Bear in mind, this was written before #America's mid-terms...
Faced with the implications of his words during his presidential campaign, the Biden administration rediscovered the concept of realpolitik and tried to make good with the Saudis by visiting #SaudiArabia in July and ending up with that infamous fist bump.
In November 2019, Joe Biden fingered MBS in the killing of @washingtonpost contributor Jamal Khashoggi and committed to making the Saudis pay.
He followed up upon assuming office by rejecting contact with MBS and stopping US assistance to Saudi efforts in its war in #Yemen.
Experts warned about the possible backlash against US interests.
With the #RussiaUkraineWar triggering inflation that has weakened the global economy and affected the living standards of billions of people worldwide, #America and #Europe have been seriously affected.
Seeking possible solutions to keep energy prices down as winter fast approaches, Biden was seen making a forced show of camaraderie with the hope that Saudi supports an oil market supply boost that would bring down energy prices and help keep #Russia under pressure.
The Saudis replied with an uppercut, chose to align with Russia and led OPEC+ to agree to a cut of about 2MBPD of oil, further causing a rise in the price of Brent crude.
Now America has gone the extra step of granting immunity to MBS from prosecution in the Khashoggi affair.
As events play out, Biden and the West need to recognise that the wheels are turning and smaller nations are not simply pawns in the geopolitical calculations of the more powerful ones.
All these hold lessons for #Nigeria about diplomatic naivety.
We must learn to properly integrate efforts via traditional diplomatic channels to achieve our national goals.
But perhaps, we first need to define our national goals.
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I had a discussion with someone yesterday that brings to my mind the nature, to some extent, of the damage that the current Japa wave is doing. This time, not to the body-corporate #Nigeria
The #LekkiMassacre of two years ago merely accelerated what was already a trend.
But not much is being said about the effect of this trend on the lower classes, the people who used to be house helps, nannies, stewards, drivers, cooks and maiguards.
On #FreshlyPressed981 with @SopeMartins and @monsieurceee this morning, we'll be asking how the NNPC came to the conclusion that petrol will sell for ₦462/litre without the subsidy.
The NNPC is just involved in unnecessary fear-mongering.
Our neighbours, who are poorer, pay a lot more than we do for petrol. What I see in all this is people committed to maintaining their cushy subsidy scam going on.
Consider the attached chart, published in February.
As of February, based on the exchange rate, we were paying 40 cents per litre of petrol. In #Benin it was 95 cents, in #Niger it was 97 cents, in #Chad it was 89 cents, and in #Cameroun, it was $1.09.
For all the flak that the Nigerian media gets, people tend to forget one crucial fact: they are products of their environment, working within that same environment.
Only a very few people in this life have the fortitude of Job.
The overwhelming majority of humanity, including me these days, would make the required compromise to just keep things moving.
One problem we have in #Nigeria is that we never interrogate these things. We must ask, "why"?
In the 1963 movie, Cleopatra, there was an interesting dialogue between Mark Anthony and Octavian, the man who would later become Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome about the birth of Julius Caesar's son, Caesarion:
Mark Antony: "You were so shut at the mouth just now one would think your words were are precious to you as your gold."
Octavian: "Like my gold, I use them where they are worth most."
This is instructive...
Also instructive is that during his 19 years as chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan did not give any interviews. Having taken over from the inflation-busting Paul Volcker, Greenspan knew that words from his position carried weight and so had to be used sparingly.
This tweet, and the reply, are both hilarious and sad at the same time. I normally don't engage such nonsense, but herein lies a teachable moment, so let's go.
First, in a thread of 5 tweets, it's the single one that pointed out the flaw in the strategy of the victims you saw.
It says a lot about your ability to assess multiple streams of information at the same time, and as important, it speaks to your emotional state.
Basically, you're looking for affirmation, so anything that runs contrary to what you'd like to hear, can only be from an "enemy".
Which is fair at an individual level, but when an entire group begins to act in this manner and expects the results to be favourable, one can only wonder...
The report was adopted, and INEC promised to do better. bit.ly/3aIxnp4
Having pointed out all of this, we must come to terms with the flaws in our system and figure out ways around them.
@inecnigeria has started CVR. There's really no reason why we should be doing lastminute.com voter reg and creating choke points politicians can exploit.