Nigeria, May 22 -- The last time a public official wept on national TV, Nigerians regretted offering her towels instead of buckets to collect her tears. She was acting, but we didn't know it.

Diezani Allison-Madueke had just been appointed Minister of Transport and went on a tour to assess some major roads. At the Benin end of the Lagos-Benin highway, she broke down and wept. She was seeing for the first time, outside her bubble, what Nigerians knew and endured daily: poor, hazardous roads.

Her tears changed nothing. She left the roads in a worse state than she found them, but Nigeria being Nigeria, she went on to become the Minister for Petroleum Resources and subsequently left the place in a more disastrous condition than Nigerian roa...