Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree allowing the confiscation of assets inside Russia belonging to the United States, its citizens and companies, to compensate those hit by Western sanctions against Moscow.

The West froze around $300 billion of Russian financial assets, mostly its central bank reserves, after Moscow ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

And the US Congress last month passed a bill that would allow President Joe Biden to use frozen Russian assets in the United States for a special fund to support Ukraine. 

The Russian decree will give Russian companies, organisations and individuals that have been hit by sanctions the right to apply for compensation from the Russian government.

The compensation would come in the form of US-owned assets — such as real estate, companies, bank accounts or shares — based in Russia.

Many Western companies have left Russia since it launched its offensive on Ukraine.

Those that remain — or have yet to finalise sales of their Russian businesses — could now be at risk of having their assets seized.

Both Moscow and Western capitals have traded accusations of stealing each other’s property over the asset freezes.

Russia has taken a number of Western-owned businesses under “temporary” state control in the past two years — acts decried by Western leaders and companies as “nationalisation”.

In Europe, where the vast majority of the frozen Russian assets are located, pressure is ramping up over how to use them to support Ukraine.

On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for the G7 to be more “ambitious” in how it can use the funds to help Kyiv.

AFP

President Bola Tinubu has directed a comprehensive review of the newly announced governing boards of tertiary institutions.

On May 18, the federal ministry of education announced the appointments of 500 persons to serve as pro-chancellors and members of the governing councils of public tertiary institutions across the country.

In a statement on Thursday, Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on information and strategy, said the president directed a review due to criticisms that the appointments did not reflect federal character. 

“Public reactions showed that the nominations did not reflect the federal character of the country as some states got just one nomination, while some others got many,” Onanuga said.

“In directing a complete review of the list of members, President Tinubu acknowledges the feedback across the country.

“President Tinubu is committed to ensuring strict compliance with the principle of federal character as entrenched in the constitution. 

“The review will also take into consideration national spread and ensure every part of the country is adequately represented.”

[TheCable]

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has launched the Nigerian National Information Portal as the official digital gateway to comprehensive information about Nigeria.

The Minister, who launched the portal at the commencement of the Ministerial Sectoral Briefings to mark the first anniversary of the Tinubu Administration, said the portal serves as a centralized source for both local and international audiences, providing reliable and up-to-date information on various aspects of the nation, including the government, the people of Nigeria, their cultural heritage and many more.

“We use this opportunity to launch the Nigerian National Information Portal. Of course, it was in existence before but it has been so badly managed that the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation has resuscitated this new portal.

“It is a gateway to all the information you require to know about this government; about Nigeria, people, and our cultures. So, join me in clapping for Nigeria for having this relaunched new National Information Portal,” he said.

The link to the portal is www.nigeria.gov.ng.

Speaking earlier in his address of welcome to the Sectoral Briefings, the Minister said the President has started laying a solid and enduring foundation that will make life better for the people of Nigeria.

“Landmark initiatives like the Consumer Credit Corporation, the Nigeria Education Loan Fund, Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas, the 200 Billion Naira Presidential Grant and Loan Scheme, our Agriculture and Food Security efforts (including the launch of Dry Season Farming, and massive fertilizer distribution), the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund(RHIDF), Renewed Hope Cities and Estates programme, our reform efforts in the Electricity Sector, and the area of Taxes and Fiscal Policy, and the negotiations for a befitting new National Minimum Wage – are some of the many policies and programs that will directly touch and improve the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of Nigerians,” he said.

Idris expressed the commitment of President Tinubu to ensuring the cost of living and doing business in Nigeria is brought down significantly by putting more money into the pockets of Nigerians, attracting more local and foreign investment, and transforming the nation’s infrastructure.

“And we will not pause or relent until we have delivered Truly Renewed Hope to all Nigerians,” he said.

The Information and National Orientation Minister said the commemoration of the administration’s first anniversary offers the opportunity to present the government’s scorecard to the Nigerian people, by telling the story of what has been done so far to fulfil pledges and promises made to the people.

The first session of the Sectoral Briefing has the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu; Minister of FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike; Minister of Youth Development, Dr Jamila Ibrahim Bio; Minister of Steel Development, Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu; Minister of State for FCT, Dr Mariya Mahmud; Minister of State Petroleum, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and Minister of State for Youth Development, Mr. Ayodele Olawande.

Kano Assembly on Thursday dissolved all the five emirate councils in the State, declaring Governor Abba Yusuf has the sole constitutional powers to appoint new emir(s).

The Assembly took the decision at the floor of the House during plenary on Thursday.

During the sitting, the Kano State emirate council amendment bill was considered after scaling second and third reading on Thursday.

Deputy Speaker Alhaji Muhammad Bello Butu explained that repealing the law would revive the lost glory of Kano as the division of Kano emirate to five reduced the capacity and dignity of the State at national level.

Majority Leader Alhaji Lawan Hussaini Dala said the emirate council had served as a custodian of culture before, according to him, it was distorted by the creation of additional emirates.

Speaking to journalists, the majority leader explained that with the amendment of the law, all the five emirate councils were abolished while the commissioner for local governments would serve as the overseer.

The Assembly however adopted a motion to create new second class emirate council in the state.

Details Shortly…

[TheNation]

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has disclosed that the Abuja Light Rail will operate free for two months, after its commissioning on Monday, the 27th of May, 2024.

Wike stated this during the ongoing Ministerial Sectoral Update to mark the first year in office of the President Bola Tinubu administration, held at the Radio House in Abuja, on Thursday.

The Minister had earlier stated that the President, Bola Tinubu will commission the Metro rail project for commercial activities on Monday.

He however urged residents to begin use of the Metro rails from Tuesday, the 28th of May, adding that the goal was to aid the ease of commuting for residents and that the President may extend the free train rides up to 6 months.

The Minister also said the FCT Administration will begin the construction of 10,000 affordable housing units tagged the Renewed Hope City from the coking year, 2025.

The Minister of Youth Development, Jamilo Bio Ibrahim, and the Minister of Transportation, Sa’Idu Ahmed Alkali, are also expected to give briefings today.

More details later…

[Punch]

Tragedy struck in the early hours of Thursday, when over 20 passengers narrowly escaped death in multiple auto crashes at Kara Bridge, along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The accident occurred inward Arepo, Lagos-Ogun boundary.

The accident, according to eyewitnesses, occurred at about 8.45 a.m. It led to a chaotic gridlock, leaving motorists stranded.

At press time, emergency responders were on the ground to ensure the removal of the vehicles impeding the free flow of traffic.

Rescue

The responders include the Lagos State Emergency Management Authority, LASEMA; Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, LAMATA; Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA; men of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service; Police, among others.

The accident involved a 40-foot containerised truck, a luxury bus with number plates KPP921ZW, belonging to Sopuru Chukwu Motors, a Hiace bus, and a van used for commercial purposes.

The incident shut down about 99 percent of the road, thereby causing gridlock.

Meanwhile, the traffic officers are currently controlling traffic, pending the arrival of recovery vehicles.

The Permanent Secretary of LASEMA, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyitolu, attributed the accident to overspeeding and recklessness.

Oke-Osanyitolu confirmed that the 20 casualties, yet to be identified, were transported to nearby hospitals.

The ones with minor injuries were being treated on-site.

Below are more photos from the accident scene:

Vanguard News

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II has been reinstated as the Emir of Kano, LEADERSHIP has authoritatively gathered.

This decision followed the Kano State House of Assembly’s resolution to dethrone the current Emir and also dismantle the four new Emirates in the State established under a controversial 2019 law.

Though it has not been officially announced, LEADERSHIP has it on good authority that Sanusi II has been reinstated, and is expected in Kano on Friday.

According to credible inside sources, “So certainly with the passage of the Bill, Sanusi automatically stands reinstated. No need for confirmation, the thing to is wait for the Governor to assent to it.”

The then restructuring of the Kano Emirate is seen as a political manoeuvre to diminish the influence of then Emir Sanusi II, a vocal critic of the former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje administration. The creation of the new emirates fragmented the authority of the old Kano Emirate Council, diluting its power and influence.

Meanwhile, the Majority Leader of the Kano State House of Assembly, Lawan Hussaini Chediyar Yan Gurasa, who sponsored the Amendment Bill, shortly after Thursday’s session, revealed to journalists that, “the bill has been sent to the governor for assent, now there is no longer an active Emir in Kano in all the five Emirates; Kano, Bichi, Gaya, Rano and Karaye. The law now provides the governor to call on the traditional kingmakers to choose a new king.”

Our correspondent alsp reports that all the district heads elevated or appointed under the repealed law are to revert to their previous positions.

[Leadership]

It wasn’t five months after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took office when folks started asking, how far? In middle class and elite social circles in Nigeria, that question, or its variant – how market? – is often reserved for people whose sympathy for a cause or person is imperiled.

I often pushed back by saying that given the enormity of problems that the Tinubu government faced at inception, five months or so were inadequate to judge. And that was not just a convenient deflection. 

There are, of course, American presidents who made a mark after 100 days in office, notably, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama. But you don’t make them often, whatever may be the fetish of 100 days in office popularised by the U.S. After all President Clinton had a rocky 100 days in office only to end up the first Democratic president to be elected to two full terms after Roosevelt.

Unusual election

Nigeria’s 2023 election was so contentious that even though voting ended in February and a president was announced almost immediately by the electoral commission, it wasn’t until eight months later that the Supreme Court finally upheld his election. Tinubu was, as we say, hugging the chair with just one side of his buttocks. Of course, he had taken decisions from day one for which he must be held accountable, even if he was hanging on by a thread.

Perhaps the most consequential was his announcement, adlib, that “fuel subsidy is gone.” The removal was overdue. A good number of people agreed, even though some opposed the precipitous announcement and the subsequent merger of the exchange rate as evidence of Tinubu’s overzealous attempt to please the IMF and World Bank. It might also have been an honest attempt by him to preempt being taken hostage by the bureaucracy. 

Whatever the motivation was, it backfired; not because of the announcement, but because the government seemed totally unprepared to manage the fallout. There was, strictly speaking, no government to speak of at the time. The chaos that followed the announcement piled on the chaos that Tinubu met in office.

Buhari did nothing?

It would be unfair to say that Tinubu’s predecessor and fellow partyman, President Muhammadu Buhari, did nothing in eight years. The problem was that those who installed Buhari, chief among whom was Tinubu, and those who thought he could do the job, including myself, were unfair to Buhari. He wasn’t up to the job, but we didn’t care. In his incompetence, he put Nigerians through shege and left behind for his successor a legacy of shege banza, if you’ll excuse my French.

The fallouts of COVID-19 and the supply chain problems off the back of the war in Ukraine made things tough for Buhari. But what has come to light even from the management of these crises was his absence most of the time. He loved his title far more than he understood his job.

Perfect storm

His successor descended into a perfect storm: inflation at nearly 22 percent; unemployment at 33 percent; foreign exchange scarcity and declining revenue from oil sales; a looming debt crisis; a population surging ahead of GDP; an inefficient, lopsided and bloated public service; rampant insecurity; and broken confidence in government. Don’t even add the dysfunctional relationship between the fiscal and monetary authorities. 

In the last four political transitions since 1999, the Buhari-Tinubu transition has been the most fraught, incomparable in hazard with the one between President Goodluck Jonathan and Buhari in 2015, which was supposed to have been a hostile takeover.  Yet, the Buhari-Tinubu transition was a handover from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to itself.

Tinubu’s cross

But Tinubu has to be judged by what he has done or failed to do, especially since he has said, repeatedly, that he asked for the job and would not invite any pity party. It was not Buhari’s fault, for example, that he couldn’t form a cabinet until 56 days after taking office. 

Nor was Buhari to blame that when Tinubu finally composed his team, he selected, with a few exceptions, mostly people whose major credential was that they knew someone who knew someone who knew the president. The drama around some of the appointments and the screening are a subject on their own. That had nothing to do with Buhari.

The rot was deep. But the treatment – the radical attempts to scrap market curbs and tighten fiscal and monetary controls – appears, for now, worse than the disease, leaving large sections of the population struggling and impoverished. 

The compound chaos was neither entirely unforeseen nor inevitable. Buhari left behind a near-bankrupt treasury and ran his government for the most part by printing money. Getting the economy back into gear was going to depend largely on the unpredictable receipts from oil sales, which in turn was going to depend on less oil theft and a higher production quota. Foreign investors’ confidence had also been undermined by excessive price controls; while on the domestic front, rampant insecurity kept food prices high. 

Approach matters

A far more careful calibration and better management of public expectations than Tinubu’s government’s zeal suggested might have produced a different outcome. Unfortunately, a lifetime’s worth of suffering appears to have been laid out in a terrifically short time.

Yet, while some of it is inevitable, a few of the problems of the past year have been fostered by vested interests determined to complicate the government’s misery. Take two examples: the pushback by currency manipulators, and the organised crime in Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

In the first case, it is difficult to know who was the more complicit – the commercial banks (often in cahoots with state governors) or black-market operators. The incestuous relationship between the two, aided and abetted for years by the Central Bank, fed off cheap government funds, producing an army of white-collar criminals who became multimillionaires by exploiting multiple trading windows. 

Our monkey worked for their baboon to chop. Once Tinubu’s government said enough, the manipulators and their crypto ground soldiers launched a blistering counter-attack. The fight is still on.

The second main war has been with the demon within, elegantly called the MDAs. A source told me not too long ago that some of these government agencies, particularly NPA and NIMASA, among others, illegally locked down about $3.8 billion, from receipts. While they lied and lied that there was no “cash backing” for capital projects, they withheld forex remittances to the Central Bank and also cut deals with bank officials to roll over the principal sums, as they creamed off the interest. 

Tinubu’s searchlight in these places has unleashed a firestorm from vested interests, now aligned with sections of the political class to paint his government in the worst light possible. 

Gift of exaggeration

The problems of Tinubu’s government in the last one year have been partly self-inflicted, and partly unavoidable. But the criticism of his government as a disaster, mostly by politicians who can’t wait for the next general elections in 2027, is exaggerated. 

If ongoing structural reforms are paced, oil production quota keeps trending up, and the government leads by example, finding disciplined ways to manage the impact of tighter monetary controls on the cost of funds, things might yet look up sooner than later. 

It’s doubtful that any of those who vied with him for the presidency could have done better, whatever they might say from their easy chair. What Tinubu still has going for him are his courage, foresight and staying power. Now, he has a shorter runway to make them produce concrete results in the lives of citizens.

Azu Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP. 

The Chief Executive Officer of Techstars, Maëlle Gavet has announced her departure from the company, citing health reasons.

Effective at the end of the month, Gavet will step down, with Techstars co-founder and board chairman David Cohen taking over the CEO role immediately, Tech Crunch first reported.

Gavet, who has served as CEO since 2021, conveyed her decision in a LinkedIn post where she expressed immense gratitude for her tenure at the company.

She acknowledged the hard work and dedication of her team, the executive board, employees, investors, and the founders she collaborated with during her time at Techstars. She also spoke a bit about her health issues.

“It’s with extreme sadness that I’m announcing that I will be leaving Techstars at the end of the month for health reasons. As of today, David Cohen, our co-founder and Chairman of the Board is CEO of Techstars once again.

“11 years ago I had to have one of my thyroids surgically removed due to the presence of cancerous nodules and for all these years I have been able to live almost worry-free with daily medication and a checkup every 6 months. Unfortunately the results of the last checkup showed that nodules had started to appear on my other thyroid. “

What to know about Gavet’s tenure

Gavet’s announcement marks the end of a challenging period for Techstars under her leadership. Her tenure has been characterized by significant controversies and operational difficulties.

Internally, Gavet’s leadership style came under scrutiny, with several employees and managing directors accusing her of fostering a high-stress work environment. This climate reportedly led to a notable exodus of staff members, which impacted the company’s morale and operational stability.

Externally, Techstars struggled to strike a balance between its aggressive growth ambitions and the imperative for profitability.

The company’s attempts to scale were hampered by strained relationships with corporate partners, notably JPMorgan Chase. This relationship, vital to Techstars’ operations, deteriorated during Gavet’s leadership, leading to high client churn.

The fallout with JPMorgan was particularly detrimental as it cast doubt over the future of several accelerator programs funded by an $80 million partnership. Programs in key locations such as Miami, Atlanta, and Oakland faced uncertainty due to this strained partnership.

More insight

Additionally, Techstars had to shutter several of its accelerator programs during Gavet’s tenure. Notable closures included programs in Austin, Toronto, Seattle, Sweden, Boulder, and Norway.

These closures signaled a strategic retreat from various geographic markets and were indicative of the broader challenges facing Techstars in sustaining its expansive global footprint.

In a separate statement posted on the Techstars website, David Cohen acknowledged the difficulties of Gavet’s tenure while also recognizing her efforts to address them. “She built a great team, made many tough decisions, and bravely enacted complex changes that were sorely needed,” Cohen stated. He emphasized that Gavet’s departure is primarily motivated by health concerns and expressed the collective goodwill of the company toward her as she focuses on her well-being.

What we know

About 5 months ago, Nairametrics reported that Techstars Accelerator, in collaboration with Lagos-based ARM Labs, announced a significant investment initiative targeting African startups. The program, which marked its second cohort, was to see Techstars invest $1.4 million in 12 innovative startups across the continent. Each startup will receive up to $120,000 in funding, alongside access to over $400,000 in cash equivalents, covering hosting, accounting, legal support, and additional benefits valued at over $5 million.

Some of the startups included in the program are 24Seven, founded by Olufemi Idowu, this asset-light marketplace enables small businesses and convenience stores to order inventory on credit with one-hour doorstep delivery. Beauty Hut: Led by Subuola Oyeleye, the platform bridges the gap between beauty brands and consumers through efficient product distribution and marketing channels via an e-commerce web store and mobile app, and others.

[Nairametrics]

A former presidential aspirant under the platform, of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, George Okoye, has described the proposed merger among some opposition parties against President Bola Tinubu as a waste of time.

Naija News reports that Okoye, in a statement, said Tinubu is not doing badly, as some persons erroneously believe but the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) can provide a better alternative.

The former lawmaker in the Anambra State House of Assembly urged the leadership of the PDP to resolve its challenges, and everything else will fall into place.

He said, “The leadership of the party is complacent; they are just rigmarolling, looking for direction. A mega party cannot work in Nigeria today. The only thing the PDP needs now is to resolve its leadership challenges.

“If the government does the right thing, commend it, and criticize it when it does the wrong thing.

“We have a President today in Nigeria and I don’t think Bola Ahmed Tinubu is bad. I am impressed by his performance so far, but the PDP can provide a better alternative.

“The problem with PDP is credible leadership. Once there is credible leadership, every other thing will fall in place.”

[NaijaNews]