Ifeanyi Uddin

If Labour cranks up income taxes, the left will boo loudest Many seem to believe in the common good without shared sacrifice

"For Ms Reeves to survive an onslaught from both sides of the political spectrum requires skills that neither she nor her lead-footed boss, Sir Keir Starmer, possesses. Would she resign for breaking her manifesto commitment?" | The Economist

The Red Devils have been set on fire.

Seven minutes, plus time added on, to go until the end of the match, and Mathys Henri Tel balances the game on a knife's edge.

The bugle is a beautiful instrument—no keys or valves, completely dependent on the bugler's lips and breath control skills.

And the Reveille?

My favourite call.

Is it possible that Nigeria's problem is that we have a surfeit of retail politicians ("grassroots," as they are known here) and not enough of the wholesale (think tank) types?

Jordan Bardella starts to lay out his plans The 30-year-old French populist who is preparing for power

"Mr Bardella is the overwhelming favourite to win the first round of voting in the presidential election due in 2027." | The Economist

Is Africa not worried that a few years ago, conflict on the continent involved proxies of NATO or Warsaw Alliance countries, but today the proxies are of so-called "middle powers"—the UAE, Turkey, etc.?

Our slide down the global league of nations has been precipitous.

Except that the U.S. produces more crude oil than Nigeria would ever do - and it's light, sweet, too.

The Rapid Support Forces' (RSF - or Janjaweed) orgiastic killing of civilians and black Africans in Sudan is not war.

Birds of Lagos (African Goshawk - Aerospiza tachiro).

Donald Trump wants "America’s armed forces to pull back from adventures in far-away countries".

Except, of course, in places like Venezuela and Nigeria where, he thinks, the pickings (optics, largely) are plentiful and cheap.

The Basenji's fur is close-cropped - for obvious reasons.

To be told that it is, for this reason, not as cuddly as the Chow Chow, Samoyed, and Husky is to encounter our elite in its natural element.

From The Economist's Espresso.

From the Financial Derivatives Company Limited, as of November 6, 2025.

From the Financial Derivatives Company Limited, as of November 6, 2025.

Birds of Lagos (African Thrush - Turdus pelios).

Birds of Lagos (Splendid Starling - Lamprotornis splendidus).

"If two people have the same priors, and their posteriors for a given event A are common knowledge, then these posteriors must be equal. This is so even though they may base their posteriors on quite different information." | Robert Aumann

"The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that aren't so." | Mark Twain

The reason the U.S. is threatening to invade Nigeria is that Donald Trump is flippant enough to think that he can get away with it.

South Africa crossed all his red lines - including claims of "white genocide"!

What did the U.S.?

Gave asylum to his "beleaguered Afrikaners"!

Birds of Lagos (Yellow-bellied Sunbird - Cinnyris venustus).

Birds of Lagos (Speckled Pigeon - Columba guinea).

It seems to me that the only way most Nigerians can continue to make sense of living in the country is by getting high on an old opiate called "Hope".

Grids fail incessantly.

Private entities go off grid, and into solar power.

Demand drop begins to leave grids with an excess of supply. They have debts, so they push up prices for existing customers - forcing more off grid.

Governments place tariffs on solar imports.

Kafka?

Godwin Emefiele's tenure as CBN governor left us with 3 key lessons:

1. Monetary conditions matter for growth and development;

2. The choice of CBN governor ought not to be political; and

3. Not every Tunde, Okoro, or Mohammed is qualified to run the CBN.

Cleaning up a coal-fired mess China’s green-industrial complex makes deep decarbonisation possible, but far from inevitable

"But the policy most likely to wean (China) from coal for good is to make burning it more expensive." | The Economist

The world’s renewable-energy superpower China’s moment for climate leadership has arrived

"China now makes a lot more from exporting wind turbines, electric cars, solar cells and the like than drill-baby-drill America makes selling fossil fuels." | The Economist

"Over 75% of Tesla’s shareholders approved a mega pay deal for the firm’s boss, Elon Musk. The full award, worth around $1trn, is contingent on Mr Musk lifting the electric-vehicle maker’s value from about $1.5trn to $8.5trn." | The Economist

From The Economist's Espresso.

Birds of Lagos (Broad-billed Roller - Eurystomus glaucurus).