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      What You Need to Know About the Nigerian Elections

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      The Fair Observer website uses digital cookies so it can collect statistics on how many visitors come to the site, what content is viewed and for how long, and the general location of the computer network of the visitor. These statistics are collected and processed using the Google Analytics service. Fair Observer uses these aggregate statistics from website visits to help improve the content of the website and to provide regular reports to our current and future donors and funding organizations. The type of digital cookie information collected during your visit and any derived data cannot be used or combined with other information to personally identify you. Fair Observer does not use personal data collected from its website for advertising purposes or to market to you.As a convenience to you, Fair Observer provides buttons that link to popular social media sites, called social sharing buttons, to help you share Fair Observer content and your comments and opinions about it on these social media sites. These social sharing buttons are provided by and are part of these social media sites. They may collect and use personal data as described in their respective policies. Fair Observer does not receive personal data from your use of these social sharing buttons. It is not necessary that you use these buttons to read Fair Observer content or to share on social media. More

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      Nigeria Postpones State Elections Amid Presidential Vote Controversy

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      The government moved elections scheduled for Saturday back by a week, saying it needed more time to reset digital voting machines at the center of fraud accusations.Nigeria has postponed state elections that had been scheduled for Saturday, heightening popular anger and cynicism over whether the country can conduct a fair vote only two weeks after a presidential election tainted with technical malfunctions and allegations of fraud.Since the declaration a little over a week ago that the governing party’s candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had won the presidential election, Africa’s most populous nation has spiraled further into economic and political paralysis.Now the country’s electoral commission has moved the election for the country’s powerful state governors back by a week, saying it needs more time to reset digital voting machines used for the first time in the presidential election last month. The vote for governors is now scheduled for March 18.The postponement of the election for 28 of the country’s 36 state governors is just the latest challenge faced by Nigeria, a country of 220 million people that has been plagued by fuel scarcity, a cash crunch and multiple security crises.Mr. Tinubu, a divisive figure in Nigerian politics, won the election with 36 percent of the vote, but the two other main candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, have called for a rerun, alleging vote rigging. A new vote appears unlikely, and Mr. Tinubu is scheduled to be sworn in on May 29.Hopes were high ahead of the largest democratic election ever organized in Africa, and Nigerian officials recorded fewer instances of violence than in previous contests. But countless malfunctions — from polling units that opened late or not at all, to the sluggishness of ballot counting — have eroded Nigerians’ trust.“The electoral process remains chaotic, with no improvement from one election to another,” said Idayat Hassan, director of the Center for Democracy and Development, a research and advocacy group based in Abuja, the capital.The confusion over the elections has been compounded by a seemingly never-ending cash crunch: New notes introduced by the government just months before the election have remained largely unavailable, while old ones are not valid anymore.There were reports of some polling locations in Nigeria’s presidential election opening late, or not at all.Akintunde Akinleye/EPA, via ShutterstockLast Friday, the Nigerian Supreme Court ruled that the use of old bank notes should be extended until Dec. 31 because of the impact of the policy on Nigerians’ livelihoods. But neither the government nor the central bank have addressed the issue, leaving most businesses, street traders and even public bus drivers wary of accepting the old notes, even as some banks begin to distribute them again.In Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, one trader, Adelaja Adetoun, was trying to gain access to a commercial bank on Thursday, her face beaded with sweat. “The old notes I received from the banks are being rejected and I need to return them,” she said.Ms. Adetoun, 67, said she was not interested in the state elections, especially since they had been postponed.That decision has left some analysts worried that the turnout on March 18 will be drastically lower than that of the presidential election, in which just over a quarter of 87 million eligible voters cast a ballot. It was the lowest voter turnout ever recorded for a Nigerian presidential election.In many ways, the state elections are as important, said Oge Onubogu, head of the Africa Program at the Wilson Center, a Washington-based research institute.“States are grooming grounds for governors who want to be Nigeria’s next president,” she said. (Both Mr. Tinubu and Mr. Obi are former state governors.) “Some governors oversee budgets that are larger than other West African countries,” Ms. Onubogu said.The digital voting machines that need to be reconfigured ahead of the state vote are at the center of a controversy around the presidential election.Using the machines, election officials were supposed to verify voters’ identities and to photograph result sheets in each polling unit, uploading them to a website publicly accessible shortly after the voting ended on Feb. 25.But the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission, known as INEC, failed to fulfill that mission, according to multiple observers. Instead, the results were uploaded days later, prompting Mr. Abubakar’s and Mr. Obi’s parties to accuse election officials and Mr. Tinubu’s party of having manipulated the results.An election observer at a news conference organized in Abuja after the election last month.Michele Spatari/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTo countless Nigerians, the delays and lack of transparency left a bitter taste.“INEC’s performance has made many Nigerians feel that their vote doesn’t count,” said Joachim MacEbong, a senior governance analyst at Stears, a Nigerian data and intelligence company. “It’s difficult to see how they’re going to rebuild their credibility.”International observers voiced similar concern.“The number of administrative and logistical problems flawed the outcome,” Johnnie Carson, a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs in the Obama administration, who was in Nigeria to monitor the election, said this week.Officials from Mr. Obi’s party have said that the results uploaded by the electoral commission didn’t match those that party workers collected when the polling units closed. A representative for Mr. Obi, Diran Onifade, refused to provide the results collected, but in a phone interview said the election had been marred by “sabotage.”Mr. Obi’s team now has a few days to inspect the electronic voting machines before the electoral commission reconfigures them for the state elections.Ms. Hassan, the Center for Democracy and Development analyst, and Ms. Onubogu of the Wilson Center both said that a fair and functional Nigerian election experience mattered almost more than the outcome.“Nigerians needed to be able to see that the process worked,” said Ms. Onubogu.Instead, Ms. Hassan said, “More and more citizens are losing trust in democracy itself because of these dysfunctions.” More

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      Your Thursday Briefing: Nigeria’s New ‘Big Boss’

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      Also, a major tank battle in Ukraine and a deadly train wreck in Greece.Bola Tinubu celebrating at his campaign headquarters in Abuja.Ben Curtis/Associated PressVictory for a Nigerian political ‘big boss’Bola Tinubu was declared the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election on Wednesday, extending the governing All Progressives Congress party’s rule in Africa’s largest nation.Tinubu won about 36 percent of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff. But only 27 percent of voters participated, the lowest turnout in the country’s history.A political insider who ran on the slogan “It’s my turn,” Tinubu is a divisive figure. Some revere him for turning around the fortunes of Lagos during his eight years as governor; others deride him as a corrupt stalwart of the old guard.A multimillionaire, Tinubu made his money in real estate, but has faced questions over his wealth. His supporters call him “big boss,” while many detractors call him “balablu,” a reference to a speech in which he failed to pronounce the word “hullabaloo” and a shorthand to imply that he is too old to lead.The parties representing Tinubu’s two chief rivals, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, have already called for a redo of the election after reports of delays and violence at polling sites. Some Nigerians described being unable to vote despite waiting all day.Challenges: When Tinubu takes office in May he will need to work on solving electricity shortages, reviving oil production and improving security, including addressing the threats from extremist groups like Boko Haram in the country’s northeast and separatists in the southeast.Ukraine’s 72nd Brigade near Vuhledar on Saturday.Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesRussia routed in tank battleUkrainian officials said Russian forces were soundly defeated during the biggest tank battle of the war so far.During the fighting, which took place over three weeks near the coal mining town of Vuhledar in southeastern Ukraine, the Russians advanced in columns, while the Ukrainians fired from hiding places as Russian vehicles came into sight. It was the same mistake that cost Moscow hundreds of tanks earlier in the war: advancing into ambushes.The State of the WarRussia’s New Offensive: The Russian military is relying on tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts to carry out its latest maneuver, which has barely budged over the last month.Deploying High-Powered Aides: President Biden has dispatched Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a concerted diplomatic push to show support for Ukraine.A War of Words: Russia and the West have been arguing for months about which side is more willing to negotiate ending the war in Ukraine peacefully.In one skirmish, Ukrainian soldiers seeded the fields around a dirt road with land mines and hid anti-tank teams in the tree line around the fields. Once the trap was sprung the Russian tanks couldn’t turn around without detonating the mines, and blown-up vehicles soon delayed them more.Ukraine’s military said Russia lost at least 130 tanks and armored personnel carriers in the battle, though that figure could not be independently verified. Context: The Russian military has lionized tank warfare since World War II, and Russian military bloggers have posted screeds blaming generals for the failures of the tank assaults.Other news from the war:Ukraine said it had sent reinforcements to the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut.A Ukrainian drone that landed in a field southeast of Moscow this week was carrying explosives, Russian news media outlets reported.Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said the Biden administration saw “zero evidence” that President Vladimir Putin was considering peace talks.“Windows were shattering and people were screaming,” one survivor said.Angelos Tzortzinis for The New York TimesDeadly train crash in GreeceA head-on collision in Greece killed at least 38 people and injured dozens more in the country’s deadliest rail accident in memory. The Greek transport minister announced his resignation.The high-speed collision between a freight and passenger train was so forceful that two carriages “basically don’t exist anymore,” a regional governor said. The passenger train was carrying about 350 passengers, many of whom were college students, traveling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki.The cause of the crash remains unclear, but a railway official said that monitoring and warning systems along the track worked only sporadically. The head of the rail workers’ union told Greek television that the two trains raced toward one another for 12 minutes before colliding.Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that “tragic human error” had led to the crash, but gave no further details. Police arrested the station manager in Larissa, a city about 20 miles south of the crash site. Greek news media reported that the station manager had directed the freight train onto the same track as the passenger train.Context: Greece already had the worst record for rail safety in Europe, with maintenance problems going unaddressed for decades.THE LATEST NEWSAsia PacificAn assembly line at a Wuling Motors factory in Qingdao, China.Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFactory production in China has surged since the end of lockdowns, bolstering the country’s economic recovery.South Korea’s president called for closer ties with Japan to better counter North Korean nuclear threats, The Associated Press writes.India’s February was its hottest on record and heat waves could follow in March and April, the BBC reported.Around the WorldThe Gemini used to ferry vacationers from Turkey to the Greek islands.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York TimesA cruise ship has become a shelter for more than 1,000 people displaced by the earthquake in Turkey.The police in Tel Aviv used water cannons and stun grenades against thousands of protesters opposed to the Israeli government’s plan to limit the judiciary. Also, a Times video investigation shows how an Israeli raid in the West Bank turned deadly.Eritrean troops massacred hundreds of civilians in Tigray just before the end of Ethiopia’s civil war late last year, according to rights groups, aid workers and news outlets.Other Big StoriesMany undocumented immigrants are leaving the U.S. after decades.Eli Lilly, a major U.S. drug manufacturer, announced it would cap the price of insulin at $35 a month.U.S. intelligence agencies determined that a foreign adversary is “very unlikely” to be responsible for Havana syndrome, the mysterious ailment that spies and diplomats have reported experiencing.In this month’s space news, a rocket made mostly with 3-D printing could slip the surly bonds of Earth. And China’s Mars rover doesn’t appear to have moved since last September.A Morning ReadNicole Solero moved back in with her parents to save money after graduating from college.Todd Anderson for The New York TimesYoung adults in the United States are often encouraged to leave the nest as a rite of passage. But the high cost of living, student debt and family obligations keep some at home, helping them save for the future.ECONOMIC IDEASIndia’s digital payment revolutionTiny QR codes have become ubiquitous across India’s vastness. Roadside barbers, peanut vendors, street performers and beggars all accept money through an instant payment system that connects hundreds of millions of people.The Unified Payments Interface, an initiative of India’s central bank, dwarfs anything in the West. The value of the billions of instant digital transactions in India last year was far more than in the U.S., Britain, Germany and France.At the heart of the payment network is a campaign to deliver every citizen a unique identification number, called the Aadhaar. The government says that more than 1.3 billion IDs have been issued, and that the payment system is now used by close to 300 million individuals and 50 million merchants.“Our digital payments ecosystem has been developed as a free public good,” Narendra Modi, the prime minister, told finance ministers from the Group of 20. Now, India wants to export it as it fashions itself as an incubator of ideas for poorer nations.PLAY, WATCH, EATWhat to CookJulia Gartland for The New York TimesTips from around the world for a great beef stew.What to WatchIn “The Reluctant Traveler,” Eugene Levy discovers the (mild) joys of leaving his comfort zone.What to Listen toFive minutes that will make you love jazz piano.What to WearIntricate enamel pieces from a storied Indian jewelry family keep a dying craft alive.Now Time to PlayPlay the Mini Crossword, and a clue: Singer Simone (4 letters).Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee.You can find all our puzzles here.That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — Mariah and DanP.S. Rich Barbieri, a deputy business editor, is heading to Seoul to oversee our business and economic coverage in Asia.“The Daily” is about abortion pills. We’d like your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to briefing@nytimes.com. More

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      Bola Tinubu Elected to Be Nigeria’s Next President

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      Bola Tinubu, declared the winner on Wednesday in the presidential election, has boasted of making the careers of major politicians. Now he has to deliver for a divided country facing multiple emergencies.In the run-up to Nigeria’s presidential election on Saturday, the ruling party candidate’s best-known slogan was “Emi lo kan,” a phrase in the Yoruba language meaning “It’s my turn.”By Wednesday morning, his turn had finally come. Bola Tinubu, a former state governor and one of the most powerful political kingmakers in Nigeria, was declared the West African nation’s next president by election officials in the capital at around 4 a.m., after the most closely-fought contest in years.While opposition parties dismissed the election as a “sham,” alleging widespread fraud and violence and vowing to challenge the outcome in court, many Nigerians were trying to come to terms with the prospect of four years under one of the country’s most contentious figures.Widely perceived as corrupt, in poor health, and a stalwart of the old guard, Mr. Tinubu may struggle to unite a country with a huge population of young people — particularly those plugged into social media — who are increasingly trying to make themselves heard, and fighting against old ways of governing.But in Mr. Tinubu, many others see a capable pair of hands with extensive experience, who turned around Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos, when he served as governor of Lagos State, from 1999 to 2007.A country of immense natural riches, bursting with talent — with big technology, music and film industries — Nigeria is also a nation where over 60 percent of people live in poverty, millions of children are out of school, and where kidnapping is a daily risk for Nigerians from all walks of life.A police truck drives past demonstrators accusing election officials of disenfranchising voters in downtown Abuja on Tuesday.Ben Curtis/Associated PressMr. Tinubu, a multimillionaire, says he made his money in real estate. But he has faced questions over the source of his wealth. The U.S. government took $460,000 from a bank account in his name in 1993, saying the funds were probably the proceeds of drug trafficking. He has denied any wrongdoing.He is a man of many nicknames, both reverent and irreverent. The one most often yelled at him by his supporters is “Jagaban”: meaning “big boss” or “boss of bosses,” it captures the power he wields and the deference he is often treated with as a result.But more recently, many Nigerians have taken to calling Mr. Tinubu “Balablu” — a reference to a speech in which he tried and failed to say the word “hullabaloo” — and a shorthand to imply that he is too old and sometimes not coherent enough to take on the leadership of Africa’s largest economy and one of its most complex, diverse nations. Mr. Tinubu says he is 70, but some Nigerians think he is much older.Nigerians have reason to worry about this. Their current president, Muhammadu Buhari — an octogenarian who ruled the country as a military dictator in the 1980s and returned as a democrat in 2015 — has spent much of his time in office receiving treatment in London for an illness he hasn’t disclosed.Many Nigerians did not pause to celebrate or protest Mr. Tinubu’s victory on Wednesday morning, so focused were they on surviving a cash crisis, the most recent economic shock that Mr. Buhari’s government had thrown at them.Outside an A.T.M. in Lagos — Nigeria’s biggest city — a few hours after the election result was announced, James Adah, a 38-year-old network engineer, said he had been waiting to withdraw cash for five hours. A currency redesign rolled out just before the election created a dire shortage of the new bills, leaving millions of Nigerians unable to pay for essentials, though they had money in the bank. Lines at a bank in Lagos days before the election. The government redesigned the currency, leading to widespread cash shortages just before the vote.John Wessels/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe quiet mood in Lagos reflected the overall resignation of many Nigerians, Mr. Adah said.“If people were happy you’d see jubilation,” he said. “But they’re just moving ahead amidst this perception that the election may not have been free and fair.”Mr. Tinubu won about 8.8 million votes, according to results announced in the early morning hours by the Independent National Electoral Commission, trailed by Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s perennial opposition candidate, with about 7 million.Not far behind, with 6.1 million, was Peter Obi, who six months ago was not seen as a serious contender in Nigeria’s traditional two-party race, but who managed to build a formidable campaign that largely grew out of a youth movement formed to protest government abuses and injustice.Mr. Obi’s and Mr. Abubakar’s opposition parties, as well as one smaller party, rejected the election results on Tuesday, calling for it to be canceled and rerun because, they said, there had been extensive vote rigging.“We won the election as Labour Party, we are going to claim our mandate,” said Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, Mr. Obi’s running mate, on Wednesday. “We shall rescue Nigeria.”Questions about whether Mr. Tinubu attained the presidency fraudulently mean that he will face a legitimacy problem, according to Tunde Ajileye, a partner at SBM Intelligence, a Nigerian risk consultancy.“Any hard decisions he has to make — there are people waiting to prove that those decisions are detrimental, even if they may be right decisions,” he said. “And hard decisions need to be made about Nigeria’s economy.”A market in Abuja last month.Michele Spatari/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMr. Tinubu has already promised to scrap an expensive fuel subsidy, but also has to figure out how to handle government debt and restrictions on foreign exchange, said Mr. Ajileye.Mr. Tinubu is seen by many as more capable of managing Nigeria’s oil-dependent economy than Mr. Buhari, whose tenure included two recessions.“He has a record as governor that he needs to expand nationwide,” Akeem Salau, a minibus driver, said of Mr. Tinubu on Wednesday in Lagos. “Education and infrastructure should be his priorities.”Mr. Tinubu will also face Nigeria’s multiple and mushrooming crises of security, including kidnappings, violent extremist groups like Boko Haram in the northeast and separatists in the southeast.He will have to work hard to gain the trust of the southeast, and the mostly Christian members of the Igbo ethnic group who live there, said Mucahid Durmaz, a senior West Africa analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.Most southeastern states voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Obi, who is from the region and is Christian, and against Mr. Tinubu, a southwestern Muslim who picked another Muslim as his running mate. The ticket went against Nigerian political tradition, under which one Muslim and one Christian usually run together.Peter Obi campaigning in Lagos last month.Taiwo Aina for The New York TimesIn Lagos on Wednesday afternoon, traffic flowed through the Lekki tollgate, where young people demonstrating against police brutality were gunned down by security forces in 2020. A billboard there now reads: “Vote in peace, stop electoral violence.” The Nigerian Army was accused by witnesses of having killed unarmed protesters that day, but there has been no justice for those victims, according to Amnesty International.Teniola Tayo, a policy analyst based in Abuja, said that she hoped Jagaban — the “boss of bosses” — would become accountable to Nigerians.“I hope that he will consider Nigerians his new jagabans, as he said in his acceptance speech that he is here to serve,” she said.Indeed, Mr. Tinubu took a more conciliatory tone than usual when he addressed the nation early Wednesday, reaching out to the Nigerians who didn’t vote for him, and telling the youth: “I hear you loud and clear.”A Tinubu poster in Lagos, on Wednesday.Akintunde Akinleye/EPA, via ShutterstockOladeinde Olawoyin contributed reporting. Susan Beachy contributed research. More

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      Peter Obi, Third-Party Candidate in Nigeria Election, Refuses to Concede

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      Nine months ago, Peter Obi was a member of Nigeria’s main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party, and one of the 15 presidential aspirants cleared for its ticket. As a former state governor, he stood solidly in the ranks of the political establishment.On Wednesday, after a remarkable transformation into an outsider candidate running for the little-known Labour Party, he came in third in the race for the presidency, according to election officials.Mr. Obi’s running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, vowed on Wednesday that the party would contest the election results, saying the ballot was tainted by violence, voter intimidation and suppression. He said his team would make its challenge against the declared victory of Bola Tinubu of the governing party, through “all legal and peaceful means.”A former governor of southeastern Anambra state with a reputation for frugality, Mr. Obi left the People’s Democratic Party the day before Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president who was one of his main rivals, became its presidential candidate.A few days later, Mr. Obi won the Labour Party ticket and began one of the most remarkable political campaigns in Nigerian history. It was driven by his multitude of followers, including well-known figures like the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and former president Olusegun Obasanjo.On social media, his fans call themselves the Obidients.Drawing on a deep well of anger at the governing party — particularly among the country’s millions of digitally-savvy youths — he connected on issues that mattered to them: unemployment, justice, fighting corruption and creating economic opportunities. Amid a wave of young people leaving or trying to leave the country, he gave hope that Nigeria could become a place they could stay and thrive.And though he is 61, for many voters he became the youthful candidate — mainly in contrast with the 76-year-old Mr. Abubakar and the other front-runner, 70-year-old Bola Tinubu — an important factor in a country where the median age is 18.In an interview with The New York Times before the election, Mr. Obi said that he would “aggressively” pursue the development of agriculture to drive Nigeria’s oil-dependent economy. He said he would also increase the country’s manufacturing base and “declare war on energy” — Nigeria has endemic energy problems, despite being one of Africa’s biggest oil producers.A top priority was to unite a country that he said was increasingly divided along ethnic lines, and to move past the economic and security shocks that have left many feeling despondent.“What drives every country is hope,” Mr. Obi said. More

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      Who is Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s President Elect?

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      The winner of Nigeria’s presidential election, Bola Tinubu, is a divisive figure in Africa’s most populous country.Mr. Tinubu is revered by some as a political wizard and the man who turned around the fortunes of Lagos, Nigeria’s labyrinthine megacity. His supporters are hoping he can repeat that performance on a national level.Others deride Mr. Tinubu, the candidate of the governing All Progressives Congress party, as “corruption personified” and accuse him of looting state coffers as the governor of Lagos.And many simply worry that Mr. Tinubu is a potential embarrassment to Nigeria, sometimes sounding incoherent and appearing unwell. He says he is 70, but his real age is a matter of dispute.This is a real concern in Nigeria, where several leaders have died in office, and where the current president, Muhammadu Buhari, spent a large chunk of his first term absent, receiving medical treatment in London, for an illness he refused to discuss.Many Nigerians believe that their country, as Africa’s biggest economy, needs an energetic leader.Mr. Tinubu ran Lagos as governor for eight years, and then mentored his successors, giving him a reputation as a political “godfather,” able to ensure that some people’s careers took off while others’ sank.He has also claimed that without his influence, Mr. Buhari, who lost the presidential elections several times before winning his first term in 2015, would never have become president.In the run-up to this election, Mr. Tinubu used the slogan, “It’s my turn” — flaunting his role as kingmaker, but also alienating many voters.A Muslim from Nigeria’s southwest, Mr. Tinubu may struggle to unite Nigeria’s diverse population. He ran for president with another Muslim on the ticket — Kashim Shettima, a former governor of Borno state in the northeast, which has been the epicenter of Boko Haram’s campaign of terrorism for over a decade.Nigeria’s Christian population is almost as big as its Muslim one, and traditionally presidential candidates pick running mates of a different religion.Mr. Tinubu has promised fiscal policy changes, and to fix the worsening security situation. An outbreak of kidnappings by armed gangs has affected people from all walks of life and parts of the country. In the northeast, militants with the extremist groups Boko Haram and a local affiliate of the Islamic State have killed thousands and driven millions from their homes.Ahead of the election, voters cited insecurity as their main concern.He has also pledged to improve Nigeria’s deteriorating infrastructure and to remove a crippling government fuel subsidy.Mr. Tinubu has faced allegations of corruption and questions over the source of his wealth. The U.S. government filed a complaint in 1993 accusing him of banking the proceeds from narcotics trafficking. The case was settled, and Mr. Tinubu has denied any wrongdoing.Susan Beachy contributed research. More

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      Your Wednesday Briefing: A U.S. Push to Isolate Russia

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      Also, China’s attempt to erase “zero Covid” and Nigeria’s contested election.Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meeting with Kazakhstan’s foreign minister, Mukhtar Tleuberdi.Pool photo by Olivier DoulieryA U.S. push in Central AsiaThe U.S. secretary of state met with the president of Kazakhstan in Astana at the start of a new effort to isolate Russia as Belarus’s leader began a state visit to China — the latest examples of dueling diplomacy related to the war in Ukraine.Antony Blinken, the top U.S. diplomat, is urging five Central Asian countries that were part of the former Soviet Union — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — not to help Russia evade sanctions imposed by the West over its invasion of Ukraine. The countries have strong ties to Russia, but leaders there have made comments reflecting concerns about maintaining their sovereignty.One of Russia’s staunchest allies, President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus, arrived in Beijing for talks with China’s leader, Xi Jinping. The U.S. has suggested that China was preparing to supply military aid to Russia, a claim rejected by the Chinese government.U.S. officials said they viewed Lukashenko’s visit as another sign of China’s growing engagement with Russia. Blinken’s trip to Central Asia follows recent visits to Kyiv by President Biden and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that were intended to shore up support for Ukraine.Context: China is trying to present itself as a neutral observer while maintaining close ties with Russia, a precarious balancing act. Beijing’s position has alienated European leaders who might have helped invigorate China’s economy following years of pandemic lockdowns.Other news from the war:The promised torrent of tanks from European nations to Ukraine now seems like more of a trickle.Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, warned that the situation in the eastern city of Bakhmut was “getting more and more difficult.”Removing a Covid testing booth at a park in Beijing. Jade Gao/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesChina moves to erase ‘zero Covid’China’s ruling Communist Party is trying to rewrite the public’s memory of “zero Covid,” the country’s strict lockdown policy. Analysts say the move is aimed at quashing any resentment over the enormous price China paid in economic loss and trauma to enforce its coronavirus restrictions.In a decree that was published after a recent meeting of top officials, a newly triumphant narrative has emerged in which the country’s Covid response was a “miracle in human history” and “completely correct.” China’s official messaging acknowledges none of the extremes of “zero Covid,” nor does it mention the chaos that ensued after the policy’s abrupt dismantling in early December, which left hospitals unprepared for an explosion in new infections.Instead, the party has declared that its efforts led China to a “decisive victory” over the virus. The term “zero Covid” itself, once ubiquitous, has vanished from the party’s rhetoric. The State of the WarRussia’s New Offensive: The Russian military is relying on tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts to carry out its latest maneuver, which has barely budged over the last month.Deploying High-Powered Aides: President Biden has dispatched Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a concerted diplomatic push to show support for Ukraine.A War of Words: Russia and the West have been arguing for months about which side is more willing to negotiate ending the war in Ukraine peacefully.Analysis: The government’s messaging is in line with efforts to restore the public’s confidence, both in the party’s leadership and in the country’s future. But the aftermath of the pandemic may be especially challenging for the party to bury, as feelings of whiplash, grief and frustration simmer just beneath the surface for many Chinese residents.Counting votes in Lagos.James Oatway/ReutersNigeria’s opposition calls for a rerunThree days after Nigeria held its most wide-open presidential election in years, two opposition parties called for the vote to be canceled and rerun, saying it was compromised by vote rigging and violence.The call came as vote counting showed that the candidate of the governing party appeared to be taking the lead. With about one-third of the 36 states reporting results, Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the governing All Progressives Congress party, had won 44 percent of the vote.Many polls had predicted a win for Peter Obi, the so-called youth candidate of the little-known Labour Party. But early results showed Obi had just 18 percent of the vote, while Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party also trailed behind Tinubu with 33 percent.Response: A spokesman for Tinubu’s party campaign council rejected the accusations of vote rigging. Independent observers raised concerns about whether the election was fair, but stopped short of accusing the governing party of rigging it.Context: Many Nigerians had looked to the election to put the country back on track after eight years of rule by Muhammadu Buhari, a military dictator turned democrat. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has struggled with economic and security crises under his leadership.THE LATEST NEWSAsia PacificDentsu helped coordinate the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in venues like Japan’s National Stadium.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesJapanese prosecutors accused the advertising giant Dentsu, a driving force behind the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, of illegally conspiring to evade the public bidding process.Hong Kong’s leader said the city would lift its Covid mask mandate, ending one of the last such policies in the world.Wendy’s, the American burger chain, is coming to Australia. Like other American imports, it might need to change its name.Around the WorldThe coffins of shipwreck victims in Crotone, Italy, on Tuesday.Valeria Ferraro/Associated PressA shipwreck off Italy’s coast that killed at least 63 people has made it clear that the E.U.’s consensus against migrants has hardened.After accusations of misconduct and mismanagement, the president of France’s soccer federation stepped down yesterday.U.S. NewsThe Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed deeply skeptical of the legality of the administration’s plan to wipe out more than $400 billion in student debt.Jazz Pharmaceuticals exploited a safety requirement to prolong its monopoly on a narcolepsy drug that has generated more than $13 billion in revenue.Nearly two dozen dead whales have washed ashore on the East Coast since early December, in part because of collisions with cargo ships. A Morning ReadCustomers at Kuraichi, a sake shop in Brooklyn.Nico Schinco for The New York TimesSake is booming in the U.S., The Times’s wine critic writes. Exports of the fermented product of rice from Japan are soaring, and breweries and specialty stores have opened in the U.S. to quench the growing thirst. Here’s a guide to sake basics.ARTS AND IDEAS Should acting awards be gender-neutral?The cast of Season 2 of “The White Lotus” at the SAG Awards.Jordan Strauss/Invision, via Associated PressAt the Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday in Los Angeles, there was at least one red-carpet question without an easy answer: Should awards shows eliminate separate acting categories for men and women?The debate over gender-neutral acting prizes has gained steam as more nonbinary actors have given acclaimed performances and, in some cases, chosen to withdraw from awards consideration rather than compete in a gendered category. “Right now, you need to choose,” said August Winter, a nonbinary actor, referring to awards that separate categories for men and women. “And I don’t think people should be put in that position.”Others worry that gender-neutral categories could mean fewer nominations — or that women could be shut out of awards consideration entirely.“I’m not sure what the solution is,” said Sarah Polley, director of the Oscar-nominated film “Women Talking.” “But it certainly can’t stay the way it is, because it is excluding people from being recognized.”PLAY, WATCH, EATWhat to CookBobbi Lin for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Sue Li. Prop Stylist: Sophia Pappas.This vegetarian tteokbokki features a base of butter-fried shallots, a layer of melted cheese and a crunchy blanket of raw cabbage.What to ReadThese three science fiction and fantasy novels offer a welcome break from reality.What to Listen ToThe experimental pop duo 100 gecs turns toward rock for its second album.Now Time to PlayPlay the Mini Crossword, and a clue: Paramour (5 letters).Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee.You can find all our puzzles here.That’s it for today’s briefing. Have a great day. — Dan and MariahP.S. Here’s how The Times has covered the war in Ukraine, one year in.“The Daily” is about why so many buildings have collapsed in Turkey. We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to briefing@nytimes.com. More