Feature/OPED
Russia-Africa: Dynamics of Educational and Humanitarian Diplomacy
By Professor Maurice Okoli
For this discussion, it is necessary to set the premise using the United Nations. In UN resolutions, codes and standards, the governments have agreed that humanitarian assistance should be allocated according to the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. This normative framework, however, must not lead to an incorrect assumption that humanitarian aid is divorced from political power.
But instead, the decision as to where, how and why to provide humanitarian assistance is part of more extensive foreign policy considerations which are guided by both norms and interests, such as geopolitical concerns or the aim of a donor to demonstrate benevolent behaviour.
The good humanitarian donor-ship initiative was set up in 2003 as a forum for best practices and to discuss to agree on principles of giving humanitarian aid. Given the current geopolitical environment, these questions are still pursued with vigour in different countries around the world.
Based on this premise, therefore, in discussing the potential for cooperation between Russia and African countries in the humanitarian sphere and what needs to be done to improve the effectiveness of contacts between people in Africa and Russia, it is essential to note that humanitarian principles are embedded in the Russian culture as people of humanity. The values and culture of Russia influence the country’s concept of humanitarian assistance. Russia believes in the oneness of all human beings and a gift without expectation, the willingness of the strong to help the weak.
At this point, I would like to remind and emphasize that we are witnessing an emerging new world order distinctively different from the Soviet days, and the catchphrase is now such new initiatives, partnership and participation. Undoubtedly the new realities are pushing African countries to diversify their post-colonial relations with external players. Today, Africa is now the centre of attraction as significant powers are moving into Africa, and Russia’s potential for cooperation with African countries in the humanitarian sphere is enormous.
The decolonization of African countries in the 1950s and early 1960s created an opportunity for the Soviet Union after the second world War. As the process continued, the Kremlin planned its policy agenda for the newly liberated African countries.
That policy agenda could be categorized into four parts:
- To gain a lasting presence in the African continent.
- To have a voice in African affairs.
- To undermine Western influence in the African continent by equating capitalism with imperialism.
- To keep communist China out of the African continent.
These were the four pillars of the Soviet Union’s African policy from 1945 to 1991 when the Soviet Union suddenly collapsed.
As we know, the interest of a nation determines the form of relation it maintains with other states. This gives credence to the notion that there is neither a permanent friend nor a permanent enemy in international diplomacy. It is the interest of the country that is permanent.
For many African countries, the willingness to support Russia goes back to the cold war when the Soviet Union provided military and economic assistance to the liberation movements across the continent.
This reservoir of goodwill created by the Soviet Union today forms part of the foundation for modern Russia’s relationship with African countries.
Since the Soviet collapse and the global changes happening around the world have obviously brought new challenges, threats and opportunities. Despite that, the Russian Federation has successfully been implementing cultural and humanitarian cooperation programmes with various African countries, including contacts in education, science, culture, media, sports and music.
This type of cooperation with African countries, especially in education, science and technology, is essential in resolving African problems, particularly overcoming social inequalities and also the involvement of women and youth in sustainable economic development. African graduates educated in Russia will contribute to their respective individual countries to enter a new scientific and technological development stage.
This factor of strength pertaining to the training of specialists and professionals has still remained from the Soviet days. It beholds us to strengthen this component within the policy framework to make cooperation truly beneficial for Africa. Many African students are presently in Russia, including about four thousand whose education is funded by the Russian Government. Of course, there are many studies on private contracts in the regions of the Russian Federation.
For context, we understand that Russia and Africa have taken a unique plan to develop partnerships, in tandem, between pan-African universities and Russian universities. A closer look at this kind of cooperation shows a huge potential for exploring new ways to boost bilateral relationships. The educational programmes should not be limited to traditional or regular students but must include a wide range of specialised short-term courses, as a factual backup to acquiring new (upgrading) knowledge, for a multitude of specific target groups instrumental in bolstering bilateral cooperation.
We have to acknowledge the fact that there have been tremendous efforts in Africa to promote higher education, but these efforts are still behind the global trends. With the population of Africa growing to over 1.3 billion, it is surprising the continent produces fewer research publications than Canada, a country with a population of 37.8 million. The United States has an estimated 380 million. Therefore, Russia-African cooperation in education will further provide multi-dimensional chances to undertake knowledge-based research and educational fellowships in Russia and Africa.
The next significant point is that – Russia also has indicated an interest in developing and organizing the practical training of African diplomats at the Diplomatic Academy of the Foreign Affairs Ministry. This could serve as an interesting place to learn and exchange the best diverse practices and valuable principles of contemporary diplomacy, particularly in the emerging multipolar world.
According to my research – Russia currently ranks 6th in the number of international students, with an estimated 35,000 coming from Africa. We know that there are foreign students from Asia and Latin America. As part of the expansion of humanitarian cooperation, the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia has further announced doubling the number of budget places in Russian universities for African students.
Other programmes in the pipeline include the opening of Russian educational centres in Africa and the training of national teachers to staff African secondary schools. I would like to note here that Russkiy Mir has 10 offices in Africa. But there is still room for expansion. Compared to its counterpart, China’s Confucius Institute operates in 25 African countries, half the continent.
Speaking at an international parliamentary conference titled Russia-Africa in a Multipolar World on 20 March 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow has written off the debts of African states worth more than 20 billion dollars. He further said that the trade turnover between Russia and African countries is growing yearly, reaching almost 18 billion dollars in 2022.
Writing off $20 billion debts of the African counties is one the most extraordinary humanitarian art by Russian towards African countries, and African countries, through press releases and official statements, publicly acknowledged this wonderful gesture with tremendous appreciation and feelings of admiration and gratitude.
The humanitarian crisis in the African continent remains one of the world’s most severe, with record levels of displacement and suffering, and it is hopeful that Russia, in its long-standing humanitarian commitment, will design more programmes to assist categories of people such as:
– Displaced people and those affected by conflict and disaster.
– Programme to help reduce violence against girls, children, and women in Africa.
– Help those who suffered rebuild their livelihood and support community resilience.
– Help separated children, trauma survivors, and children with acute malnutrition.
At this point of our analysis, it is very useful to quote Professor Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director at the Valdai Discussion Club and Editor-in-Chief of Russia in the Global Affairs journal. He is the powerful Chair of the State Commission on Defense and Foreign Policy.
In his words, notwithstanding all things, Africa has its own strengths and weaknesses based on history, but the balance is positive in this new multipolar world. Most potential success also depends largely on African countries themselves and their ability to build up relations with outside powers on a rational and calculated basis in the changing global situation.
Professor Maurice Okoli is a fellow at the Institute for African Studies and the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences. He is also a fellow at the North-Eastern Federal University in Russia
By Onah Ishioma Adaeze
As a beginner, choosing between stocks and forex for your investment goals in 2026 can feel overwhelming. Before investing your hard-earned money, it is important to understand how both markets work.
While both markets present investors with opportunities to grow their wealth, they also differ in terms of volatility, liquidity, market hours, and leverage. Stocks involve owning portions of a company, while forex has to do with trading a base currency against a quote currency.
In this article, we will be going through the basics of stocks and forex, pointing out their differences, and helping you decide which asset better suits your investment journey in 2026.
What is Stock Trading?
When it comes to stock trading, you are buying shares of a company, which makes you a shareholder of that company. As a shareholder, you may be entitled to receive dividends whenever the company decides to pay dividends.
As for those companies that do not pay dividends, there are other benefits a shareholder may enjoy, like being called upon to attend shareholder meetings and having voting rights on certain company matters.
On a global scale, over $100 trillion worth of shares are traded annually. Also, the rising popularity of AI companies and technological innovations continues to drive investor participation and market growth.
If you’re an investor looking to buy and hold capital assets, then stock trading is definitely for you, as it allows for short-term, medium-term and long-term investment goals.
When you buy shares of a company and the company performs well, your shares increase in value. Another benefit of stock trading is access to index funds and ETFs.
These funds consist of companies that are grouped under an index. They are carefully selected and monitored under the fund, sparing the investor the stress of actively tracking the fund.
They can be a way of building a long-term, diversified portfolio, and some of these funds may pay dividends.
What is Forex Trading?
Forex trading has to do with buying one currency and selling another. With a pair like USD/JPY, USD is the base currency being bought against JPY, which is the quote currency.
In order to execute a trade in the forex market, you have to analyse and make predictions based on price movement, as well as pay attention to what’s going on in the global news scene.
The forex market runs twenty-four hours every weekday, with over $9 trillion traded in the market every day. Being the largest financial market in the world, there is very high liquidity.
Forex trading involves buying one currency against another, making predictions based on price movements on the forex charts. Price moves based on the activities of large institutions like hedge funds, big banks, the government, etc.
The forex market runs 24 hours a day, every weekday, with global forex turnover reaching $9 trillion per day in the BIS 2025 survey. Being the largest financial market in the world, there is very high volatility and price fluctuations.
At the same time, there is high liquidity in the market, which means that currency pairs can easily be bought and sold without hassle. Highly liquid instruments that are traded regularly include: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, and gold (XAU/USD).
As a retail trader, knowing when to enter and exit the market is important. As easy as it is to make profits from price fluctuations, it is also very easy to lose money if the market moves against you. This is why it is important to set stop losses and take profits. This helps manage your trading capital.
Major Differences Between Stocks and Forex
While investing in stocks and forex can yield great capital gains, there are lots of ways in which they differ.
As a beginner, stock trading provides opportunities for long-term investments, ensuring slow but consistent returns for wealth building. But if you are looking for an active, short-term style of investment, then forex trading is for you, as it allows you to enter and exit the market within a shorter time frame.
Which is Better in 2026?
Choosing an asset to invest in all boils down to personal preference. At the same time, if you are not averse to risk, nor opposed to asset diversification, then it’s okay to invest in both.
For beginner investors in 2026, stock trading is easier to understand and get into, especially because of mutual funds, index funds and ETFs. With those funds, you don’t have to be an expert to start investing. You can just buy a fund that suits your needs and hold it over a long period of time.
If you are an investor who enjoys technical analysis, highly volatile and liquid markets, as well as trading under short time frames, then forex trading is the right pick for you.
Conclusion
You do not need to put all your eggs in one basket. There are investors who invest in both stocks and forex simultaneously. When starting out, you can start investing in stocks while learning forex. Take calculated risks and do not invest above your means. Diversify your investments and remember, when starting out, you should prioritise acquiring knowledge over profits.
Onah Ishioma Adaeze is a finance writer who is passionate about simplifying complex concepts into easily digestible pieces. Her hobbies are reading and watching anime
By Owoloye Emmanuel
Every business starts with a problem. For us, that problem was hiding in plain sight.
Across organisations, we kept seeing HR professionals, payroll teams, and business leaders spend significant time navigating processes that should be simpler. Employee records sat across multiple systems, payroll processes required manual intervention, and routine workforce tasks often became more complicated than they needed to be.
As businesses grow, workforce operations naturally become more complex. Yet many organisations still rely on disconnected tools and workflows that create unnecessary friction for both employers and employees.
The consequence is more than operational inefficiency. HR teams spend valuable time managing systems instead of supporting people. Business leaders struggle to access timely workforce insights, while employees experience delays in processes that should be seamless.
These weren’t isolated challenges. They were recurring realities across workplaces, regardless of industry or size.
That observation led us to a simple question: what if workforce management could be easier?
What if HR, payroll, and workforce operations could work together within a single, connected experience?
That question became the foundation for 234 Solutions.
We are building 234 Solutions with a clear belief that workplace technology should reduce complexity, not add to it. Our goal is to help organisations spend less time navigating processes and more time focusing on productivity, growth, and people.
As we prepare for launch, our focus remains simple: building practical solutions for real workplace challenges and helping organisations create better experiences for the people who power them every day.
Owoloye Emmanuel is the founder of 234 Solutions
Scroll through social media today, and you will notice something interesting: everyone is either reacting to a series, quoting a movie line, or debating a character as though they personally know them. Beneath the memes and binge-watch culture, however, lies something deeper. Television remains one of the most powerful tools shaping how Africans see themselves, remember their history, and tell their own stories. In a continent as diverse and expressive as Africa, that matters more than ever.
TV as a Cultural Archive, Not Just Entertainment
Long before streaming algorithms began shaping our viewing habits, television was already preserving African identity. From Nollywood dramas that capture the rhythm of everyday Lagos life to documentaries exploring Maasai traditions and Ghanaian folklore, TV has served as a living archive of the continent’s stories.
It preserves more than entertainment; it preserves language, culture, humour, values, and shared experiences. Unlike fleeting social media content, television allows stories to unfold with depth, exploring the realities of family, tradition, ambition, and modern African life without reducing them to stereotypes. That is the power of TV: preserving not just stories, but perspective.
Why Representation on TV Still Matters
There is a subtle but important truth: if people do not see themselves on screen, they may begin to believe their stories are not worth telling. This is why African TV content is more than entertainment; it is affirmation.
Seeing a character who speaks like you, struggles like you, or celebrates like your community does something powerful. It validates identity and challenges outdated narratives that have historically defined Africa through external lenses.
This is where MultiChoice Group, through platforms such as DStv and GOtv, plays an important role. They do not simply broadcast content; they help distribute cultural memory at scale.
GOtv, DStv, and the Everyday African Viewer
Think about a typical evening in many African homes: the TV is on in the background, someone is laughing at a comedy show, another person is watching a local series, and someone else is catching up on the news. That shared viewing experience remains very real.
Through platforms such as DStv and GOtv, African households are exposed to a blend of local storytelling and global content. More importantly, they have helped amplify African-produced content by bringing Nollywood films, African reality shows, talk shows, and documentaries into mainstream rotation.
It is not just about access. It is about visibility.
A young filmmaker in Lagos today is more likely to believe their story matters because they have seen similar stories broadcast widely. A child in Accra grows up hearing familiar accents and seeing environments that look like their own on screen, not as exceptions, but as the norm.
TV Is Also Shaping Modern African Identity
African identity is not static; it is evolving. Television reflects that evolution in real time.
Today, audiences see:
-
Young Africans balancing tradition and modern dating culture
-
Stories tackling mental health in African households
-
Fashion and music influences spreading through TV series
-
Political satire shaping public conversation
Conversations that were once confined to homes are now being explored on screen, giving audiences the language to discuss issues that were previously unspoken.
In many ways, television is doing what oral tradition has always done: passing stories, values, humour, warnings, and history from one generation to the next. The difference is that today’s griots are writers, directors, and broadcasters.
The Future: From Watching to Owning Our Narratives
The next stage of African storytelling is not just about being seen; it is about ownership.
As more African creators produce content and platforms continue to invest in regional storytelling, television becomes more than a mirror. It becomes a tool for shaping how Africa is represented to itself and to the world.
While streaming continues to grow, television, particularly accessible platforms such as GOtv, remains one of the most effective ways to reach everyday audiences across different income levels and regions. After all, storytelling only matters if people can access it.
African stories are not new. They have always existed in families, on streets, in markets, in history books, and through oral traditions. What television has done, and continues to do, is give those stories a stage wide enough for millions to experience them at once.
The next time you watch a local series or documentary on DStv or GOtv, remember that you are not just being entertained. You are participating in the preservation of African identity itself.
-
Feature/OPED6 years agoDavos was Different this year
-
Travel/Tourism10 years ago
Lagos Seals Western Lodge Hotel In Ikorodu
-
Showbiz3 years agoEstranged Lover Releases Videos of Empress Njamah Bathing
-
Banking8 years agoSort Codes of GTBank Branches in Nigeria
-
Economy3 years agoSubsidy Removal: CNG at N130 Per Litre Cheaper Than Petrol—IPMAN
-
Banking3 years agoSort Codes of UBA Branches in Nigeria
-
Banking3 years agoFirst Bank Announces Planned Downtime
-
Sports3 years agoHighest Paid Nigerian Footballer – How Much Do Nigerian Footballers Earn