"Earlier, a local lawmaker in the Kaiama region, Sa’idu Baba Ahmed, said between '35 to 40 dead bodies were counted' from the attack on Tuesday evening in Woro village." | The Guardian

A disconcerting truth about leadership - especially the really awful type - is that it is made easier by humanity’s preference for belonging in herds.

There are men who lead. Now, we don’t know why. But they are likely to be thinkers who have answered questions that will never occur to others. For this cadre, the question is to what end they subordinate their leadership of others. About the others, the less said the better.

From The Economist's Espresso.

Yorùbá has ọkọ, ókó, òkò. The diacritics remind you that these are words with tonal inflections and meanings so far removed from each other. English has bight, byte, bite. Similar in tones but a world of difference in their meanings. Written language is mulish.

"Mandelson appears to have sent a string of emails to Epstein containing briefings he received as business secretary under Gordon Brown, including action the government was taking to deal with the global financial crisis." | The Guardian

From The Economist's Espresso.

"Despite all the prognostications about slowing demand for electric vehicles, sales (measured by registrations) of new purely electric cars rose to 17.4% of the total car market in the European Union last year, and petrol and diesel fell sharply to 35.5%." | The Economist

However poorly America's allies' defence spending has been over the years, I doubt that the world has much to gain from a nuclear-armed South Korea and Japan, and/or a Europe bristling with nuclear warheads and launch vehicles.

"South Sudan seemed to be returning to civil war, after a senior army commander instructed his troops to 'spare no one', including children and the elderly, in their attempt to recapture areas from forces loyal to the vice-president, Riek Machar." | The Economist

"Keir Starmer has suggested that Peter Mandelson should resign from the House of Lords and that the upper chamber should urgently modernise its disciplinary procedures to strip him of his peerage." | The Guardian

Tax the people all you like. The structure of government spending is a bigger bugbear. Even with the best central bank in the world, a fiscally incontinent federal government will continue to depress Nigeria's outcomes.

Birds of Lagos (Woodland Kingfisher - Halcyon senegalensis).

Birds of Lagos (Rose-ringed Parakeet - Psittacula krameri).

Birds of Lagos (Green Wood Hoopoe - Phoeniculus purpureus).

South Sudan's Salva Kiir Mayardit and Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon have over the years allowed their overweening ambitions metastise into an increasingly irreconcilable rivalry between their respective peoples, the Dinka and the Nuer.

From The Economist's Espresso.

"Might horror at the violent unravelling of their country pull Iranians back from the brink? There is little sign of it so far. The divisions in this large, multi-ethnic, multi-religious country are hardening." | The Economist

"Congo is hardly known for its thriving political freedoms, but human-rights groups say the recent wave of arrests is remarkable for its breadth. It is unclear how many have been arrested, but it may be hundreds." | The Economist

Bí a bá ńwá owó lọ, tí a pàdé iyì l'ọ́nà, ńi ṣe ló yẹ ká padà, nítorí bí a bá rí owó ọ̀hún tán, iyì là ó fi rà.

A big downside to birdwatching is how (vicious) insects believe they must return the favour.

Birds of Lagos (Common Bulbul - Pycnonotus barbatus).

Birds of Lagos (African Thrush - Turdus pelios).

Birds of Lagos (Laughing Dove - Spilopelia senegalensis).

If Kevin Santos Lopes de Macedo's goal against The Red Devils is football's equivalent of a sucker punch, what do you make of Benjamin Šeško's goal restoring Manchester United FC's lead?

Birds of Lagos (Western Plantain-eater - Crinifer piscator). Video courtesy of (and thanks) Barbara A. Harper

The very notion of "prohibited ideas" in a university (one upshot of the "Wokelash" currently underway in the United States of America) is a mind-boggling contradiction in terms.

"In January administrators at Texas A&M told Martin Peterson that he could either strike Plato’s 'Symposium' from the syllabus of his introductory philosophy course or be reassigned." | The Economist

Ojú àlejó ní a ti nje gbese; èyín re la tí ń'sàn.

From The Economist's Espresso.

Oh well...

"No president has been as meddlesome as Mr Trump in the seven decades since the central bank gained freedom from political interference." | The Economist

Birds of Lagos (Western Plantain-eater - Crinifer piscator).

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

"Federal action in the streets of Minneapolis goes well beyond immigration. It is a test of the government’s power to use violence against its own citizens—a dividing-line between liberty and tyranny. And it will not be the last." | The Economist

From The Economist's Espresso.

The Tinubu government’s spokespersons would have us believe that our President's stumble and fall while on official assignment in Turkiye wasn't reported by the local media. The Nigerian blogosphere simply made a song and dance of it. As if our bloggers had media reps there.

How can some of us have forgotten so soon that "Ó lù lè" was mordantly trenchant commentary on another kind of fall by another Nigerian leader.

That Mr. Donald Trump cannot draw the straight line that leads from his scattershot policies to erstwhile allies' need for new alliances beggars belief.

From The Economist's Espresso.

"Standard protocol" in the days before America's best minds learned to put the horse behind the cart.

Birds of Lagos (African Thrush - Turdus pelios).

Birds of Lagos (Shikra -Tachyspiza badia).

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

Birds of Lagos (Variable Sunbird -Cinnyris venustus).

"But Europeans did not hypnotise America into doing their bidding. America believed that dominating a strong NATO was in its self-interest." | The Economist

Given Mr. Donald Trump’s characterisation of the killing of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol officers as an "unfortunate incident", where did Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem get her understanding of the incident from?

From The Economist's Espresso.

It was bad enough that when Raji Rasaki asked "Who built this girder?" Nigerians had a hearty laugh. Here was another example of an uneducated soldier boy. It is sad that years after most still think it's properly spelt as "gadder"!