News
Russia’s Economic Sanctions: Perhaps Nigeria’s Elite Should Take Note
By Joel Popoola
Even for a country with as troubled a recent history – and present – as Nigeria, you cannot fail to have been moved by the scenes of carnage coming out of Ukraine following the cruel and cowardly Russian invasion.
But there are lessons Nigeria must learn from this horrific situation too.
The international response to Russian aggression has by and large, not been military, but economic.
Russia has been hit by severe sanctions designed not to attack her army, but hobble her economy – an indication that future wars may be fought not on the battlefields but on the international finance markets.
And while Russia seemingly holds a military advantage over Ukraine – despite the heroism of the Ukrainian people – it is getting destroyed economically.
An international alliance has cut off some Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system, used to facilitate trillions of dollars’ worth of international financial transactions every day, in what has been called “the nuclear option” of sanctioning.
They also promised to prevent Russia from accessing some of its foreign reserves. To put that in layman’s terms, Russian has gone to the bank and found its saving account empty.
When the stock market opened for the first time after the penalties were imposed, the value of Russia’s major banks halved almost instantly and the rouble lost 30% of its value, making it much more expensive for Russian to trade – if indeed they can find anyone to trade with.
To combat inflation, the Russian central bank doubled its key interest rate to 20%. That’s higher than America’s equivalent rate has been in all of its history.
But what does this have to do with Nigeria?
A British parliamentary inquiry reported in 2018 that “despite the strong rhetoric, President Putin and his allies have been able to continue ‘business as usual’ by hiding and laundering their corrupt assets in London.”
Hiding illicit assets overseas you say?
This may sound very familiar to Nigerians.
As part of the international response to Russia’s aggression, Russian elites have seen their overseas assets targeted too – which may be why Roman Abramovich suddenly seems so keen to sell Chelsea.
The message is clear. If you try to hide dishonestly or illegally gained money overseas, there is no place to hide. And if your country finds itself embroiled in an international dispute, you may find yourself a target.
Russian is far from alone in seeing its very wealthy hide their wealth as far from home as possible.
In recent days, leaks from the Credit Suisse bank have shown how comfortable the Swiss bank was in having Eduard Seidel as a client.
The German was convicted of bribery in 2008 after overseeing a campaign of industrial-scale bribery to secure lucrative clients for his employer by shovelling cash to corrupt Nigerian politicians.
That leak follows last-year’s so called Pandora Papers leak, which pointed the finger at a number of high profile Nigerians – including current and former state governors, past and present lawmakers, and even a senior judge –for setting up shadow shell companies in notorious tax havens to hide their wealth. That leak suggested that powerful Nigerians have bought UK property valued at £350m using 166 offshore companies.
The Ukraine situation has highlighted this issue. Soon there may be no hiding place for those who hide their wealth overseas. And if not in the national interest, our elites need to consider acting in their own self-interest when it comes to transparency and accountability.
But politicians need to take the same steps towards transparency and accountability too.
At the digital democracy campaign I lead, we have been trying to give Nigeria’s elected leaders the tools to build back the trust and both their reputations and that of our entire political system, and to make all their financial interests publicly accessible.
We have created a free mobile app called Rate Your Leader, which was designed to reconnect electors and the elected, opening direct channels of communication between people and to their elected officials – giving local people the kind of access previously only enjoyed by funders.
Rate Your Leader encourages politicians to explain the decisions they have made and the reasons for making them directly to the people they affect. If the voters don’t like the answer they get, they can rate their politicians appropriately.
In the UK, a new Economic Crime Bill developed in response to Russian’s invasion of Ukraine will include a new register that will mean foreign owners of UK property must declare and verify their identities with the state.
That register will include Nigerians too.
This week the UK also signed another agreement relating to compensation for corruption in the Nigerian Energy sector.
The net is closing in on international corruption, and current international events are just making that net tighter. We now need to do our bit at home.
Joel Popoola is a Nigerian tech entrepreneur, digital democracy campaigner and creator of the Rate Your Leader app.
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
The importance of timing cannot be overemphasized. Timing is everything in life. It is critical to one’s success. You can lose your money and get it back in many folds. You can even lose your health and get it back all things being equal, but when you lose time, you can hardly get it back again.
The importance of timing can be seen in crops. Every crop has a season, a good farmer won’t plant maize when it’s time for oranges, nor will he plant pears when it’s the season for mangoes.
Time is very instrumental to the success and failure of anyone. Imagine having a meeting or interview at 9:00am and you arrive at 10:10am, it will take the grace of God to be interviewed. As an employee, apart from one not being able to diligently do his job, one of the fastest ways for an employee to lose his job is by being late to work.
When I was in New York Law School studying Taxation law, I did a course titled, the Problem of Timing. During the semester, I learnt about cash and accrued income. Let me do some academic exercise here. In cash income, just like the name entails, one is paid in cash as soon as the work is completed. It’s just like going to the market to make a purchase. One can either pay directly with cash or with debit or credit card. But Accrued income refers to revenue a company has earned by providing goods or services, but for which payment has not yet been received, one will have to do the work first before getting paid. This is applicable when one works in either a public or private organization where one is paid either weekly, bi-weekly or at the end of the month depending on the stipulated mode of payment.
It’s important to note that before the money is paid either in cash or accrued, one would have earned it. It’s just like one learning g before earning, and one will have to update to upgrade. These are just the practical principles that will work with life.
In the same way, in life there’s a seed time and harvest time. It’s a universal principle of life. Whether as a parent, entrepreneur, student or employee. As a parent, if you don’t train your kids very well, they will grow up to reflect the opposite of what you desire. As an entrepreneur when you invest in your business, you will get the reward in due time. As a student, if you take your studies seriously, your grades will improve, and as an employee, you stand to get promotions and opportunities when you add value to your work. In summary, one will have to put in the work before recognition comes on.
To understand how seedtime and harvest work, imagine where parents tend to like one child more than others just because they see potential in him, or he’s smart, hardworking or even creative. They fail to understand that every child is different and as such their timing can be different. Some kinds take time to develop.
I personally believe there’s something so unique about each individual which God has deposited in everyone of us. It’s just a matter of time for it to manifest. Your timing of manifestation is different from your siblings and colleagues.
Personally, I didn’t mature fast with my contemporaries. Overtime, I have seen much improvement in my personal and professional life. Maybe because I have added value to my work with the assistance of mentors and good friends, or God had to humble my colleagues and mentors . Why do I say this? During my formative years, I had little or nothing to show for it. I was looking at my contemporaries as mentor and seeing my mentors as small gods whose feat is unattainable, but now, the reverse seems to be case as I have developed capacity some of my colleagues are yet to attain, while I have even surpassed the achievement of my some of my mentors in some quarters.
In all these, they are all surprised how it happened. Some are yet to comprehend or articulate the feat. It’s just like watching a film where everyone slept and woke up to see the game and tides have changed. The secret behind it is the seed time and harvest time. I was probably learning the trade while in the wilderness, and when the training season matured and ripe enough to be harvested, I became attractive to almost everyone who loved the seed I was producing.
There are litany of examples of people, who have been in the wilderness during the seed planting season. Let’s take a case study of Joseph in the Bible, his journey to stardom took a little twist. Despite the travails he experienced in the hands of his siblings who sold him, his experience while in the jail, and with Portiphar’s wife, who tried to seduce him; they were all set ups for success. The moral here is Joseph seed time and harvest time was quite different, it wasn’t a smooth journey. Ordinarily, one would have cursed his siblings or his friends who were with him in prison and forgot him after they were released. But at the end of time, everything worked out for his favor. Joseph’s seed days were his dark days while in the wilderness.
Another inspiring story of note was that of Pastor Ibukun Awosika, the former board Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria. She once shared a pathetic story during her formative years of being in business. According to her, she sojourned for about 15 years. She cried because lines were not adding up for her and she wouldn’t do what her contemporaries were doing to get opportunities. At a point in her business, it appeared like she was in a race of own life because everything seemed to be against her, but at the appropriate time, lines began to fall in place for her. Appointments, business opportunities, favours and goodwill began to fall in place for her. Again, she had a fair share of seed time.
An interesting question I would like to ask you is, what’s your seed time? Have you ever been in the wilderness when you appeared to be fixed? It’s unfortunate many people are not willing to pass through the storms or experience seeds and harvest time. Amidst all these, one must do some work before they get opportunities. However, before such opportunities will come up, one will have to plant the seed.
In conclusion, seed time and harvest time is critical in the journey of life. Take a seat and determine what seed you would like to sow and what you’ll like to harvest.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your and Unleash Your Destiny . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
By Eric Elezuo
The Senate has suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghen for six months over her sexual harassment accusation and other disputes against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
The Senate also withdrew her salaries for the period of the suspension, as well as her security details.
The chamber however, soft-pedaled on the salaries and allowances of her aides, who it was argued would not have any source of livelihood within the period.
Globacom is welcoming new customers on its network with the introduction of the e-SIM. The e-SIM activated in any Gloworld shop or Dealer outlet comes with an introductory free 5GB data when the customer buys a data plan of N1,500 or more.
Customers already on other networks can now join the Glo network with e-SIM as an additional SIM. Existing Glo customers can also enjoy this “SIM-less” freedom.
With the e-SIM, customers no longer have to worry about space for a physical SIM on their phones. The e-SIM is a software-based digital chip built directly into smartphones or wearable devices, thus eliminating the need for a physical SIM card for customers.
The use of e-SIM enables customers to have seamless switching between phone numbers without a physical SIM. It is ideal for upwardly mobile people who travel frequently. The e-SIM also guarantees security, as unlike physical SIM, it is harder to remove from devices. It is also eco-friendly and reduces plastic waste.
Globacom’s launch of the e-SIM enables enables it to cater to high-net-worth individuals and enterprise customers, and it also reinforces the company’s commitment to providing seamless and future-ready services to its customers.
A customer seeking to activate the Glo e-SIM needs to check the compatibility of the mobile handset by dialling *#06# on his or her phone. If an EID number reflects on the mobile screen, the device is e-SIM compatible.
“The customer can then proceed to the nearest Gloworld shop or Glo Dealer outlet to migrate to e-SIM. The process takes only a few minutes and the customer can thereafter begin to enjoy the use of an e-SIM”, the Marketing Department disclosed.
