Because why come up with original ideas when others will have them for me? As usual, here are stories that have caught my eye, with my commentary where apropos:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has bestowed its blessing upon Nigeria’s new Petroleum Industry Bill even as international oil companies who fear a government monopoly. Basically, the bill allows Nigeria’s the oil industry to function largely free from government control. In theory the industry will function strictly as a business operating within a deregulated environment. It looks workable in theory. And certainly Nigeria’s oil industry has long been in need of reform.

It seems that the international community is smiling on Nigeria these days. Nigeria and Gabon have both been elected to non-permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council. They will be joined by Brazil, Bosnia, and Lebanon in the rotating positions. Of the five, it is refreshing to see that Bosnia and Lebanon, and not the two African countries, will be subject to the greatest scrutiny of the five because of their basically foreign status to the Security Council.

Eskom, South Africa’s public utility provider, is raising its electricity prices substantially. People are not happy. And of course the poor and the working class — which is to say the overwhelming majority of South Africans — will feel the brunt disproportionately, and almost certainly devastatingly in many cases.

Even as the rest of the world condemns recent violence in Guinea, the Chinese, as is their wont, overlook niceties such as human rights and state-sanctioned thuggery and (maybe?) reward Guinea’s military junta with a lucrative business deal. Sigh. Meanwhile, am I the only one who saw more than a hint of wishful thinking in this article hinting that President Obama carries a great deal of weight in Guinea?

A bidding war is under way for a book based on materials from Nelson Mandela’s archives. The book will be a worldwide phenomenon. I’m more interested in accessing those archives.

At The New York Review of Books Joshua Hammer has an essay on Zim’s wily despot, “Dictator Mugabe Makes a Comeback.” The gist: The economy has improved; there are some signs of political hope; but as long as Mugabe looms over the country’s politics, it all might be a mirage. No disagreement here.

My colleague Kimberly Curtis at the FPA’s Human Rights Blog has a lengthy post on progress in regulating illegal tin mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Meanwhile, Texas in Africa is none too pleased with the cost-benefit analysis of recent actions to disarm rebels in the Eastern DRC. Remind me never to make TiA angry.

Finally, African heads of state are meeting in Nairobi this week in hopes of establishing a unified African front ahead of the climate change talks in Copenhagen in December. It seems to me that  focusing on specific issues such as a continental agreement on climate change policy is the best approach to attaining the Pan-African ideal.