I recently found this note to myself:
No sense in thinking small. Don't water down your vision. A remarkable amount can be accomplished if you are willing to think longer term than most and work hard each day.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you @FranceInNigeria, you are far too kind.
J'aurais écrit ceci en français, mais mon français n'est pas assez fort pour ce que je ressens à ce sujet. S'il vous plait. Merci.
My passport has been returned by @FranceInNigeria. Eight (8) weeks they held it. In their characteristic generosity toward Africans, they have issued me a visa for six (6) weeks.
Let me be clear about what this means in context. This is the shortest Schengen visa I have ever received from the French Embassy. My first, over a decade ago, was six months. The one before this lasted a year. The one before that, a year. There is a four-year Schengen visa somewhere in my records. On the very passport now graced with this extraordinary six-week stamp sit multiple-year visas from the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Canada.
Six weeks. For eight weeks of custody. The mathematics of French generosity toward Africa is its own genre. Thank you @EmmanuelMacron.
I know people who got their passports back after my first tweet on this matter. One had hers held for five weeks (5). It came back without a visa. No stamp. Just a passport returned having contributed nothing to her life but five weeks of immobility. Thankfully, they did not minute on it; a small mercy in an otherwise graceless process. Graceful, I meant to write.
This is not new territory for me. My very first engagement with the French Embassy over a decade ago ended in a visa rejection that came with written text stamped directly onto my passport. I wrote them a four-page letter demanding they never deface a Nigerian passport that way again; mine or anyone else's. I want to acknowledge that they have honoured that. Some things, at least, can be changed by speaking clearly.
Some bad faith readers will conclude this six-week visa is punishment for calling them out publicly. I reject that interpretation entirely. I prefer to see it as consistent with France's broader approach to the continent — an approach the France-Africa Summit in Nairobi will no doubt reaffirm with great warmth, generous speeches, and many photographs.
A pattern, not an anomaly.
I will be writing a full article next week to express my appreciation to @FranceInAfrica in the spirit this moment deserves.
I write this ready to bear whatever consequences follow. But I will write. After all, it's a love letter. Merci beaucoup.
cc
@NigeriaMFA@BTOofficial@Ojukwu_Bianca@France24@abikedabiri@francediplo_EN@GermanyInAfrica@officialABAT@WilliamsRuto@CNNAfrica@BBC@FRANCE24@ARISEtv@DW_GMF@dwnews
"We're not in business so my employee is happy. I'm in business so my customer is happy."
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon just ended the remote work debate in 45 seconds.
"People on Zoom — they're texting each other. That's not full attention."
"They learn by going on a sales call with you. They learn by seeing you make a mistake. They learn by how you deal with the mistake.”
“If you go to a meeting with me, you've got my full friggin attention the whole time."
The Hill & Valley Forum 2026
@HillValleyForum@jpmorgan
@ArtemisConsort Empires fall cyclically.
Technology advances linearly.
When the two collide, decline doesn’t stop, it speeds up.
Better tools don’t fix weak structures. They expose them.
Your best performances will come when you are working in a way that is a full expression of you. The work becomes a natural display of your personality. This is when you not only get better results, but also love the activity — because in doing the craft, you feel alive.
Dear Hon Minister, I genuinely want you to succeed, especially given the goodwill you enjoyed from many Nigerians at the point of your appointment. However, I think it’s important to tone down the celebrations. First, it was a lavish birthday party few days ago, and now a homecoming, at a time when the country is facing serious security challenges including US missile attacks in Nigeria.
Public office can easily carry people away with fanfare instead of the real work. That goodwill can disappear very quickly, and once it’s gone, it’s hard to win Nigerians back. My advice is simple: focus on delivering results on the ground. Celebrations are best reserved for after the job is done, not at the beginning.
One of the best gifts I was ever given.
When I was twenty-one years old, fresh out of college and about to start my first job, my father gave me a handwritten list of instructions.
Here are my dad’s rules for success:
> Do at least 10% more than you are asked.
> Never, ever, to anybody, present as fact, opinions on things you don’t know. Take great care and discipline.
> Be courteous and considerate always— up and down.
> Don’t knock, don’t complain—stick to constructive, serious criticism.
> Don’t be afraid to make decisions when you have the facts on which to make them.
> Quantify where possible.
> Be open-minded but skeptical.
> Be prompt.
I’ve passed these same rules on to my own children and the original copy hangs next to my bathroom mirror.
Every successful career I've ever known was filled with long periods of meandering, months or even years when no one knew what would happen next.
Look at me: I started as a geology major turned failed realtor.
I then ended up founding several companies, one of which ended up becoming @netflix
Founders, for the love of God; send investor updates.
1. Leverage them for help with customer intros, hires and fundraises.
2. Use them to create excitement and conversation about you in market.
3. Because these people have trusted you and given you their money.
Not doing them is a disservice to your company.
Cantina makes the best pizza in Abuja.
Best part you can order seamlessly via text no need to call anyone. Delivery isn’t calling to say I am on my way.
Major cheat code in life: Respond to patterns, not individual events. One missed text means nothing. Ten missed texts means something. Don't overreact to single data points. Watch the trend. People tell you who they are over time. Believe the pattern.