Schedule for Tekedia Live for this Week is out.
Tue, Jun 15 | 7pm-8pm WAT | Strategy & Execution – Eromosele Omomhenle, Manager, Microsoft USA
Thur, Jun 17 | 7pm-8pm WAT | Design Thinking – Aderinola Oloruntoye, Dean, Workforce Group
Sat, Jun 19 | 7pm-8.30pm WAT | Building Great Companies and Brands – Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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Registration for Tekedia Mini-MBA 5th edition continues
The Israeli parliament said they have had enough of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been in a fight to retain his 12 years old leadership.
The parliament, Nesset, approved a new government after Netanyahu lost with 59-60 votes. CNBC has the report.
The vote, ringing in the leadership of a very diverse and cobbled-together coalition of right-wing, left-wing, centrist and Islamist parties, ousted Israel’s longest-serving leader Benjamin Netanyahu. It also spared Israel from the prospect of a fifth election in less than two years.
Now, after putting up a fight and trying several political options to remain in power, Netanyahu will move aside and Israeli tech millionaire and lawmaker Naftali Bennett, who many describe as more right-wing than his predecessor, will take the premiership.
Sunday’s Knesset vote was marred by chaos and jeering, as some right-wing lawmakers including those from Netanyahu’s Likud party hurled insults at Bennett, calling him a “traitor” and a “liar” for allying with leftist and Arab parties. At least four politicians were kicked out of the session by the speaker, Yariv Levin.
Bennett, formerly an aide to Netanyahu, continued his pre-vote speech amid the heckling, praising Netanyahu as having “worked hard and faithfully for the state of Israel.” But he also pressed on the need for new leadership.
“We stopped the train before the abyss,” Mr. Bennett said. “The time has come for different leaders, from all parts of the people, to stop, to stop this madness.”
In a statement, U.S. President Joe Biden congratulated Bennett and other leaders of the new government and cabinet.
“I look forward to working with Prime Minister Bennett to strengthen all aspects of the close and enduring relationship between our two nations. Israel has no better friend than the United States. The bond that unites our people is evidence of our shared values and decades of close cooperation and as we continue to strengthen our partnership, the United States remains unwavering in its support for Israel’s security.”
‘We’ll be back soon’
The right-wing 71-year-old’s leadership, in its 12th year, has been a lightning rod and a longtime dividing line in Israeli society. One Israel expert told CNBC that the country’s last election in March — its fourth in less than two years due to the complex and polarized nature of Israeli politics — really came down to whether the country wanted “Bibi or no Bibi,” using the outgoing prime minister’s popular nickname.
Addressing the Knesset in English, acknowledging his party’s shift into the opposition, Netanyahu said: “We’ll be back soon.”
“If we have to be in opposition, we will do this standing tall — until we bring down this dangerous government and return to lead the state,” he said in a defiant address, saying that he spoke for millions of Israelis who voted for him.
He also slammed legislation proposed by the new government that would limit a prime minister’s term to eight years, four years less than his reign.
Netanyahu himself is facing several charges of corruption, which he denies. He had been examining ways to avoid prosecution, which would have been much easier had he remained in power. Meanwhile, he can still remain the leader of the Likud party.
The outgoing prime minister drew international criticism and attention for his heavy-handed military action against Gaza in May, during which Israeli airstrikes killed more than 250 Palestinians, including 66 children, in response to rocket volleys from Hamas that killed 12 in Israel over the course of the fighting.
Challenges ahead
The new coalition now taking power has been led by the centrist lawmaker Yair Lapid, a former TV anchor and one-time finance minister and head of the Yesh Atid party, and his unlikely governing partner Naftali Bennett, who leads the minority party Yamina.
It’s highly unusual for the leader of a minority party to become prime minister, but that’s what was necessary for Bennett to join Lapid’s coalition — and his alliance with Lapid was the only way the coalition would gain enough party seats in the Knesset to have a majority.
So the arrangement for Lapid and Bennett rests on the agreement that Bennett becomes prime minister, with the centrist Lapid as foreign minister, until 2023. At that point, if the alliance of parties survives, Lapid will take over the premiership.
It’s also the first time in Israeli history that its government includes an Arab party, which will aim to represent the country’s 21% Arab minority.
The government is expected to focus on social and economic issues that are more likely to foster consensus among its varied members than divisive ones like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Palestinian statehood.
But serious challenges lie ahead. The fragile coalition between Lapid and Bennett, and the parties whose support they had to secure to achieve the magic number of a 61-seat majority in the Knesset is a risk to itself, analysts say. The only thing seemingly holding it together is a common desire to unseat Netanyahu. But because of its incredibly slim majority of 61 seats in the 120-person parliament, all it would take is one defection for the government to collapse.
And given the sometimes extreme divergence in views among the parties within it, particularly between Israel’s right-wing and Islamist politicians, this risk of gridlock and collapse remains a constant threat.
A push against China indeed. Where are the muscles? Let me write here: if you look at 2,000 years of economic history, it is going to be a very hard one. In at least 6 centuries where China dominated in the last 10 centuries, what we are experiencing now followed the same trajectory. Joe Biden calls Nigeria, Gabon, Kenya, Argentina, etc and offers a line of credit. China calls and gives CASH, soon e-yuan. Who do you think they will listen to?
As the UK cuts its health aid, hitting nations like Nigeria, Kenya, etc, it will be shocked that its aid would be replaced with loans from China. Then magically, calls from Boris, UK prime minister, to African capitals get muted.
“The United Kingdom is a major provider of foreign aid, and is the world’s second largest bilateral health aid donor after the United States. The UK is also a major donor to the global health multilateral agencies. However, the UK government recently announced it will only supply bilateral aid to 34 countries, thereby eliminating the aid budget for 102 previously supported countries. The consequences of this sudden departure will affect health systems globally. “
A report by Premium Times notes that pregnant women and new babies will be affected in Nigeria. Of course, the government has to look for how to make up the budget. If China helps, that adds up to the affinity.
The National President of the Medical Women Association of Nigeria under the Partnership for Advocacy in child and family health At Scale, Minnie Oseji, has lamented the decision of the United Kingdom to withdraw the annual £3 million into the basket fund for Family Planning (FP) commodities of Nigeria.
Mrs Oseji, in a statement issued to journalists in Abuja, asked the Minister of Finance and Nigeria’s federal government to step in and fill the gap to prevent the negative consequences that poor funding of family planning can cause in an already overpopulated country with dire demographic challenges.
“Between 2012 to 2020, the UK government pledged and paid into the Nigeria FP commodities basket fund a total of 21million pounds for the procurement of FP commodities. UK government support contributed to saving the lives of millions of Nigerian women who would otherwise be unable to delay pregnancies and be at risk of maternal death,” she said
The fact is this: pushing against China from Washington DC, London, Berlin, Brussels, etc without taking into consideration how it is making friends in the growing economies of the future will not amount to much.
This is my summary: the world should learn how to live with China because China stubbornly bulldozed its way to the big club, to the surprise of the gatekeepers, via its own model, and it deserves respect. I call African leaders to learn from China: you need to come up with your own playbooks because the UK, US, Germany, etc playbooks are not the only ways.
Good People, I am very happy to announce that one of our portfolio firms in Tekedia Capital is going to Y Combinator. The startup which is not even up to 90 days caught my attention when it was just 3 weeks old. We closed a small deal. And yesterday, it was on stage during Tekedia Capital Demo Day. And this morning, the news came: US-based Y Combinator, the world’s finest and largest accelerator & incubator, has accepted it.
YC is the gold standard and the best; it incubated some of the finest young startups in the world. The specific startup Overview has been updated in Tekedia Capital Syndicate Board; check.
Glory because we are going to the mountaintop. As I told our members, we have developed seven core metrics which we use to assess Africa-operating startups, and increasingly, our bets are outperforming.
Tekedia Capital Members: there is nothing to worry. I have told the team to keep our space in the cap table and they promised. We are not new there, we are simply expanding.
Congrats to Team – I hope to make a post in the coming weeks once we finish all paperworks. YC, thank you. I have my bell ready and cannot wait to ring in New York, London or Lagos.
Learn more about Tekedia Capital.
How would you fix a problem in your country? A president responded: “That IPOB is just like a dot in a circle. Even if they want to exit, they will have no access to anywhere.
“And the way they are spread all over the country, having businesses and properties, I don’t think IPOB knows what they are talking about.
“In any case, we say we’ll talk to them in the language that they understand. We’ll organise the police and the military to pursue them.” – Mr. Buhari, President of Nigeria in AriseTV interview
Note the phrase “a dot in a circle” and the most unfortunate, equating IPOB to the whole Igbo Nation.
Mr. President, I am very disappointed with your view of Nigeria and Southeast Nigeria. As a General, I am very confident that you attended the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru where they taught you about the nation.
You fought in the Biafra war. But one of the finest moments in Nigeria was when the cholera vaccine invented during the Biafra war by Prof Njoku Obi was later used by WHO to stop the Kano cholera outbreak in 1972. Two things happened there: Nigeria was uniting and the nation was moving on! Yet, you never allow this to just go!
You keep missing moments to bring the nation together. Associating lawbreakers with a tribe is unfortunate. You had an opportunity to say the “dot people” are everywhere in Nigeria, and those causing problems do not represent them. That the “dot people” are everywhere in Nigeria is a sign they actually believe in Nigeria.
Mr. President, open your mind to be a president for ALL NIGERIANS. Live your moment. Everyone is a victim in Nigeria but you can help ALL RISE.