Nigeria, July 31 -- Amoo struggled to pick up broken parts of his Nissan car's wing mirror, his demeanor lifeless. He mumbled a few words of complaint, threatening to seek justice. The 35-year-old commercial cab driver had just engaged in a brawl with an official of the Oyo State Park Management System (PMS) on the busy end of Mokola-Roundabout area of Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.

It was midday in the first week of March and the sun burned the skin intensely. If Amoo felt the intensity of the sun on his body, he didn't show it.

"This is cheating, corruption and pure injustice," he lamented in a chat with PREMIUM TIMES, shortly after the brawl. Amoo spoke fiercely in Yoruba, and his words could barely mask his anger. He told this repor...