythlok.com/koshari/

The Mongwa is a kachina or spirit that symbolises intelligence and wisdom. The Hopi believe that the wisdom and intelligence of the Mongwa kachina help them keep their fields free of rodents. They are also a frequent character in the various traditions and rituals performed by the members of the Hopi tribe and their main role is to knock sense into kachina clowns.The term Katsina or Kachina refers to the various spirits that are revered by the Hopi and other peoples. There are hundreds of these in the tribe and they are also known to be used in sacred dances.The Mongwa is considered to be a natural spirit that is represented by the Great Horned Owl and the ceremonial masks also tend to be inspired by the physicality. There are other kachinas that are represented by owls like the Screech Owl (Hotsko), Spruce Owl (Salap Mongwa) but are different from the Mongwa.Read more about the Mongwa at https://mythlok.com/mongwa/

Who in the world feeds flies? Apparently Sadaka, the hero of the Swahili story of the Three Tests! In this episode of Unlimited Opinions, we cover more than just fly-feeding as we look at African parables and how we can apply the morals of these stories to our lives today. We discuss the story of Walukaga the blacksmith and his order to be build an iron man, the hauntingly cyclical Mbundu story of the Young Man and the Skull, the amazing story of the Feast from Cameroon, the Tom and Jerry-esque story of the two rogues from Kano and Katsina, and many more.  Follow us on Twitter for updates on when the next episodes will be released! @UlmtdOpinions

Last night, I was able to chat with Eryk Bagshaw of The Sydney Morning Herald for a few minutes about the trade tensions between Australia and China. Here are a few of the stories Eryk has published on the topic:Farmers back Australia taking China to WTO over barleyAustralia to take China to the WTO over barley tariffs'Bad outcome': Australia to use coal strike to challenge China on emissions'Unacceptable': Australia accuses China of diplomacy by media over coal banAustralian coal blocked indefinitely by BeijingOne has to ask, "What is the endgame?"China is not Thanos. It will take more than a snap to get what it wants. Whatever that might be.Yes, Australia dared to ask a question about the origins of COVID-19, but compared to what Trump was throwing out there, it was pretty benign. Unless, of course, you want the world to bow to you. In that case, questioning anything can and will be used against you. China, economically speaking, has the power to put the Aussies in a tough spot. Not only did they stop buying barley and coal from our friends down under, but they have also kept buying the Aussies' top export, iron ore. As Eryk points out, there is nowhere else to send the iron ore. So, the Aussies can't bring in a new buyer to take it off their hands. They have to take what China is giving them and not giving them all simultaneously. Australia exports by nation 2019While there is nowhere else for Australia to send their iron, for now, maybe they could put pressure on China with price increases. China iron imports by country:Australia needs the Chinese to buy their iron, but China also needs Australia to export it to them. Top iron ore exporters by nationIt seems impossible for China to be able to find enough suppliers to replace what Australia provides at the moment. Of course, this is easy to type, but the real-world implications of raising the prices are much more nuanced. However, if Australia wants to put some pressure on the Chinese, they might have an angle. It would be risky, and I think it is unlikely, but something to consider. Regardless, we are still left with the question of what is China's endgame? Is it simply to get the Aussies to bend the knee and kiss the ring? Are they trying to drive a wedge between Australia and some of its allies? Something else? Whatever it is, they do have the upper hand today, but that could change. Australia is a market-driven economy, and if China does not prove to be a stable buyer of its goods then those markets could wither and go away. In this case, maybe Australia reshapes its economy and leaves behind the export items that China needs. If so, that is a large price to pay just to prevent someone from putting a Winnie the Pooh picture up. Things move slower than the news, it is just as likely that all is well in a few months. I still would think this will leave a bitter taste in the Aussies' mouth for some time. US Nuclear Weapons Agency Breached As Part Of Massive Cyberattack: ReportThe Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, have evidence that hackers accessed their networks as part of an extensive espionage operation that has affected at least half a dozen federal agencies, officials directly familiar with the matter said.On Thursday, DOE and NNSA officials began coordinating notifications about the breach to their congressional oversight bodies after being briefed by Rocky Campione, the chief information officer at DOE.They found suspicious activity in networks belonging to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, the Office of Secure Transportation at NNSA, and the Richland Field Office of the DOE.The hackers have been able to do more damage at FERC than the other agencies, and officials there have evidence of highly malicious activity, the officials said, but did not elaborate.The officials said that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which has been helping to manage the federal response to the broad hacking campaign, indicated to FERC this week that CISA was overwhelmed and might not be able to allocate the necessary resources to respond. DOE will therefore be allocating extra resources to FERC to help investigate the hack, even though FERC is a semi-autonomous agency, the officials said.Nigerian military rescues 344 kidnapped schoolboysThe Nigerian military rescued 344 of the boys who were kidnapped during an attack on the Government Science Secondary School Kankara in Katsina state last week, according to Abdu Labaran, a spokesman for Katsina Gov. Aminu Bello Masari.Masari told CNN that children in a video released earlier Thursday that included the logo of the Boko Haram militant group were the same students who were kidnapped.A large group of men armed with AK-47s overwhelmed security at the school before marching more than 300 students into the forest.Boko Haram has previously attacked residents in the northeastern part of Nigeria and experts say the kidnapping marks a significant spread for the militant organization.Masari, however, denied that Boko Haram was involved in the kidnappings, instead blaming them on "local bandits." Masari also suggested that a voice in the video claiming to be Abubakar Shekau, a leader of one of Boko Haram's factions, was actually a bandit "mimicking" his voice.Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed the release of the children and described their safe return as "a big relief to their families, the entire country and international community," spokesman Garba Shenu wrote on Twitter.All of Sydney urged to be on 'high alert' as Northern Beaches coronavirus cluster swells to 28A cluster of coronavirus cases in Sydney's Northern Beaches area has ballooned to 28 confirmed infections as state and territory leaders move to impose travel restrictions a week before Christmas. Health authorities said genomic testing had confirmed the virus entered Australia from overseas, but health authorities had so far been unable to determine how it spread to the community.It is believed eight people were infected at a "significant seeding event" at Avalon Beach RSL on 11 December, with the first two cases detected on Wednesday. A further 16 of the confirmed cases visited Avalon Bowlo on 13 December, including two people who attended both events.Two additional cases were announced on Thursday before the cluster grew to 17 on that night.NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Friday told reporters some of the confirmed cases were not residents of the Northern Beaches, warning of potential seeding throughout greater Sydney."Everybody in greater Sydney needs to be on high alert," she said. "I know that there are a lot of Christmas parties on at this time, a lot of social gatherings. Please consider what is essential."China puts tanks to the test in a mock street battle for TaiwanThe People's Liberation Army would deploy two of its main battle tanks in street combat in a possible war against Taiwan, according to mainland Chinese state television reporting on a recent military exercise.In a documentary aired by CCTV last week, Type 96A main battle tanks and Type 04 infantry fighting vehicles were shown engaged in a mock combat exercise.The weapons were designed to fight in the complex terrain of Taiwan's cities and counties, highlighting the PLA's belief that a street battle would be inevitable once troops landed on the self-ruled island.Beijing regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that must eventually be reunited with the mainland – by force if necessary. This remains a key goal for the PLA and was the focus of the drill.The exercise involved a combat brigade from the PLA's 72nd Group Army based in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, and overseen by the Eastern Theatre Command.According to the report, 230 troops equipped with 30 tanks formed a red team to represent the PLA trying to attack a city complex defended by a blue team of 70 soldiers and six tanks.With cover from the tanks and amphibious vehicles, the red army seized the city in just under three hours after removing landmines, roadblocks and other obstacles posed by the drill's blue army, the report said.The exercise is a typical drill simulating conflict between the PLA and its Taiwanese counterpart, with the mock Taiwanese team appearing to take the geographical advantage only to be hampered by weak firepower and troops.The CCTV report said the drill aimed to help soldiers in the mechanised armoured infantry brigade lose "some bad habits" left by traditional mountain warfare training.