Laura Ingraham: An epitome of hypocrisy and a walking contradiction of privileged ignorance

Laura Ingraham

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By Deji Fashola (Contributing Editor)

One of the most consistent things in life is time. Time never fails to tell the story. The story of the day, the story of your life and the events that have shaped that very life; but even more importantly, time never fails to remind us of our past, with historical and poignant markers that speak to how our past actions ultimately determine where and who we are, or will become.

For Laura Ingraham, a talk show host of Fox News and someone whom I had never heard of until she name dropped basketball superstar, Lebron James, a few years ago by telling him to shut up and dribble, time has essentially encapsulated the very essence of her being, as it relates to her place in the evolving but contentious conversation about Americas contract with people of African descent, in particular.

I am not a consumer of American news as a matter of principle, be it CNN, Fox, MSNBC or any other alphabet news organization, but one thing I will say having had a glimpse of Fox news in particular, is that the latter (Fox news) is the most brazen attempt at instituting State-run TV in a country that is supposed to be the very epitome of democracy.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1268551040074383361

Time and time again, we are inundated with the Republican mantra that seemingly serves to eschew the tenets and principles of so-called conservative values. But, what exactly do these values entail. 

According to Laura Ingraham et al, conservative values seek to:

a) Preserve the sanctity of life pre-birth but seemingly abuse and devalue it after birth, especially if the life in question is of the wrong hue.

b) Promote avaricious greed that encourages limitless profit by a very limited few to the detriment of the overwhelming majority.

c) Encourage and promote governmental interference in the lives of others with the exception of those who profess a divine following of a God, whose commandments and ordinances they (the so-called conservatives) never abide by, but project and force on others who merely seek to live and let live.

d) Bully, vilify, slander, defame, abuse and in some cases, seek to intimidate with threats of violence those they disagree with, including defying constituted authority even though the latter's conduct and ordinances are within the framework of the laws and statutes of the land.

A perfect example of this vilification is the Republican messaging of referring to those who ask why the wealthiest nation on earth has more than half of its population without basic healthcare, as socialists.

These same conservatives (Republicans) have no problems though with the government giving away billions of dollars in corporate welfare to big corporations, deemed too big to fail. To them, the average American is too irrelevant and too small to succeed or be cared for, so long as Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom "call in the troops" Cotton, Josh "inordinate ambition" Hawley and the always opportunistic Rafael Ted Cruz line their pockets and those of their corporate benefactors.

e) Extol the virtues of democracy and civility when in the majority or win elections but then turn the same institution on its head, refusing to concede when you lose, and then seek to undermine and subvert the will of the people by judicial fiat. And when the latter fails, incite a violent insurrection against the duly elected leadership of the country, namely the Vice President and Congress, a co-equal branch of government, by a sitting President of the United States of America.

The four years of the Trump misrule of incompetence, laced with brazen nepotism, cronyism and racism, as well as unbridled corruption, was undoubtedly egged on by State TV (Fox News), with Sean Hannity (the former construction worker and high school dropout) and Laura Ingraham as the unofficial spokespersons of the Trump-led civilian junta. 

It remains to be seen if the resulting socio-political scars remain embedded in the mental and institutional psyche of the nation, for decades or even generations to come.

Made In Nigeria: Innoson CNG and LNG Vehicles

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Bola Ahmed Tinubu Sworn In As Nigeria’s 7th Democratically Elected President

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By Deji Komolafe - Deputy Editor

The next president of Africa's largest democracy, Nigeria, has been sworn in at a ceremony in the capital, Abuja. Bola Tinubu, 71, won February's election with a promise to renew hope - but he faces tough economic and security challenges.

The ceremony took place amid extremely tight security and in front of world leaders and dignitaries, such as President Kagame of Rwanda and Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa at the 5,000 capacity Eagle Square venue in the capital Abuja.

Tinubu becomes just the 7th democratically elected president of Nigeria, and the 16th overall.

He inherits a country beset by serious economic and security challenges after eight years of rudderless leadership by the outgoing administration of Muhammadu Buhari.

Tinubu also inherits a nation deeply divided along ethno-religious lines, a consequence of the acerbically divisive rule of former President Buhari, who will go down as probably the most polarizing leader in the history of Nigeria. 

Tinubu’s inauguration is the culmination of a life-long ambition to rule Nigeria and he is probably the most prepared to do so, in the history of the country.

Buhari apologises for inflicting pain, suffering on Nigerians

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Outgoing Nigeria President, Muhammadu Buhari has apologized to Nigerians who found themselves on the receiving end of some of the policies his government implemented in the last eight years.

The President tendered the apology in his farewell broadcast to Nigerians as the Commander-in-Chief, aired on the morning of Sunday, May 28, 2023.

Buhari is gearing up to hand over power to the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in less than 24 hours and took out time to reflect on his eight years in office.

While thanking Nigerians for supporting his government, the President claimed he's leaving the country better than he met it when he came into office in 2015.

He claimed that most of the economic policies pursued by his government have yielded the desired results even though he admitted that such policies caused Nigerians a great deal of pain and suffering and apologised accordingly.

Buhari said, "In the course of revamping the economy, we made some difficult choices most of which yielded the desired results. Some of the measures led to temporary pain and suffering for which I sincerely apologise to my fellow countrymen but the measures were taken for the overall good of the country."

The President also claimed that his government provided millions of job opportunities for Nigerians, while the nation achieved self-sustainability in food production among others all thanks to his policy interventions.

He said he's leaving the office as a fulfilled person due to some of the strides his government made to reposition Nigeria for future development and urged the people to rally behind the incoming administration so that the country can capitalise on the foundation his government has put in place.

PULSE.NG

Tinubu inherits negative growth, non-performing sectors

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As President Muhammadu Buhari hands over the reins of the economy to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the scorecard seems overwhelmingly negative.

Key macroeconomic indicators are all in the red, with most of them far weaker than what was handed over to the outgoing regime in 2015.

From inflation figures to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and exchange rates; from the money market performance through the entire financial markets and the real sector, the story is gory.

Headline inflation rose to 22.2 per cent in April 2023, the highest in 18 years. Buhari inherited a single digit inflation rate at 9.0 percent in June 2015, and he is set to hand over to Tinubu a second tier double digit inflation which is still trending up as at the time of this report.

This reflects the steady rise in prices of goods and services under Buhari occasioned by a number of wrong-headed or badly implemented policies including foreign exchange restriction on 43 items, border closure, farmers/herders clash, post-COVID supply chain bottlenecks as well as the most recent Naira redesign debacle, among others.

Consequently, the average headline inflation in the eight years of Buhari tenure rose to 14.77 per cent, up by 447 basis points from 10.3 per cent in the previous eight years, 2007 to 2014.

Of course this escalated the misery index across larger section of the citizens.

The GDP numbers through the previous eight years before Buhari took over in the second quarter of 2015 had averaged 4.8 percent.

As of the time the Buhari administration took off in the second quarter of 2015, Q2’15, the economy growth rate had slowed down to around 3.57 percent due to the oil price crises that had started a year earlier.

However, the high expectations that the economy is going to be revived quickly vanished when the new administration slumbered in setting up the cabinet and the subsequent economic management team that was expected to steer the ship away from the troubled waters.

Consequently, this lethargy littered the entire spectrum of the subsequent years, bringing the GDP numbers to one of the worst in history recording two recessions and an average of 1.2 percent growth.

Tinubu is inheriting a sluggish economy.

Mirroring the steady rise in inflation under Buhari, the benchmark interest rate, the Monetary Policy Rate, MPR, rose by 500 basis points, bpts, to 18 per cent in March 2023, as the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, moved to curb inflation.

Consequently, the maximum interest rate rose by 137 bpts to 28.08 per cent at the end of March 2023, from 26.71 per cent at the end of 2015. The Prime Lending rate, however, dropped by 295 bpts to 13.9 per cent from 16.85 per cent.

Tinubu is inheriting a high cost economic environment.

In the eight years of Buhari, the naira depreciated by 245 per cent and 135 per cent in the parallel market and in the official market respectively.

While the official exchange rate rose to N465.13 per dollar on May 17, 2023, from N198 per dollar on May 31, 2015, the parallel market exchange rate rose to N748 per dollar on May 17, 2023 from N217 per dollar on May 31, 2015.

Consequently, the premium between the two exchange rates widened to N279.87 on May 16, 2023, from N19 on May 31, 2015, the widest in the history of the country’s foreign exchange market.

Notwithstanding the decline in net foreign exchange, the nation’s external reserves rose to $35.19 billion at the end of May 16, 2023 from $28.28 billion at the end of 2015, translating to an increase of 24 per cent during the eight years period.

However, discounted for the $30.97 billion increase in external debt during this period, the external reserves will decline to $4.22 billion, hence a decline of 85 per cent in the eight years of Buhari.

How Buhari’s deficit budgeting hands fiscal albatross to Tinubu

The deficit budgeting strategy of the administration of the out-going President has created a fiscal albatross for the incoming administration.

The Federal Government deficit in 2016 was slightly above N2 trillion, but this has risen to over N12 trillion in the current fiscal year.

This follows a consistent pattern of weak revenue generation at the backdrop of propensity to spend more than earnings.

With poor revenue records and expansionary budget outlays, Buhari has consistently borrowed to fund the government budgets since assumption of office.

The National Assembly has also encouraged the borrowing to fund budget deficit from both domestic and external sources.

By 2015, out of the $65.428 billion public debt of the nation, the Federal Government debt was $44.857 billion or N8. 836 trillion

It consisted of $10.718 billion external debt while domestic debt was N8.836 trillion.

But as of December 2022, the total public debt stock of the nation had risen to $103.110 billion or N46.250 trillion.

Analysis of the detailed debt stock as of last year end shows that the external debt stood at $41.694 billion or N16.703 trillion while states and the Federal Capital Territory external debt stood at $4.456 billion.

At $61.415 billion or N 27.548 trillion, domestic debt accounted for 59.56 percent of the total debt stock. Out of that figure the Federal Government owed $ 49.515 billion or N22.210 trillion while states and the FCT owed $11.900 billion or N5.337 trillion.

Tinubu inherits tottering capital market

Resilience

Elsewhere across the entire financial sector, the story is almost the same, except for some resilience in the capital market.

In the negative principally is the exit of foreign investors in the capital market responding to the adverse macroeconomic and policy environment.

Foreign investors’ participation which hitherto accounted for more than 60 per cent of transactions in the Nigerian stock market went south between May 2015 and 2023.

But the secondary market for equities defied these realities and surged by 52.8 per cent.

The NGX under Buhari administration, is, therefore, marked by significant periods of highs and lows.

When the President took over office in 2015, the market capitalization of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), formerly the Nigerian Stock Exchange, was N16.88 trillion (equities 69.1% or N11.66trn, bonds and others 30.9%).

By May 16, 2023, the market capitalization had risen to N60.05 trillion comprising equities (N28.523trn), bonds (N22.390trn) and Exchange Traded Fund, ETF (N9.137bn).

Notwithstanding this increase, the ratio of equities market capitalization to GDP remains paltry at about 15 percent, an indication that the capital market is not really integrated with the economy.

Also, the main performance indicator of the NGX, the All Share Index (ASI), advanced to 52,419.33 points from 34,310.37 points, representing a 52.8 percent increase.

However, the positive scores in the capital market in the past eight years include few new listings in the exchange.

2019, particularly, saw the listing of blue chip companies. As one of the settlement terms with the Federal Government for infraction, MTN was compelled to list on NGX. The listing encouraged Airtel Africa, another telecoms giant, to also list, thereby shooting up the market capitalization of equities to over N19 trillion. Prior to the listing of the two telecom giants, Notore Chemicals had listed in 2018. Since then, other major companies, including Skyway Aviation Handling Company Plc (SAHCO), BUA Cement, BUA Foods and Geregu Power, the first energy company to access the stock market, were listed.

Under the Buhari administration, several elite products were introduced in an effort to deepen the market.

More so, the Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) segment of the capital market was revived and the products are now traded on the stock exchange. More Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and recently launched Exchange Traded Derivatives have emerged in the Nigerian capital market. With the rollout of Exchange Traded Derivatives, a critical financial market infrastructure, called Central Counterparty (CCP) for clearing, settlement and delivery, was set up by NGX and the FMDQ Securities Exchange.

In 2015, three new indices were launched, including the Premium Board Index, Pension Index and the Main Board Index.

During the eight years of Buhari, foreign investors’ confidence in the market took a nosedive. When he took office in 2015, foreign investors’ participation at NGX was 54%. But by the end of 2022, their participation, fuelled by foreign exchange (forex) scarcity and capital controls by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), had fallen to 17 percent. This has kept many foreign investments trapped in Nigeria.

While there have been a number of new listings, the spate of delisting outweighed the former. While there were a total of seven new companies got listed, not less than 40 companies exited the market either through regulatory or voluntary delisting.

Since the 2008/2009 capital market crash, the primary market for equities has been dormant. Eight years of the Buhari administration failed to revive the primary market for equities. Other than the PO by MTN, there was practically no other equities public offering throughout the eight years of the President’s tenure.

Weak insurance sector

At the inception of the Buhari administration in 2015, the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, the regulatory body for insurance practice in the country, in collaboration with insurance operators, had set out to achieve some targets in the course of the administration.

The set targets include the insurance sector hitting a trillion naira mark in Gross Premium Written, GPW; enforcement of compulsory insurance; eradication of fake insurance; recapitalisation of underwriting firms; passage of the Consolidated Insurance Bill; regular payment of group life premium for civil servants; increase of third party motor insurance premium, etc.

However, the combined effects of adverse macroeconomic environment and rising poverty diminished the results of the efforts by both the sector regulators and operators.

In 2015, total industry Gross Premium Written, GPW, was N289 billion and, according to NAICOM, the GPW is highly inadequate to underwrite huge ticket risks such as oil & gas and aviation. The Commission, therefore, set out modalities to achieve one trillion GPW in the course of the administration.

However, by December 2022, industry GPW stood at N532.7 billion, a far cry from the N1 trillion projection.

NAICOM, in collaboration with industry operators, had put the machinery in place to enforce the compulsory insurances.

Insurance operators worry that insurance penetration will continue to be low if they remain within comfort zones without expanding the business to the nooks and crannies of the country.

Unfortunately, as this administration winds down, enforcement of the compulsory insurance policies is still a far cry from expectation.

According to experts, the insurance sector loses over N60 billion to fake insurance racketeers annually.

Although NAICOM has taken some steps to curb the spread of fake insurance policies, the menace persists albeit on a declining scale.

Before the administration came, the Consolidated Insurance Bill had been awaiting passage in the National Assembly.

In the course of the administration, the Bill continued to gather dust even as the sector made series of efforts to fast-track its passage.

The Bill is aimed to make insurance practice conform to the ideals of contemporary insurance practice as well as align the insurance sector with the powers of other financial regulators in the country.

Unfortunately, the Buhari administration did not do justice to the Bill.

On the positive note, the administration inherited non-payment of premium for compulsory group life for Federal Government workers from the previous administration.

The implication was that many government workers died in active service with no compensation from the group life insurance scheme, except where government decides to pay compensation from its treasury.

The development elicited outcry from insurance stakeholders as they called on government to give more attention to group life insurance scheme, stressing that the scheme remains one of the ways the government can cater for workers’ risk liabilities.

However, the administration resumed payment of group life premium for civil servants.

Accordingly, the administration on annual basis pays premium of N5.4 billion for the group life cover.

VANGUARD

British Royal family refused to employ people from racial and ethnic minorities

WPA POOL/GETTY IMAGES

CC™ Royal Buzz

To this day it is impossible for women or people of ethnic minorities to seek legal action due to discrimination they have faced working for the royal household.

Buckingham Palace had banned the appointment of "colored immigrants or foreigners" from serving in clerical roles in the royal household until at least the late 1960s, according to newly discovered documents from the National Archives. 

The documents were obtained by The Guardian as part of their ongoing investigation into how the royal family have used an outdated procedure known as the Queen's Consent in order to influence British law. 

The documents reveal that although immigrants and people of ethnic minorities were permitted to work in the royal family's staff as domestic servants, in 1968 the Queen's chief financial manager said that "it was not, in fact, the practice to appoint colored immigrants or foreigners" to cleric roles in the royal household. 

The documents do not indicate when this practice ended, and royal household records only indicate the racial and ethnic background of staff from the 1990s onwards, making it impossible to know when they repealed this rule. 

Buckingham Palace refused to answer questions about the ban and when it had officially been repealed when questioned on the matter by The Guardian. 

Due to the Queen's Consent procedure, the Queen is personally exempt from following equality laws which were put into place in the 1970. To this day the exemption makes it impossible for women or people of ethnic minorities to seek legal action due to discrimination they have faced working for the royal household. 

The royal family has been under scrutiny for racism and discrimination in recent years due to an interview with Oprah in which Meghan Markle revealed that she had struggled with her mental health during her time in the royal family, and alleged that when she was pregnant with her son Archie, an unnamed member of the royal family had expressed worry about the color of her unborn child's skin.

JERUSALEM POST

A Reminder: Exclusive video of Kano governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, receiving bribe from a contractor

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Countering The Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys (1987) - A Must Watch

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What Were The Very First Ancient Egyptians Like?

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The Deliberate Destruction of the Black Community in America

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Buhari’s legacy of terror and bloodshed as Fulani Herdsmen terrorize communities in Plateau State

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Global News Desk

Intercommunal conflict has killed hundreds of people in recent years in Nigeria’s ethnically and religiously diverse Middle Belt region.

The death toll from fighting between farmers and herders in Nigeria’s north-central state of Plateau has risen above 100 with locals searching in the bush for more bodies, residents and local authorities say.

Gunmen stormed villages and burned several houses in the Mangu area on Tuesday with at least 20 people initially estimated to have died, mostly women and children.

The violence was in reprisal for farmers killing a herder and his cattle who had encroached on their land last month, local herder Bello Yahaya said on Friday.

Mangu local government chairman Minista Daniel Daput said a mass burial had been conducted for about 50 people. Residents said another 50 were to be buried on Friday and they were looking for more missing people in the surrounding bush.

Plateau is one of several ethnically and religiously diverse hinterland states known as Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where intercommunal conflict has killed hundreds of people in recent years.

The violence is often painted as an ethno-religious conflict between nomadic Muslim herders – mostly ethnic Fulani – and mainly Christian Indigenous farmers. However, experts say climate change and expanding agriculture have also exacerbated the conflict.

Makut Simon Macham, a spokesperson for Plateau’s governor, said authorities were assessing the situation and would prosecute suspects, but he could not give casualty numbers.

REUTERS

Fela Died Of Poison From Nigerian Government, Not AIDS - Dede Mabiaku

Sani Abacha (L) 

CC™ ViewPoint

By Wale Adedayo

Dede Mabiaku, a close friend of the late Nigerian Afrobeat musician, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, has stated that the Afrobeats icon died from a lethal injection by the Nigerian Government, and not from HIV/AIDS as had been previously speculated.

Mabiaku said Fela had told him and his (Fela’s) youngest son, Seun Kuti, about his suspicions that he had been injected with “something” while in the custody of the National Drug and Law Enforcement Agency, during the draconian reign of the then military dictator, General Sani Abacha.

Mabiaku, a protégée of the late musician, says he is concerned that history might repeat itself with the continued detention of Fela’s son, Seun Kuti, by the Buhari administration. 

He stated, “they injected him (Fela) while he was in their custody, and why no one has raised this matter since then is surprising to me.

“Fela never knew what they injected him with. He just felt something and asked us whether we’ve seen him sleep face-down before and we said no. And he asked us how come it happened, showing us his side and saying he feels like he was injected with something.

“We need to be real with ourselves and ask questions when things don’t seem right. The Nigerian government is an oppressive one. So many people have died mysteriously while or after having being in custody of this wicked government. We must never forget and keep fighting.”

Editorial Flashback: It's an e-mail scam, not a "Nigerian scam"....

Editor-in-Chief

Imagine my surprise when I turned to the consumer page of the Attorney General of the State of Washington to find that a whole people, in this case citizens of Nigeria, had been painted with a wide brush (see former website content below in italics). Regarding the latter, I am talking about the much talked about e-mail scams or advance fee fraud, many believe originated from that West African nation.

"E-mail Scams - Advance fee and counterfeit check/Nigerian scams: If you suffered a financial loss you can file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov"

To better understand this issue, it will be prudent to give a brief overview of the most populous country on the African continent, a nation that has disbursed so much good to much of humanity, with some bad mixed in (show me a perfect country or people).

Nigeria gained its independence from Britain on October 1st, 1960. Since then, the country has experienced a civil war (that lasted for three years 1967-1970 and killed 1 million of its citizens) while also enjoying a long spell of economic prosperity and boom from the 70s to the late-80s (much from oil and other natural resources she has been blessed with).

Lately, beginning in the 1990s, the country's infrastructure, image and over-all national reputation has taking a beating, mainly as a result of defective leadership laced with unbecoming greed and avarice.

The general climate of corruption (not quite different from what you would find in most countries but quite overt in Nigeria) has led to an expected societal breakdown, where law, order and common decency became an exception and not the norm.

For all of its struggles with corruption and the systematic destruction of its storied institutions and culture, much of this by its own military, with the acquiescence of the West (the latter mostly concerned with taking its resources by any means), the country has re-set itself back on course, with democratic elections in 1999 and has never looked back since.

The descent into "white collar crime" with the e-mail scams and other forms of criminal activity (by a very marginal minority) does NOT define the nature and character of Nigerians (over 200 million people), with many Nigerians contributing as physicians, scientists, technology experts and business executives in much of the world, particularly Africa, Europe and the United States (with a well established immigrant population in the Puget Sound as well).

While the e-mail/advance fee scam has generally been portrayed as a "Nigerian Scam", recent investigations by the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS) (working in conjunction with the FBI and Interpol) have shown that most of these crimes (e-mail/advance fee scams) have actually been committed by citizens of other West African countries, namely Ghana, the Sierra Leone and Liberia (due to the wars and extreme poverty in the latter two).

The interesting spin to the preceding information is that America's next door neighbor, Canada, has become a notorious breeding ground as well for a large proportion of these e-mail and other transactional scams. Witness the Canadian "lottery winner" e-mails as well as the offer to send you a "cashiers check" when you try to sell your car on Craigslist.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), a body recently set up by Nigeria's democratically elected government, has also been very aggressive in pursuing the perpetrators of ALL financial crimes, within the Nigerian state.

While it is true that the Nigerian government "needs to do more" to ensure that this menace is curtailed (at least within its borders), one can say that the US government also needs to do more, by advising its citizens not to reply to e-mail solicitations to receive money from "relatives", they never had in Nigeria or anywhere else in the first place.

The advance fee fraud and e-mail scam developed a life of its own by the default of enablement. The greed and avarice in the United States (particularly on Wall Street) is there for all to see, but I am yet to see any Attorney General websites or newspapers refer to those as "American scam" or even worse still, label the scam on Wall Street with an ethnic delineation.

I am grateful to the deputy Chief-of-Staff of the Washington AG at the time for heeding my call and that of other well-meaning and hardworking Nigerians to remove the "Nigerian" label on this disgraceful activity.

One would hope that the likes of Sean Robinson (Staff Writer at the Tacoma News Tribune) might also learn something and understand that much like the criminals on Wall Street and those on the corners of the worst neighborhoods of Tacoma and indeed America who murder (serial killers et al), rape, pillage, molest and commit countless heinous crimes, are not branded with an American or other ethnic-American brush, it would be fool-hardy to do the same to others.

DNA study shows many African-Americans have Nigerian ancestry

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During the period of the transatlantic slave trade, more than 12.5 million enslaved persons were shipped from Africa to the Americas with about 3.5 million of them from Nigeria.

Today there are communities of people with Nigerian ancestry mostly in Brazil, Cuba, and Jamaica who have retained some of their ancestral beliefs and traditions.

In the largest DNA study of people of African ancestry in the Americas, researchers found an overrepresentation of Nigerian genetic ancestry in the United States and Latin America compared to the proportion of enslaved people shipped to these places from regions within modern day Nigeria.

While the finds from the genetic study are largely supported by established narratives and historic records of the transatlantic slave trade, there were also inconsistencies.

The researchers put forward a new narrative explaining the variations in African ancestry in the Americas and how these variations were shaped by the transatlantic and a later intra-America slave trade whose impact was only recently understood.

The study which involved the DNA of 50,281 people of African descent in the United States, Latin America and western Europe was carried out by the consumer genetics company, 23andMe.

The genetic data was analyzed against historical records of over 36,000 transatlantic slave trade voyages that happened between 1492 and the early 19th century.

The overrepresentation of Nigeria ancestry is said to be a result of intra-American slave trade between the British Caribbean and mainland Americas.

Previous genetic studies have shown that African Americans in the US have more African ancestry from populations that lived near present-day Nigeria than from populations that lived elsewhere in Atlantic Africa (Western and west central Africa). In agreement, it was shown in this study Nigerian as the most common ancestry within the US, the French Caribbean, and the British Caribbean.

This is despite, nearly half of the slaves who landed in the United States coming from Senegambia (Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal) and West-Central Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola), a considerable number of the remaining half had their origins in Ghana as well as Ivory Coast.

The overrepresentation of Nigeria ancestry reported was found to be a result of the later intra-American slave trade between the British Caribbean and the mainland Americas.

The intra-American trade which was an inter-colonial trade involving over 11,000 slave voyages within the Americas stretched as far as Boston to Buenos Aires and also Atlantic and the Pacific littorals.

Intra-American trade records show that while the transatlantic voyages were going on, slave traders transferred nearly 500,000 slaves throughout the Americas with most intra-American voyages originating in the Caribbean.

Though the British outlawed the slave trade in 1807 and started intercepting slave ships, the intra-American slave trade continued.

The intra-American slave trade voyages on record sailed until the 1840s as there the slave trade continued in the US and between Spanish Caribbean colonies.

The researchers also reported Senegambia underrepresentation in the Americas such as in northern South America and Central America despite being the source of nearly half of the enslaved persons who landed at ports in the areas.

This underrepresentation was linked to the fact that Senegambia is one of the first African regions from which large numbers of people were enslaved in the Americas.

It was presumed to have resulted in reduced African ancestry in the population. A presumed high mortality rate in the Americas amongst enslaved persons from Senegambia was also given a possible reason.

Also in the study, the United States and the British Caribbean were found to have the highest African ancestry in the Americas. Previous genetic studies have also reported a lower proportion of Latin Americans with African roots compared to the proportion of African Americans in the United States.

This is despite historical records shows that over two-third of enslaved people who arrived in the Americas landed in Latin America with less than 5% landing in mainland North America.

This low representation was presumed to also be due to high mortality among enslaved people in Latin America and a high rate of intermarriage between them and native Americans resulting in reduced African ancestry in the population.

*This article was first published in Quartz Africa

5 Traits That Will Instantly Point to Someone With Bad Leadership Skills

CC™ Business Journal

BY MARCEL SCHWANTES, FOUNDER AND CHIEF HUMAN OFFICER, LEADERSHIP FROM THE CORE@MARCELSCHWANTES

Leadership broken down into its most basic and practical form can be defined as meeting the needs of people and developing them to their fullest potential.

When employees don't develop and have their needs met to do their jobs well, they experience low morale, they stop caring, and they stop trying.

To reverse the effects of bad leadership, when the rubber meets the road, these are five of the most common bad leadership behaviors I've encountered as an executive coach over the years. 

1. Not recognizing people for doing good work.

Gallup has surveyed literally millions of employees worldwide and found that people who receive regular recognition and praise increase their individual productivity, increase engagement, and are more likely to stay with their organization. Additionally, they receive higher loyalty and satisfaction scores from customers and have better safety records and fewer accidents on the job.

2. Disrespecting employees.

In a 2020 poll conducted by ResumeLab on what makes someone a bad leader, it was found that an alarming 72 percent of the surveyed population was treated in a rude or disrespectful manner by a boss. Additionally, nearly 70 percent of respondents were criticized in front of their peers, and 83 percent of them felt bad about it. Finally, and perhaps the worst case of all, an eye-popping 42 percent of bad leaders blamed others for their failures, which 84 percent of employees felt is unfair.

3. Failure to communicate effectively.

In my work coaching leaders, communication issues are common. Too much of it, not enough of it, wrong messages being sent. Whatever form it comes in, poor communication can affect work morale, disengage your employees, and dissatisfy your customers. Whatever the case, one thing should be crystal clear: Communication, whether interpersonal or organizational, is a necessity for success.

4. Lacking integrity.

When questionable decisions for financial gain or personal benefit are made, employees know. And if they know, you've already lost the battle for respect. But if you lead by example and show integrity in your decision-making, it says a lot about you -- the leader. Who you are as a person in relation to others will ultimately determine your level of success. 

5. Failure to give ongoing feedback as part of the manager-employee relationship. 

Far too often, the typical annual performance review and its process don't result in positive feedback. Generally, in this process, managers will bank up views and perspectives until review time, dumping them all at once on the employee, thus leaving them dazed and confused, overwhelmed, and in some cases irritated. 

If we want our employees to grow, why are we waiting an entire year to offer them help? Feedback is about asking and receiving useful advice and insights on a continuous journey toward shared goals. It's about building trusting relationships and knowing that help is there.

When we get it right, feedback lifts people up, helps them understand their strengths, and shows them pathways to achieve the next step in their career progression. 

INC

CHANGE YOUR LIFE - Denzel Washington Motivational Speech

CC™ VideoScope

FLASHBACK: WHAT DO YOU WANT ON YOUR TOMBSTONE?

CC™ Perspective - By Yahaya Balogun

"We must always find a way to get into GOOD TROUBLE; speak against all evils, and do the right thing at all times!" - John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020). 

John Lewis believed in the courage of his convictions. He followed his mind and he conquered his fear and left a great legacy worthy of emulation. - Yahaya Balogun. 

"It's time to prod our minds and look at ourselves in the mirror; ask ourselves the questions: are we going to be part of the problems, or are we going to be part of the solutions? History will judge our decision, action, and inaction" - Yahaya Balogun.

In 1963, John Lewis was, at age 23, the youngest person set to speak at the March on Washington. John Lewis gave a resounding speech of his life during the protest for civil rights in the United States of America. John Lewis was a man of peace, and a conscience of the US Congress and the world. Historically, no one has under any circumstances, stop an idea whose time has come. There's always a reward for every action or inaction. John Lewis was arrested more than 40 times during the civil rights movement in the US. He was brutalized, jailed, and dehumanized. But John Lewis remained steadfast, and never get discouraged. The historic movement he participated in paved the way for the recognition of the dignity of African-Americans.

It seems time has come to systematically put an end to racial profiling and systemic racism in the United States of America. Thanks to the modern well-informed, articulate, and decent American millennials. The American millennials are morally reading American history in congenial ways to turn surreptitious hate to love in the United States. John Lewis was a moral fiber and a quintessential fine man. John Lewis was an epitome of moral values and principles. Values are principles, standards, or qualities by which we live our lives; our values shape the person we become, and our actions to our neighbors and humanity reflect those values. This is the definition of John Lewis in the conscience of his contemporaries in the US Congress.

John Lewis was a liberated man. A liberated man is free, fair-minded, fearless, and humanistic. A liberated mind is not concerned by the noises emanating from the cyborg market, or enemies' territory! A liberated soul is mindful of his association and carefully chooses his friends and acquaintances. He is conscious and informed of what he does to other people. All his actions are from the repository of good ideas for man's humanity to man. A liberated man is a complete man with mindfulness, emulative values, consistency, and love.

The mind of a good man is concerned about how to enlivening and stimulating the souls of his neighbors and adversaries alike for their success and happiness altogether. A man with a purposeful mind is focused and anticipatory about the results of the good he has invested in himself and other people. The ROI-return on investment of the good a good man has done to fellow human beings is the undiluted joy in his heart. The integrity of man is known when his character comes to fore. He keeps true and never gets ashamed of doing what's right or best for him and humanity. The value of a liberated man defines him and shapes the kind of person he becomes in life and after that. A liberated mind has zero-tolerance for pretense, hatred, idiocy, and other negative nuances of life. He pays close attention to discern the evil-minds around. He is not perfect, but his fallibility makes him reasonable and humble when he realizes his mistakes or wrongdoings.

A man with a liberated mind fights fearlessly with no opportunistic expectations and grandstanding. His encumbrance (burden) is his deafening silence in the face of oppression and tyranny. A complete man shares his beliefs, virtues, integrity, principles, and missions with unblemished vigor and robustness for the common good of all. A whole man doesn't mind the short-term consequences or rewards for his act of goodwill, but he's fixated on the imports of his deeds to benefit him and humanity.

On the other hand, a warped mind is a reservoir for uncanny men to deposit resentment, vices, hatred, and manipulations. One of the most significant damages unnatural man has done to society has been his refusal or nonchalant attitude to discover his value through mindfulness. Uncanny man is very narcissistic, jealous, opportunistic, mindless, and resentful of others. He is always in penchant rivalry or competition with others rather than with himself!

Every man has roommates (negative and positive minds). A resentful man listens continuously to his roommate's negative voice (i.e., the blistering spirit of hate and resentment). The sound of roommates is mutually complementary if they agree with each other. Uncanny man has no compliment or encouraging disposition towards the other man making progress. He is always striving for the unwinnable war of envy, and needless struggle with his midget mind to falsely outpace himself.

The completeness of a man is embedded or assembled in his subconscious mind. When a man rediscovers himself, he is liberated from the existential invasion of his mind by the selfish figures of the affluence, bad friends, and influential people around him. He is immune to antisocial behavior and societal vices. A liberated man is ensconced in constant self-evaluation and rediscovery. Through self-discovery, a liberated mind becomes a renewed man and predisposes to self-consciousness. A liberated man only believes in what will be engraved in his tomb after he kicks the bucket-greed, hedonism, resentment, extremism, opportunism, jealousy, bigotry, and hatred, not in his personage or lexicon. He always enjoys constant happiness, and the inner tranquility and peace flowing ceaselessly from the (subconscious) base of his mind.

Collectively, the common humanity that is in all of us should rise now. People must be morally engaged to join other people of goodwill to fight corruption, diseases, unhealthy competitions, hatreds, terrorism, religious and ethnic bigotry, jealousy, and deliberate divisiveness in our society. To bring peace to our environment is better than engaging in the negative nuances that can bring war, hatred, and disorderliness for our mutual destruction.

Generally, life is not fair and just, but it's beautiful to an only, thoughtful, and mindful mind. What divinely unites humanity (Love) is more than those defeatist nuances (racism, bigotry, hate, war, jealousy, false-religiosity, resentment, etc.) that divide the world. Your existential legacy should be your responsibility now before you expire. What man needs now is to rediscover himself through mindfulness; do self-talk; reinvest in moral armament to bring inner peace to himself, peace to his neighbors, and peace to the world.

John Lewis came; he saw, but he has left humanity an existential assignment of grace and decency. Our performance in the assessment will determine what people and posterity are going to jot down on our catacombs when we expire or kick the bucket.

May John Lewis's gentle and wonderful soul rest in perfect peace.

Hongqi L5, Chinese car that costs twice the price of Rolls-Royce Phantom

CC™ MotorWorld

By Dapo Adegoke

Would you ever imagine that a Chinese vehicle would ever rival a Rolls-Royce or post a higher price tag? I know you don’t. But the reality on ground is that Hongqi L5 has proved us wrong.

The 780,000 dollar ultra-luxury Chinese car would give the Rolls-Royce Phantom a good fight anywhere, any day, in terms of luxury, performance, safety and even prestige.

The Hongqi L5 offers peak luxury and comfort, just like the Rolls-Royce but it is only a matter of time that the world would know that the Hongqi L5 is the new definition of luxury.

A little history about the Hongqi L5 would put things in the right perspective. Hongqi L5 is a luxury marque based in Changchun China. It started auto production in 1958 and holds the record as the first car independently produced in China. The auto company is China’s oldest car manufacturer.

While the Rolls-Royce Phantom cost about 460,000 dollar to acquire, this Chinese ultra luxury car cost about five million Chinese Yuan (780,000 dollars) to acquire, making it one of the most expensive cars in the world presently.

The truth is that the price tag did not come for nothing. The Hongqi L5 is loaded with array of features like never seen before and the ride comfort according to the manufacturers is out of this world.

A well crafted interior that is quiet and tasteful are some of the unique qualities of Hongqi L5. It comes in befitting black color.

From the side, the Hongqi L5 looks like a Rolls-Royce with its stretched wheelbase. The classic design can not be mistaken from any point and gives you an instant impression that the car is designed for kings and those who have arrived in the society.

The Hongqi L5 is powered with a 6.0-litre V12 engine which delivers power of 402 horsepower. Weighing almost 3.2 tons, this powerful car comes standard with All-Wheel Drive, AWD.